St. Paul's Episcopal Nursery School
Our Classes
Classes run from September through May, with both morning sessions (9:00-11:30) and afternoon sessions (12:30-3:00) offered. Class frequency ranges from 1 to 5 days per week depending on the child's age.
Parent - Toddler Class
M Morning or
F Morning
The Parent/Toddler program is for children who are between the ages of 19 months and 2 1/2 years old. This class meets one day per week, and children are accompanied by an adult. Toddlers have the opportunity to explore in a peer group setting under the guidance of a teacher. The program uses play as a mechanism for social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development. Toddlers will be offered a wide variety of age-appropriate materials to explore within the classroom. Adults attending the class enjoy an atmosphere of nuturing support with the teacher and other parents and caregivers, and often exchange experiences, ideas, and parenting practices.
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Older Twos /
Young Threes Class
T/Th Morning or
T/Th Afternoon
This class offers children the opportunity to attend school independently. The emphasis is on autonomy, problem solving, sharing, and social skills that lead to becoming part of a collaborative group. The children learn through play and hands-on exploration of their environment and materials available in the classroom and throughout the school. We provide a language-rich environment by exposing children to varied vocabulary through games, stories, and conversations with teachers and peers. The children may choose to explore various art media, by participating in process-oriented, open-ended art activities, and engage in music and movement sessions with our music teachers.
Children must be 2 years, 7 months by September 8th to enroll.
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Older Threes / Young Fours Class
M/W/F Morning or
M/W/F Afternoon
The 3-year-olds continue to grow socially as they become more actively involved in cooperative and socio-dramatic play with peers, and within a group, offering the opportunity to problem solve. Language, vocabulary, and literacy are fostered through rich experiences including storytelling with books, songs, puppetry, conversations, and small group discussions. Math and science are introduced through naturalistic hands-on play. Children will have the opportunity to explore many types of art media and are offered opportunities to create two and three dimensional open-ended art projects, participate in investigative inquiries with our science teacher and Matt's Maker Space facilitators, and engage in music and movement sessions with our music teachers.
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Four and Five Year Olds
M - Th Morning,
T - F Morning, or
T - F Afternoon
The focus of the 4 and 5-year-old program is on the development of self-initiative and encouragement of critical thinking skills, the development of appropriate independence, and the exploration of topics and expanding knowledge about subjects and themes that are of interest to the children. Children participate and learn through more complex and creative socio-dramatic play. Language and early literacy skills are encouraged through books, classroom discussions, and exposure to written words. This includes dictation of stories, job charts, labeling of items within the classroom, and writing simple messages. The math and science curriculum expands as children explore, manipulate, and organize concrete objects. Children will have the opportunity to measure, compare, balance, and classify while building with unit blocks and other materials. During science, children learn to make predictions and test their ideas. Children's knowledge of their environment will be expanded as they explore outside on the playground and in Bird Park. The children will also spend time using a variety of materials in our Matt's Maker Space engaging in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) through experiential and hands-on learning.
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Five Day Transitional Pre-K
M - F Morning
Our 5-day transitional preschool class is designed for children who meet the age requirements for elementary school kindergarten, but who would benefit developmentally from an additional year in preschool. When this is the case, families may choose our transitional class to gain the pivotal skills which are the foundation to successful learning in kindergarten and beyond. Our transition class will continue to support the development of the whole child, which includes the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development of children. In our pre-k class, children will have the opportunity to move ahead academically, while giving them an extra year for social growth. Participating in appropriately challenging activities will lead to the maturity, confidence, and skills necessary to succeed in elementary school kindergarten.
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Kindergarten Exploration
M/W or T/Th Afternoon
Morning Kindergarteners extend their learning two afternoons a week by exploring exciting themes of interest through hands-on projects and activities designed to encourage children to make connections between people, places, and events. The daily schedule will include opportunities for kindergarten students to play and to learn about their world through projects, and outside explorations in Bird Park and on our playground, weather permitting.
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