Theme-Based Classrooms

Create immersive learning environments that engage children’s curiosity and imagination.

Spacious and Well-Lit Areas

Foster a positive atmosphere conducive to exploration, creativity, and collaborative play.

Flexible Seating Arrangements

Encourage autonomy and choice, allowing children to select their learning spaces and styles.

Reading Corners

Support early literacy development, promoting a love for reading and storytelling in a cozy setting.

Interactive Learning Tools

Enhance hands-on learning experiences, stimulating critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Outdoor Spaces

Provide opportunities for gross motor activities, promoting physical health and well-being.

Collaborative Play Areas

Facilitate social interaction, teamwork, and communication skills through structured and unstructured play.

Resource Accessibility

Ensure children have easy access to a variety of learning materials, promoting independent exploration and inquiry.

Safe and Nurturing Environment

Create a space where children feel secure, fostering emotional and social development.

Integration of Nature

Incorporate natural elements that enhance sensory experiences and environmental awareness.

Visit of the Month

Organize monthly visits where students explore spaces from the local community, enriching their learning experience through real-world engagement and discovery.

Nurturing Relationships through Engaging Learning Experiences

At Skill Stork International School, fostering relationships is integral to our academic programs, events, and classroom interactions.

• Teachers build meaningful connections with students, valuing their individual strengths, needs, and evolving curiosities.
• Regular dialogues with parents create a supportive bridge between home and school, ensuring a cohesive learning experience.
• Signature events like the Activity of the Month, Celebration of the Month, Interaction of the Month, Unit Celebrations, and various school events offer enriching opportunities for students to cultivate relationships with peers, family members, and the broader community.
• The Academic Fest empowers parents to evaluate their child’s progress while observing their growth and development in a dynamic learning environment.

• Imitative Learning: Children predominantly learn through imitation and symbolic exploration, assigning meaning to the symbols and signs in their surroundings.
• Early Symbol Assignment: From the age of two, children instinctively begin to assign symbols (such as letters) to represent concepts and objects, laying the groundwork for future learning.
• Emotional Expression: Students articulate their emotions and thoughts through symbols, fostering emotional literacy and self-awareness.
• Literacy and Numeracy through Symbolism: The foundations of reading and writing are rooted in understanding symbols, underscoring the intrinsic connection between literacy, numeracy, and symbolic exploration.
• Skill Expansion and Transfer: Expanding these skills through the transfer of learning experiences across various contexts enables students to revisit their thinking, cultivate symbolic competency, forge new connections, and solidify their understanding.
• Unit Integration: Each Early Years unit is meticulously crafted to facilitate students' exploration of symbols, encompassing arts, emotions, celebrations, and monthly events.

Assessment in Early Years

The Early Years program focuses on building the foundational skills that serve as the groundwork for future learning. Assessments, primarily observational, are designed to track children’s progress in essential areas like language, literacy, numeracy, and social development. By observing children’s interactions and engagement, educators gain insights into their skill development, ensuring that each child’s learning journey is supported and guided effectively. These assessments help identify strengths and areas for growth, fostering a solid foundation for the transition to primary education.

Skill Stork Reading Program’ – An Indicator of Early Years Learning

At Skill Stork International School, the Early Years Reading Program, supported by the Oxford Reading Tree, lays a strong foundation for literacy. It helps children decipher words by recognizing the correlation between letters and sounds, while expanding their vocabulary through engaging and level-appropriate texts. The program also promotes fluent text recognition, enabling children to improve reading comprehension, boosting their thinking and writing abilities, and fostering a deep love for reading. Through phonological awareness, print awareness, and letter knowledge, children develop early literacy skills, preparing them for a successful academic journey.

