Pre-Kindergarten Education

FMS offers a quality educational experience to our youngest learners, i.e., 3 and 4 year olds.  We currently have a Pre-Kindergarten Program and beginning the 2010/2011 school year will we also offer an exciting new "Enrichment and Exploration" (E&E) Program.

Enrichment and Exploration Program (E & E)

The pre-kindergarten Enrichment and Exploration Program is a morning only program available 2, 3, or 5 days a week from 8:30 to 11:30 AM. Class size are limited to 10 children with a certified Senior Staff/Lead Teacher.

The program focuses on a social curriculum introducing life skills which will help introduce and foster caring interactions between others.  Environmental awareness is learned and lived through outdoor play and exploration of our 54 acre campus.

Daily activities include Story-time, Arts and Crafts, Free Play, and Show and Share.  Incorporated with hands-on purposeful play in our spectacular "Big Center Room" with big blocks and cars, dramatic play, puppet theater, music, housekeeping, art, and mystery tables along with hiking, creeking, planting, building, and explorating of our magnificent campus.

Activities and field trips are structured around exciting and changing themes such as:  All About Me, Fall Fun and Fantasy, Holidays Around The World, Nursery Rhymes and Folktales, Space Above, Around, and Below.

Pre-Kindergarten Program

The regular pre-kindergarten program is available on a full day or morning only basis five days a week.  The class size is limited to 16 students with a full time teacher and aide.  This class has more academics folded into the program.  In addition, the school's performing arts teacher meets with the class two days a week and full day students benefit from Spanish three days a week and Art and Physical Education once a week.

We are a school where age and skill appropriate classes are taught.  Although the school classes are specifically structured to develop motor, language, and learning skills, there is also an emphasis on fun. Time is set aside for healthful snacks and for afternoon naps. We encourage exploration and creativity and foster caring interactions with others. It is extremely important that students experience success and the joy of learning at an early age. 

The curriculum is taught within the context of the greater world.  Speakers come in to share their experiences or children go on field trips to meet neighbors and businesses or go to museums and nature centers.  As our youngest students learn how their more formal classes relate to their lives, they begin to build connections.  The trips begin to build community connections.

The Pre-kindergarteners also use our campus as a learning laboratory. The students see first hand the flora and fauna that is native to the area. Butterfly and vegetable gardens as well as the nearby creek running through our woods attract all types of nature and students go outdoors on a regular basis to study and explore the environs.

Special programs such as Spanish, Physical Education, and Performing Arts are introduced in the curriculum.  Many parents are surprised to find their children performing on stage as often as they do.  Pre-kindergarten students are introduced to music and drama as a regular part of their day-to-day school experience. These non-threatening experiences help the students express themselves in new and creative ways while they develop new skills. They frequently perform for both the student body and for parents and friends. 

Pre-kindergarten is not segregated from the rest of the school. Students of different ages interact every day. The "big kids" from our Middle School very much enjoy working with their pre-kindergarten reading buddies. Even when the buddies aren't reading together, they support each other with hugs and high fives in the hall as well as loud cheering at performances.