Here at Curious Kids we offer a weekly Transition to School Program for your child once they turn four and a half years old, facilitated by our trained ECE and primary school teachers. 

Our aim is to ensure all children are prepared and confident with a good foundation in early literacy and numeracy alongside strong social interaction skills. We aim to support your children to make their transition to school as smooth as possible. We want them to feel academically, socially and emotionally prepared and comfortable for their next learning journey. A successful transition in the early years will help ensure the success children have when adjusting to other transitions in the future.  A positive start to school helps give children the confidence to tackle significant life adjustments.  

Our program focuses on foundation skills for early literacy and numeracy alongside social interaction and STEM skills. This is a daily 30-minute program where your child participates in a group setting and experiences new stimulating learning activities. The activities provided focus on developing and extending your child’s current skills in a fun and interactive way. The Transition to School wall in the Preschool classroom show some of the schools that children who graduate from Curious Kids will be attending. 

During these lessons teachers will explore, play and learn in the following areas: 

Literacy and Communication 

Our program includes children’s knowledge of reading from left to right, the correct orientation of a book, recognising letters and letter phonics, learning the alphabet, pencil grip etc.  When writing tamariki name's for instance we will write on the top left corner of the page, so therefore they are seeing it from left to right.  We also will have conversations with this age group as the better their conversation skills are now, the easier it will be to understand what they read later on. 

Numeracy 

Basic understanding of numbers and counting, linking both to the idea of “how many” explored by various mediums such as baking, drawing, colouring in and measurements, recognising different shapes, comparing different colours, sizes and textures and identifying patterns. We will build on their strengths and develop their area of need.  Understanding and using mathematical concepts and being numerate helps children know and describe the world around them and make meaning of these encounters. Numeracy is therefore an essential skill for success.

STEM (exploration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) 

STEM refers to the integrative exploration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  It is important to introduce STEM at an early age, when young children's brains are primed to take in new information. This may include science experiments, baking or cooking, building, and problem solving.  Stem teaching and learning goes beyond the mere transfer of knowledge, it engages children and equips them with critical thinking, problem solving, creative and collaborative skills and ultimately establishes connections between the centre and the community.

Self-Management and Social Skills 

Developing social skills in children prepares them for a lifetime of healthier interactions in all aspects of life. Self-Management is used to teach young children to pay attention to their own behaviour and to complete activities or engage in interactions with their peers using appropriate behaviours. Displaying good manners, being considerate of others feelings and expressing personal needs are all important building blocks of good social skills.  When children have strong social skills, they feel confident negotiating and problem solving in difficult situations.  Social skills helps prepare the tamariki for success in transition and adulthood.  It improves their communication with peers and adults, improves cooperative team work, and helps them become effective and caring members of the community. 

Cognitive and Gross Motor Skills 

Cognitive skills are the core skills your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason and pay attention to how they think, explore and figure things out.  The development of knowledge, problem solving and dispositions which help children to think about and understand the world around them. Our program has lots of play based activities to help children develop these skills, by organising games, making friends, open ended questions like “who, what and why”, understanding of time, the use of scissors for cutting, ball catching and throwing etc. 

The aim of this group is to make your child feel prepared and comfortable with the new things that they will encounter when they transition to school. Curious Kids Transition to School Program integrates the Early Childhood Curriculum (Te Whariki) with the New Zealand Curriculum in primary schools (The New Zealand Curriculum).  

Included in our program are visits to schools where the children spend time exploring the school environment and participate in some school group activities in the new entrant classrooms.