Classroom Programs

Preschool, 2.5 to 3 years old

A child’s first caregivers are so important in the early childhood years. Children’s attachment to adults at this age sets an important foundation for their ability to bond and trust people in the future. Mindful of this, social development, self-help skills, and classroom participation are the focus of our youngest classroom. Our hope is that your child’s very first school experience will be nurturing, wholesome and engaging, setting a healthy foundation for lifelong learning. After a few months, children quickly thrive in classroom routines, making room for deepening friendships and an introduction to shapes, colors, letters, and numbers.  Because this is the youngest classroom, parent-teacher conferences will not be held. However, in-class assessments will be done towards the end of the year for families to review at home.

Preschool, 3 to 4 years old

As children have become comfortable with routines and transitions, early literacy and math concepts are introduced.  In this classroom, children begin to trace their names, learn the sounds of letters, write some capital letters, count to ten, sort objects by shapes and colors, compare (same/different), start using scissors, and draw a person with four body parts.  They are encouraged to speak and answer in sentences, tell and remember stories, and use their imaginations. They learn to cooperate with friends, take turns, and begin to self-regulate emotions, and solve simple problems with assistance from adults.

Pre-K, 4 to 4.5 years old

With many children returning for a second or third year at Lakeside and 4-year olds’ natural curiosity for learning, the pre-K classrooms focus on developing children’s knowledge of handwriting, literacy, and math.  In this program, children practice writing their names daily, learn to recognize upper- and lower-case letters, practice rhyming, learn to recognize numbers 1-20 and can follow one-to-one correspondence, can count accurately to 20, regularly practice cutting with scissors,  and listen to and follow simple three-step instructions. STEM is explored through structured investigations and open-ended materials.

TK, 5 years old with June to December birthdays

Our transitional kindergarten class offers an academic curriculum that is tied together with changing thematic units, focused on literacy and math.  Children in this program write daily, learn to read simple sight words and books, learn to count by fives and tens, learn the placement of numbers up to 100, explore geometry and simple patterning, and learn measurement in terms of objects.  Activities are set up to encourage independent work as well as group collaboration. Technology is incorporated through games at circle time.

A majority of Lakeside pre-K and TK students continue onto parochial schools in the neighborhood, and we intentionally prepare them academically to be ready for kindergarten.