Our Preschool & Kindergarten Teachers have been recognized by the community and the enrolling families as a team of professionals who are energetic and devoted to their careers, and make a special connection with each child and family surpassing the experience of care that families have received elsewhere.
Let Us Help Your Little One Grow
- You will receive a personal account to creative curriculum where you can access: checkpoints, observations, planning, emails and more
- Each Parent receives an account with Shutterfly to receive weekly photo albums uploaded to Shutterfly of their child and their classroom
- The following curriculum is offered the substantial portion of the day.
- Minimum of 50% of materials rotated monthly
- Sand & Water Tables, Painting Easel and Sensory Tables are offered daily
Language and Reasoning Examples (Daily)
A wide selection of books that are accessible include:
Fantasy
Fact
Nature/Science
Different races and cultures
Abilities
Additional materials (in addition to books) used daily:
Accessible stories or songs
Listening center
Flannel board stories
Picture card games such as lotto, etc.
Puppets for children’s use
Organized reading center where books are easily accessible and there is a suitable place for reading, such as a small table and chairs, a rug or cushions or other soft seating. Books and language materials are rotated meaning added or exchanged in order to keep children interested in books.
Fine Motor Examples (Daily):
Small building toys
Art materials
Manipulatives
Puzzles
Encouraging Children to Communicate: Some Examples (Daily)
Materials that encourage communication
Toy telephone
Puppets
Dramatic play materials like dolls, housekeeping toys & other props that encourage children to act out roles
Talking to one another and toys
Small figures and animals
Flannel board pieces
Language board games
Materials are accessible in a variety of interest centers Staff will balance listening and talking appropriately with children. Staff will encourage more talking with younger children and more listening with older children
Appropriate occasions to link speech to print in a daily setting.
When a child finishes a project, a teacher ask them to tell about it
Writing notes to parents dictated by child
Children help write and post reminders for the classroom
Creating charts that record the main points in a group discussion
Using Language to Develop Reasoning Skills (Daily)
Teaching Concepts:
Same/different
Classifying
Sequencing
One-to-one correspondence
Spatial relationships
Cause and effect
Materials that stimulate reasoning
Sequencing cards
Matching games
Balance scales with things to weigh
Objects for counting & sorting
Number/object matching puzzles
More Examples (Daily)
- Staff encourages children to explain their reasoning by listening to the child’s explanation. This allows the staff to know how much the child understands about the concept.
- Staff is observed using how and why questions frequently with older preschoolers and simpler questions with younger children. “What comes first, putting on your socks or shoes?”
Informal Use of Language Examples (Daily)
Many staff-child conversations – should be observed during free play and routines
Staff are observed talking to children and adding information about things children ask about or express interest in
Staff adds detail, new, more exact words to build on ideas children are expressing
Staff are observed having individual conversations with most children
Staff asks children questions to encourage them to give longer and more complex answers.
Art Examples (Daily)
Art materials accessible and offered throughout the day
Three-dimensional art at least 1 time per week
Art activities are related to other classroom activities
Music and Movement Examples (Daily)
Musical instruments and music to listen to with extensive content. Group songs, sung by teachers and children. Instruments are available indoors and outdoors
Advanced experiences that help extend understanding:
How music is created
How to distinguish the major characteristics of music
Encourage creativity by allowing instruments to be played different ways, encouraging different dances to a song, having children make up their own songs, free use of instruments to experiment with sounds.
Music to a song displayed so children can see what different notes look like.
Encourage creativity by allowing instruments to be played different ways, encouraging different dances to a song, having children make up their own songs, free use of instruments to experiment with sounds.
Blocks Examples (Daily)
Block area should allow room for at least 3 children to balance, build and create structures independently.
Accessories include people, various animals, cars, trucks and road signs. Accessories should be rotated and include items related to the theme.
Blocks and accessories are organized according to the type.
Types of blocks have different characteristics such as weight, size, texture, forms and shapes.
Blocks are available indoors and outdoors.
Sand / Water (Daily)
Offered indoors and outdoors
Different activities are offered to give children broader experience
Staff provide a variety of materials and toys in Sand and Water Tables and rotate weekly.
Social Studies and Dramatic Play Examples (Daily)
Children are provided varied learning opportunities that foster positive identity and emerging sense of self and others
Children are offered opportunities to become part of the classroom community to feel accepted and gain a sense of belonging
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials to build their understanding of diversity in culture, family structure, ability, age, and gender in non-stereotypical ways
Children are provided opportunities and materials to explore social roles in the family and workplace through play
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials to learn about the community in which they live
Children have varied opportunities to engage in discussions about fairness, friendship, responsibility, authority, and differences
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials to learn about physical characteristics of their local environment as a foundation for learning geography
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials to learn how people affect their environment in positive (e.g. recycling) and negative (e.g. polluting) ways.
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials that allow them to contribute to the well-being of their classroom and the community including care for the social and physical environments in which they live
Children are provided opportunities and materials that build a foundation for understanding economic concepts (e.g. playing restaurant, managing a store, and identifying and exchanging money)
Kindergarteners are provided opportunities and materials that help them link learning about their hometown, their state, the United States and their country of origin to previous learning as a foundation for learning geography, history, and social studies.
More Activities
Theater performances
Dance classes
Music classes
Cooking club
Science projects
Field trips
Community service to local nursing home to complete art projects with residents once a month on Fridays
Preschool Daily Schedule*
7:00-8:30 — Arrival and Breakfast/Child Choice Centers
During this time, children are offered a time to eat breakfast in the Smurf classroom. Children who are not eating breakfast have an opportunity to choose centers between the Smurf and Gobot classrooms. At 8:15, the Smurfs, Gobots, and Fraggles clean up and disperse to their own classrooms. Children who eat breakfast are taken to brush their teeth.
