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2094 Grant Road
Mountain View, CA 94040
(650) 967-4724
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| Approach to Learning |
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"We will remember St. Tim's as a safe and happy place where the teachers were warm and caring and each kid was special." — Julie A., parent
Play-based Program
St. Timothy's Preschool is a play-based program, with play and structure balanced to meet the unique developmental needs of each child. We establish a nurturing and supportive environment, where children can learn life's most important lessons: how to share, cooperate, and be a good friend. We teach children how to resolve conflict peacefully, using words and addressing feelings. As teachers, we model respect, kindness, patience, caring, and the joy of learning.
Consistent, Effective Methods
Our three teachers have worked together as a team for years, establishing consistent, effective methods for teaching young children and bringing out the uniqueness in each child. We believe in the importance of consistency in setting limits and logical consequences for inappropriate behavior. We believe in positive redirection to help children understand responsibility for their actions. Because the same teachers are in both the 3s and 4s classes, we get to know you and your child better and can work together with you to provide the consistency that preschool children need. The 3s class feeds into the 4s classes, so that special friendship your child has discovered at three will have the opportunity to blossom at four.
Creative Play and Problem-Solving
Children learn through play, so we create an environment that sparks curiosity, and encourages problem-solving and interaction with friends. Each month our toys rotate, so your child will be continually stimulated through exploration. Every center will have something new and interesting that reinforces skills and knowledge. Children might find a new, more complicated puzzle, different blocks in the shapes of tree limbs, or manipulatives that challenge creativity and problem-solving. They enjoy dramatic play when a new center is set up as a vet's office, a restaurant, a post office, a flower shop, a grocery store, and even a camp with a tissue and wood fire, toy camp tools, tent and fishing poles. Each day offers different and new ways to learn, imagine and socialize in the classroom.
Art
Art is an integral part of the learning process at St. Tim's. In every class, your child will explore different art mediums and make a personal work of art. We encourage divergent thinking, self-expression and the fun of creating. Children develop their small motor skills and hand-eye coordination through cutting with scissors, gluing, painting, making collages, folding, tearing, building, stacking, threading, sewing and taping.
Science
We have a unique Pre-kindergarten 4s Science class because children are curious and continually ask "why." Each month has a general theme on subjects popular with children like the ocean, the rain forest, space, dinosaurs, weather and insects. Each class period studies a unit under that theme. Children investigate, experiment, predict, problem-solve and expand their basic knowledge. They come to school asking, "What are we going to learn today?"
Reading Readiness Skills
Reading readiness begins with hearing stories, identifying characters and guessing possible endings. Songs and chants stimulate receptive memory. Children learn to identify then print their names, recognize small words and match words to pictures. They make personal books about themselves and nature. We have a phonics method that reinforces letter sounds visually and musically. The classroom has interactive manipulatives that encourage the formation of words and word recognition.
Math
Children love to cook and it's a fun way to incorporate math skills. They learn how to follow basic recipes and become familiar with dry and wet measurements. They create individualized shapes with dough, and experience a variety of tastes and textures. They make foods from different cultures, for parties and in conjunction with holidays and seasons. Each cooking lesson becomes a science experiment, such as the chemical reaction of bubbles with baking soda and vinegar. Any cooking project encourages problem-solving, risk-taking, prediction, and experimentation.
Language Skills
Circle Time focuses on listening, sharing ideas and personal experiences, music, poems, flannel boards, and fiction and non-fiction stories that complement curriculum themes. Language skills are practiced every day. We play games that promote auditory and visual retention, and learn chants to reinforce receptive memory of story plots and characters.
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