Pre-K News
A Message From Our Director

The journals have arrived and the preKers have their pencils (or crayons or markers) poised. These journals are actually art-books that we use to collect the children’s work. We keep these at school during the year and children take them home in June.

The children who will be entering kindergarten next September meet daily with a teacher for special “work time”.  We want children to experience working in small groups, sharing materials and helping one another – they learn so much from each other. To begin, we are looking at children’s various skill levels and their interest in letters, numbers, shapes, colors and more. We look at their ability to use pencils, crayons and scissors (in order to learn how to use a pencil to make letters, children need lots of time drawing and using scissors).  We also gauge their ability to follow directions and to stay with tasks for an appropriate amount of time (10-15 minutes).

During this time we also play games, make science discoveries and develop our large motor skills. Some favorite activities include measuring, comparing, using geometric blocks, seeing shapes, counting and making patterns. In the language arts area we have fun dictating stories, acting out stories, describing our drawings, making up poems and working together on group stories. We also help the children articulate their feelings when they talk about emotions or problems. Children practice finding solutions to problems and the teacher takes dictation to keep track of those important ideas, and perhaps refer to them later. 

Our preK program is based on experiential learning and on facilitating the many kinds of learning. It is so important at this age that children learn within a context that is relevant to them, (i.e. we count books, shoes, lunch boxes, not just note numbers).

We know that kindergarten is not what it used to be.  There are more academic expectations and our goal at WITW is to prepare children cognitively, socially, and with their motor skills. We also want to support children’s growth in knowing how to be kind and compassionate with each other and to know how to ask questions or ask for help when they need it.  And did I mention helping children learn how to stand up for themselves and be assertive when necessary. (Phew – we have our work cut out for ourselves!)

As we go down the road of kindergarten readiness let’s not forget to enjoy the stage that the child is in right now. That 4-year-old swagger and cheekiness only comes around once in a lifetime (hopefully).

Any questions, please see Pat. If you have any questions or concerns about your child being ready for the big world of kindergarten next fall, please check with one of the teachers.

 

Wind in the Willows Early Learning Center
info@windinthewillows.org    map    
415-333-7166