Welcome to Principia’s Early Childhood Program!  
 
What an exciting time you and your child will have in Principia’s Early Childhood program!  In a safe and nurturing environment, we offer young children, whose parents are Christian Scientists, a program based on the “whole child” concept of education – emphasizing moral and spiritual growth, as well as intellectual, social, and physical development. The teachers will work closely with you in helping your child grow in areas such as responsibility, selflessness, obedience, and confidence.  The rich learning environment includes a balance between appropriate teacher directed and child directed activities. Parents are provided opportunities to support their child through classroom involvement, close communication with teachers, and parent educational and inspirational programs.
 
We are eagerly looking forward to your being a part of the Principia family!
 
Warmly,
 
Dorothy Halverson
Principia’s Early Childhood Director

Music in Pre-School has two aspects: twice-a-week classes from a specialized teacher, plus music with classroom teachers, emphasizing singing, dancing, and rhythms and often built on seasonal themes like Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Kodaly Approach
This method (pronounced co-dye), used in the special music classes, systematically presents a repertoire of American folk songs. The children discover their national heritage and musical idiom through these simple masterpieces of song. The most natural musical instrument, the voice, is used; and the small vocal range of many folk songs makes them ideal material. Since children grow from building on success, the smaller tonal range of these songs enables the Pre-Schooler to more easily match the pitch.

Skills Learned Through Music Study
The Pre-Schoolers’ joy of music is natural, but the important skills built into the program place music at the very core of the curriculum and not just as a frill. For instance, listening and following directions are promoted; but it is not just a teacher’s speaking voice that is being listened to. It is musical pitch, beat, and rhythm — giving a new dimension to classroom listening. Tone-matching is a wonderful mental discipline, as is following a storyline in the songs sung each day. Fast or slow? Loud or soft? High or low? These questions asked of children in class require a unique kind of listening. The children must respond in a musical way.

Singing Games and Reading Music
Musical games promote concentration, memory, unity, and self-esteem, and encourage a joyful sense of order. Songs are built into games so that the demands on children to sit still are minimized and the childlikeness of graceful body movements, balance, and coordination is fostered. Principia’s founder, Mary Kimball Morgan, said, “A musician, no matter how gifted, needs systematic instruction and discipline in order to perfect the wonderful art with which he has been endowed.” (Education at The Principia, p. 35)

Variety of Art Mediums
Art is expressed in many mediums. Easel painting, done on big paper using thick poster paint and wide brushes, encourages great freedom. Rolling up their sleeves and getting elbow-deep in finger paint shows children that their own fingers can be their tools. Using clay, a child delights in being a transformer — changing a lump of clay into a thing of beauty, or at least an object of marvelous imagination! We do everything, from plaster casting in sand to mural painting on walls, with papier mâché and magic markers mixed in between.

Artwork Progresses as Observation Deepens
Art is observation. The more children observe the world around them and experience a tree (for instance, climb its branches, smell its blossoms, and appreciate its cool shade), the better they draw it. The Pre-Schoolers also observe on field trips to the symphony, to a pumpkin farm, and even to the art museum. Or maybe a guest will bring a special program or project to us. Teachers often use these occasions to have the children record their impressions with crayons on paper.

Illustration Encourages Writing
Art is communication. Drawing an idea becomes possible even before writing skills begin. By the time Pre-Schoolers become seniors, they will begin illustrating their reading and writing. Such endeavors balance the more basic academics with needed creativity and, while supporting the thrust of these disciplines, add a sense of joy and spontaneity.

Nature Study
Teaching natural science at Pre-School is inspired by the beautiful surroundings of our country campus. The woodland creatures and plants bring a world of discovery to our doorstep. We grow plants and use leaves as art material. Water tables invite many sink-float experiments, and sand tables bring weights and measurement observations. The children have fun going to the chemistry lab in Upper School to sit on the laps of upperclassmen and watch what’s going on at their Bunsen burners. They also troop off to Lasky Pond each year as soon as they hear that the baby goslings have hatched.

Pet Care
Many times we have baby animals for the children to learn to feed and appreciate. Rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, or fish visit or live in the classrooms, giving the children opportunities to learn how to be responsible for their care.

Discovery
Magnets are another favorite attraction. The children have an array of hands-on materials with which to experiment, to explore, and to see which will be attracted and which repelled. The world of discovery is a rich stimulus to children’s learning.

