Learning Through Play! NC Pre-K! The NC Pre-Kindergarten Program is a program of the Division of Child Development and Early Education in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The NC Pre-K Program is designed to provide high-quality educational experiences to enhance school readiness for eligible four-year olds. The program requirements are built on the premise that to be successful academically in school, children need to be prepared in all five of the development domains outlined by the National Education Goals Panel. Each of these domains is critical to children’s well-being and for their success in reading and math as they come to school. The five domains, as reflected in Foundations: Early Learning Standards for North Carolina Preschoolers and Strategies for Guiding Their Success are: • Approaches to learning • Emotional and social development • Health and physical development • Language development and communication • Cognitive development The Division of Child Development and Early Education has designed requirements that ensure a high-quality pre-kindergarten classroom experience is provided for eligible four-year old's in each local NC Pre-K Program. What will your child learn? NC Pre-K programs are expected to provide developmentally appropriate, high-quality pre-kindergarten experiences for children. North Point Academy uses The Creative Curriculum for Preschool to provide opportunities for children’s learning. The philosophy behind the curriculum is that young children learn best by doing. Learning isn’t just repeating what someone else says; it requires active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work and to learn firsthand about the world we live in. Children explore the world around them during their early years by using all their senses (touching, tasting, listening, smelling, and looking). As children learn through purposeful and high quality play experiences, they are building critical skills that enhance cognitive development and academic achievement. These include verbalization, language comprehension, increased vocabulary, imagination, questioning, problem solving, observation, empathy, co-operation skills, and learning another’s perspective. Through play, children learn a set of skills such as social skills, creativity, hand-to-eye coordination, problem solving, and imagination. These skills are better learned through play rather than through flashcards, or academic drills. Play enables us to achieve the key goals of our early childhood curriculum. Play is the work of young children.
