In the CID pre-k, students learn
language around everyday activities
- like cutting up apples for snack time.
Typical Day in Pre-K
8:30-9:00 a.m. Circle Time: Children and teachers welcome one another with the “Hello Song” to a large circle of greeting, sharing, trusting and belonging. The children explore the week’s theme through a variety of activities emphasizing the use of language, pre-math skills and alphabet knowledge. Children learn the days of the week, months, seasons, etc.
9:00-9:25 Structured Language Class: The children move into classrooms in small, ability-based groups where teachers work on developing each child’s language skills. Our teachers build on the children's successes and encourage target vocabulary, phrases and sentences based on the ongoing assessment of each child's progress. Toys, games and play materials are used to create activities for building children’s language proficiency in this structured setting.
9:25-9:50 Creative Movement: The children explore the joys of movement while developing motor skills and body awareness. Instruction focuses on encouraging each child’s creative process, using imagination and energy to move intuitively and spontaneously.
9:50-10:30 Snack and Conversational Language: As they sit together enjoying wholesome food, the children learn manners and skills for getting along, good health practices and eating habits. After snack, children participate in a variety of play, art, cooking and experiential activities focused on improving their conversational language skills.
10:30-11:15 Centers: Research and experience supports the fact that preschoolers learn best through play. During centers, the discovery room is divided into different areas – such as art, blocks, library, sand/water, writing and dramatic play. Teachers provide models of play skills, the language of play and socialization with peers. Children use hands-on materials to explore concepts and build on their speech, language, listening, motor, math, science, social and creative abilities. They also learn skills for playing games, such as taking turns, spinning a spinner, winning and losing. Teachers promote and facilitate all developmentally appropriate skills in this natural environment that closely resembles a typical preschool setting.
11:15-11:45 Speech and Auditory Training: The children work on developing age-appropriate speech and listening skills in small groups with a teacher of the deaf or a speech-language pathologist.
11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Lunch and Recess/Nap Time: This period is supervised by Washington University School of Medicine graduate students working on their master's degrees in deaf education and audiology. After lunch, the 3-year-olds nap with a favorite stuffed animal; the 4- and 5-year-olds go to recess. The children run, jump, climb, play with balls and engage in group games and activities to develop physically and socially and to build confidence.
12:45-1:30 Early Literacy: As they enjoy a wide variety of wonderful children’s stories promoting cultural diversity, family, self-esteem and other values, the children develop thinking and language skills. The children make predictions, recall story events, relate the story to their own lives and retell or act out the story. Children engage in a project or activity that extends the story and provides more opportunities to improve language.
1:30-1:45 Music: The children sing, move to music and play with musical instruments.
1:45-2:15 Small Group/Choice Time: The children are engaged in a variety of activities that stimulate and challenge their thinking and problem-solving skills as they explore the weekly theme. Rhymes, poems and fingerplays build the understanding that sounds make up words in our language. This knowledge is called phonological awareness. It is one of the first and most important steps to becoming a successful reader.
2:15-2:45 Gross Motor Activities: The children engage in play that supports their developing abilities in movement, balance, coordination and creative movement. These abilities develop through unstructured activities such as running, jumping and climbing on playground equipment as well as through cooperative games and guided activities in the gym.
2:45-2:55 Closing Circle Time: The children gather to reflect on and discuss what they learned during the day.
2:55-3:00 Pack-Up and Dismissal