An Important Correlation
Art enriches reading and writing in many ways and is a communication skill in itself. Art enriches science, and vice versa. The observations and conclusions attained in these two unique, complementary areas blend together most harmoniously. They tend to expand thought and reasoning and develop confidence, individuality, and a constructive outlook.

Reading and Math Readiness

Nursery class (Three-year-olds)
In the nursery class, the three-year-olds have many opportunities to sort, classify, pattern, and count objects. Puzzles and games encourage number and letter recognition in a fun way. The children’s names are written in large letters above their lockers, and they gradually learn to read their own names and the other children’s names as well. Some even challenge themselves to recognize their names written on their artwork or on the notes to go home, and the world of print opens up around them. For those who are hungry for more, the teacher works with the children to collect and write down words of their choice and then store them in their own envelope and review them from time to time. This introduces the children to the printed word in a happy way they can call their own.

Junior Class (Four-Year-Olds)
The following year the juniors learn the sounds of the alphabet letters. The emphasis is on phonics, listening for the letter sounds in words. Learning to write the alphabet will come the following year in seniors. A letter is introduced each week and becomes the focus of the curriculum. For instance, one year during “B Week,” juniors arrived at their classroom each morning by stepping through a huge box with the letter “B” carved into it. Along an academic line, they cut bears out of magazines to make a big book for the class to have as its own. They all brought stuffed bears to school for a party, and even our headmaster brought in several bears from his collection to share. One bear was as big as he was! For a cooking project, bird treats were made of pine cones to hang outdoors as bird-feeders, and cookies were baked for indoor children-feeders. In the gym, balls were bounced into beanbags. The chapel topic for the week was about being God’s sunbeams. The field trips were to a bookmobile and to our bandroom, where they heard the beat.

We see how children learn to love discovering sounds, letters, and words, and building their vocabularies. Listening skills become keenly developed through this practice. Four-year-olds learn the directional words: above, below, right, left, behind, in front of; as well as colors, shapes, and sizes. The math work — very much at the concrete level — gives children an opportunity to bring from home a multitude of familiar objects to count, from buttons to pine cones, metal keys to bottlecaps. They work with these in forming their concept of each number. This becomes the firm foundation for knowing what is behind the abstract concept or written symbol of the numeral three or five or the sum of the two together. Finding shapes in the natural world and putting geometric pattern blocks together in fascinating designs becomes the basis for grade school fractions and geometry.

Kindergarten (Five-Year-Olds)
The following year, the oldest Pre-Schoolers, seniors, continue with these same math manipulative materials, but with new activities in using them. Also, a new program has been added that explores creative problem-solving using the manipulative objects and applying logical thinking. The familiar things in the classroom become objects to count, to measure, to “buy” with play money, to celebrate with a Zero the Hero Day! The world of numbers comes alive to these kindergartners.

In writing, they learn to print the alphabet letters. They use a simplified form of the D’Nealian alphabet, the handwriting method taught in Lower School. Writing is emphasized as a natural precursor of reading. So children write words, then simple sentences, and draw pictures to illustrate their ideas. Some may even be ready to write simple stories. This gives practice in writing as well as reading what they have written themselves before they are asked to read from books others have written. This approach builds confidence and an active interest in reading, because the children are working with their own ideas. They are drawing on the fund of knowledge and experience they bring to school and share with classmates. Each is also enriched by others’ sharing with him or her. This ties in with Principia Policy 6 (Education at The Principia, p. 229), “Principia shall . . . train its students to think — and to think clearly, vigorously. . . .”

Individualized Reading Program
As soon as the teacher notices a child’s readiness to read, based on the phonics and writing work, the child is invited to try a basic reading book. Many different levels are available for the teacher to match with the child’s individual needs. One-on-one, the children read with a teacher, then silently to themselves, and thrill to the discovery that they are actually reading! To finish a small pre-primer and have the privilege of taking it home to read to their parents is a great joy. Children progress entirely at their own pace — there is no grouping or pressure to compete. Therefore, the pace is set by the child individually, and each one soon realizes “the sky’s the limit.”

Unit Study Approach
Another strong method of learning used by all three levels of Pre-School is the unit-study approach. A social studies, geography, or science topic is chosen (such as dinosaurs, native Americans, outer space, or another country). Activities for each day, including reading and math, flow out from that topic, helping the children see relationships and reason more thoroughly on a given subject. The highlight of this approach is an international unit done each winter by the seniors and shared with the whole Pre-School. As a culmination of their study, a market day with songs, arts, crafts, and cooking is shared with the two younger classes, the seniors’ parents, and visitors.

