St. James Preschool

A Closer Look at the St. James Preschool Curriculum

To ensure each child in the Multi-Age Program receives individual attention specific to their developmental needs, the children are placed into well-balanced “circle groups” (based on age and gender), which meet once a day for about 30 minutes.  Circle groups remain consistent throughout the school year and provide an opportunity for children and teachers to participate in a small group setting.  A certified teacher leads each circle group.  Circle time activities include singing, “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” making finger plays to music and reading a book—all related to a particular theme.

Further, the multi-age program is centered on a play-based curriculum that strikes the perfect balance between directed play and free play. This allows each child to explore the classroom at their developmentally appropriate level, to learn while they are having fun and to develop a love for learning. A broad range of teacher-directed and free-play activities are available for the children every day.

A typical day will begin with the Morning Greeting where children and teachers gather in the block room.  They discuss what will happen during the day and greet each other as they arrive.  The children receive their job for clean-up time at the end of Morning Greeting.  Birthdays are also celebrated at this time.

Each day, one table is dedicated to a teacher-directed activity such as finger painting, cooking, lacing, patterning or cutting and gluing.  Activities are always theme related and multi-age appropriate, enabling the children to work according to their abilities.  During these activities, children are developing small-motor skills, artistic creativity, learning to follow directions, and working one on one with an adult.

Music is an important part of learning and the children love to participate.  Once a week during circle time, a certified Music Together teacher leads the children in songs and music education.  In addition to music, a licensed dance instructor comes in to the Preschool once a week to provide developmentally appropriate dance and movement instruction in small group settings.  The children move to different kinds of music and practice hopping, skipping, jumping and leaping.  A “movement observation” day is scheduled for parents at the end of the year.

Everybody looks forward to lunch and that time offers a wonderful opportunity to develop some independence.  The teachers encourage the children to open their own lunch boxes, remove their lunch and place the lunch boxes on the floor.  After they have finished eating, the teachers encourage the children to clean up their table space, put leftovers and containers in their lunchbox and throw away their garbage.

After lunch each day, we dedicate 10 minutes to closing time.  Teachers and children sing songs, discuss upcoming activities and read stories.

The Pre-K and Young Fours Program addresses the developmental abilities of the 4 and 5 year-olds in a stimulating and thematic way. Teachers present concepts in math, science, social studies, writing, pre-reading, music and movement through hands-on experiences, teacher-directed and child-directed activities. The day is well balanced between teacher-directed activities and free play.  Large and small motor skill development is incorporated into the child-centered curriculum. A special focus on community is offered through walking trips around the Upper Montclair neighborhoods.

In addition, each year the Pre-K classes agree on a specific area of study to explore in more depth.  The teachers encourage the children to examine this topic in a variety of ways including: food, art, literature, expert visitors and song.  At the end of each unit of study, the parents are invited to come into school for a presentation by the children to share what they have learned with their families. Examples of the Special Study in years past are:

The Study of Reduce, Reuse, Recycling – Children learned about recycling and how to “live green.” They helped make reminders to hang around the school to remind others not to waste water, paper or electricity. The year culminated with the children putting on a version of the “The Lorax” play and making an art exhibit using only recycled materials.

A Study of the Olympics – Children learned where China is located, sports played by the athletes and the nationalities of the players.  The classes walked to a local Chinese restaurant for lunch.  Each child was awarded a gold medal at the end of the project.

Animal Habitats — Children learned about various animals’ habitats, what the animals ate and where they lived. They made a special trip to the zoo and created a full wall mural that depicted the spring habitats of animals — including beavers, butterflies and snakes.

Pre-K and Fours classes also take a variety of field trips each year.  Parents and children ride school buses to go apple picking in the fall.  Teachers take the children to performances at NJPAC and Theaterworks at Montclair State University.  They also visit the Montclair Art Museum to learn about portraits and to create their very own self portrait.

All classes go on a “transportation adventure” in May.  Children, parents and teachers board the Hoboken-bound train from the Upper Montclair station.  Once in Hoboken, everybody boards the ferry to the World Financial Center for a stop in its beautiful playground.  After a morning of play followed by lunch, everybody makes the return trip back to St. James Preschool by ferry and train.  This field trip is a big hit amongst children and parents alike.