"We sent my oldest son and now my youngest son to Jump Start Preschool. The teachers are amazing and excel at teaching social emotional skills. The curriculum is so fun that the kids are learning while ... playing. We are very happy to be a part of the Jump Start Preschool family." - Monica L, parent

Our Curriculum

Our hands-on, developmentally appropriate curriculum builds confidence and excitement about learning at every age and stage and helps children get ready for all the big steps ahead in school and in life.

Social & Emotional Skills

At Jump Start, we recognize that each child is an individual, with his or her own unique skills and interests. We believe in providing a personalized approach to early childhood education. Our highly trained teachers take the time to get to know each individual child. We work hard to foster meaningful relationships amongst the children and between teachers and students, starting with our youngest infants and continuing throughout a child's time with us at Jump Start.

Knowing that strong social emotional skills are the keys to a child's success, we ensure that children at Jump Start have endless opportunities to build self-confidence, independence, a strong sense of self-worth, and the ability to build and maintain strong friendships that can last a lifetime.

Language Skills

Young children develop language skills at a remarkable rate and we provide opportunities to help them do so. We facilitate the growth of spoken language through speaking with the children and through actively encouraging them to speak with each other. With our babies and toddlers, we speak to them throughout the day so that they become familiar with spoken language. We ask our older toddlers, preschoolers and Pre-Kindergarten children for their opinions, model patterns of conversation, ask them questions and utilize descriptive language to help them begin to label items and feelings.

Language & Literacy Skills

Literacy Skills

At Jump Start, we foster a love of reading and a familiarity with the alphabet at a developmentally appropriate level. We encourage the development of literacy skills by reading to children regularly, both individually and in groups, and by having books accessible throughout our days, even in our youngest classes. We model reading and writing throughout our interactions with the children, seamlessly demonstrating the importance of literacy through daily activities.

Science Skills

The world is filled with opportunities for exploration and the development of scientific knowledge. At Jump Start, children learn about science throughout our days, including through gardening, cooking, mixing colors, observing our classroom pets, the changes of the seasons and the growth of our plants. We know that the world is theirs to discover, and we provide our children with the opportunities to do so.

Cognitive
Skills

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Math Skills

At Jump Start, we recognize the opportunity to develop math skills through play. We provide opportunities for children to sort, add and subtract in developmentally appropriate, play based ways. Children learn by counting the people and items they come in contact with throughout their days - blocks, beads, each other, the number of chairs at the table... We also teach numbers by singing songs, doing puzzles and reading books with numbers in them.

Problem Solving Skills

One of the key aspects of cognitive development is the ability to analyze and solve problems. Children learn these skills through play as they play with cause and effect toys, solve puzzles, figure out how to make their block tower stand, and experiment with different materials. At Jump Start , we encourage our older children to ask questions, and to help discover the answers themselves.

Physical
Skills

Large Motor Skills

Large motor skills, the ability to control and successfully utilize one's larger muscles, are vital to many experiences children will have in their future, both in and out of school, such as walking, running, playing on the playground, participating in sports, riding a bicycle and sitting at a desk. We provide daily opportunities for children to play outside and to build these essential skills.

Fine Motor / Writing Skills

Fine motor skills, the ability to both identify and control small objects with one's hands, are critical for many tasks such as writing, drawing, picking up dropped Cheerios and finding pennies in your pocket. We support the development of fine motor skills by providing hands on experiences such as toys to manipulate, drawing, painting, using eye droppers with liquid, cutting and using stickers, and sensory experiences such as playing with finger paint, sand and water.

Individualization

Through careful observation and assessment, our teachers use Teaching Strategies GOLD to gather data across all learning domains to determine where each child is developmentally and to track each child's progress over time. We utilize this information to create individualized learning goals for each child and to guide our curriculum planning, focusing simultaneously on individual children and the classroom as a whole. We carefully align our curriculum with the Pre-K and Kindergarten learning standards outlined in the Curriculum Frameworks of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, ensuring that our children graduate ready to take their next steps in school.

We share our observations with families on a regular basis, and hold parent teacher conferences twice a year to discuss each child's progress and goals.

Through our efforts and our collaboration with families, we set up children up for success!