Curriculum Overview

Saint Mary Preschool is based on Christian values which foster each child’s individuality with respect for the school community. Our child-centered environment provides a loving, safe, first school experience, focusing on the development of the whole child. Children gain knowledge through the discovery and exploration of developmentally appropriate activities that are offered through the preschool curriculum. Play is a critical component to our early childhood programs. Above all, our priority is to provide a safe, happy school experience for young children.

All three of our preschool programs' curricula follow the Guidelines for Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Experiences created by the Department for Early Education and Care and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.  These guidelines help us ensure that we are creating a fun, engaging and developmentally appropriate curriculum for your child. 

Our Pre-K program implements Let's Begin with the Letter People, a research-based, developmentally appropriate, comprehensive Pre-K curriculum.  Let’s Begin with the Letter People  helps children develop the strong foundation they’ll need for reading and writing success in today’s kindergarten classrooms.  Each Letter Person brings in a different theme while teaching the children their letter sound and formation.   It is integrated learning across language and literacy, math, science, and social-emotional development.  Not only does it work on alphabet knowledge, but also enhances oral language, listening skills, vocabulary development, writing and spelling.  This program creates a fun, stimulating and academic environment for the children in Pre-K.  Children work on different number and math concepts each week, ie. number sense, one-to-one correspondence, patterning, matching, sorting, shapes, early addition/subtraction, etc. The children participate in specials throughout the week- music, art, physical education and library. Here is a sample of our Pre-K daily schedule. 

Students in the 2-Day and 3-Day Preschool programs are exposed to early literacy concepts through Orton-Gillingham phonemic awareness activities and the Handwriting Without Tears handwriting curriculum (3-Day class). The students engage in free-play, dramatic play, exploratory math, music, movement, art, and classroom community building activities, following monthly themes such as transportation, community helpers, winter holidays, and seasons. Here is a sample of our Preschool daily schedule.  Below are some examples of the pre-reading, pre-writing and math skills that we incorporate into the curriculum at Saint Mary Preschool. Many of the skills overlap from one skill area to another. 

Pre-Reading Skills

Letter bingo 
Rubber stamping words 
Name recognition 
Preschool contents labeled 
Listening center  
Daily storytime 
Matching games 
Letter recognition 
Left to right progression 
Letter sound identification 
Finger plays 
 

Math Skills

Labeling 
Number bingo 
Sequencing 
Shape bingo 
Shape recognition 
Counting calendar days/days in school
Matching 
Categorizing 
Number stamping and recognition 
Geo boards 
Puzzles 
Rhythm and beats 
Sorting bears
Number tracing 

Pre-Writing Skills

Fine motor building activities (ie. lacing cards)
Scissor skill practice 
Stamping words 
Water and sand table 
Rice table 
Manipulatives 
Letter bingo 
Name tracing 
Letter recognition 
Left to right progression 
Letter sound identification