• Helps Children Decipher Words: Children learn to decode letters and sounds, building the foundation for word recognition, phonemic awareness, and independent reading.
• Expands a Child's Vocabulary: Exposure to varied texts enriches vocabulary, helping children understand word meanings, synonyms, and language nuances for effective communication.
• Encourages Children to Recognize Text Fluently: Repetition of sight words and structured texts allows children to read more confidently, developing fluency and ease with words.
• Enables Stronger Reading Comprehension: As children practice reading, they build their understanding of sentence structure, story sequencing, and context, leading to deeper comprehension.
• Learning Phonics Boosts Writing Ability: By associating sounds with letters, children not only enhance their reading skills but also improve their spelling and writing accuracy.
• Helps Kids Develop Strong Thinking Skills: Reading fosters critical thinking as children infer, predict, and analyze, enhancing problem-solving abilities and reasoning skills from an early age.
• Print Motivation: The joy of reading is nurtured through engaging stories and characters, motivating children to read for pleasure and discovery.
• Develops Early Literacy Skills: Exposure to books strengthens early literacy by familiarizing children with the alphabet, narrative structures, and essential pre-reading skills.
• Print Awareness: Children learn how to handle books, recognize print direction, and differentiate between pictures and text, laying the groundwork for reading.
• Phonological Awareness and Letter Knowledge: Children grasp that letters and sounds correspond in systematic ways, enhancing their ability to decode unfamiliar words and read independently

What, How and Why of Assessments in Early Years

The Early Years program focuses on building the foundational skills that serve as the groundwork for future learning. Assessments, primarily observational, are designed to track children’s progress in essential areas like language, literacy, numeracy, and social development. By observing children’s interactions and engagement, educators gain insights into their skill development, ensuring that each child’s learning journey is supported and guided effectively. These assessments help identify strengths and areas for growth, fostering a solid foundation for the transition to primary education.

• What: Engagement and Participation
• How: Assessment Type: Observational Assessment
• Why: To assess how children interact with stories, books, and illustrations, fostering curiosity and a growing love for learning. As they progress, children begin to engage more actively, asking questions and contributing to discussions.
• Example: Teachers observe how children participate in group storytime, noting their engagement levels and interactions with the material.

• What: Motivation and Choice
• How: Assessment Type: Learning Logs/Journals
• Why: Tracking how children choose books and engage with them helps reveal their interests and supports independent exploration. Over time, children make more deliberate and confident choices, reflecting their growing autonomy.
• Example: Children document their favorite books in a journal, while teachers track their evolving preferences during library or reading sessions.

• What: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
• How: Assessment Type: Informal Testing
• Why: Assessing children's ability to recognize sounds, rhyme, and blend phonemes is essential in building foundational reading skills. As children progress, their ability to blend sounds into words strengthens.
• Example: Teachers use rhyming games, sound-matching activities, and blending tasks to assess phonemic awareness.

• What: Word Recognition and Vocabulary
• How: Assessment Type: Running Records/Checklists
• Why: Monitoring children's recognition of letters, sounds, and familiar words helps track their progress in reading fluency and vocabulary development. As they advance, children become more proficient at recognizing high-frequency words and simple phrases.
• Example: Teachers assess children’s ability to recognize sight words and letters through reading exercises, noting their improvement in word recognition.

Comprehension and Sequencing

• Assessment Type: Story Retelling
• Why: Evaluating how children retell stories and predict outcomes shows their understanding of narratives and language. As their comprehension deepens, children become more skilled at retelling stories with accurate sequencing and detail.
• Example: After a story, students retell the events in order or arrange picture cards to reflect the story’s sequence.

• What: Reading Fluency
• How: Assessment Type: Reading Aloud
• Why: Fluency is essential for developing confidence in reading, as it reflects a child’s ability to read smoothly with appropriate expression. As children develop, they begin to read with more accuracy, speed, and expression.
• Example: Teachers assess children by having them read aloud short passages, focusing on their ability to read with pace, intonation, and comprehension.

• What: Symbolic Expression
• How: Assessment Type: Portfolio Assessment
• Why: Assessing how children use symbols to represent their thoughts and ideas through early literacy and numeracy activities helps build their symbolic understanding. As they progress, children express themselves more clearly through written symbols, drawings, and numbers.
• Example: Portfolios include children’s writing samples, drawings, and number activities that demonstrate how they use symbols to communicate their thoughts.

Attributes of IB Learner Profiles

At Skill Stork International School, the development of IB Learner Profiles in our Early Years Program is integrated into every aspect of play, inquiry, and interaction, fostering a well-rounded growth experience for children aged 2 to 6.