At Ashcreek Playschool we wholeheartedly believe in play based education for young children. Our preschool classes are structured so that most of the time children are here they can choose their activities and learn through child led play.
However, we do want to help make sure our students are ready for a successful transition into Kindergarten. We are doing that by working on some of the skills they will need to build on in elementary school and preparing them for the expectations of a more structured environment and more teacher led learning.
We have started a Kindergarten Prep hour for our Kindergarten bound students immediately after the morning preschool class that meets twice a week. The group is small, and this means they are able to get lots of one on one attention from Teacher Erika to work on the skills each child most needs to improve on. This means a student who struggles to use scissors is spending a lot of time working on cutting straight lines, someone may be practicing writing their name legibly and someone else may be working on the first group of sight words taught in the Beaverton School District Curriculum. They are all taking a step towards the longer day and academic focus they will have next year.
This doesn’t mean throwing them into the academics of elementary school a year early, though. Mixed in with this targeted skill building is time for song and dance and play, and building their self control and confidence so they are ready to be capable and independent good citizens at their “big kid schools” next year.
The group currently meets on Tuesday and Thursday. We plan to offer the add-on class again next year, but the days and time will be determined based on our enrollment for 2019. This will be decided with the input of registered families over the summer.
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