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Preschool
For children, preschool is a happy place for exploring and
finding out new things every day. For parents, a preschool should be a place
that focuses on learning yet never forgets the importance of fun. A great
preschool encourages development but never pushes your child to grow up too
fast. St. Mary's Preschool is just such a place.
The goal of St. Mary's Preschool is to provide opportunities for children to
grow intellectually, socially, emotionally, physically and spiritually in a
warm, loving, Christian environment. We want our children to build a
positive self-image; explore their natural sense of wonder; discover their
creative spirit; learn problem-solving skills; develop self-control and
consideration of others; increase coordination, balance, and body image; and
know that learning is fun!
Our Preschool believes that children learn through play. Children construct
their knowledge by touching, tasting, smelling, watching, listening,
thinking and doing. Areas of play include blocks and building toys, dramatic
play, art, music, books, manipulative materials and outdoor play. The
development of social skills such as sharing, cooperation and participation
will strengthen as social learning takes place and each child becomes a
valued member of our classroom community.
In our Preschool program, language skills will encompass speaking,
listening, pre-reading and pre- writing skills. Language becomes a tool for
children to express feelings, thoughts, fears and wants. Children will have
many opportunities to find joy in children's literature, create their own
stories and books, and acquire a love and enjoyment of words and word
patterns.
Mathematics will be comprised of free exploration of math materials,
patterning, sorting, classifying, counting, and numeral recognition,
sequencing and comparing and measuring. Fostering skills in these areas will
lay the foundation for future mathematic learning.
Science is comprised of observing, describing and discovering. We will help
them do these things by teaching them how to record, collect data and work
together. Our children will observe, experiment, make predictions, ask
questions, share, estimate, use their 5 senses, investigate, construct,
apply and draw conclusions.
Young children need positive discipline in order to develop respect for
themselves and others. Children need teachers to be good models. This means
we use manners to teach manners, and practice self-control to teach
self-control. We focus on positive attitudes and behaviors in children, and
use verbal encouragement that builds internal motivation and self-esteem. We
correct misbehaviors by redirecting children and minimize the opportunity
for misbehavior by keeping children engaged in learning activities that are
structured yet involve children's interest and imagination.
At St. Mary's we value the process of art and not the product. We encourage
children to do art for the experience, the exploration, and the
experimentation. In the "process" of doing art, they discover creativity,
mystery, joy, and frustration, which are all important pieces in the puzzle
of learning. This is where the children begin to feel good about art, to
discover their unique capabilities and the joy of creating. Creative
expression will develop as children learn to see value in their own, as well
as their classmates, artistic creations, stories and dramatic play.
Throughout our curriculum Christian values will be emphasized as we help our
children begin to appreciate the wonderful world God has created for us.
Thank you for your interest in the St. Mary Star of the Sea Pre-School
program. If you have any questions please call Candy Grein at (978) 927-
0291.
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