ACADEMICS

Knowing that preschool is a child’s first learning experience, we strive to balance a great learning environment with a fun, loving and nurturing atmosphere.  Listed below you will see a brief overview of what our preschool children learn and do.

Bible

• Daily Bible classes that teach basic Bible stories.  We begin with Creation through the life of Christ. 
• We want your child to be able to apply what they learn in Bible to their young lives.  Because of this, weteach character traits that will help our children to apply what they have learned to their young lives. 
• Crafts are used re-enforce in a fun way the lessons that are being learned.
• We have a weekly Chapel class (usually on Wednesday)  that allows our teachers and Pastoral staff to enjoy Bible time with our students.

Phonics/Early Reading Skills

• Beginning Phonics is very important in early reading skills.  Our preschoolers will learn to recognize each letter of the alphabet, they will also learn the basic sound for each letter.
• Fun daily activities to re-enforce these skills; games, songs, art projects, among many other learning avenues.
• Nursery Rhymes, songs and poetry are great additions to early reading.  We use these daily in our class day.
• We strive to teach all of our children a love of reading.  We do this through daily story times and allowing our children time to explore books on their own.

Pre-Writing Skills

• Developing fine motor skills is vital in learning to write. Coloring, cutting, painting and finger plays are just some of the ways we help our children develop fine motor skills.
• Practicing the shapes of letters through writing with different mediums (pencils, crayons, markers, paint), using sticker fun and many other activities are planned to help you child learn to write.  Beginning to write their name is also a part of the plan for each school year.

Numbers

• Counting and number recognition is the basis of our number learning in preschool.  Our children will use a large variety of activities to help them learn the concept of numbers.  Tactile learning is very important in learning numbers. 
• Learning to recognize numbers 1-15 (or higher) is the goal of each year.  We do this through various counting, physical and art activities. 
• Introduction of counting. Our goal is for our preschoolers to count to 50, many classes exceed this goal.   
• Our friend Button Bear is an important part of numbers.  Our puppet friend will help us count and we will use him in our book learning of numbers.  

Music

• Daily singing time.  We will learn fun songs, silly songs, Bible Songs & Hymns. 
• Weekly Music Appreciation and basic music theory is taught in the classroom. Fun avenues of play with music will be experience by our three year olds. 
• Our preschool class will participate in the two musical programs preformed each year.

Play

• Large Motor skills are developed through various types of daily play.   
• Outside play (weather permitting) is an important part of our day. 
• Inside play consists of large/small motor skill activities and group games.
• Individual play time with friends is very important for social development. 
• Our children have a daily time to play and make friends with their classmates. 

Special Days

A monthly calendar will be sent home.  This calendar will list the special days that your child will experience throughout the month.  Months will include (but are not limited to):

•  Show and Tell days
•  International learning
• Fun “letter” learning days
• Special food days to go with letters being learned
• Other “Fun” special days

Other FUN Activities

• Calendar/Weather with our Weather Bears
• Arts and Crafts
• Weekly Science class
• Large Motor Skills practice
• Snack Time
• Recess