Sierra Canyon School: Pre-Kindergarten

Pre-Kindergarten—where learning forward begins

Sierra Canyon prepares children for a life of joyful, meaningful learning Our full-day, five-day-a-week program nurtures cognitive, social, and emotional growth in equal measure. Our expert teachers meet your children where they are today and guide them to discover how and why they most love to learn.

Students work and explore in various settings: full class, small groups, one-on-one with a teacher, as well as independently. They experience multiple modes of hands-on learning and discovery—from investigating a plant’s lifecycle, to discovering patterns on the calendar, to singing in both English and Spanish. At the same time, we equip our students with essential skills and concepts to succeed in our Lower School, including logical thinking, cooperative conversation, number sense, and gross and fine motor skills.

In this special enclave dedicated to Pre-K, children feel safe and are encouraged to wonder, investigate, and make new friends. Your child will become more confident and curious with each passing day, preparing them for Kindergarten and beyond.

We create a safe, age-appropriate environment where our teachers attend to every child’s particular interests and talents.

We meet children where they are, and prepare them for the next level at the same time.

Some favorite Pre-K experiences • Celebrating the 50th and 100th days of school with theme days filled with hands-on math activities • Learning about a seed’s life cycle by creating mini-greenhouses • Making “Earthworm Hotels” to learn about and observe earthworms • Measuring, graphing, and scooping out the seeds of our pumpkins on Pumpkin Day • Discovering the science of bubbles with our 6th grade buddies during our cross-age activities • Exploring the math and science of cooking and baking as we eat our way through the alphabet

Pre-K specialist classes Pre-K students enjoy weekly visits to the Art Studio, Music Studio, Dance Studio, and Library. They also experience P.E. twice a week, as well as bi-monthly visits from our Spanish teacher.

Extended day care A sampling of some of our enrichment classes: Spanish Club, Dance, Violin, Cooking, Playground Games, Yoga, Intro to Coding, Art, Lego Masters, Young Ninjas, and various sports clinics (swimming, soccer, basketball, etc.). The Sierra Canyon school day can extend from 7am – 6pm at no extra charge.

Parents are partners Pre-K at Sierra Canyon is a shared journey that involves teachers, students, administrators, and fellow parents.

As your partners in your child’s education, our teachers communicate with you frequently, through a daily folder your child brings home every day, in weekly newsletters, through emails and phone calls, and in person. We make a point of celebrating your child’s achievements, large and small, as well as discussing areas of growth, and simply keeping you updated on everything we’re learning and doing.

We also invite parents, grandparents, and other family members to volunteer by reading to classes, helping us celebrate birthdays, designing and staffing holiday parties, and chaperoning field trips.

In this vibrant, supportive environment, it’s not only students who form lasting friendships. Parents find a delight-filled second home here.

Purposeful play and foundational instruction Between the ages of three and four, your child’s brain develops at an astonishing rate.

By the time children enroll in Pre-K, they’re ready for far more than supervised playtime.

Our program balances purposeful play with more formal instruction, making the most of your child’s readiness to learn.

Our colorful, tactile environment inspires your child to touch, turn over, stretch, draw, and build—connecting fundamental concepts to the real world. We encourage children to choose what they want to explore and when, while also providing structured lessons throughout the day. And through our distinctive character education program, they begin learning how and why their learning matters to others.

You can see the difference our intentionally calibrated approach makes. Your child steps into Kindergarten knowing more than how to be a “good student.” Our students learn to embrace challenges others might shy away from. They work with others kindly and effectively. Self-assured and self-aware, they begin to take charge of their own education.

Sierra Canyon’s Pre-K program introduces and strengthens the readiness skills necessary for a successful and enthusiastic Kindergarten experience. We integrate skill development into our comprehensive program of Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, Health/Safety, Music, Performing and Visual Arts, Spanish, Creative Movement, Character Education, and Library.

• sharing and taking turns

EXPRESSIVE AND RECEPTIVE L ANGUAGE SKILLS

• being a polite listener

• following oral directions

• participating in cooperative play

• speaking comfortably in front of a group

• respecting rights and properties of others

• increasing attention span

• making and maintaining friendships • problem solving

SOCIAL SKILLS

MATH SKILLS • sorting/classifying/ comparing • number recognition/ number sense

READING READINESS/ COMPREHENSION SKILLS • l eft to right tracking • sequencing

• patterning and sorting

• s ight words

• shapes

• c oncepts of print

• building descriptive vocabulary

• composing and decomposing numbers

• forming opinions

• beginning addition and substraction skills

• phonological awareness (letter sounds, rhyming, onsets and rimes, sound blending) • recalling details • l ogical thinking/ inferring

Go to sierracanyonschool.org for more details. And please do visit us in person, if you haven’t done so already. We’d be honored and delighted to share this special place with you.