Preschool – 2½ to 4 years

At DREAM Daycare the children study in a small group in a warm home atmosphere full of loving support and personal attention to each child. We organize the educational environment to match the development of each child and enable each child to find an answer to her or his personal wants and needs in various fields. During the day the children play freely in various areas and also meet altogether as a group. In the assembly, the children dance, sing, use various accessories, listen to stories and play social games.

For this age group we offer the following activities:

• “Home Centre” – where the children learn to play socio-drama games that contribute greatly to their overall development. This centre includes a “doctor’s corner” and a building-block corner; we encourage integration of different centres.

• “Book corner” – where the children read books on their own. Also, the children will dramatize books using characters and props that we will build together.

• “Music corner” – where we have musical instruments such as drums, maracas, rain sticks, shakers and more, to be used by the children. The children will perform in an orchestra and experience musical activities in a variety of styles.

• “Nature corner” – where the children are exposed to the natural world in the surrounding and familiar environment. The children can touch, feel, and smell natural objects such as leaves, pine cones, stones, branches, etc.

We use the Topic Method for teaching, using an integrative system that combines many fields of study. Our multidisciplinary approach creates a wide perspective on the topics we teach. During the school year the children are exposed to various topics from their own world. For example, the seasons, holidays, friendship, family, the natural world, and more. All the activities in the kindergarten relate to the topic being studied at the time (examples of topic development appear later).

·       During the year, we will have joint activities with the parents, such as a birthday party for each child, parties related to holidays, and more.

Activities in the kindergarten:

 

·       “Rythmusic for pre-schoolers” – the children will learn songs and dances and be activated with music in various styles. Also, they will be exposed to composers and their music.

·       “Movement” – the children will work with many varied accessories.

·       “Growing up with music in your heart” – the children will use various instruments and listen to live music – saxophone, clarinet and mini-organ.

·       Field trips, getting to know the neighbourhood environment.

DREAM Daycare encourages and promotes the child’s overall development. Children in our care will make progress in language and communication, physio-motorics, emotionally, socially, and cognitively, and will develop values. Our goal in the emotional and social field is to develop positive self-image and a sense of ability, and to strengthen the child’s sense of confidence and belonging to his or her natural environment. We encourage the children’s curiosity in the physical and human environment and nurture their ability to express emotions appropriate to the situation. Also, we develop the children’s ability to play and enjoy symbolic and socio-drama games in a group. Cognitively, we develop the children’s ability to study and understand the subjects we teach. The children will master the concepts of colour, shape and size. In physical education, the children improve their basic movements and base their self-esteem on their ability to move.

The children will improve the connection of movement to verbalization, and their ability to dance structured dances. In language and communication, the children achieve age appropriate conversational ability: they will express themselves verbally and comprehend what they hear. Their vocabulary will be enriched and their language skills will be more syntactically and morphologically complex. They will be introduced to children’s literature, they will learn to love listening to books being read to them, and they will obtain cultural content and knowledge of the world from these books. They will learn how to use books and the conventions of writing. In art, the children will be exposed to many creative materials. They will work and create in the fields of drawing, collage, gouache, clay, and dough.

We should note that the kindergarten believes in environmental education and sustainability, starting at the earliest possible age. We encourage our children to protect the environment and reuse materials.

We make sure the learning is meaningful, and it includes experiential activities to stimulate all five senses – vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch. At DREAM Daycare the children are active, they investigate, sing, dance, create, and, of course – they make dreams come true!