Program Details

Our Pre-Kindergarten Program has two important components. The first is Scholastic's Building Language for Literacy curriculum, which is used during Song and Poem Time and Story Time. This curriculum focuses on the four types of language development, which are critical steps in your child's journey to literacy and reading readiness:

• Oral Language
• Phonological Awareness
• Letter Knowledge
• Print Knowledge

The second component of the Pre-K curriculum was authored by the La Petite Academy Education Department and introduced in the Fall of 2005. This component focuses on writing, math, science and social development.

The combination of these two curricula ensures that your child will cover all the necessary readiness standards to successfully and confidently enter kindergarten in the fall.

22 Themes throughout the Year

The year-round Pre-K curriculum utilizes 22 different two- to three-week units. Each unit has its own theme. Throughout each unit, our goal is to make the theme come alive for your child, so that he is always completely engaged in his day. Our more unique themes include:

• Health and Fitness - children learn the importance of staying healthy
• Traditions and Celebrations - takes place during the winter holidays to teach children to appreciate diversity and other cultures
• Making a Difference - a week-long Kids of Character curriculum, which culminates in the children writing a letter of thanks or appreciation to whatever volunteer organization they choose
• Young Author's Workshop - children write and illustrate their own book

Each theme has over 200 learning activities tied to specific Learning Objectives. Pre-K teachers choose activities based on which Learning Objectives are best suited to meet your child's needs.

Assessments and Lesson Planning

The Learning Objectives are introduced and repeated throughout the curriculum. Teachers track your child's developmental progress toward the objectives in two ways:

• They perform ongoing assessments by observing your child within the Learning Centers and other daily activities while taking notes on his progress on a day-to-day basis. These assessments are not the traditional "tests" or one-on-one assessments that an elementary school child might experience. We believe it is more accurate and feasible to observe Pre-K children's behavior and skills within a typical daily activity and context.
• They regularly monitor each child's journal entries, along with the work stored in his portfolio during the entire school year.

Teachers use the assessment results to build their weekly lesson plans, which help them keep track of the activities that they have chosen to do with the children, as well as the materials and literature that they need.

Important Features

Raising a Reader

The Academy's Pre-K Program has a strong focus on emergent literacy, and the curriculum is paired with over 200 age-appropriate books throughout the year. Each book has been hand-selected based on the illustrations, the vocabulary that is introduced, its focus on the current theme and its unique ability to engage the children. In addition, our literature selections emphasize diversity among ethnicities, geographies, cultures and holidays.

Children love the fun characters used in the Scholastic Building Language for Literacy curriculum. They know that Reggie the Rhino helps them learn to rhyme, Nina the Newt teaches vocabulary, and Leo the Letter-Loving Lobster helps them recognize letters and the sounds they make.

Sight Words

Sight Words - such as it, a, the, she, he - are the most frequently used words in the English language. In each unit, teachers introduce two to three new Sight Words, so by the end of the year, your child will have reviewed nearly 50 words. Recognizing the Sight Words will help your Pre-Kindergarten child's confidence as he learns to read in kindergarten. In almost every sentence he reads, he'll find words he already knows. Sight Words also make up many other words, so recognizing them will help him read larger words.

Journals

Your child can draw or write in his personal journal within the Writing Center. Through journaling, your child is working on important learning objectives, such as printing the letters of his name, drawing pictures with five to six varying details, suggesting ideas for creative interpretation, and dictating writing to express thoughts.

Each day, the teacher introduces a new journaling topic, such as "What is your book title?" The children can choose to journal about the topic or whatever is on their minds. By the time children reach Pre-Kindergarten, they journal on topics more frequently than they did in Preschool. Throughout the year, you'll notice that in addition to drawing, your child is beginning to show important pre-writing skills, like writing his first and last name, and adding letters and words into his journal entries. Many of our Pre-K children are anxious to practice writing what their teacher wrote - you'll notice your child trying to mimic the teacher's writing on subsequent journal entries.

The teachers label and date the journal entries based on what your child said about his drawing - this way both the teacher and you know what your child's intentions were, and your child begins to learn how to communicate through print.

You are welcome to look through your child's journal every day, and your teacher will spend time going through your child's journal with you during our semi-annual parent-teacher conferences. At the end of the year, we hope you'll take your child's completed journals home as a keepsake of his Pre-K school year.

Portfolios

During each theme unit, several items that your child worked on are labeled, dated and stored in his portfolio. This way your child's teacher can monitor his progress and share this with you during parent-teacher conferences. At the end of the year, you can also take the portfolio home as another keepsake.

Kids of Character

An important and unique feature of our curriculum is our Kids of Character component. La Petite Academy's Kids of Character curriculum was first introduced in 2001 in response to the aftermath of September 11th, and has helped children of all ages learn about important topics such as tolerance, perseverance, honesty, teamwork and self-discipline. Each month a different trait is featured, and the children learn and discuss the trait through various art and group activities.