Early Childhood (Grades PreK-K)

Walk into a PK or Kindergarten classroom and you’ll notice how many different activities are going on at one time. This is the “negotiated curriculum” in action: teachers prepare an environment filled with possibilities and encourage choice, initiative, exploration, and collaboration. Behind it all is the teacher’s belief in the child’s capacity and motivation to figure out the world and the desire to represent his or her ideas. Children arrive at our doorstep eager to get involved. Teachers respond with programs that support this drive for understanding, autonomy, and competence.

Classrooms are designed so that a child can function as independently as possible, helping the child experience confidence and competence as she chooses what to do. Once the child has learned routines and how the room works, he is free to be in charge of time within those constructs. It is the child’s world in which to enjoy, explore, think, and play. In kindergarten the scope widens to include leaving the classroom for library, music, and physical education taught by specialists.

Whether acting out stories they’ve dictated, listening at story time, writing using invented spelling, or talking at “show and tell,” children are immersed in language and its many uses. Days are filled with mathematical thinking as children figure out how many days they’ve been in school or how to follow a recipe. Projects link language, science, and art media—paint, clay, music, movement—adding depth and breadth to a young mind’s understanding.

Kindergarten 

Our full day Kindergarten program offers a curriculum which is based on the knowledge of how young children develop and learn. The learning environment provides a wide variety of classroom activities which foster all areas of development: intellectual, language, physical and social; and provides the challenge for children to learn according to their individual growth patterns.

Reading and Language Arts

Young children begin to develop language arts skills through the context of shared reading with quality children's literature, shared writing, language experience, reading and writing centers. The Reading and Language Arts Program focuses on print awareness, phonological/phonemic awareness skills, phonics/decoding, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. These skills are integrated into daily activities.

Reading and Language Arts Program Activities

• Word walls

• Language Experience

• Shared  reading

• Small reading  groups

• Sight-word  vocabulary

• Book  check-out

• Independent reading  time

• Phonics  skills

• Book knowledge

• Peer reading

• Interactive writing

• Journal writing

• Shared writing

• Poetry

• Inventive spelling

• Individualized skill groups

• Print Awareness

Mathematics

Young children begin to develop mathematical understanding through experiences with a wide variety of real objects provided in learning centers and practical situations (e.g. blocks, pegs, buttons, cooking).

Mathematics Program Activities

• Hands-on experiences

• Patterns

• Number sense

• Geometry and spatial sense

• Measurement

• Data analysis

• Calendar skills

• Cooking experiences

Science and Social Studies

Science and social studies is integrated into themes of interest throughout the year and includes experiences with animals, plants, the environment, geography, history, and economics. Learning experiences are provided through learning centers, resource people, projects, and field trips.

Christian Values

• Bible stories

• Character Development

• Prayer

• Daily devotions

• Christian teachers