Our Preschool Day
Welcome to School
Your child’s day begins with a warm hello as they are helped out of the car in car line by the school’s director and directed to their classroom by a teacher at the front door. If they are not ready to enter school independently, a parent or caregiver will walk the child into school and help with the transition to the school day.
Outdoor Play and Gym Time … to practice fine and gross motor skills, coordination, body awareness, balance, sportsmanship.
Our beautiful, spacious playground has something for everyone! The children can run, climb, and jump. The sandbox and play platform allow for digging, building and cooperative projects. In addition to the playground, our mud kitchen area stimulates lots of imaginative, messy play. The children can also work in our school garden, preparing the dirt, planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall. Throughout the year, we compost our snack scraps in our compost tumbler. On snowy days, the children love sledding on our mini hill, building snowmen and making snow angels in our expansive yard. Our campus is large enough to allow classes to take a nature walk, go on a scavenger hunt, and play in the fall leaves.
On days of inclement weather, the classes will visit our huge gym, with trikes, scooters, wagons and plenty of room for the children to ride, run, play a game, or navigate an obstacle course.
Circle Time … to practice speaking and listening skills, literacy appreciation, music and movement.
The class will come together at circle time and build their classroom community, talk about the weather, class jobs, and plans for the day. Children participate in finger-plays, rhymes and creative dramatics. Throughout the year, they are introduced to a wide variety of children’s literature. Our music specialist visits each class once a week, leading the children in singing, movement, and instrument playing.
Free Play … to practice independent choice making, cooperation, problem-solving, investigation and experimentation, organizing and conceptualizing.
During free play, children choose from a variety of interest areas, including blocks, sensory, science, math, dramatic play and quiet corner. The environment is deliberately and skillfully arranged to provide learning opportunities through play, which is the way young children learn best. Teachers move throughout the classroom, facilitating and scaffolding learning, and observing the children’s actions and interactions. They extend children’s natural observations by providing rich language to help children articulate what they see. Using play as the medium for instruction, teachers connect children’s experiences with social knowledge that helps them understand the world around them. They guide social interactions, allowing independence yet making each child feel safe and secure.
Clean Up Time … to practice responsibility, self-sufficiency and following directions.
Working together as a team, the children clean up the classroom, while developing classification and organization skills. They learn to recognize the fairness of sharing tasks and a sense of pride and ownership emerges.
Snack Time … to reinforce healthy eating choices, conversation skills and manners.
Each day a snack of fruits or vegetables are served, and the children drink from their own reusable water bottles, which are brought to school daily. Sometimes the children will assist in snack preparation, peeling or cutting, and take turns helping to set the tables. Cooking projects are sometimes incorporated into the day. Teachers and children eat together, promoting table conversations. Children celebrate birthdays by bringing in a special treat and singing at snack time. Parents are welcome to join in the celebration.
Dismissal
When our busy day is finished, we say good-bye and the teachers walk their class to the dismissal doors. Parents or caregivers may walk up and sign the child out or pick up in car line. Those who are staying for an Extended Day offering are walked to the proper classroom.
Please note: The timing of daily activities vary from class to class, and change occasionally due to special events, but each classroom follows a consistent daily routine to help the children feel secure and familiar. The 4 year old classes go to the playground at the beginning of the school day, and the 2 year olds and 3 year olds go out on a staggered schedule at the end of the day.
Optional Enrichment Offerings
Children in the 3 and 4 year old classes have the option of bringing their lunch to school and participating in one or more of our Enruchment classes. These classes begin immediately after the morning session at 12:00 p.m. and run through 1:30 p.m. Each day includes a themed topic, such as STEAM, Nature Explorers, Cooks and Books, ABC with Me, and many more. These offerings begin in late September and run through May, broken into three session: fall (September-December), winter (January-March) and spring (March-May).