The Beanstalk Academy

PRE-SCHOOL PROGRAMS 

CUB CLASS

This class is for children ages 2 ½ years of age to 3 ½ years of age. All students need to be fully potty trained in September when school begins. The Cub program focuses on social behavior, learning to get along with others and sharing. This class is usually the child’s first formal experience and is very structured and routine based.  

Areas of educational focus begin in the cognitive thinking stages and progress to the critical thinking stages with “hands-on” activities and with process-oriented projects. The children do their “own” work and produce their own projects showing their developmental abilities. The entire curriculum is based on age appropriate activities and lessons build upon each other as the week progresses.

CONCEPTS covered over the year include colors, shapes, number concepts, patterning, listening skills, fine motor tasks (cutting, tracing, etc.) and name recognition skills.

UNITS are developed each month and change depending on abilities and needs, and change each year.  Some units studied are: All About Me, Manners and Sharing, The Farm, Animals, Nursery Rhymes, Seasonal Changes & Holiday Celebrations.

DRAMATIC PLAY and BLOCK BUILDING are a part of the child’s “work time” experiences, which facilitates their ability to make positive choices and get along with others.  Social interaction and problem solving are stressed through play.

ART PROJECTS and COOKING PROJECTS are a large part of the daily activity.  These students learn by DOING – each project is taught through an art experience or a cooking experience.  The children learn by creating a project or recipe to build upon the concepts that are presented each day. 

BEAR CLASS

The Bear class is for children ages 4 years to 5 years of age.  This class is usually the second year experience for most and it builds upon the Cub class experiences. These students are getting prepared for Kindergarten entrance the following year.  The focus is on extending attention span, critical problem solving, making positive choices and concept development.  The activities are based on academic levels and developmental stages and are prepared each day to expand their cognitive skills. Completing projects on “their own” and finishing the task is stressed through “hands-on” activities and unit work.

CONCEPTS covered over the year are upper/lower case letter recognition, number recognition, counting, patterning, rhyming skills, fine motor development (writing, cutting, tracing), letter sound recognition, and pre-reading skills.

UNITS vary depending on the class development and change each year as to not repeat the same units for children that may be returning to this class.  Some units covered in this age group are; Transportation, Five Senses, Solar System, Famous Authors, Animal Habitats, Seasonal Changes, Holiday Celebrations and many more.

ART PROJECTS and COOKING EXPERIMENTS are stressed each day as a part of the daily routine.  Cooking becomes a math experience and art is a lesson learned through varied media and based on their unit of study. 

LITERATURE is chosen depending on the unit or season being studied and children are encouraged to listen and understand the concepts presented through the stories read. The students in this class also create their own books and write in journals to collect their thoughts and feelings.