This class is for children who will be 4 years old on or before September 1. 

4 Year Old  Class is four mornings per week, Monday through Thursday. Monday and Thursday is 9-12 noon; Tuesday and Wednesday is 9-1pm and includes Lunch Bunch, Bring your lunch from home, and additional theme-based activities.

St. John’s Preschool is part of the Children, Youth and their Families ministry at St. John’s Lutheran Church. We are a Christ-centered preschool where prayers and Christian Education time are part of each day. Holidays, including religious holidays, are celebrated. We do recognize, respect and encourage a culturally diverse experience for all children.

At St. John’s Preschool, Playing to Learn is our educational approach that uses play as the primary method for teaching and learning. Our teachers create environments that encourage individual learning, foster confidence, and a love of learning in enjoyable and meaningful ways. We believe it is the best way to prepare children for a lifetime of success. Through our Playing to Learn curriculum, foundational skills are introduced and taught daily throughout the school year.

Children develop social skills through communication and working together in collaborative play. They gain cognitive growth with hands-on exploring and learning. Their physical growth, small and large motor skills, and sensory integration are developed by engaging in active play. We approach learning in ways that nurture curiosity, engagement, and persistence. We provide children with safe, loving spaces where they learn to manage emotions and express themselves to develop their sense of emotional well-being.

Social Skills– Making friends and interacting with peers, playing cooperatively with other children, beginning to use turn-taking in play, and participating in social activities, art, and music and movement activities.

Language Skills– Expressive, Speaking Skills; expressing wants, needs; verbal and non-verbal, using language to interact with peers, a range of vocabulary, length of typical sentences, retelling details of a story, using parts of speech such as pronouns, using tense appropriately, using appropriate words, not filler words,  and using speech that can be understood.

Language Skills- Receptive, Listening Skills; paying attention in the presence of background noise, recognizing common sounds in the environment, discriminating speech sounds, responding to verbal requests, recalling spoken instructions, completing sound or word patterns, and following 3-step directions.

Early Literacy Skills– Interest in reading activities, knowledge of parts of a book, e.g. author wrote the story, illustrator drew the pictures, turning pages one at a time, reading from left to right, top to bottom and beginning to read at front and sequentially to back, developing name writing skills, remembering names of letters, learning letter sounds, clapping out the number of syllables in a word, and understanding of which words rhyme.

Early Math Skills– Naming numbers, counting in proper sequence, understanding one-to-one correspondence, counting objects accurately, determining which group has more or less and which object comes next, determining patterns, understanding time sequence e.g., before and after and time concepts e.g., yesterday, today, tomorrow.

 Small Muscle Skills– Eye-hand coordination, holding, tracing, and copying with a pencil, crayon or marker and copying from a flat surface in front of them, drawing simple shapes e.g., circle, square, cutting scissor skills, and exploring materials of different textures.

Large Muscle Skills– Balance, speed and agility, large muscle coordination, and sense of direction e.g., up, down, beside.

 Self-regulation Skills– Adjusting to change in routine, processing sensory input appropriately, functioning independently of adult attention, consistency of behavior and mood, labeling emotions of others, showing a range of emotions, learning to express anger and frustration appropriately, understanding the consequences of behaviors, using planning prior to activities, using words to solve problems with peers, persisting in difficult tasks, and concentrating for brief periods.

Self-care Skills– Putting on, taking off and hanging up coat, eating without difficulty, drinking from cup, using a napkin/wipe for hands and face, washing hands before eating and after toileting, toileting independently with supervision.

Classroom Skills- Following the daily classroom routine, transitioning from one activity to another, and paying attention during group activities.

The average class size for our 4-Year-Old Kindergarten is thirteen children.

Yes, we always welcome new students throughout the school year based on available openings.

There is a Healthy Snack Time in the middle of each preschool day provided by St. John’s Preschool.

Our Healthy Snack Program provides nutritional foods that children enjoy each day at snack time that include a variety of fruit and whole food crackers and snacks. We provide water at snack time.

We encourage “polite food tasting” to try new foods. The Healthy Snack List is posted daily in each classroom. A complete list of the foods is available by request.

St. John’s Preschool is a peanut-free and tree-nut free school.