WSD offers a four day, full-day preschool (M-Th, with Fridays reserved for student home visits via Zoom or Facetime). Students arrive before 8:00 am and the day ends at 3:00 pm. Preschool is highly thematic. All activities revolve around a theme, typically driven by the time of year. Research shows students at a young age learn better when connections are explicit, and language is “hooked” onto something they already know. During the day, students have various Early Childhood developmentally appropriate centers for pre-academics with art and social play infused throughout. The focus at preschool is learning to communicate with purpose. Staff encourages students to play with language and use it in novel ways.
The preschool program has two classrooms run by two teachers- Pamela Whitney and Michelle Hutton Joseph. Children are placed in one of two groups, based on age and readiness. The older students who are preparing to be ready for kindergarten are in the “BUTTERFLIES” group. The younger students are in the “CATERPILLARS” group. Both groups are together for social opportunities, such as free play, snack times, recess, nap/quiet time, and lunch. Each group is in their “home room” for academic times- language centers (visual and written), art centers, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
Co-teachers Pam and Michelle work with both groups on a rotating basis each week and then swap homerooms. This means that each child gets bothteachers throughout the school year.
The SLP, educational audiologist, school counselor and ASL specialist are all part of the preschool classroom team. They are on a rotation cycle and work with students on spoken language, listening skills, social skills and ASL skills respectively.
Daily communication with parents is emphasized. The preschool has a cool classroom app called Seesaw, which is like Facebook for the classroom. Only classroom members can see our page, and is not for sharing on personal social media. The teachers upload pictures of the children, activities and discoveries in the classroom, and links to YouTube videos. Families can use this app to review pictures of the day with their child, which builds shared language use at home.
Assessments at the preschool include: the VCSL (Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist), the Brigance for Early Learning and other checklists. Preschool follows the Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks, and students’ readiness for kindergarten is reported annually to OSPI for students that are ready to transition.