Programs

Learning Via Doing

Hummingbird

2-year-olds

2-day or 5-Day Core: 8:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Optional Extended Care until 5:00 p.m.

The Hummingbird class is often a child's first preschool experience. Children in this class typically move to the Robin class the following year, and will usually have a 3-year preschool experience. In this class, your child’s first lessons will be to practice transitions: from home to school, from primary caregivers to teachers, and from activity to activity throughout the daily school routine.

Once the students are settled in these transitions, it is the teachers’ job to move these little ones from the parallel play of toddlerhood to associative play with classmates. The children in this class will also begin to learn what it’s like to be part of a group, how to regulate their bodies, how to recognize and label feelings in themselves and others, as well as strategies for sharing and turn-taking. The Hummingbird class pet is Turbo, a Russian Golden tortoise.

Aftercare can be added to extend the day until 5:00 p.m.

Finch

3-year-olds

3-day or 5-Day Core 8:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Optional Extended Care until 5:00 p.m.

The Finch class is often a child’s first preschool experience. Children in this class move to either the Robin class or the Mallard TK class the following year.

In this class, your child’s first lessons will be to practice transitions: from home to school, from primary caregivers to teachers, and from activity to activity throughout the daily school routine. Once the students are settled in these transitions, it is the teachers’ job to move these little ones from associative play to more cooperative play with classmates. The children in this class will also begin to learn what it’s like to be part of a group, how to regulate their bodies, how to recognize and label feelings in themselves and others, as well as strategies for sharing and turn-taking. The Finch class pet is Turbo, a Russian Golden tortoise.

Aftercare can be added to extend the day until 5:00 p.m.

Robin

4-year-olds

4-day Mon-Thu -or- 5-day Mon-Fri
8:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Optional Extended Care until 5:00 p.m.

The Robin class is The Lake School's four-year-old class. These students have the option of a 4 or 5-day week and move on to the Mallard TK class the following year.

This class carries on our emergent play-based curriculum with a focus on deepening dramatic play scenarios within the group and moving toward more complex art and science processes. The children are given more responsibility with rotating “classroom jobs” and have the opportunity to interact more with the school’s animals and gardens. In addition to the continuation of building social skills, this class also begins to introduce kindergarten readiness skills such as a daily calendar and phonemic awareness activities. The Robin class pet is Lizard Blizzard, a leapord gecko.

Enrichment classes and Blue Jay Play can be added to extend the day until 5:00 pm.

Mallard
Transitional Kindegarten (TK)

5-day Mon-Fri 8:45 am-12:45 pm
Optional Extended Care until 5:00 p.m.

The Lake School TK program is for children turning 5. In this class we deepen our play-based practices to include project-based learning. With this approach, children and teachers scaffold ideas and extend focus on a subject for much longer periods of time building confidence, critical thinking, curiosity, and love for learning. At this age children have the opportunity to practice more complex socio-emotional skills as the friendship circles and social problems become more detailed and complicated. The program continues to build on kindergarten readiness skills with classroom jobs, field trips and more time for penmanship practice and beginning reading skills.