Our Kindergarten - Pedagogy

RITZY SCHOOLS Team has put in a lot of effort in framing the learning material appropriate for the kindergarten. Our books, work sheets, lab activities that use practical life material, sensorial materials, spindle boxes, metal insets etc. and other learning material has been carefully researched and selected by our Team after a lot of tedious work. We have maintained high international standards in terms of academics.

Our curriculum is the back bone of RITZY SCHOOLS. The basic principle of our curriculum is "Child Development" and "Child Learning”. We believe in stress-free learning. Our children are not forced to learn, but encouraged to participate and are involved in various sensory, exploratory and interesting activities to foster their holistic development.

“Decant” is our copy right. It is a tool to teach the child languages, writing, rhymes, science, social science, moral science, mathematics, drawing, art and craft in a way that he or she learns the various subjects without realising the fact that X concept belongs to Y subject. All our books, worksheets and activities are designed according to “Decant”. This tool helps in Cognitive Development of children during early education and it has strong impact on the attendance and participation of children once they enter primary school. We have developed this tool keeping in mind the three central concepts of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP):

1. Subjectivity
   We experience the world subjectively thus we create subjective representations of our experience in terms of the traditional senses of vision, audition, tactition, olfaction and gustation such that when we — for example — rehearse an activity "in our heads", recall an event or anticipate the future we will "see" images, "hear" sounds, "taste" flavours, "feel" tactile sensations, "smell" odours and think in some (natural) language. Furthermore it is claimed that these subjective representations of experience have a discernible structure, a pattern.
2. Consciousness
   It is bifurcated into a conscious component and a unconscious component. Those subjective representations that occur outside of an individual's awareness comprise what is referred to as the "unconscious mind”
3. Learning
   An imitative method of learning is claimed to be able to codify and reproduce an exemplar's expertise in any domain of activity. An important part of the codification process is a description of the sequence of the sensory/linguistic representations of the subjective experience of the exemplar during execution of the expertise.

In 2008, European Union set a standard Curriculum for all Preschools in its member nations after examining Curriculum of 10 countries: Britain, Belgium, France, Finland, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. This Curriculum provides methodological guidelines for enhancing young children’s active engagement in reading and writing activities, a print-rich classroom environment and emphasises the communicative nature of learning. We have successfully followed this Curriculum for last ten years in our schools in Italy, Germany and Romania and now we are the only one’s to bring this: World’s MOST POPULAR Curriculum to INDIA.

Built on the concept of ‘Tap. Learn. Play,’ Ritzy Learning App uses the best of technology and pedagogy to engage, educate and entertain children up to 6 years of age. It offers a game-based platform of learning activities to develop brainpower and creative abilities in children from a very young age. Interactive applications help kids learn basic reading, speaking and writing skills. With stories, rhymes, shapes, colours and more, Ritzy Learning App keeps the young learners engaged for hours each week. It is tailored as per the skills and knowledge required kid’s specific application that comprises of age-appropriate educational learning solutions for kids up to 6 years of age.

Every little one is unique...

We build a Preschool that values their uniqueness.

The Robotics curriculum weaves concepts into themes to establish multi-disciplinary concepts. It is designed on the 'Multiple Intelligence Model' to tap the strengths and weaknesses of each child. It works on the principle of 'Differentiated Instruction' to cater to the learning needs and learning styles of each child.

Gymnastics is a modern sport that focuses on coordination, agility and strength whereby ‘gymnasts’ perform acrobatics jumps, leaps and perform on equipment such as ropes, beams and vaults.

All kids love learning how to do cartwheels and doing headstands, even toddlers love physical play and at RITZY SCHOOLS we start lessons for 1.5 years and up. For young kids, emphasis in these beginner classes is based on fun with lots of forward and backward rolling, headstands using kids sized apparatus like rings.

During lessons, kids learn how to warm-up properly and also begin to understand key elements of the sport including flexibility, balance and control and body awareness.

As children progress in age and ability classes then vary. Once the basics are learned, kids can begin to develop technique practicing on the various apparatus used such as the balance beams or vault. Typically, as kids progress classes are divided into male and female as different mode of apparatus is used. For boys, horizontal bars, rings and horse are performed on and girls focus on floor exercises, balance beams and vault. However with both genders the emphasis is on a full aerobic workout.

RITZY SCHOOLS has adopted a teaching method which is a beautiful blend of the following two approaches to educate children from 2 -5 years:

Reggio Emilia Approach: It is an educational philosophy focused on pre-school and primary education. It was propounded by Loris Malaguzzi and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after the World War II. After completely being destroyed by the war, parents needed a new, quick approach to teaching their children. They felt that the individuality of the children is developed in their early years. This led to creation of a program based on the principles of respect, responsibility and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment based on the interests of the children through a self guided curriculum. The Reggio Emilia approach to teach young children puts the natural development of children as well as the close relationships that they share with their environment at the center of its philosophy. Parents are a vital component of the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Parents are viewed as partners, collaborators and advocates for their children. Teachers respect parents as each child's first teacher and involve parents in every aspect of the curriculum. It is not uncommon to see parents volunteering within Reggio Emilia classrooms throughout the school. This philosophy does not end when the child leaves the classroom. Most parents who choose to send their children to a Reggio Emilia program incorporate many of the principles within their parenting and home life.

