Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4

Creativity and self-expression is encouraged through the tactile and kinesthetic exploration of color, shape, line, pattern and design. Art mediums include drawing, painting, stamping, clay, dough, collage, and 3D materials.

Social and emotional skills are taught through the Loving Guidance - Conscious Discipline approach. During daily morning meetings and activities, students practice school routines and rituals as well as sharing, collaborating, listening, and interpersonal problem solving skills. Kind manners, virtues, and the 7 Mindsets are developed through literature, songs, poems, buddy activities, service learning, character education assemblies, cooperative learning, activities, and “teachable moments.”

Topics covered include self-discovery, friendships, service, family customs and traditions, holidays, community helpers, transportation, and American heritage.

Language arts activities for Pre-K students foster a love for reading and writing and promote growth in receptive and expressive language. Through read alouds, puppets, finger plays, flannel boards, and open-ended questioning techniques, students develop reading and writing readiness skills. As students are introduced to a variety of genres, they practice recalling information and responding to age appropriate literature. Letter exploration, letter-sound recognition, oral modeling, dictated story telling, and labeling are incorporated into pre-writing, hands-on literacy activities.

Students learn to recognize and apply math concepts in their daily lives through math investigations in group activities and routines such as in calendar, weather, and attendance activities. Emphasis is placed on number recognition: 0-5, counting 0-10, 1:1 correspondence, sorting, patterning, ordering, sequencing, matching numbers to quantities, and geometric shapes. Students also measure at the sand and water tables and while cooking, and are introduced to money through coins and dollars.

Students are guided through a multi-sensory music appreciation program as they explore:

• Fast-slow and high-low beats
• Play rhythm instruments
• Hop, skip, march, gallop, slide, and jump to music
• Interpret music through dramatic play
• Sing songs including lyrics about friends, holidays, self, and family

Pre-K 3 students participate in water acclimation activities and baseline swimming instruction as they learn pool safety skills. Throughout the year, they develop personal space understanding, hand-eye coordination, foundational sport-specific movements, flexibility and balance. Fitness and large group aerobic games introduce students to beginning striking, catching, and throwing techniques.

A multi-sensory, hands-on approach develops students' scientific inquiry skills as they delve into exciting units on animal habitats, gardening, seasons, weather, the solar system, the human body and senses, magnets, and states of matter through liquids and solids.

Aural and verbal Spanish skills are developed as students learn terms for greetings, numbers, colors, shapes, weather, parts of the body, days of the week, farm animals, and members in a family through songs, movement, acting, and games. In addition, understanding of Spanish cultures is enhanced through the exploration of international holidays.

Foundational coding skills are introduced through kinesthetic activities and games. Students practice key curriculum concepts through developmentally appropriate slideshows and educational video clips.

Social and emotional skills are taught through the Loving Guidance - Conscious Discipline approach by Dr. Becky Bailey. During daily Morning Meeting and activities, students learn about school routines and rituals as well as practice sharing, collaborating, listening, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. Kind manners, virtues, and positive mindsets are taught through literature, songs, poems, buddy activities, service learning, character education assemblies, cooperative learning projects, and “teachable moments”.

Students compare and contrast family customs; identify school community members and their roles; and learn more about themselves, each other, and the school community. 

Language Arts activities are designed to instill a love for reading and writing and establish the foundational literacy skills needed to succeed in later grades. Through guided read alouds, students are introduced to a variety of genres and begin to identify the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction text, make predictions, identify cause and effect connections, and sequence stories. Emphasis is placed on letter recognition, beginning sounds A-Z, word families, rhyming, alliteration, compound words, verbs, adjectives, CVC blending, oral modeling, and tracking words left to right. Prewriting skills include dictating stories, noticing capitals at the beginning of a sentence, punctuation, labeling pictures, writing one’s own name, and capital and lowercase letters A-Z.

Early Learning students visit the library once per cycle with a teacher from their classroom for a story where they move their bodies and get excited about books. At this age, we instill a love of reading into our Sharks and expose them to basic literacy skills. Pre-K students are able to check books out for classroom use.

Math investigations are presented within an exploratory curriculum and students learn new concepts through guided instruction and within calendar, weather, and attendance activities. Emphasis is placed on recognizing numbers: 0-30, quantity, shapes and sizes, as well as patterning and sorting, 1:1 correspondence, part/part/whole, sequencing and counting, comparing and estimating, problem solving, position words, ordinal numbers, matching numbers, and simple addition.

Students learn to play rhythm instruments to a beat; hop, skip, march, gallop, slide, jump to music; develop non-locomotor movements; interpret music through dramatic play; explore classical and folk music; and sing songs about self, family, friends, and holidays.

A multi-sensory, hands-on approach develops students’ scientific inquiry skills as they delve into states of matter (liquid and solid), magnets, the five senses, sinking and floating, planting seeds, and simple chemical reactions.

Students develop Spanish vocabulary through songs, movement, puppets, bilingual books, and games. Emphasis is placed on greetings, numbers, colors, shapes, weather, parts of the body, days of the week, fruit, zoo animals, and holidays in other countries.