Our Belief System
At TIPS, we embrace a child-centered philosophy that promotes creative thinking and lifelong learning. Our educators are dedicated to inspiring children to achieve the very highest standards in all their endeavors as they progress their educational journey with us. Through partnerships with parents, we strive to make every academic dream a reality.

Our Mission
To nurture inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young lifelong learners who are engaged citizens of our world through intercultural understanding & respect.

Envisioning the plan of action
At TIPS, we believe each individual to develop into a global citizen who have knowledge, compassion, leadership and are empowered to stand up to the challenges to understand our world and improve conditions for local and global communities.

WHAT IS EARLY YEARS’ LEARNING?


Early years learning 

 The Pre-School Learning Curriculum is designed in a progressive manner for three years of preschool education before Class I, for children between the ages of 3–5 years. The document is based on developmentally appropriate approaches and it defines the vital role of preschool teachers and parents in connecting the key concepts and skills, goals, pedagogical processes and practices, and ultimately leading to the achievement of early learning outcomes.

Aims of early years education

  • Providing strong foundations for all round development and life-long learning.
  • Providing opportunities for developing and nurturing Habits of Mind.
  • Preparing the child for school.

Objectives of early years education

  • To ensure child-friendly environment where each child is valued, and respected, feels safe, and secure and develops a positive self-concept.
  • To enable a sound foundation for good health, well-being, nutrition, healthy habits and hygiene.
  • To enable children to become effective communicators and foster both receptive and expressive language.
  • To help children become involved learners, think critically, be creative, collaborate, communicate and connect with their immediate environment.
  • To enable a smooth transition of children from preschool to primary schools.
  • To work as partners with parents and community to enable each child to flourish.

Guiding principles for early years curriculum

        In the light of emerging needs and new developments   in    early years    education, an attempt is   being   made   to   ensure that the present curriculum is holistic, developmentally appropriate, indigenous, and most importantly play and activity based. Thus, the curriculum is drawn from the following guiding principles:

  • Learning is continuous and cumulative
  • Each child is different and grows, learns and develops on one’s own pace
  • Play and activity are the primary context of learning and development
  • Children  learn  by  being  provided the environment for experiential learning
  • Responsive and supportive interactions with adults are essential to children’s learning
  • Mother tongue or home language should be the medium of instruction
  • Family involvement contributes to learning

Annual Curriculum Plan

Phonics is the basic reading instruction that teaches students the relationships between letters and sounds. It also teaches students to use these relationships to speak and write words. Phonics instructions are to help students learn and use the “alphabetic principle”- the systematic relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Knowing these relationships through phonics helps young readers to recognize familiar words accurately and easily “decode” new words. It will help students recognize that sentences are made up of words and words can rhyme. They will also realize that words can begin, end and have the same medial sound. Phonics lessons have featured as an important part of reading instruction since the first primers and alphabet books were written for young students. Over the years, phonics has continued to be the part of early reading and writing instruction that is most directly (explicitly) taught and graded. Even the most experienced readers and writers use their knowledge of letter symbol / sound relationship to ‘sound out’ unfamiliar words. 

  Having said this, our PP 1 students will be completing 33 lessons that spell out activities for each instructional session. The lessons are organized according to the sequence. Each lesson begins with tips for introducing and teaching the sound. The symbol is introduced and connected to the sounds using various techniques when appropriate high-frequency words and word families are taught. 

Worksheets 

Each lesson is accompanied by a set of worksheets to reinforce: 

  • Phonemic awareness 
  • Sound/symbol relationships 
Flashcards 

The use of variety of flash cards is incorporated into the lessons, such as: 

  • Picture cards for phonemic awareness 
  • Letter cards for word building and blending/segmenting activities 
  • Word family (phonogram cards) 
  • Decodable word cards 
  • High – frequency word cards 

Each of the 35 lessons for PP 1 spells out activities for each instructional session. The lessons are organized according to the following sequence; 

  • Phonic lessons Number of lessons 
  • Consonants 21 
  • Short vowels 05 
  • Word families 09 

They can also be used as stand – alone reinforcements of important sound/ symbol relationships that lead to successful decoding .Students can use the last page in the book to draw an object and then label the object by using a word containing the featured sound/ symbol relationship. With all Reading A – Z books, each student can have her or his own copy to take home and read. 

