Pre-K & Kindergarten

Early Childhood Program

CAC’s Early Childhood Program is built on the belief that each child is a wonderfully unique creation of God. Our goal is to partner with each child’s family to foster an environment that promotes independence, faithful living and the exploration of new ideas. We believe learning should be creative and active! CAC has developed a rich environment that encourages the oral, social and spiritual development of all Early Childhood students.

Our PreK program offers flexible options:

We know that our teachers are the best around! Take a look below to see the exciting things happening in our Early Child classrooms:

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Learning Independence

In CAC’s Early Childhood Program, students learn independent skills like:

  • Using the restroom independently
  • Packing and unpacking backpacks
  • Fastening and unfastening coats
  • Managing belongings
  • Opening packages and containers
  • Asking for help
  • Handling confrontation with peers
  • and more!

“Pre-K4 teachers strive to build the confidence and independent skills the children will need in kindergarten. We begin by building confidence in the children so that they believe they are capable of completing tasks. Once they believe in themselves and their abilities, we expand and strengthen their independent skillset. This is achieved through positive reinforcement, praise, and promoting opportunities for the children to attempt challenging tasks.” – Amy Zini, Pre-K4

“We teach them to ask for help using words instead of fussing and we show them how to ask for help instead of demanding it. We spend a lot of time on basic communication skills. They already know how to speak, but in PreK3, they begin to learn the proper way to communicate.” – Kate Molnar, Pre-K3 

“We begin the year with the students placing their daily folder in a purple tub to start the day.  Their parents unpack their backpacks while the students bring their folders into the classroom. From there, I show them step-by-step how to pack their backpacks to go home. Then they learn to unpack their backpack in the morning, roll their napper and nap mat at the end of the day –  just to name a few examples. At times, I include a specific skill on my Monday letter to let the parents know what we are working on and how they can help at home. I also give each student time to stand up in front of the classroom and talk about what we are learning about.” – Shannon Pitre, Pre-K3

Incorporating Faith Daily

“Most of our science units lend themselves to incorporating God into them.  When we learn about the seasons we reference creation and God’s amazing plan – how he set the sun and moon in the sky to mark the seasons; with migration, adaptation and hibernation, the animal’s fur that changes to white during the winter, butterflies that fly south and return to the same area. God’s wonder is all in that, and the list goes on and on.  When we learn about MLK in Social Studies, we stress that God has created us all equal and expects us to show love and respect to all people. This actually gets talked about a lot in kindergarten – using the Golden Rule as a guide to live by.”

– Laura Rowan, Kindergarten

“Early in the year we talk about Adam and Eve in the garden. With that story, we teach the words ‘consequence’ and ‘obey.’ For the rest of the year when we use those terms we relate it back to the story of Adam and Eve, and explain that obeying the teachers is practice for obeying God.

Each day during our Easter unit we act out different aspects of the Passover week – eating the Passover meal, washing each other’s feet and so on. Before that, we do a Life Cycles unit where we talk about death and birth – and every year we’re amazed at how those lessons build up together and end perfectly with the Resurrection story.”

– Yahna Tucker, Pre-K3  

Exploring New Ideas

“I look forward to teaching about apples and pumpkins! We do various hands-on activities with each of these. We paint with the apples, make applesauce, do an apple taste test, count the seeds, and this year we made apple “cloud dough” for a sensory bin. For the Pumpkin Unit, I have parents bring in different things made from pumpkin for each child to try. I was so surprised that they were willing to try different foods! I also love teaching different thematic units…from reading books, center activities, and crafts. Developing their language/vocabulary is a major aspect of PreK3.” – Shannon Pitre, Pre-K3

“I always enjoy the gingerbread unit. There are so many great books about gingerbread men, coupled with a lot of fun activities. Some years we even bake a large gingerbread man but he always escapes…fortunately, we’ve always found him…in the principal’s office!” – Laura Rowan, Kindergarten

“I love teaching the Thanksgiving unit because I feel like it’s their first exposure to history. It’s fun with lots of great hands-on opportunities.” – Traci Walls, Pre-K4