Preschool Program (PS-PK)
PHILOSOPHY: Marywood-Palm Valley’s Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten programs offer a nurturing and progressive approach to ensure that children ages three to five have an opportunity to develop the skills necessary to reach their highest potential.
Using children’s natural curiosity as a foundation, our qualified staff provide many opportunities for children to explore the world around them. We provide a happy, safe, nurturing environment where we expose children to literature, music, physical activity, drama, art, and science, and begin readiness activities needed for reading and math skills.
The teachers use developmentally appropriate materials and equipment to encourage children to participate in activities that foster their independence, encourage appropriate social behavior, develop language skills, and help them learn to reason, question, and experiment. Teachers encourage children to work independently to develop their natural abilities, and in small groups so they can learn cooperation and the value of other children’s thoughts and feelings.
The Preschool routines and requirements at each campus are published in a separate document distributed to parents.
Lower School Program (K-5)
Believe it or not, the determination of whether a student is going to go to college or not is often made before they leave the Lower School grades. It is in these early grades that the basic skills of reading, writing and mathematical computations are learned and for the rest of a person’s life, these skills remain the main tools for learning anything else. Prior to grade 4, students learn to read. After grade 4, students read to learn. The difference is as great as the chasm of the Grand Canyon!
Before we get into academic policies, let’s look at students’ growth and development. For those of you who took Psychology 100 in your first year of college, you may well remember that Jean Piaget asserted that the vast majority of brain development that would determine the learning abilities occurred before students even came to school. There is some truth in that and hence we are grateful for the Preschool program we house on both campuses. Many of the children who enter our kindergarten have come through a strong child development program that has helped stimulate the kinds of skills they will need.
Just the same, Piaget’s theories may have been overstated. To accept them carte blanche would require us to accept that there is little we can do to enhance learning skills after the age of five. Yet we know, from our own experiences in learning, and certainly from the experiences of those who have been in serious accidents and had to relearn everything, that the brain is quite capable of making significant changes in patterns of thinking and learning long after this age. We truly can learn for a lifetime!
What do we know about young children, is that they develop at different rates and through different experiences. Some take to “school learning” very quickly and develop strong language skills, while others are less inclined in this manner though they may be very adept in other areas. Then again, some individuals may be very advanced in one area and behind in others. There isn’t a formula to describe the “average” kindergarten student, other than “small and cute!”
The goal of our K-5 program is to offer this range of students a series of common experiences in academic and social skills to give them all strong academic skills and to help them become good citizens. Up to grade 4 we evaluate students against a set of standards, high standards, but developmentally appropriate. In a broad sweep, here’s what we expect:
KINDERGARTEN: This age has the widest range of development, primarily because they have the widest range of experiences coming into the formal education system. Some children have had a lot of “school learning” through parental input or academic preschools and some have had little. The early kindergarten program focuses on reinforcing basic phonics work and number recognition while developing the personal and interpersonal skills to operate in a classroom. By mid-kindergarten, greater language skills are developing and many students begin early reading and writing skills. Some will not, but such a range of skills is very common at this level. By the end of kindergarten, virtually all students will be reading and/or writing although, again, it is not unusual for some students who are mature in all other ways, to still not have skills mastered at the end of kindergarten.
GRADE 1: The grade one program is less social, as students have learned classroom routines, and more academic in pursuing a wider range of reading and writing skills and beginning to learn the basic facts of mathematics. Students take a much greater role in directing their learning, taking interests in topics they come across in their reading or their classroom work. With reading, they are no longer dependent on adults for all information and take such freedom with great joy!
While ranges still occur, most students, by the end of grade 1 can write several sentences that are coherent and follow a logical train of thought. They can also add and subtract numbers to 50 or more and have a broad sense of geometric math.
GRADE 2: By grade 2 students are beginning to read a lot and they are beginning to express themselves much more in writing. They enjoy reading to learn and are eager to expand their reading vocabulary and the different genres of reading that are available to them. This is a great time to share and talk about reading at home and school as it will help children develop greater comprehension.
By the end of grade 2, many students are writing stories that are well-paragraphed and include descriptions that are indicative of their ability to use writing for creative purposes. In math, they have a strong grasp of adding and subtracting larger numbers and have started to see the relationship between these functions and multiplication and addition.
GRADE 3: This is commonly referred to as a year of “consolidation.” Most students know how to read, write and do basic math calculations, hence the teaching of the “basics” takes more of a backseat to the reinforcement and extension of these skills to new situations. Students read a lot more material as part of their learning and since new skills are not being taught, the practice often allows those who are a little behind developmentally, to catch up. By the end of grade 3, all students should be strong readers and should be able to take a blank page and write a story or essay that is grammatically correct and interesting to read. Most students have become fluent cursive writers (hand-writing) by the end of the year.
In math, grade 3 does extend basic knowledge to multiplication and division. Students should know, by heart, the factors up to 12, and should be able to do consistently accurate and speedy calculations in their heads. Without this basic foundation in numerical literacy, all mathematics applications, decimals, fractions, geometry, algebra and statistics become bogged down by middle school.
GRADES 4 AND 5: Once skills have been developed and consolidated in the primary years, there is a fundamental shift from constant skill learning to placing more emphasis on content. As mentioned earlier, students begin to “read to learn!” The goal of these two years is to help students develop stronger independent work habits, to take greater responsibility for their own learning and to begin to explore greater depth in the materials they cover. Study skills become a major factor with students learning to take notes, to prepare for more comprehensive tests, to do independent research into topics and to present projects for their peers. Time management and materials management are significant skills which are taught and reinforced constantly during this phase of learning.
