Our pre-k classroom is made up of children who are 4 and 5 years old. Typically, they will come to this classroom the year before kindergarten. Depending on your child’s Birthday and when you join Heartfelt determines if your child will be in Pre-k for two years. In a pre-k classroom, we run a 1 to 12 ratio, that means 1 teacher for every 12 kids. Heartfelt does it best because we are made up of a teaching team who not only cares about your children but cares about your family too. We do our best to help your child grow while working with each family’s need. We create an environment where your family is part of our family. The following are things we work with your child to achieve during their time in Pre-k:
- Better understand the concept of time and the order of daily activities, like breakfast in the morning, lunch in the afternoon, and dinner at night
- Count ten or more objects
- Correctly name at least four colors and three shapes
- Recognize some letters
- Write his or her name
- Follow two- to three-part commands. For example, “Put your book away, brush your teeth, and then get in bed.”
- Speak clearly using more complex sentences
- Have a greater attention span
- Recognize familiar word signs, such as a “STOP” sign
- Know his or her address and phone number, if taught
Curriculum
We use a High Scope based curriculum in our classroom. A High Scope based curriculum uses natural and real-life materials in the classroom that allow the children to manipulate and explore them in multiple ways. Our room is divided into different areas that are clearly separated and marked allowing the children different spaces to explore throughout the day, these areas consist of the dramatic play area, the block area, the toy area, the library, the art area, the sensory area, and the writing area. Another part of the high scope curriculum is plan-do-review. This process takes place before, during and after work time. Planning is when the children make their plan known, they can state it, draw it, point to it, etc. but this planning time gives the children’s play a purpose. After is the “do”, which we call work time, this is where they carry out their plan. The last part of this process is recall; this is where the children recall what they did during work time. The recall time holds the children accountable to their plan.
Items Needed
3 Extra Outfits
3 Extra Socks
Family Picture
Swimsuit
Towel
Water Shoes
Boots
Snow Pants
Jacket
Raincoat
Rain Boots
Water Bottles
Sunscreen
Blanket
Sample Schedule
6:00-8:00 Table Toys
8:00-8:30 Breakfast
8:30-8:40 Morning Message
8:40-8:55 Large group
8:55-9:10 Small group
9:10-9:20 Planning
9:20-10:20 Work time
10:20-10:30 Clean-up
10:30-10:45 Snack
10:45-11:45 Outside
11:45-12:00 Prepare for lunch/cots
12:00-12:20 Lunch
12:20-12:30 Bathroom/ Lunch Clean up
12:30-12:45 Books on cot
12:45-2:00 Rest time
2:00-2:30 Table top activity
2:30-2:40 Cots away/Table top activities away
2:40- 3:30 Outside
3:30-3:45 Snack
3:45-4:30 Large Group Time
F.A.Q.
No, children are not required to be potty trained in our program. We do work with you to help them potty train.
We use a name to face system just like we do at school, we us name to face when we transition from these places:
- Before leaving the room
- After getting on the bus
- Before getting off the bus
- After arriving to the field trip location
- During the field trip
- Before leaving the field trip once on the bus
- When we arrive back to heartfelt
- When we get into the classroom
1 teacher for every 12 kids.
We give your child the building blocks to read. We start by writing and recognizing letters which then turns into recognizing and sounding out familiar site words which then will turn into reading.
We teach a lot of fine motor skills in our room to get the kids ready to write. We do activities such as bead stringing, we have them trace out letters and words in sand, we also have them build and form letters using play dough. We use tweezers in some of our sorting activities and that also helps build fine motor muscles. We also do sign in sheets every day where the children can come in and find their name and then write their name next to it.
We have a very consistent routine/schedule. Every day, we start out with Breakfast and then a greeting time/morning message time. This is the time where the teacher will tell the children what is going on during that day- field trips, a schedule change or teacher changes such as a substitute. We also talk about how to resolve conflicts, how to clean up the room, or safety rules if there is a need to review something. After greeting time, we go outside and play, then have snack, large group (we move our bodies during this time and also learn how to cooperate as a group), small group (this is where we break off into small groups of students with a teacher, to practice skills such as writing or math, in a fun and engaging way), then we have work time, lunch, nap, and outside time before pick up happens. Work time consists of Plan-do-review. Children make a plan before they play, then they play. After clean up, we get back in our small groups to review what they did—did they stick with their plan, or did they branch out into different plans?
We utilize High Scope Conflict Resolution. We focus on acknowledging feelings and letting the children work together with the teacher collaboratively to come with a solution to their problem.
Most children are different when it comes to being ready for kindergarten but some signs you can look for is:
- Good communication skills
- Expresses feelings using words
- Can count to 50 while skipping only a few numbers
- Recognizes and write most letters
- Patterns
- Simple math using numbers 1-10