Early Childhood

Pre-school (ages 3-4) through Kindergarten (ages 5-6)

The pre-school program provides opportunities for children to develop good social skills and work habits in a setting that is age-appropriate. Students are made comfortable in a pleasant, responsive and caring environment where they have direct, hands-on experience with stimulating learning materials which foster active, self-directed, and play-oriented learning. The entire program stresses the importance of learning “readiness skills;" i.e. those skills that help prepare the student for later, more formal instruction.

The reading readiness skills include auditory discrimination, following oral directions, oral language development, and listening and letter recognition, among other skills. Math skills stress position, same vs. different awareness, order of events, large vs. small, and tall vs. short. Social studies, science and health exposure develop skills that are readily observable to the young child. Music and movement, fine motor skills, arts and crafts, and pre-writing skills round out the pre-school program.

The kindergarten program at AISF is a bridge between pre-school and the academic school, providing five-year-olds a wider social environment for the development and reinforcement of home-learned social, emotional, and intellectual skills. The program is full day, and full-curriculum supported. Competencies taught in kindergarten are prerequisites for first grade. Child initiated, self-motivated learning is used as a springboard for presenting a phonics-based pre-reading program with intervening whole-language activities. Students are taught recognition of letter names and sounds, sight recognition of high frequency words, and decoding of two- and three-letter words.

A manipulative-based math program is interspersed with music, art, social studies, science, and physical education. Students classify and categorize objects, identify and write numbers up to 20, add and subtract sets totaling up to 10, and tell time on analog and digital clocks on the hour and half hour. All are presented in both informal and formal instructional settings. With the exception of physical education, all subjects are supported by student textbooks and/or a worksheet series that are the entry-level text for the subject as taught throughout the school’s overall curriculum. A self-selected play and independent exploration time is scheduled daily.