8:45-9:00 — Group Circle Time, Music & Movement
Circle time Objectives: Focus on welcoming children, assigning classroom jobs, and 1 music & movement activity.
9:15-10:00 — Gross Motor Development/Outdoor or Indoor
(Whole and/or Small Group)
Planned Gross Motor Development Activities that will be offered daily, weather permitting. Students will have to opportunity to choose from various forms of exercise (bikes, climbing and sliding on playground jungle gym, balancing toys, etc.), as well as Sand/Water, Drama, Block/Building, Library, Art, and more materials
10:15-10:30 — Snack & Independent Reading
(Group and Individual Work)
Snack is provided and students are encouraged to serve themselves and clean up areas before beginning independent reading. Students are provided the opportunity to choose books from our classroom library and/or teacher books during their independent reading time.
10:40-10:55 — Group Circle Time
Math/Science/Social Skills/Language Arts/Music/Health and Safety
Circle time Objectives: Students will demonstrate: social skills by recognizing the children in classroom attendance (“Good morning to you”), will recite the “ABC’s”, days of the week and months of the year (“Days of the Week”, “Months of the Year” song) and reciting the date, math skills by counting the days in the month, counting/sorting on our calendar, and patterning, science skills by identifying the seasons and the weather (“What’s the Weather?”), language arts skills by identifying letter of the week, rhyming words, colors and shapes and what’s the letter, and health and safety skills by recognizing the values of safety and classroom rules and the importance of following them. Also, children will stand and recite the “Pledge of Allegiance”. Finally, the classroom teacher will discuss daily objectives, introduce phonemic and phonological awareness of the Letter of the Week, describe Teacher Directed Activity, and explain key concepts relating to the theme.
10:55-11:40 — Teacher Directed Activity-Language Arts
Math/Science/ Cooking/Language Arts/Art (Small Group, Rotated Weekly), Child Choice Centers (Small Group and/or Individual Work)
Students will experience an educational lesson focusing on the letter of the week. Teacher directed centers will rotate between a Math, Science, Language Arts, Table Toys, or Art activity each day. The activity will involve students working in a small group setting, which allows them the opportunity to build skills and knowledge in the areas of development for each age group. Teachers will follow our PA State Early Learning Standards to create milestones that will be met during each lesson. Child choice centers will be available, encouraging the students to use their imagination in centers such as from Dramatic Play, Music & Musical Instruments, Block Building, Literary, Computer, Table Manipulatives, Science/Discovery Centers, Puzzles, Writing, Perceptual/Sensory Experiences, etc.
11:50-12:10 — Group Circle time
Circle Time objectives: 2 nursery rhymes, 1 themed related story, and numbers of the month.
12:10-12:40
Lunch/Independent Reading/Bathroom (Group and Individual Work)
12:45-2:00
Nap
2:15-2:40 — Wake up, Bathroom Break
Students are provided the opportunity to choose books from our classroom library and/or teacher books during their independent reading time.
2:45-3:00 — Snack, Story Time
Objectives: Snack is provided and students are encouraged to serve themselves and clean up areas before beginning independent reading. Lead Afternoon Teacher will engage children in a theme related story (found on lesson plans). Students are provided the opportunity to choose books from our classroom library and/or teacher books during their independent reading time. During snack, teachers will set centers (listed on lesson plans). When children are finished, they will transition for gross motor play.
3:10-4:05 — Gross Motor Development/Outdoor or Indoor
(Whole and/or Small Group)
Planned Gross Motor Development Activities that will be offered daily, weather permitting. Students will have to opportunity to choose from various forms of exercise (bikes, climbing and sliding on playground jungle gym, balancing toys, etc.), as well as Sand/Water, Drama, Block/Building, Library, Art, and more materials
4:10-4:20 — Bathroom, Music and Movement
Objectives: Teacher will lead a planned Music and Movement activity (found on lesson plan) while children are finishing bathroom breaks and transitioning from gross motor play.
4:30-4:45 — Circle Time
Circle time Objectives: The classroom teacher will discuss activity objectives, describe the Teacher Directed Activity, and explain key concepts relating to the theme throughout planned centers.
4:45-5:15 — Teacher Directed Activity
Math/Science/ Cooking/Language Arts/Art (Small Group, Rotated Weekly), Child Choice Centers (Small Group and/or Individual Work)-Weather Permitting
Students will experience an educational lesson rotating between a Math, Science, Cooking, Language Arts, or Art activity each day. The activity will involve students working in a small group setting, which allows them the opportunity to build skills and knowledge in the areas of development for each age group. Teachers will follow our PA State Early Learning Standards to create milestones that will be met during each lesson. Child choice centers will be available, encouraging the students to use their imagination in centers such as from Dramatic Play, Music & Musical Instruments, Block Building, Literary, Computer, Table Manipulatives, Science/Discovery Centers, Puzzles, Writing, Perceptual/Sensory Experiences, etc.
5:30-6:00 — Gross Motor Development/Outdoor or Indoor
(Whole and/or Small Group)
Planned Gross Motor Development Activities that will be offered daily, weather permitting. Students will have to opportunity to choose from various forms of exercise (bikes, climbing and sliding on playground jungle gym, balancing toys, etc.), as well as Sand/Water, Drama, Block/Building, Library, Art, and more materials.