Good Shepherd Lutheran Preschool

Please click through the pictures below to see our classrooms and learn about our program.

Welcome to Good Shepherd Preschool! We're glad you're interested in learning more about our program.

Our Five-Day Pre-Kindergarten class currently meets in this classroom. This class promotes maximum kindergarten readiness through two extra days of enriching instruction and a small class size capped at 16 students, for an 8:1 teacher-student ratio.

Coathooks and mailboxes provide an area for children to keep their personal belongings in each classroom. Colorful letter rugs help students identify their personal space during large-group meetings.

Children spend the largest chunk of their day working independently at learning centers and with teachers in small groups. Blocks help children build spatial skills, math skills, and very tall castles.

Each classroom’s science center features a variety of materials to explore, such as large magnets, rocks, animal models, and seashells. Some classrooms also keep a small pet such as Bubbles the fish, seen here.

Teachers inform their planning for small-group sessions through continuous observation and assessment of students. Small groups may provide children some extra help one day or may provide children with extra enrichment another day. Individualizing instruction in this way helps meet every child's needs.

Students have daily access to a variety of picture books related to topics of study and seasonal themes. Classrooms are also equipped with CD players so that children can listen to audio recordings of books as they follow along with their own copy.

Each classroom has an easel available for free art exploration during center time. Children have daily opportunities to create using tempera paint, watercolors, pastels, or other media.

The dramatic play center, sometimes also referred to as the housekeeping area, begins the year set up as a home, with kitchen furniture, everyday dress-up clothes, play food, and baby dolls. As classes move into other topics of study, this area may become a pizza parlor, veterinarian’s office, or farm.

Our Three-Day Pre-Kindergarten and Two-Day Early Pre-Kindergarten 2 classes currently share this bright and cheery classroom. This room accommodates up to twelve students, for a 6:1 student-teacher ratio.

A colorful letter rug provides a special spot for each student during large group activities such as circle time or weekly music classes.

Large-group lessons might focus on learning classroom rules and routines at the beginning of the school year. Daily rituals such as welcome songs, observing the weather, and sharing provide reassuring structure in students’ days.

Teachers frequently provide play dough during centers time so that students can sink their fingers into creating ropes, cut-outs, and molded shapes. Using play dough builds both creativity and the small muscles in children’s fingers that they later use for writing.

Dramatic play allows students to think through what they are learning at home and school, trying out what it might be like to be a chef or a firefighter and using skills such as writing (for shopping lists) and counting (for making change with the toy cash register).

Cozy child-sized furniture and soft toys make our library centers inviting for students.

Materials at the science and discovery centers rotate through the year based on study topics and the seasons. In the fall, students might find a variety of leaves to observe and sort, while springtime might bring seedlings for students to nurture.

Our second classroom is currently shared by Two-Day Early Pre-Kindergarten 3 STEAM and Three-Day Pre-Kindergarten. This cozy classroom provides plenty of space for up to 12 children to grow and learn.

The library provides a semi-secluded area for when a child needs some quiet time away from the rest of the group.

Students can engage in a some engineering work with gears, magnetic tiles, and other small building toys. Buttons, counters, and interlocking blocks provide opportunities for sorting and making patterns.

Children build creativity and imagination in our dramatic play centers through acting out scenarios based on what they have observed about home life or based on stories they read in class.

Students can find a variety of writing instruments and surfaces at these centers, such as whiteboards with markers, chalkboards, notepads, scrap paper, child-friendly pencils, crayons, and more.

Our Three-Day Early Pre-K 3 and Two-Day Early Pre-K 3 classes currently share this classroom. Up to 14 children play and learn in this spacious room each school day.

Here, a table near the door is set up with math manipulatives for children to investigate. Near the table is a line of GSLP tote bags. Every student receives a new tote bag on the first day in the classroom.

Children have access to books in every center in addition to the rotating selection on the classroom bookshelves. Seating for two allows children to share a story with each other, inspiring “read-alouds” that retell familiar stories and sparking book discussions.

Dramatic play centers include baby dolls representing a diverse array of ethnicities and clothing from a variety of cultures as part of GSLP’s commitment to making all the children in our care feel represented.

Our science and discovery centers feature tools like those real scientists might use, such as balances for comparing masses and magnifying lenses. Other tools, such as child-friendly microscopes and stethoscopes, also rotate in throughout the year.

Children learn math, fine-motor, and literacy skills through our extensive collection of table toys, also known as manipulatives. They are stored on low shelves so that children may access them easily.

Ms. Colleen Fischer, GSLP’s Educational Program Director, teaches music class for all students on Thursdays and Fridays. Students love learning songs and fingerplays related to classroom topics and seasonal themes. Children also have the chance to play instruments such as rhythm sticks, handbells, and egg shakers, and to get up and move to the music.

Each class displays a visual schedule for the children, with words and pictures to show what they will do each day. Looks like they'll be busy today!

Teachers label objects throughout the classroom and also encourage children to find words they already know how to "read" in their everyday environment.

Wall space never goes to waste in our classrooms! This display teaches shapes with pictures of everyday objects. Kids can measure themselves using this "beanstalk."

Children are naturally curious about the world around them. Teachers take advantage of this to teach science concepts, setting up experiments and providing interesting objects to observe and investigate.

Teachers frequently introduce thematic units by asking the children to brainstorm what they know already about the topic they will study. Children may add to these webs as they learn more over the month.

The children's own artwork is used to decorate our classrooms.

You'll find children's art lining the hallways of Good Shepherd Preschool. This class was learning about artists and together recreated a famous work of art.

Our playground features a climbing structure with slides, a play house, a shaded sandbox, and a play car. We also have a great variety of outdoor toys in our shed. Weather permitting, children spend 30 minutes a day out on the playground engaging in activities that build their large muscles, increasing coordination and overall physical fitness. On rainy or especially cold days, children spend at least 15 minutes engaged in indoor gross-motor activities such as using the balance beam or dancing.

We hope you'll come back to play again soon. Visit our Registration Information page to learn how you can enroll your child at Good Shepherd Preschool.