Decodable Books 

Students need practice decoding the sound/symbol relationships they have been taught. The decodable books provide an opportunity for students to read continuous text in a story and book format while confronting words that have the phonics elements they have been taught . The decodable books also expose students to high – frequency words.

Students who are able to speak more than one language is most often linked to better academic skills.  Hindi/Telugu is introduced to students in this age through picture cards and catchy rhymes. One of the best ways for students to learn a new language is when our teacher talks to them only in the particular language during the whole language period. We also teach our students to trace over Hindi/Telugu letters for developing their Hindi/Telugu writing practice. 

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them – Galileo Galilei 

To get our students to discover, we need to keep their curiosity high. Students are encouraged to get curious about the world around them – the green plants, the blue waters, the animals, the sky 

Human Body parts 

Learning about human body parts helps children develop an appreciation for their body and a confidence in themselves which motivates them to reach new heights. They are fascinated with who they are and the bodies they have. 

 Through this unit,students recognize that our body has a form with salient features and it changes overtime.They understand his/ her role as an individual to make choices that supports their personality development.They recognize and develop the qualities that make them special. 

Animals 

The Animals unit help students to discover what makes animal similar and what makes them different. Topics include habitats, diets, body parts, movement special abilities and more. Through this topic students understand the diversity among animals which helps them to appreciate and enjoy the uniqueness of all creatures. Students may also think about how they treat animals and how we as humans fit into the animal kingdom. The unit also addresses topics such as adaptations for survival, the different types of animals and their roles in our life. 

Weather

This topic teaches children about several types of weather. They learn about the relationship between weather and other seasons such as spring, summer, fall/autumn, and winter. There will be hands-on activities for children, such as building a simple anemometer. This allows youngsters to play while learning about the topic.

MATH

Studying mathematics stimulates curiosity, fosters creativity and equips children with the skills they need in life beyond school. Math concepts are taught through hands-on learning, visualization, and pictorial representations. Students use hands-on manipulatives to explore new concepts. They begin to connect their concrete experiences and pictorial representations to abstract symbols, such as numbers. Mathematics offers children a powerful way of communicating. They learn to explore and explain their ideas using symbols, diagrams and spoken and written language.  

  Children enjoy learning mathematics, by providing opportunities to:  

  • experience the sense of pleasure that comes from solving a problem or a mathematical  puzzle 
  • play small-group games that draw on mathematical skills and concepts 
  • experiment with pattern in numbers and shapes and discover relationships for themselves 

.

Discipline    Objectives 
Math Numbers Oral: 1 to 100
Number rhymes
Recognizing, writing numbers 0 – 50
Recognizing number    relationship

Missing numbers

Shape and space Recognizing Basic Shapes(Square, circle, triangle, rectangle)
Data Handling Sorting and counting objects
Create a graph of real object and describe data
Patterns Describe and name simple pattern
Make simple patterns
What comes next in the pattern
Shape and space

Position

Use everyday language to describe and locate their environment and its position in a given situation such as near, far, Inside, outside, Right, left,

Up, down, In front of, behind

Measurement Comparing objects: Big-Small; Long -Short; Tall – Short; Fat -Thin; More -Less.
Ordering objects: Big-Bigger -Biggest ; Small -Smaller -Smallest ; Long -Longer -Longest ; Tall – Taller -Tallest ; Short -shorter -shortest

ICT SKILLS

Our Mission is to combine Education and Technology to provide children with the core computing skills that will best prepare them for the future. 

Technology Integration 

Technology projects have detailed step by step instructions that are used to integrate technology into curriculum effectively to create meaningful learning opportunities for students. 

This introduction includes activities to identify computer hardware, rules to follow when using the computer, and the method to turn the computer on and off properly. Concentrating on the development of fine Motor skills needed to operate the mouse, students learn how to “click”, “click and drag”, “click and hold” and “double click” the mouse to achieve the desired result. 

Students celebrate the splendor of all the colors in the rainbow by creating with color. They learn to identify color names, produce shades of color, illustrate their feelings with color, and distinguish objects of color by producing beautiful artwork. In their art pieces, students demonstrate how color is a part of their everyday world by painting, drawing, and singing. 

