Frequently Asked Questions 

We appreciate all your questions! Education is such a passion of ours here at Sunshine Academy. We love discussing our beliefs, vision and mission; so please let us know if you want further clarification on any of the following questions/answers. 

What is a typical day like?

It’s all about routine! This is so important for littles. Here is a good idea of what a typical day might look like at Sunshine Academy:

·  Student’s come in, hang up back and get out folders. 

·  They go to our “Sunshine Corner” where they put their magnet (with their name on it) by a positive affirmation. Positive reinforcement is extremely important to us, hence why we choose the name “Sunshine Academy”. 

·  Rug time- students do calendar, sing a song, pledge, review important concepts as kind of a “warm up” for the day. 

·  Circle time (a mini lesson for the day that focuses on what we are learning, this might be a color, letter, a theme, etc). This will include some sort of activity. 

·  Snack Time/ Play time 

·  Centers: These will rotate between a nursery rhyme center (which is crucial for phonemic awareness, the best prerequisite to learning how to read!) Dramatic play center (learning through play is so important at this age) alphabet center, math center, sensory bin center and creative corner. Eventually after students get into the routine, it will also include a teacher center where I am going over important skills and assessing students’ progress on these skills. We will do an official assessment at the beginning, middle and end of year that you will receive! 

*We try to incorporate as much music and games as we can! This is a great way for littles to learn.

·  Clean up, line up to go home. 

Do we focus on academics or social growth?

·  LOVE this question and we are so passionate about it! Here is our motto and what we believe in at Sunshine Academy: “A happy, safe environment where we believe in developing the whole child (academically, socially, mentally). Our ultimate goal is to help our students gain, in the most fun and positive way, the life skills needed to be successful in kindergarten and beyond.”

·  With that said, it is just as important for us to work on social growth as it is academics. Both are important, but social is especially important at this age. They are just learning how to communicate and understand their emotions. They learn best through creative play and social interactions; therefore we strive to provide those opportunities as often as possible.  

What will my child be learning?  

• Little Learners: Much of this age is focused on learning how to adapt to school. Getting used to a routine, following instructions, and most importantly interacting with each other. They will also be learning numbers (1-10), colors, shapes, fine motor skills. They will also have a new theme each week that will make learning fun!
• PreK-At this age we will focus on preparing the students to be successful in kindergarten. We will work on mastering writing names, letter names and sounds, numbers 1-20, and so much more! Of course there will be many chances for creative play and interacting with each other. We will have different themes throughout the month that will make learning fun! 

What type of motor skills do the students engage in?

·  This is a crucial skill at this age! So we work on a lot of cutting (a difficult skill to master) Correct pencil grip, craft and art activities that help develop fine motor (such as stringing or moving beads, coloring/painting, LOTS of hands on activities! 

Are there separate spaces to learn art and music? 

·  At back to school night you will see the preschool, but typically art will be on our tables and music on the rug, which is in a separate location 🙂 

Is there outside time? 

·  Absolutely! Of course, it depends on the weather, but we try to go outside as much as possible. I have a pretty awesome playground setup, sandbox, and mini tramp.  

Field Trips?

·  Yes! We usually take a couple every year. These will most likely change from year to year.  

What are the school’s accreditations?

· All the teachers at Sunshine Academy are highly qualified. All of the teachers have at least a bachelor’s degree, some have a Masters degree, and many certificates. We all have many years of experience when it comes to teaching children. For more about our teachers, visit the “about us” tab on the home page of this website.

What support do you expect from parents? 

·  We do a “snack bucket”, where we rotate through the class and they take turns bringing the snack. 

·  We do send homework, which of course is optional. However, this will only help your child be more successful.  We hope you will engage in that with your child. 

·  We’d love for parents to keep up to date with our newsletters so they know what is going on. Overall just staying involved in your child’s education. Emptying your child’s folder regularly and so on.

·  We like parents to come on field trips to help with supervision. We understand this might not be possible for everyone. 

·  Communicate with us on your child’s needs and any problems you see! We want to do all we can to help your child be successful, they are our #1 priority and we know this will happen if we can work together with you! 

How are children disciplined? 

·  Another question we are extremely passionate about! At Sunshine Academy we strongly believe in positive reinforcement. This means we build children up as much as possible; we point out the good in them, etc. Research shows that what you pay attention to is what you will see more of. Point out the good, you will get more good! They are still learning at this age and they need to be uplifted, feel loved, and enjoy coming to school. 

·  With that said– of course there are times when children must learn there are negative consequences to a negative decision. We talk all about “green and red choices” and focus on making green choices instead of red. We have a system where students get to “move up” on a color when they are making good choices-when they get to the top (green color) they get to pick out of the treasure chest! However, they can also move down if they are making red choices. This could include sitting in our “thinking” chair, and at last resort calling parents if there is hitting/violence going on. We try to do everything we can before it gets to this point! Like I said before, it’s so important to us that kiddos have a very positive school experience in these early years! 

What do you do if a child needs to be comforted? 

·  This happens a lot in preschool! They are so young and many have a very hard time leaving their parents, which is normal. We try to be as loving as possible. Some might need to be held (the really young ones) or might need us to hold their hand while walking outside, etc. We talk loving and calm to them. This is mostly at the first of the year that we have these issues. Of course we want to gradually release this support so they can learn how to function in a school setting. It is our goal to help them be more independent! If a child continues crying for more than 20 minutes and we can’t calm them down, we will call parents to pick them up so they can get their needs met and not be a distraction to the rest of the students. This really doesn’t happen too often! Most have a hard day once in a while or at the beginning of the year, but as they get to know the routine and their teacher they do so well! 

Please feel free to reach out with further questions!