Dear Parents-

We are so excited to have our new school year underway and hope that your child is adjusting well. By now you should have received a lesson plan from your child's teacher highlighting some of the wonderful and engaging activities that your child will experience the first few weeks of school. In a High/Scope preschool your child will be exposed to many different things and encouraged to explore and experiment with all of them many times and in many ways. Remember that we are a developmental preschool, which means that everything we do is based on NAEYC's concept of Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Your child's preschool experiences will absolutely prepare him/her for elementary school, but it may be in ways that are unfamiliar to you. We do not use worksheets or flashcards, ever. Your child's experiences in preschool will be hands-on and process oriented. We know that children learn best when they are actively engaged and in control of their learning. While children can learn thought other methods like flashcards and worksheets, hands-on learning requires higher level thinking and leads to a love of learning that will last a lifetime. Below are some of the goals that we have for your child while they are in preschool. As you can see, these goals are very broad and cover all areas of development.

High/Scope’s Basic Goals for Preschoolers

      1. Helping children develop the ability to make choices and decisions about what to do and how to do it.

     2. Develop their self discipline and ability to identify, pursue, and complete self chosen goals and tasks.

     3. Develop the ability to work with other children and adults in group planning, cooperative efforts, and with shared leadership.

     4. Develop their knowledge of objects, skill in the arts, and comfort with physical movement.

     5. Develop the ability to express their thoughts, ideas, and feelings; to speak, dramatize, and represent experiences to communicate to others.

     6. Develop the ability to comprehend others’ spoken, written and dramatic communications and representations.

     7. Develop the ability to apply reasoning skills to all situations using a variety of materials.

     8. To develop creativity, initiative, spirit of inquiry and openness to knowledge of other people’s view points.