Four Year Old Kindergarten (4K)
Grade: 4K
Teachers: Mrs. Kris Bahr, Mrs. Ally Spors
Schedule Options Include: 3 day (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
half or full day -or- 5 day (Monday- Friday) half or full day.
Half schedule: 8:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Full schedule: 8:15 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Wrap-around care available beginning 7 a.m. & ending 6 p.m.
The 4K classrooms at DRLS offer a rich faith-filled learning environment. A loving atmosphere is provided to meet children’s social, physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual developmental needs. Our preschool program guides children in gaining healthy self-concepts and positive feelings about God and others.
Our curriculum is a balanced approach of play-based learning opportunities, and teacher directed lessons. In free choice play, children may choose from a variety age-appropriate equipment, materials, and activities, such as dramatic play, blocks, manipulative play, and the use of sensory materials. Children also have opportunities to work on gross motor skills through indoor and outdoor activities and play time.
In addition to the STARFALL curriculum (see below for details), we incorporate themes and special activity days to make learning exciting and fun (such as Fancy Day, Teddy Bear Day, Dot Day, and Penguin Day to name a few).
Songs, finger plays, stories, movement activities, and crafts are also utilized to enhance the children's learning.
Four year olds have the opportunity throughout the year to celebrate the true meanings of the holidays with activities such as our Thanksgiving Feast with other Early Childhood classes and 5 year old Kindergartners (with costumes, songs, and food), singing in our Christmas program, and our end of the year graduation service.
1) Field trips – Hartland fire station, Ebert’s Pumpkin Farm, Schauer Center to see a play, Reichl Orthodontics Office, Petting zoo/farm
2) Technology – we use Promethean Boards in our classrooms for our Weekly Reader curriculum, for calendar, brain breaks and Bible lesson videos
3) Specials – we are able to get in the gym, library, and chapel during the week. Four year old Kindergartners also enjoy music class once a week with the DRLS music teacher!
4) Lunch Time- 4K classes eat at 12:00 in the cafeteria along with the other 5K - 2nd graders and have access to the hot lunch program.
5) Recess – Part-time classes go out once in the morning, full day classes once in the morning and once or twice in the afternoon
OUR 4K CURRICULUM:
MATH
The PreK BRIDGES math program features playful lesson activities with hands-on exploration that utilize a variety of math tools. The Bridges curriculum develops young learners mathematical thinking and reasoning skills through age-appropriate problems and investigations in the areas of numbers, operations, patterning, measurement, geometry, and data. In February, we celebrate the 100th day of school in a big way!
SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES
Our “Let’s Find Out” Weekly Readers offer us a variety of social studies and science themes, such as community helpers, seasons, weather, holidays, animals, plants, and ocean. Science experiments and STEM projects are also a highlight for the students. They have built rafts for the Gingerbread Man, created sturdy towers for Rapunzel, learned to clean pennies, and expanded their powers of observation!
READING READINESS
Our STARFALL Reading and Language Arts curriculum is a fun balance between instruction and hands-on exploration, and it aligns with all of the state 4K standards. Early literacy, Math, Social Studies, Science, social-emotional development, creative arts, movement, health, and technology are all integrated throughout the lessons.
Our balanced literacy approach uses big books, trade books, chart stories, and songs to introduce letter identification formation and letter sounds. Skills also covered are comprehension, sequencing, rhyming, story elements, and high frequency words. Children are exposed to many genres (fiction, non-fiction, and fairy tales) as they learn to enjoy good literature and reading!
BIBLE TIME
Having been created as unique individuals by God, our religion program is designed to teach children to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to be able to tell others about Him. Our students hear daily Bible stories, attend weekly chapel, learn how to pray, share the love of Jesus with others, and praise God through songs.
We use the ONE IN CHRIST curriculum (Concordia Publishing House). A variety of materials and methods are used to teach a new Bible story each week. The lessons begin with the Old Testament stories and follows sequentially through the New Testament. Weekly family Bible sheets are also sent home so families are able to reinforce and extend the Bible lessons at home.