Teaching a Love of Books
All levels of Pre-School encourage the children to develop an interest in the printed word and a love of books. Teachers help the children to learn the left-to-right nature of reading, to increase their speaking vocabulary, and to strengthen their listening skills — all important building blocks for reading comprehension.

Technology
To meet the needs of the rising computer generation, we have several computers in the Pre-School classrooms. Children who are experienced in this medium help the ones who are not, and both have fun “playing” together with the programs or games that explore beginning number and letter concepts. Each teacher also has access to the Internet for greater communication with fellow teachers as well as research beyond our walls.

Field Trips
Pre-School activities are the basis for all that comes in later grades. Therefore, everything leads the child naturally into the world of words and numerals. Field trips are an important part of opening up the world to these little ones. Whether it’s a nature walk on campus, a tour of the huge kitchen in Upper School, or a trip to the airport fire department, the children return with a new experience under their belts and the enriched vocabulary to go with it. Then, when words about airplanes appear in their reading, the words will be much more alive and interesting to them because they have learned about planes in some meaningful way.

Lunchtime

Manners and Receptivity
One of the important parts of our full-day Pre-School is the hot lunch program, required of every child. Far from being just for satisfying little appetites — and sometimes very big ones — it is a class time for teaching table manners and an introduction to the art of table conversation. Character education doesn’t stop for lunch! A great deal of receptivity and willingness is taught — willingness to try new foods and receptivity to new ideas about the foods served. This learning is valuable not only at the table, but transfers into willingness to try a new game or to make a new friend.

Varied Menu
Our menu offers a wide range of foods, from rice to broccoli, tomatoes to pineapple. Children who come to us having likes and dislikes for certain foods discover their prejudices melting away as they find themselves in the midst of a large group of their friends who are happily eating many different things. We provide alternative choices for children whose families do not eat meat.

Decisionmaking
Thoughtfulness of others is stressed as the children learn to chew with their mouths closed. Obedience and self-control are practiced when the children learn to use napkins and silverware properly and drink their first serving of milk quietly — a courtesy to the teacher who is talking to each individual child in turn as she or he is served. The children are sharpening their decisionmaking skills as they answer questions about quantity of portion or kind of dressing for salad, knowing that whatever amount they decide to accept, that will be the portion they must finish. It may be as small as one or two bites, but they must make that decision before they leave the serving table.

Verbalization
Verbalization is a challenge for some children. To request seconds on pears, for instance, a child is required to name the kind of food rather than just point to it. Just naming the word “spaghetti” is a big mouthful for some little people, but is yet another avenue for strengthening their ability to express themselves and communicate ideas.

Reading Readiness Skills
Parents are encouraged to come and join their Pre-Schooler once a year and be our guest to see what is taught during lunchtime — including reading readiness skills. After silverware is used, the child puts it on a kitchen tray with spoons on the right side, forks on the left. The purpose is to teach directions that will be needed in learning to read from left to right, and to follow directions in making alphabet letters. Sitting at the table during lunch broadens the child’s attention span. This development transfers to better concentration at the project or reading table and builds a foundation for later learning.

Story Listening
Quiet hour is a time for our Pre-Schoolers to have a rest as a break in their full and active day. Lightweight cots, with a sheet provided by the school and a blanket from home, are placed around the darkened classroom. Quiet time begins with a story, such as a Hans Christian Andersen tale or a native American story that provides enrichment for a current social studies unit. Since lights are out, children have a different listening experience from the normal storytime with picture watching. They listen and form individual, mental pictures — active imagining — of what is being read. This is an important skill that is needed in order to learn to read. Fine classical literature, including poetry, is shared. The oldest group, the kindergarten seniors, often has a chapter or two of a continuing story, such as Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White, to introduce the elements of anticipation, prediction, and recall.

Music Listening
All three classes have a music-listening portion of the quiet hour. Folk songs, lullabies, hymns, and classical symphonic records are played, sometimes bringing in children’s stories about the composers.

Rest
In view of Mary Kimball Morgan’s idea of the “whole man” (Education at The Principia, pages 6 and 69), we feel it is right to provide a proper balance of active and quiet activities in the busy Pre-School day. Families whose children come to us not used to this quiet time are asked to support it when possible, even at home on the weekends, since young children need consistency. All children are assured that they do not have to sleep. They are encouraged to relax, learn to be at peace with themselves, and be considerate of those classmates who do sleep, just as they are asked at home to be quiet and thoughtful of family members who may be having a quiet time.

