All About the 4’s

Our day begins with each child being welcomed into the classroom and greeted individually with a smile by Mrs. Humphreys, the classroom teacher. The children then have free play where they can explore all areas of the classroom through dramatic play, playing with blocks, reading in the book area, experimenting at the sensory table, and honing tabletop fine motor skills with play-dough.  This time is child directed, but allows students to develop socialization skills, cooperation skills, develop friendships, imagination skills and so many more developmentally-appropriate learning skills.  

At circle time, the class greets each other, sings songs, talks about the calendar and the weather – and the VIP (Very Important Preschooler) of the week shares with the class. This also a time where we celebrate birthdays (each child gets to bring home a birthday bag filled with family fun activities). The birthday boy or girl will return the bag to class on the school day following their birthday to share with their classmates.

Our core learning time is done daily in small groups. The groups consist of a Language Arts Center, where children will practice name recognition, beginning writing skills (such as name writing) and beginning letter and sound skills, all at developmentally appropriate four-year-old and individual levels. There is also a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, architecture, and math) center. In this center children are working on number recognition, building structures, investigating using microscopes and magnifying glasses, and many more fun learning activities. Our last center is Art.  While the art project is teacher-directed, each child has the opportunity to create their version of the project using various materials. No one project will look the same, but they will all be equally creative and beautiful!

Snack time is a wonderful opportunity to practice conversational skills and manners as well as self-help skills.

The last part of our day consists of large motor practice, either on the playground or in our full-size gym where we use scooters, bikes, set up obstacle courses or play a whole-group game.