Preschool Program

The development of a child’s social and emotional competency is the basis of the Overbrook Preschool early childhood curriculum. There is a strong correlation between social and emotional development and academic and cognitive growth. Teachers use one of our favorite resources, The Responsive Classroom Approach, developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children, as a basis for our morning meeting time with children. This approach supports our efforts to create safe, challenging, and playful classrooms and is vital in providing young children with experiences in authentic community building.

Children are multi-sensory and holistic learners: social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development working together. Teachers provide a framework for children to develop these skills while being respectful of their individual learning styles. The curriculum uses an integrated approach to learning, supporting interests, abilities, talents, and cultures. Providing hands-on exploration with a variety of materials helps children to increase their experience and understanding of the world around them.

Areas of Development

Social/Emotional Growth: cooperation, self-confidence, social competence, cooperative play, independence, conflict resolution, attention span, choice-making, appropriate expression of feelings, friendships, dramatic/fantasy play, sharing/taking turns,  problem-solving

Language and Early Literacy Development: books, writing, telling stories, playing word games, listening, speaking, extending vocabulary, asking questions, letter/sound association,  sequencing, retelling/reenacting stories, letter recognition, name recognition

Physical Development: eye-hand coordination, balance, hand dominance, locomotion, manipulation, dexterity, spatial relationships, structured and unstructured movement activities, playing with developmentally appropriate play equipment

Creative Arts: art, music and movement

World Language: Spanish

Mathematics: building, deconstructing, sorting, measuring, classifying, making patterns, estimating, time, one-to-one correspondence, deductive reasoning, logical thinking

Science: use of an inquiry approach to the exploration and discovery of nature and the physical world: weather, changes, insects, animals, plants; simple experiments

Since 2009 all students in prekindergarten and kindergarten have participated in the Nature’s Classroom Program at the Lower Merion Conservancy on a monthly basis from October through May. Students travel to Rolling Hill Park in Gladwyne for a morning of outdoor learning with the Conservancy Education Coordinator. In 2016 the educator from the Conservancy began monthly visits to the children in the three-year-old classes; during these visits, the educator guides them in nature exploration activities.

Field Trips

Special programs enrich our curriculum throughout the year. Field trips are provided for the four-year-old and kindergarten classes.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

The preschool and kindergarten will close for two days in January to enable the teachers to meet with every family to discuss their child’s development. Teachers will send home written developmental reports in January and at the end of the year.  A parent or a teacher may request a conference at any time.

» How to Apply