I believe that preschool should be fun, creative, active, hands-on and often messy! I am very much a believer in hands-on learning! I believe that preschoolers need the opportunity to explore various experiences and environments and participate in the many different types of learning. I like to teach the preschool concepts by using creative approaches including finger painting with pudding, writing letters in shaving cream, learning basic math skills by sorting M&M’s, actively learning numbers by utilizing hopscotch, music time with instruments, Nursery Rhyme Olympics, etc. I believe that the child must be having fun and engaged in order for learning to take place. I hope to provide a place where the preschooler will not only love to come but will leave everyday having learned something new and have something creative that they have made to bring home to demonstrate their new knowledge!
Our basic curriculum is based on exploring a letter every week. We will work on recognizing and writing each letter as well as knowing the letter’s sounds. We will have a different “topic” each day but will focus on the same letter and sound for the entire week. For example, during Letter A week, we will explore “A is for Apples” one day. Our story, snack, writing activity, craft and centers will all be based around an apple theme. Our next preschool day will still center around the letter A and the A sound but our theme for that day will be “A is for Alligators”. This time our story, writing activity, craft, and centers will all be based around an alligator theme. We will continue this basic learning curriculum throughout the year.
We use the same structure for our curriculum in both the 3-4 year old and 4-5 year old preschool classes. Different topics are taught both years. Shapes, colors, numbers and letters are all introduced. However, we expand our learning in the 4-5 year old class. In the 4-5 year old class, we will review the recognition of the capital letters and their sounds but will expand to incorporate the lower case letters and learn to write them correctly as well. We will continue learning the numbers and be able to recognize and write the numbers 1-20 by the end of the 4-5 year old class. Basic reading families (such as the “at”, “ed”, “it”, etc) families will be introduced toward the end of the 4-5 year old class. All required concepts necessary for entering Kindergarten will be taught during the 4-5 year old class.
For more detailed information, you can find our specific Policies and Procedures here.