3 year old class:

Transportation
Since all kids can have fun with things that move, we start our year off with a transportation theme. We will be talking about all the different ways we can get around, from cars to trains, to our own two feet! The children have a great time when the bus company comes to visit and give us a ride on the big yellow bus. We'll finish our unit with Transportation Day, when all the children will bring in a vehicle of their own for show and tell. We'll also be using the toys to sort and make a graph.

Autumn/Fall
We will celebrate fall by looking at the wonderful changes occurring outside and observing the colors of the season. Many of our crafts will include fall colors and also help us prepare for our Halloween and Thanksgiving Parties.

Emotions/Feelings
We will talk about different feelings which are part of your preschooler's everyday life. We start with the feeling of thankfulness as we approach Thanksgiving, and then talk about both the positive and negative emotions we feel. We will discuss what makes us happy, excited and proud, and how to make others feel these good feelings. We will also talk about what makes us feel frustrated, sad, and angry, and how to react when we have these feelings.

Winter
We will focus on the winter season and all things cold. We will look at how we stay warm and how other animals prepare and keep warm during the cold weather. We will also explore the science of the season including snow, ice and evergreen trees.

All About Me
Students will explore their similarities and differences. They will celebrate their individual abilities and recognize the great family members they have. Also as part of this unit we will practice each student's personal information such as name, address and telephone number.

Community Helpers
During this unit we will recognize members of the community and how they help us. We will have classroom visitors including a librarian, members of the Beukendaal Fire Department, and the Glenville Police Department. We will discuss fire safety and other safety issues when we focus on firefighters and police officers. Other community helpers we will focus on include the mail carrier, doctor, and dentist. This is also a great unit for the children to use their imagination. We will pretend to be many different community workers.

Spring
In our spring unit we will focus on three main ideas about spring: plants, rainbows, and butterflies. The children will have a great time watching their own seeds grow and exploring the different parts of a plant. While looking at rainbows we hope to catch some good sun to create our own in the classroom and have fun with color. One of my favorite children's books has always been The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl. We will use the book to study the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies. The science exploration we will be doing together in this unit is very exciting.

Water
We will start our water unit with an introduction focusing on the fact that all living things need water to be healthy. Next we will focus on life in water by looking sea life. We'll finish off the unit by talking about the beach and having some fun pretending to visit the ocean and have our own beach party!

Basics
Within each of these units we focus on a letter and its sound each week as well as concepts in math, science, life skills, and language.

4 year old class:

Farm
We'll begin our school year with a pretend trip to the farm, where we will be farmers caring for the crops and aminals. We'll also get to be the animals at times too! We will focus on many of the animals on the farm and their different purposes. Plus we get to look at the equiptment and big machines used.

Fire Safety
To prepare for our trip to the Fire Department we will talk about fire safety including crawling under smoke, calling 911, and stop, drop and roll.

Autumn
We will look at the change of season that comes along with autumn and prepare for the fall holidays. For Halloween we'll explore creepy crawly spiders and count their eyes and legs. At Thanksgiving time we will talk about the purpose of the holiday and recognize the people and things we can be grateful for.

Music
We get to have some musical fun! The children will make some noise, sing and dance. We will look at listen to, and create our own percussion, wind, and string instruments.

Solar System and Space
We'll be astromouts preparing for our trip to outer space and exploring the stars, sun, moon and planets.

Winter
We'll explore the winter season and the cold snow that comes with it. The science of snow crystals will amaze the children! During the holiday season we will look at different traditions including Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.

Nutrition
The children have a great time talking about, writing about, drawing and tasting foods. We'll see the importance of making healthy food choices and dicovering which foods are good for our bodies and which foods are betters as "sometimes foods". This unit will allow us to look at the bones and muscles in our body and also explore the sense of taste.

Grocery Store
Our grocery store theme will begin with a trip to the supermarket! We will discover first hand what we need to create our own market. In the classroom the children will sort, shelve, price and play in their own grocery store. We will also find out where our food comes from and how it gets to the store.

Nursery Rhymes
Nursery Rhymes are a great way to learn and practice rhyming words. Rhyming a great stepping stone towards learning to spell and read. The children will be very proud to show off their own rhymes and act out the nursery rhymes for you, our live audience.

Spring
Spring has many fun changes for us to observe together...robins returning, wind and rain, flowers and color blooming, and new life growing.

Taking care of the Earth
Preschoolers have great ideas when coming up with ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. We'll brainstorm together ways we can help to take care of our earth, and why it is so important.

Basics
Within each of these units we focus on a letter and its sound each week as well as concepts in math, science, life skills, and language. Other basics that are focused on in prepartion for kindergarten include phone numbers and address, monster math (counting, adding, subtrating), colors, shapes, parts of a story, and story writing.