Monday is the first day of class for the San Diego Unified School District. This year brings a new curriculum for the district’s preschool program.“This really helps us provide the same type of high quality instruction across every single preschool classroom in our district,” said Santos Gonzalez, the district’s director of early learning.Teachers at all 34 preschool sites will use the Creative Curriculum to help kids develop early literacy skills through subjects they encounter every day.For example, the Creative Curriculum has a unit on the grocery store.“The grocery store has so much for children to learn in terms of language,” Gonzalez said.Reading books aloud about grocery shopping can help build vocabulary and encourage storytelling.Gonzalez holds up a toy orange juice container, milk bottle and tuna can. Students might pretend to be at a grocery store, she said, with one student working at the store and another shopping for food.“The whole time they’re talking, they’re developing those skills,” Gonzalez said. “They’re imitating characters that they saw in their books, and they’re using those vocabulary words that the teachers have taught them.”This year, preschool lessons will cover weather, blocks, the human body and restaurants.San Diego Unified also offers dual language immersion at some of its preschools. They’ll teach the same curriculum in both English and Spanish.Enrollment is still open for new preschool students. If parents aren’t sure their kids are ready, there are a few things to keep in mind. If they’re eager to make friends with other kids, Gonzalez said, that’s a good indication.“If a child, when you’re reading to them, is interested in the book and grabbing it and then goes to look at books on their own and is motivated in that way, that’s a clear sign,” she said.Another is if a child likes “playing school,” pretending to be a teacher or in class.“That really shows you a sign that they’re curious about the schooling experience and want to be a part of that,” Gonzalez said.
