Good Shepherd School achieved accreditation in 2007 with the hard work and dedication of our teaching and support staff. Extracurricular enhancements occur through our Early Learner Program and specials in Science, Art, and Music.
Want to learn more about our Good Shepherd classes? Our accredited program is due to the successful teaching methods and professional dedication of the Good Shepherd staff. Stop by for a tour of our facility.
Preschool 3s and 4s
Preschool is a critical time for young children. We emphasize giving our students the skill sets they will need to successfully enter and transition to Kindergarten. Preschool curriculum at each of these age groups stress the fundamental academics of basic letter and number recognition, phonics, and vocabulary, which all lead to early reading skills. Social interaction is also necessary for an optimum learning environment. We achieve this through Social Centers and creative activities that stress interaction and communication within the child's peer group. Field trips are fun and necessary to expand a child's awareness of their community and world. We schedule exciting trips for the children to local fire stations, veterinary hospitals, and more. We also encourage parents and community volunteers to come and give talks in our classrooms.
Kindergarten
Good Shepherd School is an accredited program; our curriculum meets and exceeds the state standards.
Our Kindergarten class has a low student to teacher ratio. The enrichment classes include: Spanish, Science, Art Masterpiece, Learning through Play, Social Studies, Cooking, Music, Chapel, and Library. In addition, the class takes field trips and has guest speakers to enhance their studies.
The reading curriculum has a heavy emphasis on phonics but also includes some whole language techniques. Reading comprehension is a priority. Math is taught using the Math Investigations curriculum that incorporates a hands-on approach so children learn one-to-one correspondence, patterning, and simple addition and subtraction. The children journal each day; it is exciting to see the progression from pictures to more actual sentence structure as the school year progresses. Social Studies includes a study of other cultures including cooking and a geography project. In science, the children will learn to form scientific questions, perform experiments to test their hypothesis, and record their results.
Transitional Kindergarten
We offer a unique opportunity for students who might need an additional year to prepare for Kindergarten. Often children who have a late birthday or could simply benefit from another year of preparation will thrive in our Transitional Kindergarten classes. TK students have more time to work on academic preparation, maturity and independence, creative thinking, and socialization/classroom skills which are just some of the next-level expectations.
Early Learner (formally MDO)
Early Learner at Good Shepherd is more than a break for mom! It can give your child a chance to learn and practice social skills and classroom structure before preschool or kindergarten. Our Early Learners program enhances the early childhood development stage by giving children a fun and creative weekly program at an early age. The program also supplements the preschool curriculum with extended classroom times, day camps, and special exploratory programs which help your child expand their curiosities.
Comments from our Families:
"Kindergarten at Good Shepherd this year has been the best thing. My daughter has had some wonderful experiences with her class and the transitional K class as well.
One thing I really liked about the kindergarten program is that it gave her one more year for some special attention in the classroom because of the smaller class size. I also liked the schedule because it gave her time to adjust to the full schedule of public school for years to come.
With these few things, my daughter has come to love school. She looks forward to it everyday."
Christine Deviney, Parent