Curriculum Overview
Hi there, we in Little Gems believe that every child is special and learns in numerous ways! Therefore our specialised award-winning curriculum follows a broad-based approach which integrates different subject matters, to ensure that every child is given numerous opportunities to nurture curiosity, develop confidence and build character by interacting with the world around us.
Our mantra is simple: All children love to learn when learning makes sense for them.
Little Gems’ awarding-winning curriculum framework (voted by Parentsworld Magazine as the best-specialised-curriculum-to-develop-confidence-for-risk-taking!) is organized by using six developmental domains of integrated learning, namely:
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Language and Literacy – ABC Gems
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Numeracy – 123 Gems
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Discovery of the world – Explorer Gems
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Motor Development – Groovy Gems
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Social and emotional development – Life Gems
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Aesthetic and creative development – Picasso Gems
ABC Gems (The Alpabet Family!)
Learning must make sense! One might ask: How do we do that for our LITTLE GEMS as they learn their ABCs? We seek to do that by giving a context to the words that our little gems are introduced to.
“One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books..." - Charlotte Mason
In our ABC Gems curriculum, we seek to make 'books come to life'! Rather than teaching our children dry facts, we seek to make the facts and information more meaningful. One of the best ways to do this is through biographies. For example, when we embark on the theme of air transportation, we introduce to our Little Gems the life-story of the Wright Brothers, the inventors of the first air-plane.
We believe that ALL our Little GEMS are innately CURIOUS, thus we encourage the children to inquire and speak out their thoughts in an emotionally safe environment. This will enable them to be CONFIDENT kids who are willing to try new things and one day, all our LITTLE GEMS might turn out to be the next Wright brothers!
123 Gems (The Numbers Game!)
In our numeracy programme, the child will engage his senses in a natural environment to understand how numbers work; and through which he will observe objects and directly interact with them in order to create his own suppositions. We seek to integrate our numeracy program with our other domains to making the learning experience of our kids as seamless as possible. For example, when introducing the life story of the Wright Brothers, we will bring our kids out on a field trip to the airport to count the planes! This ties in very well with our next domain: the Explorer Gems.
Explorer Gems (The World is our Playground!)
"Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood..." - Friedrich Frobel, founder of Kindergarten
When Mr Frobel envisioned a school for the little kids, he aptly named the school 'Kindergarten', which literally means 'children in a garden'. His belief stemmed from one where children learn best in an outdoor environment and that resonates with us. In Little Gems, we would have monthly field trips where our kids will go to different places to explore, enjoy and learn. Our field trips would be carefully planned in accordance to our school curriculum themes to ensure that the trips are not just a time of fun, but meaningful fun. The monthly trips are always a highlight for our Little Gems as we take trips in our adorable school bus!
Groovy Gems (Let's groove it!)
Music is another way children can express themselves, learn different kinds of sounds and understand the meaning of words. In Little Gems, we bring our children and music together through fun activities such as introducing different instrument sounds, rhythms, dancing and even song composing.
Picasso Gems (A Picture Paints a Thousand Words!)
"Every child is an artist..." - Pablo Picasso
In Little Gems, we might not be able to develop all our kids to be artists, but we want to allow them to enjoy art! In our Picasso Gems programme, our children will be able to develop visual-spatial skills and develop cultural awareness as teachers will showcase different artists in their era to help them understand the concept that what they see may be someone’s interpretation of reality.
Life Gems (This is Life!)
Our Life Gems domain is closely linked to our Explorer Gems domain. Other than our field trips, we also have little outings for our children around our preschool. Children will be taken for walking tours of their neighborhoods while looking at the community around them, as well as observing the types of landforms and weather patterns of their specific area.
Furthermore, the children will be given the opportunity to develop life skills such as cooking, skipping, reading maps, pitching tents etc. Through these, they will also learn to interact with peers and teachers to develop cooperation skills and moral values such as honesty, resilience, responsibility and compassion.
Project Work!
Driven by the belief that children are capable of constructing their own learning, Little Gems’ curriculum also includes child-led projects, while carefully guided and mentored by the teachers. With wisely selected topics, the children are given an opportunity to discuss and work on a project, such as creating a book, inventing a useful tool and building a simple toy etc.
Project work helps children develop connections between activities, like playing, exploring and expressing themselves. It encourages curiosity and active approach to learning. Children ponder meaningful questions about the world and create new ideas to answer them.