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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 early childhood students also have weekly P.E. classes where they participate in cooperative games and movement activities to develop their small and large motor skills. The 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.
This program provides an opportunity for three year olds to socialize, play, sing and learn in a small group. Our preschool teachers have an excellent understanding of the unique needs of a young child’s development and provide expert guidance as they take their first steps into school. During this half-day program, the children learn about colors, shapes and numbers and also about sharing and taking care of their materials. They listen to stories, do projects and play outside each day. Highlights of the year include learning about ocean animals, dinosaurs and creating an airplane while learning about the continents and world around us. Our three-year-olds are intuitive learners with an inexhaustable supply of curiosity and energy. Each day is filled with opportunites for little hands and bodies to explore, investigate and play, so that students can develop at their own pace.
Prekindergarten
Our Prekindergarten program takes advantage of the innate curiosity of four-year-olds while aiming to set them off on an experience of life-long learning and allowing them to continue to grow and learn at their own pace. Learning is achieved through play as well as through structured learning activities. Our pre-kindergartners explore foundational math and literacy concepts through field trips, classroom visitors and dramatic play. Children are also provided with opportunities to investigate math and literacy concepts in a center-based classroom.
These learning centers include blocks, writing, crafts, letter games, books, housekeeping and puzzles. Working individually and in groups, they gain experience, develop skills, and learn independence as well as responsibility. The prekindergarten children also enjoy a variety of thematic studies including insects, health and nutrition, the five senses, and community helpers. Each day, the children have a class meeting, story time, project opportunities, and outdoor time before going home at 12:45.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is an exciting year of change for our students. One of the big transitions is the change to a full day program. The children are at school from 8:00 until 2:45. Our program is planned to meet the social, emotional, academic and developmental needs of a five year-old, so we keep a strong balance between structured work times and relaxed play and choice times. Reading instruction begins in kindergarten, and the children are given the opportunity to read and write each day. They also have daily math and thematic lessons.
Two of the highlights of the kindergarten year are the 100th Day of School and Alphabet Day. We celebrate these occasions with games, activities and a special snack, as they provide great opportunities to mark important milestones in a kindergartener’s learning. In addition to numbers and letters, we spend a great deal of time helping children learn how to be a student and to develop their understanding of their job in school. We learn about respecting others’ ideas, independent problem solving, cooperative learning and many other skills which factor into a child’s success in school. Kindergartners 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. |
Student Life 
