Christian education is a vital part of our growing and learning each day. Focus will be placed on developing the whole child: spiritually, socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually. Subjects are integrated and children learn through play, instruction, exploration, and discovery.
Early childhood classes are offered in a half day or full day format. Half day students attend classes from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and full day students attend classes 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Before school extended care is also available if needed.
Preschool three-year-old classes (half day or full day) are on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and pre-Kindergarten classes (half day or full day) are Monday through Friday.
Children begin the day with free play in centers. Our classroom has nine activity centers:
- Science
- Books
- Manipulatives
- Art
- Dramatic Play
- Easel
- Blocks
- Writing
- Texture Table
The centers are educational in nature and provide opportunities for children to learn and practice valuable social skills such as: getting along with others, learning to share, respecting one another, learning how to be a friend and learning to communicate with others. Materials in each center are changed periodically to incorporate items having to do with the monthly themes. Some of the themes and units we will cover include:
- All about me
- Animals: farm, wild, pets
- Apples
- Bears, hibernation Birds, migration
- Caterpillars/Butterflies
- Colors
- Community Helpers
- Dinosaurs
- Dental Health
- Fall Changes
- Friends
- Growing things
- Holidays
- Insects & Spiders
- Manners
- Name Recognition
- Numbers
- Nursery Rhymes
- Nutrition
- Opposites
- Ocean Life
- Presidents
- Safety
- Seasons
- Senses
- Shapes
- Space
- Spring changes
- Texas
- Transportation
- Trees
- Water
- Weather
- Winter
Your child will be involved in a variety of experiences such as:
Religion
Daily prayer, Bible stories, memorizing a Bible verse and hymn each month, weekly chapel services with a pastor. Students are taught to show respect for God and God’s Word and to know that God loves them dearly and they are very special to him.
Language Arts
Classic children’s literature, communication and listening skills, reading readiness activities, visual discrimination, sequencing and matching activities, upper and lower case letters of the alphabet and introduction to their sounds, and name recognition. Story-telling through books, puppets, and finger- plays.
Math
Shapes, one-to-one correspondence, patterning, sorting and sets, counting, number meaning and recognition, graphing, comparing, measuring, opposites and spatial relationships.
Science
Children will engage in observing, classifying, comparing, measuring, predicting, and drawing conclusions about the world that God has created. We also learn through cooking and hands-on experiments in the classroom.
Social Studies
Families, Community Helpers, Fire Prevention and Safety, Pilgrims, Native Americans, and Holidays.
Art
Creative exploration of art and craft materials (paint, glue, markers, crayons, collage materials) using various art techniques and tools (brushes, fingers, sponges, balls, scrapers, rollers, eye droppers, etc.) “Process, not product” is emphasized.
Music & Movement
Singing, rhythm instruments, creative movement, circle games and music concepts (fast/slow, loud/soft, high/low, beat, etc.)
Physical Activity
Thirty minutes each day is devoted to activities which promote gross motor development either in the gym or outside. On P.E. days, our class attends a teacher-lead P.E. class in the gym. This is a structured class where they work on specific gross motor skills and learn to play cooperatively in group games.
Field Trips and Guests
We take field trips to various points of interest that have to do with our themes. We will also have visits from resource persons such as police and firemen throughout the year.