Pre-School training must be a foundation for everything that comes later in the child’s experience. We see this quiet hour as the establishment of a time during the day which can grow into a reading hour in Lower School and a prayerful time for older students — habits vital to all Christian Scientists. “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10) is a reminder that the human demands for physical busyness, for constant sense-stimulus, and to be always doing something, need to be rebuked.

Teacher-Parent Communication
The teachers, as well as the children, make constructive use of this special afternoon rest period. The staff takes advantage of the time to communicate with the families about their child’s day by telephoning parents, writing individual notes home, responding to parents’ notes, or writing a class newsletter. This outreach strengthens Mrs. Morgan’s concept of HOME, SCHOOL, and CHILD as the three elements working cooperatively to promote the child’s harmonious development.

Character Development Through Horseback Riding
Whoever heard of using horseback riding in a preschool curriculum to teach character development? That is exactly our purpose. No “horsin’ around” with just pony rides for these children! The special riding instructor comes once a week to give lessons to each class (threes, fours, and five-year-olds separately) in riding skills. The object is to develop spiritual qualities in the corral classroom just as much as in the school building classroom. The founder of Principia, Mary Kimball Morgan, tells us, “We are all working for the unfoldment of character. . . . That is our real work. . . . The subject matter of the classroom is only the vehicle for the larger purpose.” (Education at The Principia, p. 107)

Building Confidence
The children run joyfully (even gallop) down the hill to their lesson. They are taught to use a soft voice in consideration of the pony so they don’t frighten him. For some, learning to overcome fear of such a large animal is a hurdle. In this case, the child might be asked to help brush, saddle, or feed the pony as a means of getting to know him better as a friend — expressing “love which casts out fear,” as Paul says in the Bible, and building confidence and courage.

Listening Skills
Listening skills are sharpened as many children find themselves in a completely unfamiliar situation — on a horse’s back. For others, who have had many such experiences, humility is learned as big demands are made for holding the reins just so and sitting up straight and tall with steady balance.

Obedience for Horse and Rider
Obedience and self-control are familiar lessons learned in the indoor classroom. Now in the corral classroom the children are taking on the teacher’s role as they find they are learning to control the pony. Each child wants very much for the pony to obey and to go where directed. They find big rewards for listening to their teacher (proper self-control) and in each being able to be a good teacher — a good controller of the pony.

Rodeo
The four-year-olds, the juniors, put on a rodeo for parents and friends each May to share what the children have learned. Decorating the corral with pennants and ribbons as well as dressing up like little cowhands is lots of fun.

Animal Care
Many times children bring apples or carrots and go down the hill with a teacher during playground time to give the pony some love. Another favorite thing for junior kindergartners is to go with a teacher when the pony is led from his grazing spot on the lawn back to the corral and fed and watered each afternoon before school is over. Our children are thrilled by this adventure and love to help care for their special pet. The many blessings afforded by this live “teaching tool” make riding a highlight of our Pre-School program each spring and fall.

The Pre-Schoolers spend between thirty and sixty minutes each day in their “outdoor classroom.” The time is divided into two periods: one in late morning and the other just before going home in the afternoon. The class for three-year-olds has its own separate playground. On the other side of the building, the classes for fours and fives have adjoining playgrounds with common areas to promote sharing between the two age groups.

Varied Play Equipment
The playgrounds are well-equipped with swings, climbers, slides, and trapeze bars. There are also wheeled toys such as trikes, big wheels, scooters, and wagons — even a few two-wheelers. In addition, there are many sand toys and shovels for just plain digging fun. The big advantage of this outdoor class is the relatively unrestricted, large-motor activities — running, jumping, swinging, climbing (including a tree for seniors to climb), sliding, and rolling down our beautiful, grassy hills. Also popular are roller skating, playing ball, jumping rope, and walking on stilts. These all help the children control their bodies gracefully and with consideration of others, within the protection of certain rules.

Two-Wheelers
There is a blacktop area for trikes and two-wheelers. These bicycles are small enough so a Pre-Schooler can sit on the seat and still touch the ground. In other words, they can be their own training wheels! This equipment encourages learning the skills of balance and coordination, self-confidence and persistence. Cooperation and safety are stressed as children work to avoid occupying the same place at the same time.

