“All I Really Need to Know I Learned in”…
Preschool and Kindergarten
by Kathy Severson, Director of Early Education
A relative of a CHA preschooler once asked him what he did at school every day. His response: “We pray and we play and we pray and we play.” Yes, that about sums up our year in the early education classrooms. Hands-on investigation and application, through play and experimenting, allows each child to learn at his specific cognitive level, and tie learning to emotions and experiences. Our preschool classes ended the year with field trips to Wagner Farm and a train ride and station investigation; and the kindergarten led chapel and practiced using money by having a bake sale.
Our primary goal for our youngest students at CHA, though, is for them to head into elementary school with a deep understanding of who God is (the one and only Creator of everything,) who we are (His beloved creation), and why he is worthy of all our praise (he rescued us from our sin which separated us from him, and saved us for eternity with him). Teachers integrated these truths as classes studied nature and changes throughout the seasons. They also led students in a closer study of people — in our class, community and the world around us — and in the study of how scripture guides us in resolving conflict and forgiving one another.
On the last day of school, one class tried to see they could remember each of the verses they studied this year (see video here.) All of the verses together demonstrate the gospel message that our preschool and kindergarten students have recited over and over this year. From God’s creation of a beautiful garden to walk with Adam and Eve, to man’s fall and God’s grace to still care for us, to Jesus coming to show us what God is like so we can follow his example, to his death and resurrection, and finally sending Holy Spirit so that we are no longer old creations but new creation in Christ, the Early Education team has been pleased and blessed to “share not only the gospel, but our very lives as well” with our students “who have become so dear to us!” 1 Thess. 2:8.