LANGUAGE ARTS
Language Arts is the development of communication skills that enable children to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences with others. The ability of a child to transfer thoughts into words is the primary skill upon which all language development is based.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Listening, speaking and thinking skills are the foundation of communication. We provide interactive learning experiences that help strengthen these skills and enhance each child’s love of language.
- LISTENING: Tell and share stories, read books and poetry aloud, conduct finger plays, provide instructions to follow in work and play, and ask followup questions.
- SPEAKING: Teach children the idea of concepts, work on vocabulary development, and provide sequencing activities.
- THINKING: Help each child understand their thoughts and feelings and express them verbally and physically through music and art.
PROCESSING SENSORY INFORMATION
To assist in developing communication skills, we help each child build awareness of their five senses. We stimulate our students’ curiosity as to the distinct ways their bodies receive information about their life and the world around them through their five senses. We use interactive play activities to teach our students visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and taste discrimination.
SOCIAL SKILLS
Our curriculum also includes developing expressive language and demonstrating positive social interaction skills. We model and teach our children cooperative communication behaviors such as helping, taking turns, sharing, comforting, and compromising through structured peer interaction.
READING READINESS
Not only does our Language Arts program develop each child’s communication skills, but it also builds a solid foundation for reading. We work on letter recognition and sounds. We also work on strengthening pre-reading skills through rhyming games, letting children tell stories, reading stories together and exploring pictures, and playing sound and word games.
MATHEMATICS READINESS
Mathematics readiness at the preschool level involves the development of cognitive skills, which comes from an understanding of the following concepts:
- Colors
- Shapes
- Quantitative concepts
- Size differences
- Basic counting skills
- Sorting/classifying
- Forming sets
- Pattern recognition
- Recognizing numerals
We teach each concept through a wide variety of engaging hands-on manipulatives and play experiences.
The preschool program consists of so many different projects and topics, that it encourages preschoolers to develop their talents and abilities at an early age. —Andrea
MOTOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT
- GROSS MOTOR SKILLS: We provide a variety of engaging and enjoyable large muscle activities to develop each child’s body coordination, including: dancing, walking, running, balancing, jumping, skipping, hopping, and tricycle/big wheel riding.
- FINE MOTOR SKILLS: We develop each child’s hand-eye coordination through a variety of fun manipulative play activities, such as: stringing beads, hammering, coloring, painting, pouring, lacing, and using scissors. Not only are these activities essential to develop fine motor skills, but developing dexterity and strengthening the small eye muscles also enhances reading readiness.
RELIGION
Religion is an essential part of our preschool program. At the preschool level, our religion program focuses on the following:
- developing a positive self-image, as each child is unique, special, and a child of God;
- discovering and being grateful for the talents God has given each child;
- understanding that God is loving, forgiving, and accepting;
- learning bible stories. In addition, we pray at the beginning of class and before we eat.
Our Advantage