When children have high-quality learning experiences from ages zero to five they go on to be much more prepared for kindergarten and have academic and personal success for years to come. Here at PRE4CLE, we discuss the importance of high-quality preschool often, but what does it look like in action? Recently we had the opportunity to spend a day at the Salvation Army Ohio City preschool to see for ourselves.

9:45 ᴀᴍ, Circle Time

The teachers get their class up and moving by asking them to put their hand on their head if they are four years old and to turn around if they are wearing a red shirt. The kids laugh and get excited when something applies to them and they get to move around and be silly. The teachers speak calmly to the children and do not raise their voices, but rather engage them in conversation. When one child begins to get upset, one of the teachers takes her to the bean bag corner to read a book and calm down.

9:50 ᴀᴍ, Read Aloud and Math

 The children sit on a carpet full of numbers and colors while a teacher reads the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The teacher announces that today is Math Monday and that the class is going to figure out everyone’s favorite type of cookie. A teacher pulls out a large sheet of paper labeled with three different types of cookies: Oreo, chocolate chip, and M&M’s. She asks each child what their favorite type of cookie is and tallies it on the paper. The class counts the tallies together while the teacher uses a graph to visually display the results. The teacher uses phrases such as “greater than,” “less than,” and “equal to” when talking to the kids about their findings. The students discover that chocolate chip won with four votes, and that Oreo and M&M’s were tied with three votes each. An animated discussion among the kids ensues; some of the students excitedly try to convince their friends why Oreo or M&M’s cookies are better. 

10:15 ᴀᴍ, Outside Play Time

It’s time to walk to the playground so the teachers pull out a rope with colorful rings for the children to hold on to. This helps them stay in line and walk safely as a group to the playground a few blocks away. Teachers make sure all of the kids are wearing their safety bracelets, which have the name and phone number of their preschool on them.

The kids enjoy playtime at the park while the teachers supervise and play alongside them. Teachers make sure their students can slide down poles safely and make it all the way through the enclosed slide. Some of the teachers play tag with the kids and others make conversation with some of the children who are not as interested in playing. The children light up when their teachers chase them around the playground and act like big kids themselves.

11:15 ᴀᴍ, Center Time

After getting water and using the restroom, it is center time. In the classroom there are a variety of centers full of colorful props, books, puzzles, and toys. The different centers include a reading and craft table, quiet safe space corner, kitchen, puppet show stage, dramatic play area, listening audio book area, science zone, math center, and writing and art areas. 

Teachers can be heard encouraging children by saying “use your imagination” and asking questions about what the students are doing to get them thinking. A teacher asks kids playing in the kitchen if they would make her some food and tells another group to let her know when their puppet show is ready because she wants to see it. When the teacher does this the children in the kitchen get busy trying to prepare her something she will like, and those putting on the puppet show start jumping around and rehearsing for their audience. At one moment there are two kids playing pretend with baby dolls, two kids listening to an audio book, one child playing blocks with the teacher, and one child playing in the science zone with the other teacher. 

When the clean-up song and video start playing, the kids immediately begin to clean up without the teachers having to ask. The teachers go around the room helping the students and making sure everything is put back properly. 

12:00 ᴘᴍ, Lunch

The kids all sit together at a lunch table and are brought cafeteria-style lunches by their teachers who put ketchup on their trays. The lunches look colorful and healthy with both fruit and vegetable salads. One of the teachers sits at the table with the kids and eats lunch with them. After eating the kids giggle and have conversations about their day.

12:30 ᴘᴍ, Quiet Time

When they return to their classroom it is quiet time for the kids to relax and finish watching the Disney movie Coco. It is obvious that the kids are engaged in the movie since they mostly keep quiet, except for when they make comments to each other and try to sing along to songs in both Spanish and English. The teachers lay out cots, pillows and blankets to prepare for nap time while the children finish the movie.

1:00 ᴘᴍ, Naptime

After a full day of learning and playing the kids lie down on their cots to nap and ask their teachers to tuck them in tight “like babies.” The lights are turned off and calming music with sounds of the ocean and rustling trees is played. One child is having a hard time calming down to rest so she asks her teacher to rub her back; the teacher does and she dozes off shortly after.

3:00 ᴘᴍ, Play Time and Dismissal

The kids begin waking up and are given a snack before they have more free play time in the different centers in the classroom. They are picked up by their families between 3:45 ᴘᴍ and 4:30 ᴘᴍ. When parents  arrive they talk to the teachers about how the day went for their child and receive feedback about their child’s learning and progress. 

Overall it was a day full of learning and fun for the nine kids in the classroom. Throughout the day we saw each of PRE4CLE’s six elements of high-quality preschool—fun and safe environments, well-trained teachers, research-based curriculum with lesson plans for each day, educational activities, creative and imaginative play, and feedback given to parents about their child’s progress. The children we met were all comfortable in a classroom setting, excited to learn, and able to communicate well with their classmates and teachers. Entering kindergarten with these skills will give them a great advantage, and is why PRE4CLE works diligently to make this type of high-quality preschool accessible for all of Cleveland’s young learners.