Preschool - Three Year Olds

Preschool One

(Approximately 33 months to 3 1/2 years)

Environment

The Preschool 1 classroom offers a loft, an indoor sandbox, and an impressive science center that features wonderful rotating nature items for the children to touch and explore. This classroom is home to fish and a gecko named Ginger. Our full-sized gymnasium allows for large motor opportunities such as bike riding and parachute play. Our Outdoor Classroom provides opportunities to plant seeds and tend plants in our gardens, to investigate a variety of plants and insects, to experiment with many musical instruments, and to enjoy a plethora of nature items such as pine needles, hay bales, acorns, pine cones, tree branches, giant stumps, logs, and a large climbing structure. Our outdoor playhouse, texture tables, and art easel also enhance this stimulating environment.

Focusing on the Little Things

A creative curriculum is one in which students learn through creative and active teaching strategies. Creative curriculum focuses on big ideas, interesting experiences, and individual childrens’ needs. Though each child’s primary teacher conducts observations and assessments to determine that child’s learning trajectory, an area of focus for most our three year olds is the development of their fine motor skills. Children are given a variety of materials with which they can pinch, pull, push, flatten, align and thread. Practice with writing utensil grasp and control, leads to enabling children to express their ideas through writing and drawing.

Low Adult-to-Child Ratios

The Preschool 1 Program offers an exceptionally low ratio of adults to children not commonly found in other programs. While the National Association for the Education of Young Children suggests a ratio of 1 adult for every 8 three year olds, our program provides 1 adult for every 6 children. This feature makes Peoples Church Preschool an excellent choice for children that may be attending preschool for the first time. Another quality aspect of this classroom is that there is no toilet training requirement placed upon children before entering. We believe children will toilet train when they are individually and developmentally ready.  Working in conjunction with family members to ensure consistency between home and school, toilet training will be accomplished in Preschool 1 as needed.