Preschool
A Typical Day at Preschool
Students are greeted as they walk into preschool and are presented with a morning snack. Free play allows students to greet each other and become familiar with their peers. This is the time that teachers will facilitate opportunities for guided play. While students play, teachers may introduce new vocabulary, or challenge an idea that a student believes, or maybe bring in additional props to extend the learning, such as real X-Ray photos, as shown in the accompanying photograph. When timing is appropriate, students are then expected to participate in cleaning up the classroom before circle time can begin.
Circle time includes finger plays, songs, books, and letter sound recognition. The topics covered during circle time will add to our weekly learning theme. Themes may cover a wide range of topics such as weather (what is snow?), physics (rolling objects down ramps), biology (parts of a flower), social interactions (big feelings management), ethics (super heroes vs villains), and other topics brought of student's interest.
Each day, 1-2 students are invited to help prepare and set up for lunch. Students are individually responsible for clearing their own dishes as well as helping clear extra serving dishes. Once lunch is completed, students may resume free play until pick up time.
While the weekly themes will vary, the consistency of the schedule and expectations are what are the primary focus of preschool. Students learn how to navigate peer relationships including communication techniques and self-advocation. By having all students participate in cleanup, they also gain a sense of ownership, capability, autonomy and teamwork. Free and guided play will promote longer attention spans, facilitate divergent thinking and develop both gross and fine motor skills.
Daily Rhythm
9:30-10:00 am
Drop Off and Morning Snack
10:00-11:45
Group Work and Free Play
11:45-12:15
Lunch Provided
12:30-1:00 pm
Circle Time
Weekly Rhythm
Monday
Start of Week Greeting
Tuesday
Theme Exploration
Wednesday
Baking Together
Thursday
End of Week Journaling
Flexible schedule - Choose as many days per week as fits your schedule and budget. You pick which day(s) of the week you want to sign up for. So if you choose Tuesdays and Wednesdays, those are the days you are locked into. Any changes to the days need to be approved in advance. Flexibility on the hours can also be discussed if needed, but additional hours have an additional fee.
As shown above, texture rubbing is an example of a pre-writing level of journaling.
Toilet Training
Children are not required to be potty-trained before they can attend. This is because according to ZeroToThree.org, "while every child is different, about 22% of children are out of diapers by 2½, and 88% of children are out of diapers by 3½."
​
We will do our best to support parents while potty-training their child however we can. But we do require diapers until the child can remain dry and initiate bathroom breaks on their own.
Yearly Calendar
Preschool starts and ends with the Iron County School District calendar. We are closed on all major federal and state holidays as well as taking longer breaks, such as an entire week for Thanksgiving. We are also open for non-holiday breaks such as teacher work days. Students need to be at least 3 years old to start school with us, and can join anytime during the year so long as there is an opening.
Kindergarten Alternative
If you have a child with a summer birthday, or have another reason for not wanting your child to attend public kindergarten, Sidney's Garden offers their preschool as a kindergarten alternative. We are a qualified with Harmony Ed, My Tech High and Utah Fits All funding options. Using the state's funding for homeschooling families, your child could attend for free. In Utah, the compulsory age of school does not begin until age 6, so even if your long term plan includes public school, there is no harm in allowing your summer child an extra year before beginning traditional public school kindergarten.