Jr. Kindergarten

4-year-old Preschool

The early childhood program at the School of St. Mary nurtures students in Christian love while fostering awareness that they are children of God. Teachers create a happy, caring, and positive environment for each child to explore and manipulate in order to construct a solid academic foundation and positive self-concept. Our curriculum is largely implemented through play. All students attend weekly Mass together. Full-day students have an afternoon rest period.

Through individual exploration, as well as individual and group experiences, the teachers provide a wide variety of learning experiences. They encourage each student to enjoy and actively participate spiritually, emotionally, socially, intellectually, and physically in the program.

Our programs offer a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio. Daily centers, based on a thematic curriculum and the calendar, vary weekly. Common activities may include art projects, sensory tables, pretend play, blocks, counting or math games with manipulatives, and playdough. Both half-day and full-day programs follow routines, and daily schedules that allow for arrival, rug time, specials, gross motor activity, literacy and reading, snack, small group instruction, prayer, and dismissal procedures.

Reciprocal relationships between students and their teachers evolve through the year. Teachers remain in close contact with parents through daily pickup and dropoff, newsletters, emails, phone calls, and parenting resources. Parents form a partnership with the teacher through regular verbal and written communication as well as formal trimester assessments and conferences.

Religion: Teachers model Christian love to children in prayer, demeanor, and interactions. Our textbook, Allelu!, provides weekly leaflets that present Bible stories from both Testaments with activities to engage and enrich class and family faith discussions.	Social-Emotional Learning: Children learn to identify their own and others’ feelings, understand the complexity of emotions, take others’ perspectives, and realize ways to demonstrate empathy. They are explicitly taught how to recognize when they have strong feelings and learn strategies for calming themselves. Lessons specifically address regulating emotions and using words while providing a three-step problem-solving process.
Language Arts: Participating in large and small group activities such as daily calendar, weather, day counting, songs, poetry, stories, and dramatizations promote the development of receptive and expressive language and literacy. Children formally learn the alphabet and their corresponding sounds through the Sunform Alphabet and Phonics System and, when ready, learn letter formation via the Sunform motor plan. Teachers utilize the Happily Ever After curriculum to develop reading readiness. Based on familiar children’s stories, the lessons build a foundation for reading comprehension, character development, plot, sequencing, etc., without actual printed words. Teachers use the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Program to help teach rhyming and onset fluency, and to introduce basic skills of blending and segmenting sounds.	Mathematics: Teachers introduce numerals, shapes, one-to-one correspondence, matching, sorting, classifying, sequencing, patterning, estimating, measuring, graphing, as well as the concepts of more or less with the aid of manipulatives and through interactive games and activities. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills develop through mathematical explorations.
Science: Children explore, experiment, and integrate knowledge through theme-based units and application of Scholastic’s Clifford Magazine science articles.	Social Studies: Teachers emphasize awareness of family structure and relationships, local geographic community, and holidays in theme-based units.
Gross Motor Activities: Children enhance their gross motor skills with outdoor play and indoor activities in our gymnasium.	Specials:Half-day students experience art and gross motor activities as part of an integrated experience in their classroom. Students have specials with other teachers at the PGC once to twice a week. Art:Children experience a variety of media and explore new ways to use materials. A key objective of art is to enhance fine motor skills and tap into the child’s creativity. Music:Students explore movements, rhythms, and instruments. SpanishThe teacher employs an immersion approach to exposing young children to Spanish.

Technology:In our current digital world, preschool classrooms must emphasize the importance of human interaction. While children of this age are drawn to push buttons and controls, which often mimic the action of their parents, it is essential they learn how to interact with their peers and teachers positively. They also need to build fine motor skills through manipulating art, building, and counting tools. Therefore, the School of St. Mary does not include technology instruction in preschool.

Session Information

The School of St. Mary starts the academic year on August 24, 2023, and closes on June 4, 2024. However, preschool begins with a “soft open” and concludes with a social event at the end of May. Students must be 4 years old by September 1. We offer the following Jr. Kindergarten options:

5 Mornings: Monday-Friday; 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Lunch Bunch* 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
5 Full Days: Monday-Friday; 8:30 a.m. - 3:10 p.m.
*Optional for students currently enrolled in mornings only.

Extended Day is available before school for morning students and before and after school for full-day students.