Discovery Days for almost-3′s
Pre-K 3
Pre-K 4
In Pre-K at Parker, children feel honored and respected, enabling them to show respect and kindness to others. We nurture the natural creativity, playfulness, and joy in discovery that is present in every almost-three, three, and four-year-old. We support the children in their development as individuals whose skills and talents emerge at their own pace. And, most important of all, we laugh and have fun.
Our new program, Discovery Days for almost-3′s, gives our youngest students the benefits of exploring, investigating and socializing within a structured setting. They gain positive feelings about school while establishing a sense of independence.
Inside Pre-K:
- Learning through play, discovery, and time spent in nature
- Skill development and social development are closely intertwined
- An integrated approach to learning
- The school day
- Lunch and snacks
- Daily schedule
- Curriculum Links
Learning through play, discovery, and time spent in nature
Play is the important and joyful work of children. It’s the way they develop the power to think, reason, experiment and create. It’s how they learn about the give and take of being members of a community. Their executive functioning skills, those connected to self-control and organization, are developed through sustained, themed play. At Parker, we build in time for this crucial element of child development both indoors and throughout our 77-acre outdoor classroom.
In our large, sunny Pre-K classrooms are many types of blocks, building materials, tools, vehicles, dolls, a kitchen, a science table, a puppet stage, a dress-up corner, books, art, math, and writing materials. Themed-play areas are set up to support our learning units: a doctor’s office, a restaurant, a supermarket, or a spaceship, for example. Field trips reinforce themes from school.
Outdoors we have a specially designed play structure – just for preschoolers. We use our fields, stream and paths to enhance learning opportunities in science and physical development – walking, running, exploring, observing, and collecting. We go outside at least twice each day in sun or snow. On rainy days we spend time in the gym.
Fridays afternoons in Pre K are “Muddy Boots Club” days. Read about our outdoor program, the cutting edge of a worldwide trend in education, in Pre K at Planet Parker.
Skill development and social development are closely intertwined
Learning has a social purpose. We empower children to know themselves and communicate themselves to others. Two, three and four-year-olds learn this through modeling from teachers and practice with peers in daily interactions. Children also do this through writing, journals, reading their stories aloud, and at Morning Meetings with a message and greeting.
At Parker, innovative thinking reaps inherent rewards. When one child invents a block structure or uses materials in a new way, and others gather around to find out how it works, to exclaim and to question, there is growth on all sides.
We foster cooperation, negotiation, and expressing feelings. These go hand-in-hand with art and cooking projects, building challenges, dramatic play, and math exploration.
Pre-K students have grade 4 and 5 students as buddies. They read, write and do projects together. They enjoy getting to know each other.
Our teachers are brilliant at creating an environment where children find success!
An integrated approach to learning
Skills in mathematical thinking, reading, writing, listening, speaking, and artistic expression are developed through themes. Stories, songs, discussion, invention, fine and gross motor practice, cooking, measuring, observing, recording…all these grow out of themes that relate to the lives of two, three and four-year-olds. Samples of our themes include:
- Gifts from the Earth
- The Doctor’s Office
- Seasonal Changes
- Our School Habitat: meadow,
woods, and creek - Grocery Store
- Pizza Restaurant
- The Post Office
- Day Sky/Night Sky
- The Planets and Space Exploration
- Wind Week
- Birds
- Fish
- Growing and Gardening
The school day
We carefully construct a daily structure and comfortable routine that enables children to feel safe so that their learning and creativity can thrive.
Full Day: 8:45 AM – 3:30 PM
Mornings: 8:45 AM – 12:15 PM (includes lunchtime)
Discovery Days for almost-3′s: 9:15 AM – 12:10 PM (includes lunchtime)
Before Care and After Care are available: 7:30 – 8:45 AM and 3:30 – 5:45 PM daily.
Lunch and snacks
Lunch: Children bring their lunch. We eat and socialize around the tables in our classrooms in a relaxed and companionable way.
Snacks: Fresh fruit and vegetables are prepared for our daily snack. Students help make healthy snacks. A whole grains mix is prepared for the After Club snack .
Daily schedule
The daily schedule follows a predictable pattern with Buddy Time, Music, Physical Education, Library, and Spanish interspersed through the week. On Fridays, Pre-K joins the All-school Assembly.
Here is a sample day:
| 8:45 – 10:00 | Imaginative play and theme activities |
| 10 – 10:15 | Morning Meeting Circle |
| 10:15 – 10:40 | Snacks and books |
| 10:40 – 11:10 | Cooking, science, or weekly music and Spanish |
| 11:10 – 11:30 | Outdoor play |
| 11:30 – 11:45 | Stories |
| 11:45 – 12:30 | Lunch and quiet time |
| 12:30 – 1:00 | Quiet books and stories |
| 1:00 – 2:00 | Outdoor play |
| 2:00 – 3:00 | Indoor imagination and discovery activities |
| 3:00 – 3:10 | Snack |
| 3:10 – 3:30 | Stories and songs |
