The Preschool is for young children as they are. Every facet of the program is thought of in terms of how it can help the child understand self, communicate with others, and learn by doing.
When you walk into one of our classrooms, everything that you see is part of a carefully planned, developmentally appropriate structure that takes into account the work of childhood and the uniqueness of each child. Each day children are offered opportunities for open-ended use of art materials, manipulatives to build small muscle coordination, dramatic play set-ups to encourage imagination and cooperative play, scientific exploration, music and the joy of fingerplays, stories, and puppets, materials for building and places to climb, jump and run.
The Ohio Early Learning and Development Standards guide our curriculum which highlights all areas of school readiness. Teachers carefully plan to build a classroom community, and each child meets the environment with an individual response. The exciting transition from concern for oneself to the joy of relating to others starts to develop at this age. We encourage the children to communicate with each other in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
To parents, the Preschool is also important. Here are teachers who care about your child and want to be partners with you in understanding your child’s unique gifts. It is a resource for parents seeking information and understanding. Bulletin boards keep parents up-to-date on Preschool activities.
Our Goals
Social/Emotional: to help children develop independence, self-confidence, and self- management; to understand and follow routines; to share ideas with and listen to others, to make friends, and to be part of a group. Physical: to increase children’s large muscle skills, including balancing, running, jumping, and climbing. To use hands for tasks like drawing, writing, buttoning, stringing beads, and using puzzles and toys.
Cognitive: to acquire and develop thinking skills, including how to solve problems, to ask questions, and to draw conclusions. Sorting, classifying, counting, making patterns, planning, and using materials and their imaginations to show what they have learned are ways that cognitive skills grow. Language: to use words to communicate with others, to listen to, and participate in conversations. Building blocks to prepare for reading include a sense of story, rhyming, retelling stories, and conversation. Enjoyable activities help children notice the sound and structure of words, laying a foundation for reading.
Self-knowledge: to gain the ability to name one’s own feelings and describe one’s own experiences, to be imaginative, to share ideas, and to compare experiences and learn from them