Curriculum
Nursery & Kindergarten Section (N, K1, K2, K3)
In kindergarten, we blend the Lao National Curriculum and Japanese Course of Study for Kindergarten, which is child-centered and based upon the principle of whole-person education that focuses on social and emotional development, friendship, and responsibility. The children learn interpersonal skills, group rules, and affection by playing with friends, nurture affection for animals and plants by caring for school animals and plants, and develop creativity and artistic abilities by drawing, crafting, singing, and dancing. We follow a thematic-based approach, have many school events over the course of the school year, and emphasize sports, music, art, and food education in addition to academic activities for a child’s healthy development.
Subjects
◉ Daily Morning Exercise Rotation
The aim of the exercise rotation is to promote and develop physical strength and athletic capability, to improve blood circulation and health, to richly stimulate the brain, and to strengthen the brainstem. In addition, it is to understand the splendor of doing things with friends and the enjoyment of exercise by cultivating the will and attitude of working on something enthusiastically. It is a very important activity to meaning to make the rhythm and tempo of daily life in kindergarten (to develop activities from stillness to motion). The exercise rotation is performed for 30 minutes every morning in the field or the gymnasium. A vaulting horse, a mat, a hurdle, a horizontal bar, a balance beam, and so on are gradually introduced and used. With cultivating the fundamental physical strength and the heart of challenging, and cherishing the joy of achievement, arrange the activities to fit each individual little by little. It does not matter how high one can jump on a vaulting horse, but we rejoice together to challenge each individual’s goal and achieve it.
◉ Daily Morning Activity
Repeat flash cards with a fast tempo, rhythm pattern, abacus, and so on in 20 minutes every day. The contents of flashcards are changed and arranged by fitting with children’s ages and development every month. In the beginning, teachers will lead the children, and the children gradually become able to do on their own and enjoy communication between teachers and children. The daily activities include Morning Song, Meditation, Greeting, Orientation, Attendance, Flash Cards, Mouth Exercise, Rhythm Pattern, Storybook, Abacus, Quote, Vocal Exercise, and Singing a song.
◉ English
Kindergarten uses Jolly Phonics which is a fun and child-centered approach to teaching and developing English literacy (reading and writing) through synthetic phonics. With actions, songs, and stories for each of the 42 letter sounds, the multi-sensory method is very motivating for children.
◉ Lao
Lao instruction follows the Lao National Curriculum to develop Lao literacy in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Many studies show that the stronger the children’s mother tongue, the easier it is for them to learn new languages. Children, who have a solid foundation in their mother tongue, develop better literacy skills also in other languages that they learn. Also, mother tongue connects the children with the culture of the society that he comes from and shapes their identity.
◉ Math
Our school math text is well-designed and prepared for children to develop mathematical skill step by step. The text has 11 levels and is divided into 6 stages: Stage 1 Numbers, Stage 2 Counting, Stage 3 Dots Addition, Stage 4 Dots Subtraction, and Stage 5 Practical Math.
◉ Music
Our teachers play the piano every day in the classroom for the morning song, monthly song (Lao and English), and goodbye song, and in the daily exercise rotation, we dance along to the songs as well. The children here have great opportunities to touch the real sounds of music instruments every day. We believe early interaction with music positively affects the quality of all children’s lives and it helps all children bond emotionally and intellectually with others through creative expression in song, rhythmic movement, listening experiences, and playing instruments.
In Music class, we introduce the rhythm tap that is performed daily in the daily morning activity to cultivate their rhythmic senses, and Do-Re-Mi Exercise to promote children to acquire perfect pitch and understand the notes of major scales. When they are comfortable with the scales, we introduce a keyboard harmonica to actually play various songs by themselves. We offer a school music workbook to practice playing the keyboard harmonica step by step. We divide the music skill into four categories: Do-Re-Mi Exercise, Rhythm, Melody, and Ensemble, and each category has three to five stages to achieve. The children here have great opportunities to touch various musical instruments, form a marching band, and to perform with an ensemble of various musical instruments.
◉ Physical Education
Through the daily morning exercise, the children develop physical strength (supporting power, jumping power, chinning power, and combination power), flexibility, and challenging-mind. In P.E. class, the children develop gymnastics skills from basic motions to actual gymnastics events. The basic motions have five categories: Flexibility, Leg Strength, Supporting Strength, Abdominal and Back Muscle, and Balance, and the gymnastics events are categorized into four areas: Floor Exercise, Horizontal Bar, Tobibako, and Jump Rope. As they develop their athletic skills in basic motion, a gymnastic event is gradually introduced.
Swimming is also instructed in the P.E. class from grade K1. We follow our swimming progress sheet for children to develop their swimming skills. It starts with “Try to put your face into the water” and “Walk in the pool together” to get familiar with water.
Other sports such as soccer, the tag of war, running, water polo, and so on, are also introduced as well following a P.E. educational plan for each class.
K3 students will attend a district group sports competition organized by the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports in every year.
◉ Thematic Activity
Children enjoy and enhance their knowledge and skills through themed activities such as “All about my body” and “Things around us” following the school educational plans. Moreover, they enjoy activities related to seasonal events such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Star Festival.
◉ Information Communication Technology (ICT) & STEM Education (K3)
Children learn to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science and learn coding as the new literacy. Also, coding and programming are introduced through robotics while building various robot models in a fun way.