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The first 15 minutes of class involves children coming in. They learn to hang up their back packs, hang up their coat and say good-bye to their parents. Teachers work individually with children and each child has a chart. The chart includes letter and number recognition, phonics sounds, written capabilities, sign language knowledge and other concepts such as opposites, money and counting. Shapes and colors are also on this chart. Teachers keep track and parents may look at it daily to see the progress of their child. (Each child is worked with at least once a week and sometimes more). Other children are allowed to use their imagination and play with the doll house, big house, and Lego’s. They work on social skills such as sharing and playing games together. We have puzzles, number and letter games as well as scissors, paper, and crayons available at this time for creative play.

The next 15 minutes is concentrated on the calendar to learn the numbers, days of the week, and months of the year. We use large motor skills by standing up and moving around with the months and clapping from side to side with the days of the week and fine motor skills with sign language for the days of the week. Children learn the concept as well as memorizing. They count down to special events and take turns putting numbers on the calendar. They learn to wait their turn, raise hands, etc…

The next 5 minutes is spent praying. We take their requests for things such as sick family members, or thanking God for special things that have happened. A teacher will pray out loud while they pray silently.

The next 15 minutes is spent on our story. This can be on a flannel graph, memo board, or a library book. We use stories that are from the bible as well as the other books. We incorporate Jesus into 80% of the stories. We ask children questions as well as have them listen. We work on the skills of raising their hands when they know the answer to learning how to sit still and listen to the teachers (the goal is getting them to develop skills needed for kindergarten). They receive rewards such as stickers if they have accomplished the goal of sitting, paying attention, keeping hands off others, etc..
The next 10 - 15 minutes involve a song. Most songs are made up for the theme. Children learn the concept such as opposite, Michigan, presidents, planets, etc… in a song. They also use fine and large motor skills by using movement and sign language as they are singing the song. They learn a new song every week and then keep reviewing the songs from the previous weeks.

The next 15 minutes is where the child uses his or her creativity. Our crafts are either tied in with what our theme is or a letter. Children use painting, cutting, or putting together things to develop their fine motor skills as well as teaching confidence and accomplishing goals. When we do a letter we teach the phonic sounds as well as how to recognize the letter. We also teach them how to write their first name. We start with upper case and then move to lower case letters. Teaching them how to write their name involves good listening and good fine motor skills. At least 85% of children write their name in the first 4 months by direction and after that they write without help.

The next 10 minutes they have some more time of open play and the teachers will work individually with some of the children. We do different things when we are teaching them at this time from bingo markers with counting, to chips being put on a chart with letters. We use push pins and small carpet squares and have them poke holes around the letter to learn the shape of it as well as fine motor skills so they can also have the skills for writing it. The other children get a break from the structure and can talk with their friends, use their imagination and we teach them how to communicate correctly with their social skills. We have them use words to express their feelings, not their hands, or whining or screaming etc…

The next 10 minutes is when we provide a healthy juice and snack. They learn to pray before they eat by singing the “Thank You Jesus for Our Food” song. They learn good table manners, and waiting their turn. The rest of the class period is as follows:

Bible Verse: they learn a bible verse every week. They practice during class and on the last day of class for that week, they recite back to the teachers and we give them a stamp on their chart. It helps them with their memory as well as learning Gods Word. We explain the meaning of the verses and how it goes with the theme for that week.

Introducing a new letter: we show the children the letter, show them how it is in sign language and then the sound. We start out a new letter every class. We teach them the upper case and the lower case. We sing the phonics song which we teach them slowly. Example: a - ah, ah, - apple, b - ba ba, ball, etc... They are looking at the letter, making the sign language and then singing the song. This has helped so many of them to learn the phonic sound and then we are able to have the children reading.

Noah’s Box: inside this box we have a surprise every class period. We pick two or three children to bring us the Noah’s box. It is a reward for the children who have an especially great day. They love the surprise inside the Noah’s box. There will be either things that start with the sound that we are learning or the theme that we are talking about. We then have a new number that we introduce on a big card. We show the children the number and have them repeat it. We have different games that go with the numbers. Example bowling - what ever number they selected we put up that number of pins and they try to knock them down. We do jumping jacks for that number or we sometimes have them use a ball to count and bounce. This helps them learn the number, understand the concept and work on their large motor skill development. We have a song that teaches them 10, 20, 30, - all the way to 100. They do this and jump up when they get to 50 and drop down when they get to 100.