Part-time Preschool Programs

Path 1 – March to September Birthdays

Young Scramblers Program
Our Scramblers program is designed to be an introduction to school and the routine of the classroom.  Our emphasis is on language, music, song, finger plays, and art.  Our children are given time to investigate their new and expanding worlds through hands-on explorations.  Making friends and learning to be a friend is a very important part of this program. The main focus is on building your child’s confidence and sense of independence through adherence to a classroom routine and the attention of  affectionate, supportive teachers.   We have found that our children soon are happily separating from their parents for these fun-filled mornings.  The learning and fun do not stop at the classroom door. It spills out onto our playgrounds as our children enjoy the trike paths, playhouse, sandbox, and slide.   Many happy hours are spent in this program sharing with friends and singing, dancing, and acting out traditional childhood stories.

Threes Program
Our Threes program is designed to be an introduction to school and the routine of the classroom.  This program also marks the beginning of our daily Spanish lessons and the implementation of Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence (Level 1).   Our emphasis is on language, music, song, finger plays, and art.  Our children are given time to investigate their new and expanding worlds through hands-on explorations.  Making friends and learning to be a friend is a very important part of this program.  Much time is spent on building your child’s confidence and sense of independence through adherence to a classroom routine and the attention of  affectionate, supportive teachers.   We have found that our children soon are happily separating from their parents for these fun-filled mornings.   The learning and fun does not stop at the classroom door for it spills out onto our playgrounds, as our children enjoy the trike paths, playhouse, sandbox, and slide.  Many happy hours are spent in this program sharing with new friends and being exposed to a world of wonder as our children are experiencing their first days of school.  This curriculum is designed to be interactive and exploratory igniting a child’s natural curiosity.

Fours Program
Our Fours program builds on the social, physical, and academic skills introduced in the Threes’ classes. Experiential learning continues by employing the same Golden Pond philosophy of interactive and exploratory learning as we follow the Core Knowledge Sequence Level 2.  Basic skills in literacy and math are incorporated into the monthly themes.  In this class the written word continues to be highlighted, through songs, poems, nursery rhymes, stories, and class books.  As the year progresses, children are introduced to and encouraged to use inventive spelling. Our children continue to manipulate print, as they sign-in daily, label art projects, create graphs, and add to class messages.  Mathematics too is intertwined into the theme content.  The children continue to practice one-to-one correspondence, rote count backwards and forwards to 10, sort using two attributes, and continue patterning (up to an abc), class graphs are also introduced at this level.  This program also continues daily Spanish lessons.  As with all Golden Pond classrooms, our rooms are set up in a center-based fashion, with each room having work tables, plus a dramatic play area, a block building area, a sensory table (for exploratory science), a library area, a listening center, and an art/writing center. 

Path 2 – October to February Birthdays

Scramblers Program
Our Scramblers program is designed to be an introduction to school and the routine of the classroom.  Our emphasis is on language, music, song, finger plays, and art. Making friends and learning to be a friend is a very important part of this program.  Our first focus is on building your child’s confidence and sense of independence through adherence to a classroom routines. We have found that our children soon are happily separating from their parents for these fun-filled mornings.  We also begin the formal introduction of certain basic Core Knowledge skills such as following two step directions, recalling stories, and very basic patterning and sorting skills. We identify our colors and shapes and incorporate activities that develop name recognition. The learning and fun do not stop at the classroom door. It spills out onto our playgrounds as our children enjoy the trike paths, playhouse, sandbox, and slide.   Many happy hours are spent in this program sharing with friends and singing, dancing, and acting out traditional childhood stories.

Explorers Program
Our Explorers program builds on the social, physical, and academic skills introduced in the Scramblers classes. Experiential learning continues by employing the same Golden Pond philosophy of interactive and exploratory learning as we follow the Core Knowledge Sequence Level 1.  Basic skills in literacy and math are incorporated into the monthly themes.  In this class children are introduced to the written word through songs, poems nursery rhymes, stories, and class books.  Children start to make sense of print by manipulating letters in their names and in teacher-made print.  Mathematics too is intertwined into the theme content.  The children are introduced to one-to-one correspondence, rote counting to 10, sorting, and basic patterning.  Class-made graphs are also introduced.  This program also marks our beginning of daily Spanish lessons.  As with all Golden Pond classrooms, our Explorers rooms are set up in a center-based fashion with each room having work tables, plus a dramatic play area, a block building area, a sensory table (for exploratory science), a library area, a listening center, and an art/writing center. 

Junior Kindergarten
Our Junior Kindergarten program builds on the social, physical, and academic skills introduced in the Explorers classes. Experiential learning continues by employing the same Golden Pond philosophy of interactive and exploratory learning as we follow the Core Knowledge Sequence Level 2.  Basic skills in literacy and math are incorporated into the monthly themes.  In this class the written word continues to be highlighted, through songs, poems, nursery rhymes, stories, and class books.  This year marks the introduction of journaling, and as the year progresses, the journaling changes from child-dictated sentences to child-written sentences.  Our JK children are also introduced to and encouraged to use inventive spelling. Our children continue to manipulate other print as they sign-in daily, label art projects, create graphs, and add to class messages.  Mathematics too is intertwined into the theme content.  The children continue to practice one-to-one correspondence, rote count backwards and forwards to 20, sort using two attributes, and continue patterning (up to an abc), and create class-made graphs.  Children are introduced to simple addition and the concepts of greater than and less than.  This program also continues our daily Spanish lessons.  As with all Golden Pond classrooms, our Junior Kindergarten rooms are set up in a center-based fashion, with each room having work tables, plus a dramatic play area, a block building area, a sensory table (for exploratory science), a library area, a listening center, and an art/writing center. 

"During our interaction with various school staff we have always found professionalism and dedication.  We appreciate the diverse environment the school has and the variety of cultures different people bring."

Parents of S. A.