Preschool

Our preschool program celebrates the remarkable capabilities of three and four-year-old children while preparing them for the increased academic focus of pre-kindergarten. This is a magical time when children’s imaginations flourish, their language explodes, their social skills blossom, and their understanding of the world deepens dramatically. We create a rich learning environment where preschoolers can explore, question, create, and grow in an atmosphere of joy, discovery, and faith.

Program Philosophy: Preschoolers are natural scientists, artists, storytellers, and philosophers. They ask endless “why” questions, create elaborate dramatic play scenarios, form meaningful friendships, and develop complex understandings of how the world works. Our program honors and extends this natural curiosity through intentional teaching that remains playful and child-centered. We believe that three and four-year-olds learn best through active, hands-on experiences that engage their minds, bodies, and hearts.

We recognize that preschoolers are developing crucial foundations in all areas—social-emotional competence, early literacy and math concepts, scientific thinking, creative expression, and physical skills. Our program addresses all these domains in an integrated, developmentally appropriate way that prepares children for kindergarten while keeping the joy and wonder of early childhood at the center.

Developmental Focus Areas:

  • Developing friendships and choosing preferred playmates

  • Cooperative play and collaborative problem-solving

  • Increasingly sophisticated pretend play with complex themes and roles

  • Emotion recognition and beginning emotion regulation strategies

  • Empathy and perspective-taking (understanding others’ feelings)

  • Conflict resolution skills with peer support

  • Following classroom rules and routines independently

  • Taking responsibility for belongings and simple classroom jobs

  • Building positive self-concept and confidence

  • Expressing needs and wants clearly

  • Developing independence while asking for help when needed

  • Understanding fair play, turn-taking, and sharing

  • Managing transitions between activities

  • Pride in accomplishments and persistence through challenges

  • Vocabulary growth of hundreds of new words

  • Complex sentence structures (compound and complex sentences)

  • Storytelling with beginning, middle, and end

  • Understanding and answering who, what, where, when, why questions

  • Following multi-step directions (3+ steps)

  • Engaging in extended conversations

  • Beginning to understand print concepts (words have meaning, print goes left to right)

  • Recognizing some letters, especially those in their name

  • Beginning to understand that letters have sounds

  • Interest in writing letters and “writing” messages

  • Listening comprehension during longer stories

  • Retelling familiar stories with key details

  • Making predictions and connections during reading

  • Rhyming and sound awareness

  • Understanding that books have authors and illustrators

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  • Rote counting to 20 or beyond

  • One-to-one correspondence when counting objects

  • Understanding quantity and comparing amounts (more, less, same)

  • Recognizing and naming shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and more)

  • Beginning to understand shape properties

  • Creating and extending simple patterns (AB, ABC)

  • Sorting and classifying by multiple attributes

  • Measuring using non-standard units

  • Understanding positional concepts (first, last, next to, between)

  • Simple addition and subtraction concepts through concrete experiences

  • Data collection and simple graphing

  • Beginning understanding of time concepts

  • Exploring fractions through real-world experiences (half, whole)

  • Asking questions about the natural world

  • Making observations and predictions

  • Conducting simple experiments with adult support

  • Understanding life cycles and living vs. non-living

  • Exploring properties of matter (solid, liquid, changes)

  • Beginning understanding of weather and seasons

  • Observing and caring for plants and animals

  • Exploring cause and effect relationships

  • Using simple tools for investigation (magnifying glasses, balance scales)

  • Documenting observations through drawings and dictation

  • Comparing and contrasting (same/different)

  • Beginning classification systems

  • Representational drawing with increasing detail

  • Experimenting with various art materials and techniques

  • Creating 2D and 3D artwork

  • Expressing ideas and stories through art

  • Singing songs with accurate pitch and rhythm

  • Moving expressively to music

  • Playing simple rhythm instruments

  • Engaging in dramatic play with complex storylines

  • Creating props and costumes for dramatic play

  • Dictating stories about artwork

  • Beginning appreciation for different art forms

  • Running, jumping, hopping, skipping with coordination

  • Galloping and marching

  • Catching and throwing with improved accuracy

  • Balancing on one foot, walking on line

  • Pedaling tricycles with confidence

  • Climbing with agility

  • Fine motor precision (cutting on lines, writing letters, detailed drawing)

  • Proper pencil grip developing

  • Self-care skills (dressing, toileting, hand washing) mostly independent

  • Pouring and serving self at meals

  • Using utensils appropriately

  • Awareness of healthy habits

Preschoolers can grasp more complex faith concepts while still thinking concretely. We share Bible stories with discussion and application, pray together and encourage children to pray, sing worship songs and learn simple theology through music, discuss God’s creation and our role as caretakers, practice forgiveness and reconciliation, serve others through simple service projects, celebrate religious holidays and their meanings, and connect faith to daily life and decision-making.

Our preschool classrooms provide rich, well-organized environments that invite exploration and support learning across all domains.

Classroom Design:

  • Well-defined, labeled interest areas

  • Sufficient open space for large group gatherings

  • Comfortable library area with varied seating

  • Art area with easel, tables, and accessible materials

  • Dramatic play area with theme-based props

  • Block area with building challenges and accessories

  • Manipulative/table toy area with puzzles and games

  • Science/discovery center with changing investigations

  • Writing center with varied writing tools and materials

  • Math area with hands-on materials and games

  • Sensory table with rotating contents

  • Technology center (when available) with educational apps/programs

  • Cozy spaces for individual time

  • Display areas for children’s work at eye level

  • Job chart and daily schedule with pictures

  • Classroom library with diverse, high-quality books

Interest Area Details:

Props and costumes rotating to support themes (home, restaurant, grocery store, doctor’s office, post office, etc.), multicultural dolls and items, puppets, play food, dishes, child-sized furniture, dress-up clothes including diverse career costumes, writing materials for signs and lists

Unit blocks, hollow blocks, foam blocks, toy vehicles, animals, people figures, road signs, trees, building challenge cards, books about buildings and structures, graph paper for planning, photos of children’s constructions

Fiction and non-fiction books