We are very excited to announce a brand-new curriculum to our preschool for the 2024/2025 school year…Learning Without Tears! We are also excited to announce FPC Preschool’s new Curriculum Coordinator, Lauren Loftis (“Mrs. Lo”). We are excited to welcome Mrs. Lo back to FPC Preschool in this very special role. Mrs. Lo will be helping to coordinate and implement our new Learning Without Tears program. We are also very excited to announce our new Enrichment Program that will provide hands-on learning with monthly themes to all preschoolers at FPC! Please read more about each amazing program below.
Get Set for School® from Learning Without Tears® was designed specifically for the preschool years by Occupational Therapists. Our FPC Preschool teachers — with decades of experience recognizing and nurturing each child's gifts and working with them to set goals — are ready to help our students establish the roots for future success through this new comprehensive curriculum that is balanced with opportunities for exploration, play and celebrations of cultural diversity.
This nationally recognized curriculum introduces writing with child-friendly teaching strategies, such as using music and movement to bring lessons to life, and multisensory manipulatives to build fine and gross motor skills. Lessons teach body awareness, cooperation, taking turns, listening, crayon grip, letter and number recognition, and capital letter and number formation.
Readiness & Writing– This is the core of Get Set for School. The handwriting component is based on more than 25 years of success with Handwriting Without Tears. Writing requires many skills that are essential for school: physical, language, cognitive, and perceptual. We use music, movement, and multisensory manipulatives to teach the core readiness skills including crayon grip, letter and number recognition, number and capital letter formation, and body awareness.
Language & Literacy-This program wonderfully complements the writing program. We use dramatic play, singing, finger plays, manipulatives, and movement to teach children to rhyme, clap syllables, make and break compound words, and identify sounds. We expose children to rich literature to foster a love of reading, build vocabulary, and learn how books work. Children learn facts from informational text. They learn to use new words and develop oral language skills by listening, retelling, and narrating stories. They also learn that there is meaning in the words they say as they watch what teachers write and what they say.
Numbers & Math– This program is a natural extension of the Get Set for School readiness program and helps children build number sense right from the start. We use manipulatives, music, and rhymes to teach counting, comparisons, spatial awareness, patterning, sequencing, matching, sorting, problem solving, and even Pre-K geometry skills. Lessons give children time to play with real objects and test their ideas so that math becomes real and meaningful. Children also develop oral language that helps them learn about and express math concepts.
We are also excited to announce FPC Preschool’s new Curriculum Coordinator, Lauren Loftis (“Mrs. Lo”). We are excited to welcome Mrs. Lo back to FPC Preschool in this very special role. Mrs. Lo will be helping to coordinate and implement our new Learning Without Tears program at FPC Preschool. Our teachers began training on this new program in January 2024 and we will be implementing it in our classrooms beginning September 2024.
If you have any questions about this exciting new program, please contact Mrs. Lo at laur.loftis@gmail.com.
We are very excited about adding our Enrichment Program to FPC Preschool! We continue to be committed to making sure our program provides the quality of education and development that parents and families have come to expect from us over the years. We want to offer your children and our community a variety of enrichment programs that will help us explore new options for academic enhancements that will flourish the breadth of FPC Preschool.
We will be venturing beyond our current offerings into new areas of learning and recreation for our students across a spectrum of cognitive development varieties. Each month during October, November, February, March and April, we will concentrate on a different area of enrichment. We will use this enrichment schedule to explore a variety of areas including art, language, music, dance, health/nutrition, community involvement, math and science. We are excited to bring these hands-on experiences to our students during their regular preschool day.
FPC Preschool strives to continue to be innovative and imaginative, not only in the lives of those with us now, but for those who will come. Our world requires so much of elementary school-age children in terms of preparation and well-rounded abilities, and our teachers and I strongly uphold our commitment to you (and those who will attend after you) to make sure we live up to the trust you give into us to provide for your student's success. Thank you for your continued support of FPC Preschool and we sincerely thank you for sharing your precious children with us. Our classes explore many different concepts and themes throughout their year together. While at preschool the children participate in circle time, center activities, art, sensory experiences, fine/gross motor challenges, literacy, math, science, music and outdoor play. Our preschool program provides opportunities for a variety of experiences through which your child:
Makes progress toward better social adjustments
Learns to give and take and to assume responsibilities in a group
Develops manipulative skills and acceptable work habits
Learns to listen and follow directions
Grows in their ability to think for themselves, communicate verbally, and to express themselves freely through music and art activities
Learns to respect others, their rights, and property
Strengthens the foundation upon which is built a storehouse of understanding, skills, and attitudes throughout his/her school experience
Grows in their understanding and appreciation for God's love