Learning In the Preschool Years

Our purpose is to offer a Christian experience for the preschool children in our community.  We do this by offering opportunities for children's spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical and social development (STEPS).  We support growth and development through hands-on experiences, creative curriculum, and engaging exploration within the classroom.
 
Through ART, children:
Develop hand-eye coordination and refine small motor control
Practice pencil grip & operating scissors correctly
Mix colors and makes discoveries
Develop creativity and artistic expression

Through DRAMATIC play, children:
Make decisions
Explore role play
Practice expressive language
Problem solve: negotiation, compromise, sharing, & taking turns
Use their imagination

Through BLOCK play, children:
Develop large and small muscle control
Improve hand-eye coordination
Explore spatial relationships and compares sizes and shapes
Plan and solve problems
Practice working cooperatively with other children
Experience balance, cause & effect, and gravity
Learn math concepts such as symmetry, counting, length, & comparison
Develop positional understanding (on, under, etc.)

Through STORY-TIME and LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES, children:
Take turns talking / listening
Practice attentiveness and increasing attention span
Talk in a group & share “news” that is meaningful to them
The relationship between letters & words
Differentiate between letters and numbers
Begin to recognize letters and their sounds
Learn literacy skills: how to handle a book, reading text from left to right, author information
Enjoy quality children’s literature
Sing songs with and without actions
Learn rhyme and to recognize & count syllables
Practice predicting the story-line
Participate in filling in the words at the end of a repetitive verse in the text (thus, “reading along”)
Learn to recognize their name and their friend’s names, practice writing name
Develop an interest in learning to read and write on their own

Through SENSORY, MANIPULATIVES, & PLAY-DOUGH, children:
Build finger muscles needed for cutting & writing
Name and sort colors & shapes
Make patterns
Practice counting & one to one correspondence
Compare sizes (small, medium, large; longer, shorter)
Explore objects through touch
Use their senses to collect information about their world
Develop fine motor coordination

Other meaningful preschool activities:
Making choices (books to look at, learning centers to play in, etc.)
Large motor movement (running, bouncing balls, catch, sliding, tricycle pedaling, scooter board, animal movements, ribbon “dancing,” balance on a line/beam, jumping, hopping, rolling, somersault)
Teacher directed and child-directed games: group games, make-up own games with peers
Practicing manners at snack time
Learning self-care skills, self-regulation and self-control
Recognize and verbalize emotions (sad, happy, anger, surprised, etc.)
Follows rules
Learn basic school expectations
Cleaning up messes and putting toys away