Our Preschool Program

Our Preschool Themes
All of our sessions have a theme that begins with a letter of the alphabet A - Z. Each theme has specific related activities and include two or more of the following: numbers, colors, shapes, opposites, matching, and differences.

Our themes include hands on craft activities, science projects, worksheets, observations, indoor and or outdoor activities, songs, games, poems, fingerplays and more.

Our Preschool Schedule
We follow the same schedule for each session and we make it a classroom experience.

Opening (song, poem, short story that relates to the theme) 3-5 minutes
Learning Activity (numbers, shapes, letters, colors, pre kindergarten skills) 5-10 minutes
Theme Activity (the main activity) 15-30 minutes
Hands on Activity (if one was not included in the theme activity) 10-15 minutes
Outdoor Activity (walk, nature, games, free play) 10-15 minutes
Closing (clean up, song) 5-10 minutes

Our time varies depending on age, ability and projects. We keep in mind the attention span of the children we are working with and always include free time, letting the children use their own creativity.
Preschool Supplies
We make sure we have a large selection of preschool supplies and activities for the children to use. Listed below are some of the items we use in our sessions.
Magnetic and Plastic Numbers and Letters
The children hold them, feel them, pass them around. They lay them out in order and identify the ones we are currently working on.
Flash Cards
We use them as wall displays.

Flannel Board
The flannel board is one of their favorites. We have shapes, colors, letters, numbers and nursery rhyme characters. It's a great hands on activity, it makes a great bulletin board, we also cut our own shapes out of felt.

Books
We have books on fingerplays, poems, songs, games, crafts, recipes. We use these books for additional theme ideas and activities.
Basic Supplies
Of course there are always the basic supplies, crayons, scissors, glue, felt pens, paper punch, etc.

Craft Supplies
We have a craft closet full of paper, buttons, shells, beads, yarn, cardboard tubes, baby food jars, small bottle caps, old greeting cards, foam trays, paper bags, you name it, we probably have it. We save anything we think can be used for a face, a puppet, an instrument, a design. If it is safe, we save it.

Keeping Parents Informed
We like to keep our parents informed on their child's progress. We send home projects completed each week and send home progress reports a few times a year so the parents can see how their child is doing.

Dear Parent:

This week in preschool we learned about _____ by doing _____.
Your child recited their ABC's to ____ in the proper order.
Your child counted to ____ in the proper order.
Your child recognized the colors _____ _____ _____.
Your child was able to _____ and _____.
And so on...

We make sure we are always positive, saying "your child did", "was able to" or "accomplished", we avoid saying "your child did not" or "was unable to". We don't compare children to each other, every child has their own strengths and weaknesses.