Preschool

by Brianne Moudry

December 22, 2004

The preschool program at Hemingford Public Schools is a play-oriented learning environment. It is a half-day program that runs four days a week. The children receive a snack and lunch before they leave. It incorporates home visits and visits with the parents in other settings.

We do many things in the program to promote a positive self-concept in the children. We also encourage students to make choices on their own and be self-reliant. The development of social skills is something that is worked on many ways throughout the day. The children are all at different levels, so our thinking, reasoning, questioning, and experimentation are also done at different levels. Each child works on each skill at his/her own level. We work on language development continuously throughout the day and have many literacy experiences. We incorporate many fine motor experiences into the day also. Most of the activities we do are related to our theme of the week.

Theme time

We use a phonics program called Zoo-phonics. It uses a multi-sensory approach that incorporates visual, motor, and auditory skills to teach the letters. It also teaches letter sounds before introducing letter names.

Students are eligible for the preschool if they have special needs, are referred here, or are children of staff members.

Each day, the students have theme time, center time (where they select activities of their choice), snack time, circle time (where they do calendar, phonics, counting and alphabet skills, and work on familiar information such as their name and phone number), music time, story time, and lunch.

Center time

ChildFind is a community wide effort to provide opportunities for children with disabilities. The purpose of Child Find is to identify children between birth and 21 years of age who may have individual needs that result from disabilities. The local school district works in cooperation with the medical community and other service agencies to locate children with disabilities in our area. Services are available for any eligible child including those who are home schooled. Any information you provide regarding a child will be kept confidential as required by local, state, and federal law. If you live within the Hemingford School District and have or know of a child who may benefit from special education or related services, please contact Mandy Plog, Hemingford Special Education Director, at 487-3328 for details on the referral process.