Preschool (4 – 5 years)
four-year-olds are full of wonder. This is an exciting time for these young learners, who are changing physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally. The focus of the preschool program is to give children the opportunity to learn through play in a loving, caring environment. Days are filled with busy explorations, investigations, and discoveries. Children express themselves through art, music, and movement. They practice math and number concepts using age-appropriate materials to organize, sort, count, build, and sequence. They explore the world of science through weather, cooking, and seasonal activities. They develop motor skills and coordination while running, jumping, hopping, skipping, throwing, and catching in the gym. They demonstrate an emerging love of reading and writing, using growing literacy skills during read-alouds, shared readings, reading groups, and writing centers.
Children use language to share, communicate, and interact with friends. They enjoy books, stories, games, projects, and songs based on curricular themes that are introduced in a whole-group setting, then extended to small-group work and individual lessons. A print-rich environment and a love of reading are fostered to allow the children to practice literacy skills in real-life situations.
Our children begin to develop a rich vocabulary and use language on a daily basis through informal conversations with their teachers. They discover a new way to express themselves both in words and ideas. This allows their social world to expand even further. Days are filled with making meaning of every learning opportunity encountered at school.
