After a successful year in RHSM’s 2PreK program, Rachel’s parents select the 3PreK program that meets five mornings a week. As Rachel starts the year, her teachers are eager to support her progress and review her file for helpful information about her strengths.

Rachel finds her 3PreK teachers and classroom new, but the routine is similar to last year’s. After a few days, she is an enthusiastic and eager participant. Again this year, much of her day is organized to encourage her free choice of learning activities. Her teachers immediately recognize her interest in painting and encourage several new students to play with her in this area, fostering new friendships. In addition to new friends in his class Rachel will have a buddy from a fourth grade classroom. As part of the school’s service learning program, classrooms in the Lower School and Beginning School meet together through out the year. Each three-year-old participates as a member of the school community with a fourth grade buddy, sharing activities and experiences together.

The social and personal growth of each student is a major focus of the program of the 3PreK program. Rachel usually comes to school feeling competent and proud of her ability to do familiar things. Her self confidence builds as she joins other children playing in the house corner, comes to the snack table and serves herself while participating in conversations with classmates, or chooses individual activities such as puzzles and painting. Gradually as the year goes by, Rachel increases the range and diversity of activities in which she chooses to participate. Her teachers help her increase her self-direction by expecting her to wash her hands before eating, choose her own materials for pasting on a collage, select a book from among several neatly arranged books, hang up her belongings, observe and experiment at the sensory table, and choose one activity over another. To help Rachel develop self control her teachers expect her to care for books responsibly, use marking pens on paper rather than surfaces, put caps back on markers, put her toys away when finished playing, and treat classroom pets and plants gently and with care. Rachel learns to manage transitions and accept change without undue distress by responding to the songs and signals the teachers use each day to indicate when it is time to clean up, go outside, and get ready to go home.

Rachel approaches play with purpose and inventiveness. She recognizes that the toy animals on the shelf would make a nice addition to the block play and brings them over to incorporate them in her play. She delights in mixing blue and yellow water and observing it change to green. Since Rachel is just learning how to interact positively with other children, her teachers support her emerging social skills by asking her to participate in routines with other students like sweeping up the sand around the sensory table and setting the table for snacks. Rachel participates in the group life of the class as she notices who is absent from community circle, as she takes her turn bringing the class mascot “baby bear” home for a visit, and as she selects the book to be read at group time. Teachers encourage Rachel to develop empathy and caring for others by acknowledging her kindness when she soothes a crying friend, or asks a teacher to help her friend tie a shoe. As is typical of children his age, Rachel does not yet have the skills to settle conflicts with other students on her own. Her teacher carefully models what to say when she and another child want the same toy, what to do when someone paints on her picture, and where to get help outside in the play yard.

Language and literacy skills are developed all year long. Rachel is encouraged to listen and follow two-step directions and to participate in the rereading of familiar stories. Her phonological awareness is stimulated when she repeats verses in familiar songs, joins other children in reciting poems, and uses rhythm sticks to tap out syllables of names. Rachel’s interest in letters and words is stimulated when she finds her name card in circle time, when she helps to tape labels to classroom objects, and when she dictates a grocery list in the play house. Her scribbles and unconventional shapes are interpreted for her parents and valued as emerging writing attempts. Her teachers take dictation when she describes her drawings and constructions, helping her recognize that writing represents ideas and stories. Her teachers help her comprehend and respond to stories read aloud by pointing to pictures as they read, retelling stories with flannel board cutouts and puppets, and encouraging her interest at books during free choice time.

Rachel’s mathematical thinking skills develop all year as she shows an interest in solving mathematical problems by deciding where each block belongs on the shelf, by sorting objects into subgroups, and by identifying shapes. She is given many opportunities to use positional and comparative words. Her teachers encourage her first attempts at counting and working with numbers. She participates frequently in measuring activities in the sensory tub, in the outdoor sand box and during cooking projects.

Rachel is very curious and enjoys looking at pinecones and pointing out every detail. She tries to guess the identity of objects by smell, and she wonders where bubbles come from in a shaken plastic bottle. Her scientific thinking skills are developed when she uses her senses to observe and explore classroom materials, when she makes comparisons among objects, and when she begins to use simple tools and equipment for investigations. Cooking projects and science activities occur regularly and objects from the natural world also appear frequently for study.

Rachel participates in music experiences, in creative movement and dance, and she uses a variety of art materials to develop his artistic expression.

By the end of the year, her teachers find that she has mastered all of the skills on their developmental checklists for her age and she is ready for the 4 PreK program next year. Rachel’s parents receive her portfolio documenting the learning progress that has occurred all year long.