Programs
Preschool Program Overview
3 yr olds (Chickadees):
Sunshine Preschool offers a half-day program (8:30am – 11:45am or 12:00pm – 3:15pm), 5 days per week, to incoming 3 year olds. Children must be 2 years, 8 months and toilet trained by September 1st. The Chickadee program includes circle time, outdoor play, snack, story time, art, cooking, center times, and music. In addition, the Spanish and Literacy teachers work with the children several times a week.
4 yr olds (Pandas & Dalmatians):
Our program for 4-year-old children is full day (9:00am – 3:00pm), 4 days per week. The Preschool Program includes morning meetings, center times, outside play, story time, lunch/rest, Literacy and Spanish programs, science, cooking, and art. We also offer music twice a week, weekly soccer through Super Soccer Stars, and a variety of other enrichment and extracurricular activities. The Dalmatian class is a transitional one with about half of the students going into kindergarten. Many elements of our DK program are a part of this program.
DK (Zebras):
Our DK class is for 5-year-old children who miss the cut-off for Kindergarten or for those who would benefit from a “gift” year. The Zebra class is full-day (9:00am – 3:00pm), 4 days per week. In addition to all of the activities listed under the 4-year-old program, the DK program gives children extended opportunities in literacy, mathematics, science and social studies through project work, writing opportunities, word walls, hands-on math and science explorations, cultural studies and individual activities that challenge each child at their own pace.
Sunshine Preschool Benchmark Skills
The preschool program at Sunshine is designed to match the developmental and cognitive growth of children 3-5 years old. Based on an understanding of child development, the Sunshine program is “child-centered,” cognitively challenging, and focused on supporting social/emotional growth and creative expression. The following elements are those skills that are cornerstones of our program; we expect our students to be competent in these skills by the completion of our program.