Waldorf Kindergarten: Waldorf education (also known as Steiner or Steiner- Waldorf education) is a humanistic approach to pedagogy based upon the educational philosophy of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steine. The approach emphasizes the role of the imagination in learning, develops thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component. Waldorf schools enhance learning in early childhood through imitation and example. A lot of time is dedicated for guided free play in a classroom environment that is homelike, includes natural materials and provides examples of productive work in which children can take part. The education emphasizes early experiences of daily, weekly and annual rhythms, including seasonal festivals drawn from a variety of traditions.

In all our books and worksheets, we have used Zaner-Bloser Handwriting which makes it easy to deliver high-quality, developmentally appropriate handwriting instruction. Apart from this we have also made our best effort to teach the child the Dolch word list appropriate for his class and age.

It is a complete program that:

• canbe taught in as little as 15 minutes a day.
• uses academic language and modeling with fewer, more specific stroke descriptions than other programs.
• teaches a vertical manuscript alphabet that approximates the letterforms most widely used in environmental print, unlike other programs’ alphabets, to better promote literacy development.
• meets the needs of all students by teaching in the correct developmental sequence and allowing for differentiation, based on learning style, language acquisition, and motor development.
• offers easy-to-use technology to engage students and support teachers in instruction and practice.

How does handwriting instruction benefit students?
Handwriting is more than a fine motor skill. Research shows that handwriting instruction and handwriting skill has impact on students’ overall literacy development and that early fine motorwriting skills predict later academic achievement.

Reading and math acquisition:
Preschool students who have greater ease with fine motor writing tasks have better academic skills in second grade in both reading and math (Dinehart & Manfra, 2013).

Letter formation:
Handwriting practice is a key component of the motor learning necessary to form letters and numerals correctly (Asher, 2006).

Handwriting speed and output:
When students develop the fine motor skills that accompany learning to write by hand, their writing speed and output increase (Graham & Harris, 2005; Graham & Weintraub, 1996). Fluency, automaticity, and the quality of higher-order written language skills: As students’ handwriting becomes more fluent and automatic, they can devote more attentional resources to complex writing tasks, and their written language improves (Christensen & Jones, 2000). Other research suggests that handwriting is significantly related to writing fluency and quality for both primary and intermediate elementary students (Graham, Berninger, Abbott, Abbott, & Whitaker, 1997).

Reading is the most important skill a child will ever learn. It is impossible for a person to live a productive life without being able to read, i.e.; becoming literate. In most schools, children are expected to be able to read simple sentences and stories by the end of first grade. By third grade, they are expected to be able to read almost any kind of text. As well as being able to "sound out" (phonetically decode) regularly spelled words, children must also master reading basic, common sight words.
A list of English sight words, The Dolch Word List, was compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD, in 1948. The list was originally published in his book "Problems in Reading". Dolch compiled the list based on words used in children's reading books in the 1930s and 40s. The list contains 220 "service words" that must be quickly recognised in order to achieve reading fluency.
The Dolch Word List is also called Sight Words or The Dolch 220. It includes the most frequently used words in the English language. Sight words make up 50 to 70 percent of any general text. Therefore, teaching The Dolch Word List is a crucial goal of education in grades kindergarten through 3.
Many of the 220 Dolch words cannot be "sounded out" and have to be learnt by "sight," that is memorized. The list is divided into grade levels. It includes pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions,conjunctions, and verbs. The basic list excludes nouns, which make up a separate 95 word list.
Since fluency in reading the Dolch 220 words and the 95 nouns is essential to literacy, a variety of techniques are used to teach them, including: reading Dolch literature books, using flash cards, playing games, and writing activities.Repetition and practice are very important in making recognition of sight words automatic. Once this core of basic sight words has been memorized, children read more fluently, with greater comprehension.

RITZY SCHOOLS Team continuously updates its Curriculum and teaching techniques according to the latest research in the field of child pedagogy.

Our selection is based on the following observation by the world famous researcher:
"All toys are learning toys," writes Kathy Hirsch-Pasek. The Temple University professor has written several books on the topic, such as Play = Learning.
"...but,” she continues, “ the toys that work best” :

• are 90 percent child and 10 percent toys
• can be used in multiple ways - again and again
• inspire creativity and imagination
• can be used with others

Her message: Simpler is smarter. High-tech, high-cost gizmos with digital bells-and-whistles aren't necessary to elevate your child's intelligence. Instead, Hirsh-Pasek recommends traditional, vintage toys for Santa's list, such as rubber balls, clay, crayons, art supplies, building blocks, and other construction toys that enlist children's imaginations and small-motor skills to build castles, forts, and playhouses. Basics are best.

At RITZY SCHOOLS, we follow the advice given by Stanford University’s Bing Nursery School, a research laboratory for child development psychologists. Its Director Jeanne W. Lepper has a list of materials that help young children learn, including paper, pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, tape, cardboard boxes, easel paints, water colors, sand, play dough, building blocks, Legos, puzzles, dress-up clothes, hats, props, dolls, doll clothes, and simple musical instruments.