Grade 000

3 – 4 Years
Our aim in Grade 000 is to teach the children important skills through playing games, singing songs and exploring our environment.
Social skills are developed as the children learn to play within a small group instead of by themselves. Weekly obstacle courses are set out to challenge and build the child’s gross motor skills. Theme related arts & crafts are planned to strengthen and develop their fine motor skills. The children are encouraged to run, climb and swing to their heart’s content during free playtime.

Daily
Schedule

Arrival time

7:00 – 8:00
Free play time on the carpet with a variety of toys, puzzles, pegboard, body image drawing, fine motor activities. Toilet Routine & quick run through the jungle gym course.

Morning ring

8:30 – 9:00
Bible Stories & memory verse. Counting, shapes colour and number recognition. Weather, days of the week, months of the year. Praise and worship, Nursery Rhymes.

Short Break time

9:00 – 9:15

Routine lesson

9:15 – 9:45

Toilet Routine. Theme discussion. Numeracy/ Fine motor/ Gross motor activity

Snack time

09:45 – 10:00
Our school has a peanut free policy. Children begin snack (sandwich, fruit and water) with hand washing and participate in serving and clean-up.

Break time

10:00 – 11:00
Supervised active play time to give children a chance to rest and unwind, and to stay healthy and alert during the afternoon.

Quiet time

11:00 – 11:20
Toilet routine and quiet time for reflection.

Letterland

11:20 – 11:30
Letterland and toilet routine.

Arts and Crafts

11:20 – 11:30
Children participate in active, educational arts and crafts activity and toilet routine.

Lunch time & home time

12:00 – 12:30
Lunch time followed by home time.

FAQ

Please pack a healthy lunch for your child to eat at the end of each day as well as a bottle of water. An idea that seem to work well is a variety of small items to nibble on instead of a large sandwich, for example a piece of fresh fruit, a tub of yoghurt, a small block of cheese and savoury biscuits, and some protein like a slice of cold meat or slither of chicken. We discourage fizzy cool drinks, chips, sweets or any other ‘junk food’. Please do remember Little Flock is a ‘Nut Free Zone’… absolutely no nut products of any kind please… this includes Nutella and peanut butter.
We believe children learn through play, and at this young age a lot of the play is set out with a specific goal in mind. A good example is playdough… while playing the children are exercising the small muscles in their hands which are crucial in pencil control and cutting skills later on in the year.

Art activities play an important part during the child’s early development as they experiment with different media and techniques. This is an ideal opportunity to hone certain skills such as paper tearing or sponging to work on fine motor development.

We do not use worksheets in Gr000, but rather teach new concepts using concrete material instead. Teaching patterns (or sequencing) for example could be taught through playing with blocks or pompoms, or at a later stage of the year using pegboards to create simple ABAB patterns.
Yes, your child should be fully potty trained by Gr000. However, accidents do happen even to the most skilled toddler, in which case we ask that you please supply an extra set of clothing that is to be kept in class. We will gladly assist your child with changing into a clean set of clothes and settle their hearts as it could be a very embarrassing moment of their day.
The Little Flock gates open at 7am and children are most welcome to be in class from that time. This early arrival time is a special time where I get to know your child better children in a one-on-one basis with activities such as body image drawing, puzzles, pegboards and other fine motor activities. The children get to socialise with their friends through play and settle before formal class starts at 8:30. Please ensure your child is in class by 8am to not miss out on this valuable time.
Friday is Show and Tell Day… This is an important part of your child’s social development. Our aim with Show and Tell is very simple… we want your child to be able to greet their friends, introduce themselves using their full name and surname, and for them to be able to tell the Teacher how old they are. Thereafter they can talk about the theme of the week (e.g. my family, my favourite wild animal). Please encourage your child to bring something from home that is theme related. (We have different themes every 1-2 weeks). Discuss with your child what they wish to bring and help them with what they want to tell the class.

Concepts covered in the
Gr000 school year

Concepts covered in the Gr000 school year include amongst others Numeracy, Language, Perceptual, Gross and Fine Motor Skills.

Generally, children in Gr000 are 3 turning 4 during the course of the year that they are in Gr000. The Syllabus is geared towards age appropriate developmental milestones of a child turning 4 years old, bearing in mind that there is a vast difference developmentally between a child who celebrates his/her birthday in January and February and a child turning 4 towards the end of the year.

New concepts and skills are taught in a concrete manner, using physical items to demonstrate and illustrate the concept to the child. Concepts are repeated in various forms and activities to provide the child with various learning styles to grasp and understand the concept taught. A lot of the learning is incidental through play and social interacting with their peer-group, for example using movement and song to learn numbers and shapes.

We use Letterland as a tool to teach the phonetic alphabet. Children in Gr000 are taught to recognize the sound and name of the Letterland character. Through the stories, they learn to recognize words that start with the same sound.

Numercy & Language

Fine Motor Skills

Gross Motor Skills

Perceptual