Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten
- Tuesday and Thursday (Mornings)
- Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (Mornings)
- PreKindergarten (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
- PreKindergarten (Monday through Friday)
We are accredited through North Central AdvancEd. We are also able to provide you with quality accredited child care if the need should arise. You will quickly discover that we are truly a preschool through eighth grade school.
Our curriculum is guided by the Missouri State Standards for Early Childhood and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph through developmentally appropriate practice.
One of the important criteria we need to keep in compliance with at all times is our student/teacher ratio. To accomplish this, each preschool teacher has a teacher’s assistant (teacher aide). This assures all families that your preschool child will be with an adult at all times. The teacher aides accompany the children to all their special classes and activities in the school building that are outside of the classroom.
As a developmental preschool, your child will be given the opportunity to develop at their own individual rate. All progress is assessed through observation, task work, group work, and one on one. The following are areas we focus on for the children’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical development and faith formation:
- Interaction & Cooperation - the preschool experience for many young children is their first adventure away from home. We strive to help the children develop their social skills in order to form positive peer and adult relationships. We hope to accomplish this through sharing, taking turns, following directions, rules, and the school routine. We also focus on group participation and caring for classroom materials.
- Discovering & Exploring - With the rooms set up in learning centers, the children can independently choose where they spend their center time. This helps foster independence, self-confidence, and initiative. Learning centers also foster their curiosity thereby leading to questions and hands on opportunities to find solutions and/or answers.
- Physical - P.E. class, along with recess provides the children the opportunity to develop their coordination and small and large motor skills.
- Self-Expression - Music class, as well as the home-living, art, blocks, and play dough learning centers provide the opportunities for the children to express themselves through creating, movement, and role playing.
- Communicating - Developing language skills, pronunciation, vocabulary expansion through the use of open-ended questions and class discussions, expressing feelings, opinions is the goal of working on using our words and not our hands in situations. We discuss emotions, how they are feeling, and we adjust to the needs of the individual child. In the older preschool classrooms we expand that to written language through our reading program as well as copying from the whiteboard, word building, beginning letter sounds, and primary sight words.
- Independence/Responsibility – We will build on these skills as the children progress throughout the year. These skills include library books back on time/folder and school bag with them every school day, tennis shoes on P.E. day, helping to clean up after snack and center time, and remembering share bag.
Center Time:
Preschool classrooms are set up with Learning Centers. You will hear many times your child saying “Center Time.” This is where your child independently makes the decisions of where to play and explore. There are a variety of activities offered in each and every center in the classroom. We strive to provide the children with 30 minutes of uninterrupted center time; however, there will be some days when this is not possible due to their having their special classes.
Special Classes Each Week:
- PE Class
- Music Class
- Library Class
Your child’s communication folder will inform you as to what days your child will have special classes. On PE days, your child needs to wear their tennis shoes in order to participate in class.
Community Involvement:
During the course of the school year, we involve the children in a variety of projects that benefit the community. Our food pantry is always in need of supplies and we include preschool students in all school food drives.
The classrooms participate in creating holiday craft decorations for local nursing homes, retirement homes, and hospitals.
The children participate in the schools annual toy drive to benefit those less fortunate. The toys are taken to the Bishop Sullivan center and distributed to families in need.
During the seasons of Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter the children create little “Goodie Baskets”. We deliver these to the school food pantry who in turn distribute to families in need with children.
Emergent Reading Program:
Our Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Pre-Kindergarten students will participate in the “Happily Ever After” reading program developed specifically for the preschool child. This program encompasses all disciplines in the classroom (language, math, science, social studies) plus building on cognitive and comprehension skills. The preschool teachers meet weekly to discuss and plan the activities surrounding this reading program. This is a prelude to the Super Kids Reading Program that begins in Kindergarten class.
Religion:
As Catholic educators, everything we do is faith based. We have our religion time just as the older children do. By the end of the school year, your child will make the sign of the cross, know the rosary prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be) as well as others (Snack Prayer, Guardian Angel, Dismissal prayers).
CHILD MEDICAL EXAM REPORT FORM