students display an intellectual curiosity about their surroundings. To feed this natural attraction to learning, the Pre-K teacher, state certified with a college degree, approaches these students in a highly skilled manner, designing the classroom and daily schedule to encourage the students to explore, investigate and learn.
Many resource classes are offered to the Pre –K students throughout the week. Technology, Physical Education, Art, Music and Spanish are presented with the same frequency as in the elementary program. Our weekly Chapel Service reinforces the core values that all Good Shepherd students work to embody.The full day Pre-K classroom is academically challenging without forgetting the nature of the child and the importance of creating a lust for learning in this important school year.
The Pre-K students are immersed in a literature rich environment. Many different genres; such as, poetry, fairy tales, folk tales, picture books and short stories are incorporated into every part of the day. A variety of strategies are used by the teacher and teacher assistant to recognize letters, sounds and many blends. Mastery of these skills together with sight words and word families result in confident beginner readers.
In addition to Reading, place value, patterns, numbers, counting and problem solving are taught in Mathematics with a hands-on approach, using manipulatives. The introduction of science lab skills and social studies concepts are presented in an exploratory nature, exploiting the curiosity of the students’ environment, seeking novelty, diversity and originality. The approach focuses on becoming independent thinkers, confident in their own standards of judgement.
The growth seen in this school year is reflected in the students’ independence and confidence with an emergence of students ready for the next big step: Kindergarten!