Common Core State Standards and

Learning at Natick Preschool

The Natick Preschool’s curriculum and instruction is aligned with the Common Core State Standards.  The Common Core  State Standards are consistent Pre-K through grade 12 academic guidelines created to help all students succeed.  Massachusetts is one of only a few states nation-wide to have established educational standards for the preschool.

While Natick Preschool services students ages three- to five-years-old, the Massachusetts Common Core State Standards are designated for “older four-year-olds and younger five-year-olds.”   The focus is on developing the critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills students will need to be successful. Forty-five states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have voluntarily adopted and are moving forward with the standards.

The Literacy Standards are developed to address English Language Arts as well as literacy within the domains of history/social studies, science and technical subjects.  In alignment with these standards, Natick Preschool teachers plan for and cultivate developmentally appropriate opportunities for students in listening, speaking, reading, and writing language across the content areas and throughout the school day.  Examples of this include, but are not limited to, curriculum and instruction related to pre-reading and pre-writing skills such  as phonemic awareness, rhyming skills, song lyrics, vocabulary development, modeling syntax and grammar, book awareness:  (how to hold a book, page turning left to right, pictures tell the story) and fostering comprehension skills recalling events from a story and answering questions.  The Math standards are intended as guideposts to facilitate young children’s underlying mathematical understanding. 

Literacy Standards, Math Standards , and Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Frameworks are promoted through play and exploration activities, and embedded in almost all daily activities since foundations of literacy and math understandings are formed out of children’s experiences with real objects and materials.

At the preschool level, State standards not only focus on academic content, but also on Social Emotional Learning and Approaches to Play.  It is Natick Preschool’s intent to foster social/emotional growth including interpersonal relationships, self-regulation of thoughts and actions related to feelings, social problem-solving, self-help skills, understanding of self as part of a larger community utilizing the skills learned via the Standards.  Some examples include, whole body listening, turn-taking in conversation and play, narration of sequence (of action steps or play),  pragmatic language use, role playing,, development of a repertoire of feelings vocabulary and self-regulation strategies, etc.

The Common Core State Standards are addressed in a theme-based Preschool environment intentionally developed to cultivate a multi-cultural and multi-modality approach to learning.