ICT skills learnt: Computer basics, Keyboard, Desktop Publishing 

The learning outcomes: 

It helps the students to: 

  • Understand basic parts of computer
  • Navigate the desktop using mouse 
  • Create simple figures
FREE PLAY

Students are exposed to a number of activities such as stretching exercises, fun games, yoga and free play in addition to the indoor games and that develops motor skills, which may later be applied in various physical activities within and beyond the school setting. They will become aware of a number of positive leisure-time pursuits. Students are exposed to play in various play areas which helps in developing gross motor skills. Outdoor play offers students the opportunity to discover the capabilities of their bodies and the variety of ways in which they are able to   use themselves in a range of situations.  

NON- FLAME COOKING

Cooking in the early years is a great experience for students. Students love to role play and explore what the elders in the house do as they feel empowered. This goes a long way in building confidence for them. However this can be done in a systematic and planned manner so that students learn and have fun under a safe and supervised atmosphere. Cooking has lots of benefits beyond the obvious. It involves development of all the five sense organs. Cooking strengthens mathematical concepts such as shapes, sizes, measures etc. It also promotes aesthetic sense as they present the food cooked by them. Most importantly, cooking highlights the concept of healthy and unhealthy eating which is the need of the hour. Students also realize the value of time and energy involved in the cooking process, hence will think twice before wasting food. That is a virtue every child must learn. 

Team work is very crucial in cooking, hence we encourage the parents to involve and promote a wholesome effort in creating a healthy learning atmosphere for the students. Parents can help students pick out necessary ingredients by taking them to a super market or having them in the kitchen while cooking. At school students are encouraged to prepare simple yet nutritious dishes and the same is given as a take-away home so that parents get an idea of what is taught in the cookery class. 

STORY TIME

Story telling promotes cognitive development in students. Reading to them and looking at picture books with them, helps develop their imagination, their language, and their emotions. According to Scholastic, students must develop the skill of listening, before they start learning to read.  The National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning also explains that reading books to students helps expands their vocabulary.

ART / CRAFT

  Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

                                                                                                        – Pablo Picasso 

For very young children, making art is a sensory exploration activity. Exploring materials is very important because it is through exploration that children build a knowledge of the objects in the world around them. Children craft their own projects using simple items they are familiar in a step by step manner. All materials will be provided by the school. Our Art and Craft curriculum includes activities that will help children develop their cognitive, social, and motor abilities. 

Cognitive Abilities: For very young children, making art is a sensory exploration activity.  Activities centering around making art also require children to make decisions and conduct  self-evaluations. Most often, children evaluate their artwork by thinking about what they like  and what other people tell them is pleasing. 

Social Abilities: Young children feel a sense of emotional satisfaction when they are  involved in making art, whether they are modeling with clay, drawing with crayons, or  making a collage from recycled scraps. This satisfaction comes from the control children  have over the materials they use and the autonomy they have in the decisions they make. 

Motor Abilities: Making art also helps children develop eye-hand coordination (Koster,  1997). As children decide how to make parts fit together into a whole, where to place objects,  and what details to include, they learn to coordinate what they see with the movements of   their hands and fingers. 

Music, Dance and Drama or Performing Arts

Music, dance and drama is  a form of expression that is inherent in all cultures. They are a powerful means to assist in the holistic development of the child, and are important for interpreting and understanding the world. This promotes imagination, communication, creativity, social development and original thinking. 

Performing Arts provide children with an effective personal and social development as well as an interesting way for teaching young children beneficial values that can be used for adulthood. The most beneficial aspect of these Arts is the development of social competencies, that participating in such extra-curricular activities motivates a child’s desire to learn, these arts aspire and improve the learning environment. 

This component of the curriculum also provides opportunities for students to: 

  • develop proficiency as musicians, actors and visual artists 
  • acquire audience skills such as listening and viewing responsively 
  • interpret and present their own or others works to a range of audiences 
  • create and critique plays, compositions and artwork using a selection of tools and     techniques 
  • express feelings, ideas, experiences and beliefs in a variety of ways 
  • improve coordination, flexibility, agility, strength and fine motorskills.