Movement Skills
The children go to the gym and have some special lessons in large-movement coordination — skipping, jumping, throwing, balancing — using such equipment as balls, bean-bags, balloons, scarves, and hula-hoops. They learn how to make graceful movements in large spaces as big as the gym or in tiny spaces as small as the hoops they’re sitting in. They learn to move so as to respect the space of others.

Problem-Solving
When there are bumps or scrapes on the playground or any other place in Pre-School, the children are taught to help each other up or cheer up another if there are any hurt feelings. The children learn to use the truths they are learning in their Christian Science Sunday School to help themselves and each other.

Friendships and Peacemaking
The children are not allowed to claim as an excuse for being rough or unkind, “He started it!” — pointing to someone else. Instead, everyone involved in wrongdoing is expected to help make right the situation. Sometimes offenders are asked to sit on the sidelines for a while and think it over. We encourage them to take on this responsibility themselves, but the teachers are always on hand to help as needed. Sometimes two children are asked to sit together and talk over their disagreement until they can come to the teacher and show her that they are “peacemakers” again — ready to rejoin the rest.

Snow Play
In the winter we bring out sleds and saucers, increasing our snow-covered playground slide capacity by 500 percent! Our clothes dryer also gets lots of “exercise” in the winter, restoring all those soggy snowpants and wet socks to their original state.

Nature Study
There are many wonderful opportunities for nature study during this period. Often in the fall, a child finds a caterpillar on one of our bushes, and we put it in a screened box to observe how the cocoon is spun. In the spring we are thrilled to see it transformed into a beautiful moth.

Workbench
On each playground are workbenches with hammers, saws, and nails, which are placed in an atmosphere where noise is acceptable. Carpentry gives a good contrast to the more sport-oriented activities and teaches patience and care in one’s work.

Moral and Spiritual Values
Learning that takes place on the playground is just as valuable for character development as is indoor time, because, as many educators put it, “play is work for a child.” Through their play, as well as through their work with numbers and letters, they are learning to make it a habit to obey moral and spiritual laws. “. . . [C]hildren should be taught obedience to Principle, forgetfulness of self, patience, endurance, courage in the right, self-control, and faith in God” (Education at The Principia, p. 23). What beautiful balance this gives to a Pre-Schooler’s day!

There are several programs that add variety to the year and give the three different age levels the opportunity to work together. The oldest of the Pre-Schoolers, the kindergartners (seniors), are often asked to assume leadership roles — shepherding the younger children with their loving companionship, inspiring them with their good example.

Thanksgiving Feast
One such program is the Thanksgiving Feast, which culminates our fall study of Pilgrims and native Americans. Each class, in Pilgrim tradition, prepares a part of the meal and brings enough to the feast to share with the other classes — pumpkin pudding, cornbread or pumpkin bread, and applesauce. Then other kinds of sharing are brought, such as Pilgrim songs and native American dances and a prayer of Thanksgiving to sing together. The feast is hosted by the seniors, who dress up like Pilgrims. The four-year-olds (juniors) take the role of native Americans and arrive bringing corn. They teach the others how to pop it over the big fireplace in the kindergarten room. The nursery children land by Mayflower (a big cart painted by them to look like a seagoing vessel). The whole enactment helps to make an indelible impression of history on the children, since they feel they are taking part in it.

Sugarplum Sharing
Next comes the long-time tradition — the Sugarplum program at Christmas, which the children prepare as a gift to their parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters. It is built around the Bible verses from Matthew and Luke that tell of Jesus’ birth. Then each class brings several songs and hymns to add to the whole as a prayer for peace on earth, good will to men. Parents find joy in working together beforehand to prepare a shining sugar-plum package, on a particular theme, as a surprise for each child. This gift is given out after the song sharing and includes a handmade toy, a homemade cookie, candy, and a “doing” project. There is eager anticipation as well as joyful gratitude for God’s great goodness to His children.

Travel Unit by Seniors
A midwinter highlight each year is the Market Day celebration built into the seniors’ “travel” to a faraway country. For several weeks, the kindergartners are knee-deep in a multidisciplinary unit of study. They make passports and learn songs, dances, customs, and even some of the native expressions. Then they put it all together by preparing craft items and food to “sell” at a grand marketplace set up in their room. The rest of the Pre-Schoolers come, play money in hand, eager to buy their wares. The seniors run the booths and shepherd the younger ones, as well as the parents, around the fair, introducing them to some new, homemade forms of entertainment. Many of the toys or pieces of equipment are brought in from younger children to provide simple props for the fair. When placed in a setting or decorated to look like something in the new country, the prop is elevated by the child’s imagination to something very grown-up and special. A toddler’s simple A-frame climber, for instance, was trimmed with a picture of Mount Fuji at each end, and, with a little imagination, became a Japanese mountain the children eagerly paid “money” to climb.

