Beachwood Preschool
Half-Day Preschool for 3-year olds
 |
This Half-Day Beachwood Preschool program emphasizes a three-year old's social, emotional and cognitive growth. AGES: Child must turn 3 by Sept. 30 and have achieved "potty mastery." Program Options:
 Exploration Three-year olds actively explore their environment using all of their senses.
|
Math, science and literacy are integrated throughout the school day in both teacher-directed activities and children’s self-selected work.- Classroom learning centers promote and encourage positive peer interaction along with specific skill acquisition.
Block Corner
- Block building stimulates a child’s imagination and creativity.
- By creating a tangible product, children acquire a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of being in control.
Dramatic Play
- The dramatic play area encourages children to structure their activities and invent ways to recreate their understanding of the world.
- It provides children with a safe place to express and work through their feelings and experiences.
Writing Center
- Writing Centers are equipped with both upper and lower case letters so children can see, touch, trace and reproduce them.
Children work with crayons, markers, pencils and chalk. During this year scribbles begin to look more like letters and can get strung together to form words.- Children receive a journal that remains at school throughout the year. Digital pictures are used to help children recall and retell school experiences. Teachers record children’s thoughts and children often add drawings to their dictated stories.
Library Corner
- The classroom library is a warm, inviting place that contains soft furniture for relaxation.
- Three-year olds understand that the print in a book tells the reader what to say. Children are encouraged to look at books independently and to treat them with care and respect.
- Library areas are furnished with an assortment of literature, including both fiction and non-fiction. Books support and extend the classroom curriculum
- The sand table, sensory table and open-ended art experiences afford children an opportunity to use their senses while experimenting and working with a range of different mediums.
Three-year olds aren’t just working to become better students; they are working to become better people.
- Jewish values of friendship, kindness to others and respect for self, others and the environment are integrated into daily classroom practices as well as Jewish and secular holiday celebrations.
- Children are exposed to Jewish values, ritual objects and enduring Jewish ideas. They explore the different Jewish holidays throughout the school year.
- Children and families of all faiths are welcomed and honored members of our school family.
| Celebration Three-year olds learn to celebrate self, others and the entire school community.
|
Three-year olds are beginning to form friendships with other children. They are learning to understand their own feelings as well as the feelings of others. With adult support, three-year olds can solve problems and regulate their emotions.
- The classroom dynamics promote and encourage positive peer interaction.
- Children practice taking turns and learn to solve problems.
- Children are coached to express their emotions appropriately and develop a shared vocabulary to describe different feelings.
- Children participate in a daily “group meeting.” The entire class joins together, gathers information and exchanges ideas.
Three-year olds are able to run, climb, and perform other large muscle activities with increased ability. They improve whole body coordination through structured and unstructured gross motor play.Physical Development
- Children participate in a Red Cross instructional swim program once a week for six consecutive weeks.
- Children have instructional P.E. in our full-sized gymnasium.
- Children participate in YogaKids, a yoga program specifically designed for children.
Improved finger dexterity enables three-year olds to put puzzles together, hold crayons with fingers instead of fists, make balls and snakes out of clay and undress without assistance.
- Children have ongoing opportunities to paint and create with different open-ended art materials.
- Children practice using scissors, working with assorted writing materials and exploring a wide range of manipulative materials.
Classroom structures and rituals support three-year olds as they learn to master their day at school.
Personal arrival and departure greeting – Children select a specific greeting to begin and end their day. During the greeting teachers make direct eye contact with each child to affirm his/her entrance to and from school each day.
| Safe Keepers Box – Teachers initiate a “safe keepers” ritual, which reminds children that the teacher’s job is to keep all children safe while at school and that the child’s job is to help the teacher do that! “ I am the safe keeper. That is me. My job is safety. You will see. You have a job that’s important too. Be safe with your friends. They’ll be safe with you.” Daily Schedule – Each day teachers create a pictorial school schedule. This helps prepare children for the different school activities and the daily classroom routine. |
Job Chart – Each day children have a specific school job; this teaches responsibility and affirms each child’s contribution to the classroom community. Quiet Place – Children can choose the “quiet space” when they need time away from the larger group. This cozy, inviting classroom space is furnished with books, photos and assorted props that help children relax and self-regulate so they can manage their emotions and behavior appropriately. |
Back to the Preschool & Day Care home page
Mandel JCC 26001 South Woodland Rd. Beachwood, OH 44122 phone: 216.831.0700 email: info@mandeljcc.org
Copyright © 2009. Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland.
