Curriculum
What classes are offered at Circle of Love?
About Curriculum
The educational curriculum has been designed to be exceptional in all ways. Our program is full of exciting, well-designed challenges to inspire and motive each child. Our Pre-Kindergarten and Transitional Kindergarten programs have been designed to prepare each child for Kindergarten – filling each child with reading and math readiness skills, confidence, and a love for learning.
The activities for children are developmentally appropriate and promote success for the child because they are geared to their developmental stage and individual ability and interest.
Children need years of play with real objects and in different situations before they are ready to understand the abstract meaning of symbols such as letters and numbers. Learning takes place as children touch, manipulate and experiment with things and interact with people. They need to see it, touch it, feel it, taste it or hear it before it has meaning. During play, when they are actively involved, they become motivated to experiment and discover. Through play, your child will develop problem solving, social and communication skills as well as baseline skills that are needed to build a foundation for complex conceptual and abstract learning.
At Circle of Love Preschool, children’s play is considered essential to their learning and as such is the major component of our curriculum. The curriculum considers this process of learning as entirely necessary before “products” of learning may be expected.
- Circle of Love Preschool Parent Handbook
Chapel
School chapel is held once a week, see the Chapel Schedule posted in every classroom. Chapel alternates between Mondays and Tuesdays at 9:40 a.m. Children are encouraged to wear their school t-shirts on their scheduled chapel days. Our Chapel Time consists of Bible Stories, songs, honoring those with a birthday, Chapel offering, and lots of praise and fellowship!
An offering is taken during chapel. We choose a ministry to support every year. We provide offering envelopes at the beginning of the school year to help teach your child about giving.
Enrichment
What enrichment opportunities does COL offer?
Spanish & Music
Every child receives a half hour Spanish and a half hour Music class every week. These programs are included in the tuition.
Language Arts Program
Circle of Love utilizes two comprehensive language arts programs:
-- Zoo-phonics (Beginners, Intermediate, Pre-K, & TK)
-- Handwriting Without Tears (Pre-K)
More About Zoo-phonics:
Reading and writing are difficult tasks to master because they require an understanding of abstract methods and concepts. Zoo-phonics uses pictorial mnemonics (animal letters) and body movements (kinesthetic mnemonic) to teach through games and activities! It is an inclusive, multi-sensory program that teaches phonemic awareness in a playful, stress-free way that introduces pre-writing and pre-reading skills! With Zoo-phonics, children learn phonemic awareness, the alphabet, and how to decode (read) and eventually to encode (spell/write). At Circle of Love, each age group interacts with Zoo-phonics a little differently. For example, our Beginners class works with the program in a developmentally appropriate way for that age group whereas our Pre-K or TK classes would work with the program based on the the development of their age group(s).
The "Essences" of Zoo-phonics: 1) The Animal Alphabet helps children remember the shapes and sounds of the letters. 2) Letter sounds are taught before letter names. 3) Lowercase letters are taught before capital letters. 4) The body movement for each Animal Letter helps to cement the phonemic information into memory (connecting sounds to letter shapes). 5) The alphabet is taught sequentially, ans as a whole entity, "a - z." The alphabet is not fragmented. 6) Short vowels are taught before long vowels. 7) Phonemic patterns (at, bat, fat, sat, etc.) are taught first rather than random word lists (of, it, then, was, etc.) 8) The Zoo-phonics curriculum is fully integrated with other subjects. (i.e. math, science, art, etc.)
More About Handwriting Without Tears:
Handwriting Without Tears is a writing readiness program that adapts to the needs of each child, meeting them where they are and supporting the areas which may need more development. Handwriting Without Tears understands that learning needs to be joyful, child-friendly, and active! This program prepares young learners for school with developmentally appropriate teaching methods/techniques , child-friendly language, and a hands-on approach that enable children of different abilities to achieve.
At Circle of Love, we utilize intentionally chosen elements from the Handwriting Without Tears Program modified for our play-based program.
Beginners - 2 1/2 Years
This class is for our youngest children. They must be 2 1/2 years old and potty-trained by September. A warm, nurturing preschool experience, this class offers an inviting setting with toys, housekeeping center, dress-up clothes, live animals, arts and crafts and story time.
Classes
What classes does COL offer?
Intermediate - 3 Years
Three year olds are full of questions about the world around them. Who, what, where, and why? These are the questions every three year old asks! So the experiences provided for this age group are designed to develop the "whole child" - intellectually, socially, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Our daily routine consists of activities the children love to do - signing, arts and crafts projects, puzzles, manipulative toys, dramatic play objects, science experiments and stories. All of these activities help answer children's questions about the world around them. In a variety of age appropriate ways, children will discover letters of the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, science, art, and music. Each day includes time for exploration, dramatic play, large motor activity, a snack, and quiet/rest time during the first part of the school year. The children's spiritual growth is central to our ministry. Each day, our preschoolers learn about Jesus Christ through Bible stories, verses, songs, prayer, and drama. They learn that Jesus loves them, cares about their needs, and is their special friend and Savior. The "threes" teaching staff provides a calm, secure, loving, and nurturing environment for the little ones in their care.
Pre-K - 4 Years
We are getting ready! In our classes for four year olds, emphasis is provided on the skills that are foundational for success in kindergarten and the elementary grades. Our goal is to make learning fun!
We incorporate reading readiness, language development, thinking and listening skills, printing readiness, and math readiness activities into our daily routines. Each day includes time for singing, exploring learning centers, dramatic play, large muscle activities, arts and crafts, science, and a snack.
Four year olds will learn about Jesus Christ and His great love for them through Bible stories, songs, verses, prayer, and drama.
Transitional Kindergarten (TK) - 5 Years
We are excited to offer parents another option for their children who have completed a four year old program, but need an extra year to develop physically, socially, emotionally, or academically prior to entering kindergarten.
Transitional Kindergarten will serve as a bridge for children who need the gift of time - time essential to absorb and express ideas and concepts, to learn more about social skills and friendships, to develop independence and examine the world around them. This will allow young five year olds the added time needed to develop the confidence and maturity necessary for success in kindergarten.
