Little Oak Nursery School provides a Pre-K program that is taught in a developmentally appropriate environment with hands on experiences. Our kindergarten readiness program is provided to:

1. Children who are in their last year of preschool before entering Kindergarten.

2. Children who are in their last year of preschool before entering Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and who will turn 4 years old before January 1st of the current school year. *Children in this age group will be evaluated individually by Little Oak staff for their readiness to participate in pre-k.

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• All children that participate in our pre-k program will be included in our graduation ceremony held in June.

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We use a phonics based reading and writing program called “itl” (rhymes with “little”). Children listen to stories about characters (alphabet letters turned into animals) that make funny noises (the major speech sounds represented by the letters). They will then color the animals, cut them out and glue them on craft sticks to make their very own letter characters! They will also draw the letter-animals, and practice writing the individual letters with the goal of eventually writing words and short sentences.
All twenty-six lowercase letters are taught before we focus on the capital letters. Each letter is introduced according to its writing difficulty, rather than the traditional alphabet order. We will stress the speech sounds represented by the letters, rather than their names in the alphabet. This way, when children see words in print, they are able to sound out and read the word. This gives the children a strong foundation for pre-reading and writing skills.
Our Pre-K program also includes emphasis on numbers, colors, shapes, large and small motor activities, self-help skills, and group work. All children learn at their own pace. The goal in our Pre-K program is for each child to feel confident and successful.