Toddler Classes

The goal of the Toddler Class is to provide a safe and loving environment for your child’s first school experience. The Toddler Classes each have a maximum of nine children with two teachers. Emphasis is placed on following simple directions, learning social skills through play and interaction with others, being a good friend and helper, and experiencing the world through play. Toddlers will do simple art and music activities and read stories daily. They take walks in the "Bye Bye Buggy" and go on the small playground. Toddlers have a scheduled music class once a month and a beginning Bible story monthly. Teachers give the Toddlers lots of love and individual attention.
 
 

Two Year Old Classes

At Sharon Presbyterian Weekday School, we believe that Two-Year-Olds are like "sponges" that absorb information and experiences readily. Two-Year-Olds are exposed to colors, numbers, and reasoning and listening skills. Bathroom habits are important as the ones in diapers soon want to be potty trained like their friends. Our Two-Year-Old program is a very flexible one that can adapt to the rapidly changing skill levels and needs of the classes. We provide an inviting atmosphere that encourages a sense of fun and discovery. Our main goals are social interaction with other children, a positive separation from parents, and listening to and following simple directions. The Two-Year-Olds learn through free play in centers, circle time through songs, stories and dances, creative art, play time out on the small playground and our monthly chapel time. The Two-Year-Old program is loosely structured with a loving emphasis on shared experiences and social interaction, rather than on an academic routine.

Three Year Old Classes

The Three-Year-Old Class provides a time for your child to practice new-found independence, while remaining within the comfortable boundaries and routine of a classroom environment. Children are given the chance to play and develop relationships with friends. Our main goals in the Threes are making an easy transition from home to school, developing good listening skills, learning to follow simple directions, and learning to share. Communication skills, socialization skills, self-help skills and gross & fine motor skills are emphasized. Three-Year-Olds have stories, songs and art activities daily. They have a monthly chapel time for Bible stories and learn simple Bible songs during music. They look forward to playing outside on the "big playground."

Four Year Old Classes

The goal of the Fours team at SPWS is to provide a Kindergarten readiness program while encouraging creative and enriching free-play. At SPWS, the Four-Year-Old is exposed to both pre-reading and pre-math activities. Creative skills are developed and nurtured through various media. Social and emotional skills are emphasized, and free-play is still generously available. Children are exposed to the alphabet through art, snacks, music and many other activities that emphasize each letter and its properties. The goal is that the children will recognize each letter by its upper and lower case and its sounds. Math readiness skills are built upon daily through planned curriculum as well as free play. Hands-on activities provide awareness of the concepts of sets, number recognition, and patterning. Addressing the daily calendar allows for many opportunities involving numbers and relativity. Shapes are also emphasized through art and matching games. Art is part of each day’s activities. In addition to providing a creative outlet, the art is also a medium for teaching colors, taking turns, counting, and learning multi-part directions. Most art projects help to build small motor coordination through the use of scissors, paint brushes, markers, glue sticks, and other tools. The Four-Year-Old Class focuses on a different subject nearly each week of the school year to expand the children’s knowledge of the world. Topics range from "Insects" to "The Ocean," from "The Christmas Story" to "Health and Nutrition." Units may be taught through flannel boards, finger plays, art, storybooks, foods, word games, and the sharing of information from each other. Language skills are developed by inviting curiosity from the children about the units of study. The goal of the Fours’ teachers is to provide a loving, caring, and stimulating environment which will encourage the development of happy, thoughtful, curious children.

Transitional Kindergarten Class

Based on the principle that we truly learn only what we experience and make our own, Sharon Presbyterian has chosen a hands-on, child-centered Reading and Writing/Math and Science transitional-kindergarten program. The curriculum will allow your child to be actively involved in doing, creating, thinking and experimenting with concrete experiences in the classroom. Our program offers a multitude of rich language experiences. We use the Alpha Time series for an in-depth phonics study. The class meets a new letter person (puppet) each Monday and most weeks' activities revolve around the designated letter. The reading and writing curriculum is from Success in Reading and Writing by Ann Adams and Helen Cappleman. The purpose of this curriculum is reading readiness, rather than teaching your child to read. Our intent is to provide each child with a wealth of readiness experiences so that when your child is truly ready to read, he or she will blossom into reading on his or her own. We use Handwriting Without Tears by Jan Z. Olsen and Emily F. Knapton to introduce capital and lower case writing, numberical writing, beginning sentences and punctuarion. The Math/Science portion of the curriculum is taken from Math Their Way by Mary Baratta Lorton. Classroom math activities are designed to help your child ask questions, be curious, and then find the solution through the use of manipulatives. Once a week, we focus on science through experimentation. We also read a science magazine by Weekly Reader. The children enjoy receiving their own magazines and learning a variety of interesting facts about themselves and the world around them. Social Studies is integrated throughout our weekly studies. We believe that the program here at Sharon Presbyterian Weekday helps a child build his or her self-confidence through developing your child's ability to think, contribute, and problem solve. In this way our selected curriculum helps us achieve our overriding purpose at SPWS of nurturing and developing the whole child.