The Nursery school program is offered at Excel International School as either a half day or a full day program.

  • The full day program runs from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  • Full day children are provided with lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Sensorial

Young children learn by exploring their world through their senses. Sensorial materials contain experiences with textures, colors, sizes and shapes. Children can play with blocks that teach biggest to smallest or longest to shortest. They can sort sound cylinders or make geometrical shapes with the triangle boxes to name only a few.

Mathematics

There is no classroom on earth as well-endowed with math materials as an Excel International School classroom! Golden Beads, Fraction Insets, the Stamp Game, the Dot Game, Cubing Materials, Long and Short Chains, Measurement of Area materials, and the Racks and Tubes for long division are just a few of the many, many materials that facilitate a strong understanding of numerical concepts and operations. The materials are presented sequentially, when an individual child is ready to understand the concepts, and allow each child to move through the curriculum at his or her own pace.

Gradually, because of the firm foundation that the hands-on materials provide, each child moves closer and closer to the time when they can leave the materials behind and perform mathematical functions abstractly.
Practical Life

These activities help children learn about daily living, such as pouring, cleaning, food preparation, buttoning, zipping and grace and courtesy.

Children engage in activities by utilizing real materials! They wash real dishes with real water, soap bubbles and real mess!

They chop carrots and core apples all while developing true self-esteem and confidence as these activities promote independence and purpose. A child may paint a picture at the easel or create the weekly art project at the art station.

History and Geography

Children work with small globes and then puzzle maps to become familiar with the names and locations of the world’s continents, oceans, and countries. Stories from other lands are read. Songs from around the world are sung. Major holidays such as Christmas Day, Independence Day, and Presidents’ Day are celebrated. Our children work on special group projects to learn about the world and the people who inhabit it. They participate in International Week which is loved by both children and parents.

Character and Ethics Development

Our program at Excel is designed to educate the whole child. Having a strong character along with a quality education is the key to success in the lives of our children. Our students are encouraged to develop their character while cultivating ethical and responsible behavior. We accomplish this each day in our classrooms as we introduce

the children to a set of shared values and ideals. Some of these values include grace and courtesy and well as respect and kindness for others. Along with daily instruction our students are introduced to our innovative Character Development Program. Using puppets, games and theme based lesson plans; we give your child the knowledge necessary to develop principled social skills. Your child will learn about cooperation in our “join in and play'” class or flexibility and perseverance in our “Try and Stick with it Class.” These and many other lessons are presented with in our Character Enrichment Program.

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Art

We enrich the lives of our students each day by exposing them to the fundamentals of art. We use an array of tools, techniques and mediums to develop creativity while instilling lifelong skills which promote overall personal success. The daily art curriculum cultivates the children’s imaginations and creativity as they paint at the easel and construct the weeks art project. In addition to these daily activities we have integrated an Art Enrichment program into our monthly curriculum.

Language Arts

Excel International School classrooms include many sensory materials that allow young children to learn their letters by sight, feel, and texture. As young as age four a child might use the “Moveable Alphabet” to begin sounding out and spelling simple words. Our older children begin more formal instruction in reading during the reading group period.
Here lessons are taught, stories are read, and handwriting is practiced. We have found, over many years, that our students typically begin reading simple words before they enter KG III. By the time they join KG III they are reading short books and loving reading!

Science

Our science curriculum begins with simple activities involving plants, animals, the solar system, and the weather.

The basic tenet behind our approach to the sciences is to present the children with real examples before enlarging on concepts and facts. In zoology, for example, the children study the classification of living organisms. It may begin with a living fish swimming in a tank. After watching the animal for several days the children are presented with a lesson on the parts of a fish. Later the process is duplicated with tadpoles or a guinea pig. Each new group serves as an example of how living organisms moved out of the primordial sea to live on the land and then adapted to the environmental changes that have occurred over the ages.

In Botany, the children may go outdoors to collect real plants which they will examine as they label the parts of the plant. Seeds are planted and nurtured so that children can see how they germinate and turn their leaves towards the sun and their roots towards underground water sources.

History of the Universe begins with the “Big Bang,” represented by a balloon filled with confetti that explodes over the classroom. The children create clay models of the solar system, go outside to draw a HUGE scale model of planetary orbits on the sports court, and practice rotating and revolving around a friend. This study is supported by continuing research and current events activities that give the children a broad understanding of our continuing quest for an understanding of where did we come from? How did we get here? Is there other life in the universe? Apple’s youngest students enjoy discovering what sinks or floats in a large bowl of water. Or digging in sand to find dinosaur bones!

Music and Drama

Nurturing an appreciation for music and the arts is an integral part of our daily curriculum. We introduce the children to an array of songs, finger plays and nursery rhymes. Our formal Music Enrichment classes include lessons in voice, rhythm, musical notes and moving to music. The children enjoy the many opportunities they have to present live performances to their parents including musical plays and skits.

Technology

Our school is equipped with computers. It is our belief that the computer should be treated as an integral tool for learning.

In the preschool years each computer has educational games and children are encouraged to learn computer techniques by using the computers regularly. In the elementary years, we teach computer skills in context. The children use the educational software that is provided but also use the computers to research information and to publish finished projects.

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