Miss Amy
Miss Amy is the preschool teacher and has been working for five years at Ingalls. The all-day program has been very successful for ten years now and more to come!
This year, all fourteen students enjoy special PE, library, and music classes aligned with the curricular standards suggested by the Kansas Early Learning Guidelines. The preschool children participate in the two annual music concerts, PAWS Assemblies, and field trips.
The classroom curriculum follows the Kansas Early Learning Guidelines as well. Miss Amy strives to ready the students for kindergarten by paying strong attention to social skills and the virtues held important by our society. The children leave preschool able to write their names and other words, count to twenty or higher, tells names of the letters of the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes, identify shapes, colors and assign value to a written number. They are able to create rhymes, distinguish between opposites and make observations so brilliant that many of the Ingalls staff members are shocked daily! They also spend time introducing simple addition and subtraction, storytelling and other pre-reading skills. At Ingalls, they try hard to make sure the children develop strong bonds of friendship during their first year of school. This aids considerably in the development of the child's sense of self and sense of belonging.
Their day is long, but the children adjust quickly to their schedule. The morning is set aside for academic activities while the afternoon is less demanding with a time of rest, recess, and healthy snack. This first year is so important in aiding their progress in kindergarten. The structure, rules, and schedules that the school day follows is much less of a shock to those students who have spent time in a preschool class, and they are able to better focus on academics.
The preschool class has special seasonal activities that Miss Amy has tried to do annually. Each year before Christmas break, they will learn about the letter G and compare the different versions of the story about the Gingerbread Boy. They prepare and bake a gingerbread man each year, and every year he manages to escape from the oven! It's a lot of fun for the kids and a great way to have fun with classic children's literature. Every spring they study how humans affect the environment around them. The children learn to love and take responsibility for their planet by bringing items from home that can be recycled. Plus, they take a little time during the spring to go on a trash hunt and clean up our school grounds. It makes a difference in their lives and in the appearance of our campus! They also plan a tree near the playground to celebrate Earth Day! The children love to take turns carrying water out to 'our tree' each morning until school is out.
The preschool class has fourteen lovely kids named, Allison, Brianna, Crystal, Curtis, Ethan, Hayden, Jacob, Joselinne, Lucas, McKenna, Samantha, Stevie, and Tater. Miss Amy is sure they will all accomplish much as they grow and learn together in school! Miss Amy enjoys every minute watching the children lean and grow as the year glides by.
