Fours: Energetic Explorers

We feel that the year prior to Kindergarten is very important both academically and socially/emotionally. During their year with us, our staff exposes the children to many of the skills they will need to succeed in Kindergarten. Our teachers find creative ways to integrate those skills into their curriculum while upholding our philosophy of learning through play.  

Our thematic curriculum uses learning centers to provide those skills to the children. Each week the class focuses on a particular letter, color, shape and science topic.  

During a child’s fourth year, they will be able to:  

Gross Motor: walks heel to toe, exhibits increased endurance, stands on one foot, skips, begins to coordinate movements 

Fine Motor: draws a person with at least 4 body parts, completes a puzzle with 15-20 pieces, build three-dimensional structures, has pencil grip, is able to write first and last name 

Social/Emotional: takes turns without getting upset, engages with friends, treats peers and adults appropriately, puts away materials from play before moving on, is willing and able to share without getting upset 

In addition to fostering those developmental domains, we begin to teach basic sight words, and phonic skills. Cognitively, children will be able to recognize upper and lower case letters, numbers 1-15, can identify 5 different shapes, recognizes own name, rote count 1-15, is able to match number sets 1-10, sorts by color, shape and size

Our ratio is 2 caregivers to 24 children.