Curriculum
The Shelburne Nursery School's mission is to provide a safe and nurturing environment, which encourages children to develop socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.
Preschoolers (age 3)
The Preschool program focuses on sharing, taking turns, respecting different points of view and talking to solve problems. It encourages self-help skills. The curriculum includes science, social studies, pre-reading and pre-math skills. They also work on fine motor and gross motor development.
A typical day includes free play, circle time which include story, songs and finger play, group time when the students are broken into small groups for activities and exploration, a snack time and outside play time. Students go on a couple of field trips and participate in cooking projects. Parents and older siblings are encouraged to read a story, share a hobby or do a project.
Prekindergarten (age 4)
The Prekindergarten program focuses on mastery of self-help skills as well as the more academic pre-reading, math, science, and social studies skills. This program also includes physical, art, and music education.
Children also participate in several field trips throughout the year. A typical day includes free play, circle time, small group time, snack time, and outside play. Daily activities include skill work, such as patterning, graphing, and number recognition, sound awareness, rhyming, letter recognition, and scientific explorations as well as songs, finger play, and stories.
A Typical Day
Upon entering, children and parents sign in, wash their hands and then participate in free play between two of the rooms.
At about 8:45 a.m, teachers and children come together for morning meeting.
We will have a greeting and we might play a game, or sing a song, or read a book, and we will discuss what the children can expect that day. This time is largely participatory and of short duration, longer for the older children than the younger group.
After the morning meeting, we break into small groups which comprise the majority of our day.
The small groups allow the staff to work one-on-one with each student in skill development. The small groups are chosen daily with a different mixture of children.
About half-way through the day, we have snack time and complete the small group sessions.
We end our day with a reflection, before heading outside to play. Families/caregivers will usually pickup children from the playground. We go outside as long the weather permits. Occasionally, we mix up our day to avoid extreme temperatures and precipitation.