Pre-Kindergarten & K-Readiness

At Sunshine Child Care and Learning Center, we offer a quality, affordable, safe and exceptional preschool program to children 3-5 years of age.  Our Pre-K program combines academic innovation with socialization activities and character development – creating an unparalleled experience for your youngster.  At Sunshine we truly believe that each child is a special gift whom parents have entrusted to our care.  While in Sunshine’s Pre-K program, children flourish in a structured and nurturing environment where their talents and abilities are encouraged.  We have found that children learn best and respond positively when learning is made fun and boundaries are clearly defined.

Socialization The classroom is an ideal environment for children to learn how to cooperate and share with their peers.  Whether it is learning to cooperatively build a house with wooden blocks or playing imaginative games on the playground, children are encouraged to work together in a positive and considerate way.  The goal of Sunshine’s program is to encourage children to be “kind” friends, “first-time” listeners, and to learn to function independently. Socialization is accomplished through:

• Indoor Freeplay
• Outdoor Freeplay
• Activity Centers
• Snack/Lunch
• Share  Circle
• Dramatic Play
• Music/Movement
• Special Events

Academics At our preschool, children are gradually taught simple academic concepts starting with shapes and colors.  They then move on to number concepts, alphabetic letter and sound recognition and then perfecting their penmanship.  Creative teachers teach these concepts through visual, auditory, and physical activities.  The secret ingredients to our success in academics are creativity and fun- setting the stage for a true love of learning.  Some of the areas where Sunshine focuses on academic achievement are:

Reading Skills The Sunshine Pre-Kindergarten reading program focuses on phonetic and decoding skills, vocabulary development, comprehension, answering factual questions, making predictions, rhyming and sequencing.  Other goals include distinguishing between beginning and ending sounds, knowing the phonetic sounds of all the consonants and vowels.

Literature The Sunshine Pre-Kindergarten literature program introduces a variety of classical stories and discusses them with the children in order to develop vocabulary, story comprehension, and a love for reading.  Goals include identifying characters, setting and important events as well as title and author.

Penmanship The penmanship program focuses on the further development of fine motor skills through challenging scissor activities and penmanship practice. Children will perfect their printing of both lower and upper case letters.

Math The math program focuses on classification, patterns, counting to 100 and recognition of numbers to 20. Children also learn to identify basic shapes and develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.  Other goals include understanding size comparisons, positional concepts and the differences in many geometrical shapes.

Social Studies The social studies program focuses on holidays, the family, and careers. In addition, a geography component is built into our social studies curriculum. Students will also identify and locate most of the 50 states.

Science The Science program introduces the children to Physical Science, Life Science, Earth Science and Health Science. Some of our Pre-k science themes include magnetism, states of matter and life cycles of animals.

Music The Sunshine music program introduces songs, chants, beat, rhythm, and music and movement skills.  Each class has a visit from a certified music teacher several times per month, in addition to the music and movement that is incorporated into the class by the teacher on a daily basis.

Art The Sunshine art program emphasizes eye-hand coordination, large and fine motor control, and creativity through drawing and painting, cutting and pasting, use of watercolors, chalk, paints and crayons.

Technology We are the only preschool in the Santa Clarity Valley with a Smartboard.    The smartboard provides a unique opportunity to reinforce letters, numbers, shapes, sounds, colors and much more through very interactive and attention grabbing technology.  In addition we have a computer lab at each of our campuses!  The use of our computer lab introduces general technological skills including use of the mouse, space bar, return key, arrow keys and proper use of equipment.

Sunshine’s Character Development Program Sunshine’s Character program includes monthly character traits and moral principles that are introduced and reinforced on a daily basis throughout our whole school. Class activities, community projects, and thematic units that coincide with our curriculum expose the children to all of Sunshine’s character traits. Here is a sample of some of our monthly character traits and their difinitions:

August- Obedience and Respect
“Doing what you are told the first time with a happy heart”
( a.k.a. “first-time listening”)

September- Attentiveness
“Listening with my ears, my eyes, my heart, and my body”

October- Forgiveness
“To forget someone’s wrong doing”