Our Classroom
Our KINDERGARTEN classroom in a REAL DC7 Airplane is all about the excitement of learning. Children at this age want to be part of the “community of learners” who can read and write, add and subtract, appreciate and explore science and technology, and discover cultural and family diversities. Building on this excitement, curricula is selected which enables children to love learning while creating a foundation that will continue to serve them throughout the rest of their lives!
Drawing from Denver Public Schools Modules which correlate with the Colorado Kindergarten Standards and using her experience with 5-6 year olds, Miss Mary has created a play based curriculum in which exploration and discovery comes alive with just the right blend of reality and imagination. The children interact with the teacher in whole-group and small-group settings. Literature, songs, read-along tapes, games, poems, art posters, maps, pre-decodable and decodable books, and take-home packets are just a few of the ways children experience print awareness, phonological and phonemic instruction, alphabetic word recognition, vocabulary development and reading fluency and comprehension. Writing often emerges naturally as children incorporate it into their pretend play and journals. Enhancing the literacy program is Reading from A-Z, an internet site which offers a full reading curriculum. In addition, children are introduced to literacy activities based on practices by Debbie Miller and Lucy Calkins.
How Do We Help Your Kindergartners Become Readers & Writers?
Every other day, the children don special hats and membership cards and join in the “Writer’s Club”. Children enjoy practicing letters in their “Let’s Write” handwriting practice books, an Abrams Learning Trends curriculum. Writing activities include alphabet, numbers, reading and writing recipes, and writing and drawing stories from the children’s own experiences as recorded in their journals.
Discovery Centers:
Discovery centers are arranged to help integrate literacy with social studies, science and technology, health and safety, fine arts, mathematics, and interactive media. Two computers and one laptop provide children the opportunity to help each other learn basic computer skills while enjoying developmentally appropriate software which enhances the curriculum. Outside centers include exploration and the development of more challenging gross motor skills; often times incorporating science and math activities. Field trips to enrich a sense of community are offered bimonthly.
“The private kindergarten program at Iliff Preschool is probably the best I’ve seen in the metro area! To start with, the classroom is capped at 15 students. Compare this with kindergarten classes in public schools! It is obvious that Miss Mary, my daughter’s teacher has a love for what she does. She is experienced, patient, kind, caring, and understanding. She promotes active learning in a play based, child centered classroom. She is always there to assist us with our child’s learning and includes us in the many enrichment field trips. My husband and I feel that our daughter could not have received a better introduction to her formal education.”
Ella’s MOM … graduation class of 2012.
STEM
Each week, Miss Stephanie is invited to contribute to the curriculum. She makes science fun through the four disciplines of STEM education: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Children experiment with balance, symmetry, the properties and effects of materials, build bridges, make fossils, create wind mills, explore the effects of water corrosion on the earth; just to mention a few.
“Rollin became a fine young boy. in large part, due to your kind and competent care. With eager anticipation, Rollin now enters the next phase of his life, confident, and prepared, certain to never forget where he started.”
“Congratulations… you must be doing something right. I graduated from your kindergarten program in 1975. Now I have a preschooler and wish that I lived closer to you. I must tell you, I have wonderful memories of the airplane and still have all the pictures, too!”
“Thank you for: teaching our children to read and be self-sufficient… providing safe boundaries… comforting them when they are sad, fearful or hurt…taking them on field trip adventures… and always being patient and understanding…six and one half wonderful years.”
