Good Shepherd Preschool will:

Offer environments and experiences that encourage active, playful exploration and experimentation for each child. Play will be an integral part of the high quality curriculum which includes purposeful teaching to help children gain the knowledge and skills to develop small and large muscles along with essential brain-processing skills;

Provide appropriate conditions for learning and individually assist each child to move along a pathway of healthy learning and development of their mind, body, and soul;

Align the curriculum with California State Kindergarten Standards, as well as complement those foundations with a strong emphasis on social and emotional development.

Good Shepherd school believes the following foundations will be a springboard which will expose and enable children to acquire the competencies to prepare them for success in school.

Overview of the Learning Foundations Offered at Good Shepherd School

  1. Social and Emotional Development

    • The child will learn about Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation as they develop emotional understanding, empathy, caring, and initiative skills.
    • The child will learn social interaction as they interact with familiar adults, peers, and groups in a cooperative and responsible manner.
    • The child will learn about relationships and attachments to family, teachers, friends & others.

  2. English Language, Literacy Development, and Literature Appreciation

    • The child will be given opportunities to develop the skills of listening and speaking, using verbal and non-verbal communications as they tell their own stories.
    • The child will be given opportunities to develop awareness of the concept of phonemic awareness, phonics, and print content comprehension.
    • The child will be given opportunities to develop writing strategies of grasp and body position, while using a variety of tools to make marks that represent letters and words to communicate, as the teacher models correct letter formation and creates an environment of print.
    • The child will build a vocabulary using proper grammar.

  3. Mathematical Development

    • The child will be given opportunities to develop knowledge and skills to acquire an understanding of number sense which focuses on counting and number relationships.
    • The child will be given opportunities to develop knowledge and skills that focus on sorting and classifying objects and recognizing patterns.
    • The child will be given opportunities to measure, compare, and create order.
    • The child will be given opportunities to discover the properties of shape and the relationship of objects in space.
    • The child will be given opportunities to develop mathematical thinking to solve problems.

  4. Art Appreciation

    • The child will be exposed to the use of different kinds of art and the use of many kinds of tools and processes.

  5. Spiritual Development

    • The child will come to learn that God loves them and has a purpose for their life.
    • The child will come to discover a relationship with their Heavenly Father.
    • The child will learn the importance of prayer and the Bible.