First
Presbyterian Preschool
Full Day Preschool and Child Care in Downtown Gainesville
Child Development through music, dance, and the visual arts
VPK Program
First
Presbyterian Preschool participates in the State Voluntary Prekindergarten
Program (VPK). Children who are four years old on or before September 1 are
eligible for this free program and will receive the same quality education as
our other children with an emphasis on emergent literacy. The goal of the VPK
program statewide is to prepare children for success in school. Contact the
Alachua County Early Learning Coalition at 375-4110 for more information about
VPK program.
Accreditation
First Presbyterian Preschool is proud to announce that it is now
accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. To
achieve NAEYC accreditation, preschool programs must meet rigorous standards of
health and safety, offer a high quality and developmentally appropriate
curriculum, and employ well-trained and qualified teaching staff. To find out
more about NAEYC accreditation, go to www.naeyc.org.
Why a School of the Arts for Preschoolers?
Children learn through
experiencing the world around them. If a young child experiences beauty through
the arts and through the natural world, then she or he will learn the language
of beauty. Children learn to paint by painting; they learn music by singing and
playing instruments; they learn to dance by dancing. And they do all these
things with the guidance of skilled and caring teachers and parents. Young
children live in the world of imagination Ð they learn easily once their
imagination has been captured. Our children learn the basics of literacy as
they sing their favorite songs, listen to their favorite books and poems, draw
and paint their favorite stories, and respond in many ways to the beauty of the
natural world. First Presbyterian Preschool is located within the First
Presbyterian Church of Gainesville, a church that has long been known for its
marvelous music. In this environment our children are surrounded by loving,
caring people, by beautiful music, and by the traditions of almost 45 years of
preschool.
In Our Classrooms....
Our youngest children, 18 months
to 3 years, learn by exploring fine toys and art materials, such as easel
paints, paper and glue. They sing and dance every day, listen to stories both
traditional and modern, and they play, play, and play some more. Our
3-year-olds begin to experiment a little more systematically, learning about
color and the mixing of colors, modeling with dough and clay, cutting, gluing,
and coloring. They sing daily in their classrooms, and weekly with our music
teacher who teaches songs from many cultures and traditions, as well as
teaching dance and movement to music. Our 4 - and 5-year-olds are quite
sophisticated in their artistic abilities; they choose from a variety of media
to express their creativity. Often they arrive at school with an idea in mind
that they want to express and a plan for expressing it. They too work with
paints, paper, clay, 3-D materials, and they sing, dance, and explore the
natural world in many ways.
But do they learn the basics?
Our arts-based curriculum is very
successful in teaching children everything they need to know to be well
prepared for kindergarten. Indeed, many of our children are so excited by the
wonderful stories, songs, and poems that we present to them that they learn to
read before they leave First Presbyterian Preschool. We do not pressure
children to learn letters and numbers, but rather offer them the excitement of
knowledge, the joy of learning new skills, the wonder of finding out about the
world.
First
Presbyterian Preschool offers....
A
broad curriculum with an emphasis on teaching School Readiness and Literacy
through the Arts
High
quality preschool education in a faith-based setting
Small
class sizes and excellent teacher/student ratios
Qualified,
degreed teachers who specialize in Early Childhood Education
Multicultural,
multilingual program part-time or full-time options
Newly
renovated facilities
Year-round
program for 6 months to 5 years from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm
Please
call Patti DuBose, Director, at 376-1818 for more information
or e-mail preschool@1stpc.org
License # 01-51-00172
Pumpkins and Paintings!
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