Our preschool classrooms encourage young learners to explore the environment and work with interesting materials. Classrooms are spacious with learning centers for activities such as art, dramatic play, math and science, block building, manipulative toys, reading, and computer technology. Each day includes teacher-guided class activities as well as opportunities for children to learn and play independently.
In the preschool program, your child will begin to develop organization, self-control, and self-awareness, as well as build pre-reading and pre-writing skills. Preschoolers also learn about being a friends and getting along with other children and adults. During daily outdoor play, children have fun and build strength as they climb, run, balance, throw, pedal, and jump.
In our preschool 3-year-old classroom, children advance their journey toward increased independence and critical thinking. They develop a strong sense of belonging and ownership through numerous group experiences, taking an active role in their learning by setting and adhering to community practices, holding daily morning meetings, and engaging in both small and large group collaborative activities.
Our Preschool 3-year-old students share their thoughts and ideas with peers and teachers, consider different perspectives, and actively contribute to shaping our classroom community. Through hands-on activities in literacy, math, art, music, social studies, and science, they explore their environment and connect with the world around them.
Pre-Kindergarten: The Lewis Chatman Academy PreK 4 curriculum fosters curiosity, creativity, independence, and cooperation to support early learning and development. By using a multisensory approach, the curriculum enhances a child’s active engagement in learning through differentiated instruction tailored to each child’s needs. This includes developing leadership skills, self-motivation, expressive and receptive language, and positive self-esteem, ensuring successful and nurturing learning experiences every day. An integrated learning approach offers numerous opportunities for math, literacy, and writing throughout each thematic unit.
The Lewis Chatman Academy Experience Kindergarten year is defined by increased independence, academic stamina, and community building across our classroom. Getting our Pre-kindergarteners ready for Kindergarten. The children are curious learners, eager to observe and question the world around them. They are empathetic friends and collaborators who ask meaningful, relevant questions and actively participate in group activities and discussions.
Our Prek/Kindergarten curriculum is focused on building proficiency in literacy, mathematics, and world languages while incorporating interdisciplinary learning across the arts, social students, and science. Children are prepared for elementary school by learning exceptional skills that promote academic fulfillment and a love of learning. Our school has a low ratio 2 teachers to 15 children.
Phonics: Throughout the year, students engage in a multisensory approach to review the alphabet and learn each letter’s corresponding sound. Phonemic awareness is strengthened through blending phonemes, rhyming word families, and decoding words. To support their development in reading and writing, students are exposed to foundational spelling patterns and high-frequency sight words. Corresponding with the introduction of each letter, students are taught motor plans for writing lowercase letters.
Reading: Students build strong foundational reading skills by reading books at their individual reading level and implementing reading strategies such as using picture cues, matching words to the printed text, and sounding out words. These skills are reinforced in small differentiated groups during guided reading workshops. To develop reading comprehension skills, children are encouraged to make predictions, explain personal connections, and discuss stories with their peers.
Writing: Children practice several writing strategies as they build their understanding of letters and sounds. They are given many opportunities to express their thoughts and ideas through drawing, dictation, and labeling. Students learn to brainstorm, organize their ideas, edit their work, and collaborate with their peers as they celebrate the writing process. Students build independence by using environmental tools such as the Word Wall, anchor charts, and mentor texts. Throughout the year, students confer individually with teachers to review their writing and reflect on their personal goals. Writing units include small moments, pattern books, all-about books, how-to books, opinion-writing pieces, and an ongoing narrative: weekend news.
Mathematics: In Mathematics, students develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills by working with manipulatives, such as pattern blocks, counting bears, colored tiles, and unifix cubes. These tools are used to strengthen their number sense and understanding of numerical relationships, as well as to identify, create, and extend patterns. Students work to build their number awareness by counting objects, recognizing numbers, building combinations of one- and two-digit numbers, creating and solving basic equations, and using number stories. Students also work to develop their skills of measurement, graphing, sorting, composing and decomposing number combinations, and time through a variety of engaging activities.
Social Studies: Our year begins with a study of self and expands to include our responsibilities as members of a classroom community. Students create self-portraits and discover many ways in which they are similar and different from their peers. Then, students engage in a family study where they focus on the differences within the family structure, highlighting immediate and extended family members. Our studies continue as we learn and discuss communities and how they grow and change. We begin with conversations about the components of a classroom and then expand our focus to discuss our school community and the neighborhood.
Science: In Science, students explore changes in the world around them. The integrated curriculum focuses on paleontology, weather, rocks and minerals, life science, and the human body. Throughout the year, students learn how to make observations by using their senses and creating inferences based on the observations they make. In the fall, students explore the differences between living and non-living things and investigate the variations that exist among individual plants or animals. Then, during the winter and spring months, students use scientific tools to observe changes to evaluate weather patterns.
