A Foundation of Preparation

At Good Shepherd, our goal is to prepare students for school and for life. We want to give them a solid foundation to build on when they leave pre-K. Mrs. Amiss has described our approach and the way she seeks to implement it in her Beginner/Intermediate class. Phonics is key to this foundation.

The students are exposed to the letters of our alphabet regularly, along with their sounds. The phonics lessons also teach them about words that begin with each letter, and about the lower and upper cases of each letter. Songs and games reinforce this information, as do papers, which allow the children to trace the letters and to color a related picture.

Amiss notes, involving a student in lessons in such a way that they feel loved is also very important. One way to accomplish this is to have children come up to the blackboard during lessons to receive positive reinforcement for their participation. Another is to memorize songs and Scriptures that remind the children that God loves them.

At GSS, our hope is that all the seeds of learning that we are planting do bear fruit in each child’s life. Our prayer is that their time with us, no matter how long it is, helps prepare them in a meaningful way for the future.