Unlike our Toddler and Nursery programs, our Pre-Kindergarten children's schedules are designed to cycle weekly instead of daily. Therefore, they are best described by their components rather than their daily progression.

Choice Time

During the first part of the morning, children are provided access to several different educational activities and encouraged to move freely from one learning center to another. Children busily explore materials such as puzzles, pegboards and blocks; build small motor skills through painting and drawing; create independent projects; participate in teacher guided projects such as theme related art projects, science experiments and cooking; and develop social skills through small group interaction with friends.

Show and Tell

This is a special time for children to develop language as they talk about something that is familiar and special to them. Children are encouraged to bring in items such as favorite books, homemade art projects, homemade books, family photos, theme related materials and objects from nature. Children are encouraged to talk about the object at home prior to coming to school, so that they have something interesting and meaningful to say during class and feel more confident in front of their peers.

Meeting

Everyday our children and teachers gather together for meeting time. This is the time for Show and Tell, for singing and finger plays as well as story reading and calendar activities. In addition, it is at Meeting time that the children engage in theme related discussions. They learn about Native Americans, Dinosaurs, the Solar System, Transportation, the Human Body and Plants and Weather, to name a few.

Resource Room

Another feature of our Pre-Kindergarten program is the small group attention received by all children. Every Pre-Kindergarten child spends one morning per week in one of our two resource rooms. There are typically 7 children in Resource on a given day and this is a special time for them to be in an intimate setting for the entire morning and receive individual teacher attention. Often we see friendships develop between pairs or groups of children that wouldn't necessarily blossom in a larger group.

Lunch

Children bring their own lunches to school which are stored in classroom refrigerators. We encourage good table manners and quiet, calm conversation amongst the children at each table. Children develop independence as they clean-up after lunch, throwing away trash, recycling juice containers and placing lunch boxes into their cubbies.

Afternoon Groups

After a quiet rest time, the Pre-Kindergarten I and Pre-Kindergarten II are divided into three smaller age-based groups. For the afternoons, these academic groups include thematic discussions and guided hands-on projects such as creating Jack's beanstalk, building a beavers lodge or complex bridge building, to name a few. Afternoon Groups concentrate on building language and vocabulary, reading readiness activities and introducing math and science concepts. Curriculum includes a storytelling unit, a study of animals around the world, Egyptian culture, architecture and medieval castle life.

Music and Library

Both Pre-Kindergarten programs have hour-long, weekly small-group music and library periods outside of their classrooms. Curriculum for these breakouts is developed in conjunction with the children's classroom teachers.