Exciting times ahead! Tuesday was the first day of school for our Pre-K students. They are eager and ready for a fantastic school year.

Exciting times ahead! Tuesday was the first day of school for our Pre-K students. They are eager and ready for a fantastic school year. 

The Pre-K program, open for children who turn four years old by October 15th and who live in the district, emphasizes literacy, numeracy and math skills, creativity, health and nutrition, and social-emotional development. And the best part? There is no cost, and there are no income-eligibility requirements.


Pre-K programs are offered at Margaret Chase Smith, Sanford Regional Technical Center, Sanford Pride Elementary, and Carl J. Lamb School.

Let's take a look at a typical day in one of our classrooms.

Students arrive by 8:00 a.m. for their morning routine, which lasts about 35 minutes. They then move to Read Aloud.

Read Aloud is typically 25 minutes long. The purpose is to enhance the student's literacy skills, and the two main literacy goals are vocabulary development and story comprehension. 

After breakfast, the students then move to centers. Centers usually last about 60 minutes, and all of the activities connect to core texts. Students are allowed to move around the room freely.

They then spend time doing "Thinking and Feedback." Thinking and Feedback allows them to learn from and with one another and discuss and reflect on their work. This process helps the children further understand the content.


After snack time, the students get into small groups. The small groups provide hands-on, targeted learning opportunities that are grounded into core concepts related to the read-aloud. Essential vocabulary and references to the texts are used throughout. 

The students leave for recess and lunch after small group activities.

Songs, Wordplay, Letters, Numbers (SWPLN) builds print and phonological awareness through word games, songs, poems, and predictable texts. Children interact with and attend to language features such as letter names, letter sounds, and rhymes. Activities follow a progression of skill development from exposure to mastery over time.