Pre-Kindergarten Program
We support learning for young children! Let us show you how that learning takes place in St. Mark Catholic School pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms.
Research and professionally recommended practices recognize that young children learn best through manipulation of materials and hands-on experiences carefully planned and facilitated by knowledgeable teachers. This learning looks very much like play—but play with purpose and intent.
The teacher initially defines that purpose and intent, but only after following the children’s interest. She sets up a learning environment that has inherent structure and stimulation for children. She organizes and displays materials so that children use them to figure things out, practice skills, and learn new concepts. The children are allowed enough time to explore those materials again and again, so that through repetition and success they develop the confidence to take risks and try new activities with more complexity and demands.
Most important, the teacher is ever ready to teach. However, that teaching may look quite different for each child and for each particular situation that arises during a day with young children. To help children stay with tasks and learn important concepts and skills, the teacher works with, instead of against, their individual developmental styles. The teacher observes as the children go about exploring materials. The teacher asks open-ended questions that stimulate the children’s thinking: “What do you think would happen if you tried…?” They help promote vocabulary development by describing what the child is doing: “I see you’ve used lots of colors—red, green, blue, and brown.” She models or demonstrates how to make shapes with the geoboards or count all of the big blocks.
Our teacher of pre-k is rigorously academic because she keeps goals in mind as she continually interacts with the children in their play and exploration. To develop reading and writing skills, many stories are read each day to and with the children. Through these reading experiences, the children learn many of the conventions of written language, including left to right and top to bottom directionality; use picture clues; make logical predictions; and play with the sounds of language. The children learn to recognize their own names and encourage the writing of names and other words as they demonstrate interest. The teacher provides a variety of alphabet activities and offer opportunities to act out familiar stories and draw and write daily. She reads favorite books again and again so that familiarity becomes a form of practice and more and more awareness of print is developed.
Our pre-k teacher pays close attention to academics when she also embeds math, science, and social studies activities in the children’s exploration and purposeful play. Counting and one-to-one correspondence are evident in daily routines of attendance and setting the table for snack. Geometry is explored in block building and use of many other manipulatives. Scientific study and observation is developed in the classrooms through projects and units of study about weather, seasonal changes, and plant and animal life. Social studies concepts of community and family life and the study of people and their differences and similarities are included in dramatic play, literature, and cultural celebrations.
The teacher skillfully weaves in the goals and objectives of traditional academics as they build on what children can do and challenge them to try new things. The children are not left to their own devices, nor is their development left to chance. Using classroom based assessment practices such as careful observation and anecdotal documentation, as well as collecting children’s work (taking photographs or samples of children’s drawings, writing, and language); the teacher continually evaluates the progress the children are making. The ongoing assessment process provides more reliable information than tests or on-demand tasks; the teacher is accountable for what each child knows and can do, and she uses that to make decisions on how best to teach each child.
Faith is integrated throughout the curriculum.
Part Time Pre-K
The classes will be held twice a week on:
| Date | Time |
|---|---|
| Monday and Wednesday | 9:00 - 2:00 |
| or | |
| Tuesday and Thursday | 9:00 - 2:00 |
There will be NO classes offered on Fridays for Pre-K.
For more information, please contact St Mark Catholic School at (859) 623-2989, prompt 4.