Welcome to the Cottage

The natural curiosity of three to six-year olds drives St. Michael's early childhood curriculum. Teachers focus on fostering each child's social and emotional development, while encouraging him or her to establish basic reading, writing, and math skills.

Learning occurs primarily through hands-on projects, learning centers, and individual, small, or whole-group activities that reflect the interests and abilities of the children. Each activity incorporates multiple areas of the curriculum into the learning experience, and addresses themes that captivate young children: the world around me, homes and habitats, bugs, and classroom pets.

All Cottage children also have weekly P.E. classes where they participate in cooperative games and movement activities to develop their small and large motor skills. The Cottage outdoor playground structures are also designed to facilitate and enhance physical and social development.

Music and Art classes also play a key role. From group singalongs to performing at assemblies, all of our children take part in Arts projects that are integrated into the curriculum. Although the students have formal art class once a week, a myriad of creative materials are always available in the classrooms for children to use throughout the day.

Preschool

Preschoolers, our youngest students, are provided with the foundation for a life-long love of learning. Our three-year-olds are provided with a warm and intimate learning environment in which they can feel comfortable expanding the boundaries of their worlds, while also building cooperative and trusting relationships with their peers and adults.

Our three-year-olds are intuitive learners with an inexhaustable supply of curiosity and energy. Our program affords your child opportunities to develop at her or his own individual pace in a multisensory environment. Each day is filled with opportunites for little hands and bodies to explore, investigate and play.

Prekindergarten

In Prekindergarten our four-year-olds continue to grown and learn at their own individual paces while also beginning to take increased responsibilty for their learning by making choices. Four-year-olds in our prekindergarten program also work to develop a greater sense of independence.

Learning in prekindergarten is achieved through play as well as through structured learning activities. Our prekindergartners explore foundational math and literacy concepts through field trips, classroom visitors and dramatic play. Children are also provided opportunities to investigate math and literacy concepts in a center-based classroom.

School for our Preschool and Prekindergartners begins at 8:30 (with a "wandering in" time from 8:00 - 8:30) and ends after lunch at 12:30.

Kindergarten

Kindergarteners carry on the journey with abundant exposure to books - including writing and illustrating their own - numbers to 100 and beyond, weekly exposure to science, and drama, as well as the ongoing stimulation of art, music, and computers.

Our Kindergarten curriculum further enhances the Library & Research class by including specific research in addition to the weekly visits to the library for stories. In Kindergarten, our students get their first introduction to the concept of a foreign language and culture. Topics such as Numbers, the Alphabet, and Greetings are explored in French through games and songs.

Kindergarten is full-day, with a 2:45 dismissal time.