Rodeo by Juniors
When May rolls around, it is time for the juniors (four- and five-year-olds) to polish up their riding skills gained in the fall and spring, and share a rodeo with their families and guests down the hill at our pony corral. The fence is decorated colorfully, and cowboy music lends much cheer. The junior riders follow a course around the barrels, giving clear directions to their four-legged friend. Valuable lessons are learned in coordination, balance, listening, persistence, following directions, and, for some, overcoming fear of a large animal. The children learn that just as their teachers (and parents at home) expect them to listen and obey, now they are in a position of expecting and needing the horse to listen and obey them. Being in someone else’s shoes — even horse shoes — can teach good lessons to children.

Songs, Skits, and Poems by Nursery Class
The nursery class has a special sharing in creative dramatics for its families each spring, as well as for the rest of the Pre-School. We all look forward to seeing the classroom turned into a stable for nursery rhymes or much-loved stories ranging from “The Three Bears” to “Noah’s Ark.” Everything used, from the props out of the playhouse to the costumes from the dress-up corner, is so familiar to the children that they are at ease in acting out the narratives as the teacher tells the story. The children learn to take thought off themselves when they step into the part of someone else in a play. Teamwork and cooperation don’t seem hard at all in a learning situation such as this, so character building gets a boost.

Family Teamwork and Cooperation
The special programs at Pre-School are good examples of Mary Kimball Morgan’s directive “One of the important lessons learned at Principia is that of being only one of a large family. Consideration for each other, unselfishness, humility, group-spirit, sportsmanship, and team-play are some of the valuable lessons learned in our family life . . . those lessons that make for peace. . . . We need to learn to live together . . . to love our fellow-man and to see in him our brother. . . . ” (Education at The Principia, p. 58)

Now that you have become a Principia parent, here are things you will want to know and some things for you to do before school opens.

Getting Acquainted: Home Visits
Home visits are required before your child’s first day of school. Pre-School teachers look forward to this visit with you and your child in familiar surroundings. We will, of course, arrange a time convenient for you.

Observation and Conference Times
Conferences at school with your child’s teacher occur twice a year, in October and April. Each time you will receive an invitation setting a definite date. If at any time you feel a need to talk with the teacher other than at the scheduled conferences, please feel free to call the teacher at school or at home.

About the School Day
Arrival
The school day starts at 8:30 a.m., but you may bring your child as early as 8:15 a.m., when the supervisor begins morning greetings at the door. Please don’t leave your child at the front door unsupervised before 8:15 a.m.

Tardiness and Absences
If you find you’re going to be late, please call Pre-School before attendance and lunch count are taken at 8:45 a.m. If a child has a difficult night, it would usually be better for him to remain at home the next day. You don’t need to call Pre-School if your child is going to be absent; if the absence is more than a couple
of days, we’ll call you.

Departures
The day ends at 3:15 p.m. We would appreciate your picking up your child promptly at that time. Special permission for working parents to have their children on the Lower School playground until 4:00 p.m. is provided. The parents of nursery children (three-year-olds) are asked to arrange for a student supervisor, fourth grade or older, to be with them on their playground for safety reasons. The Lower School secretary can suggest names of such students.

After-Four Care
For a nominal charge, child care is available for Pre and Lower School children from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in the Day Care Room of Lower School. Contact the Lower School office for information.

Going Home with Others
Changes in arrangements for going home — including a child’s leaving with persons other than his parents — cannot be permitted unless the parents themselves make the request. This request may come in the form of writing or telephoning the Pre-School (314-275-3557). When you know of the change in advance, please pin a note on your child. In case of a last-minute change, call the Pre-School before 3:00 p.m.

Emergency Procedures in Bad Weather
Please dial the school information hotline directly 314.514.3000 to get up-to-the-minute information regarding school closings and start times. You can also get this same information by dialing the switchboard before it opens or after it closes at 314.434.2100 and choosing option #9.

OR tune into one of the following radio and television stations for confirmation of closing:

KMOX (1120 AM) 5:30 am & 6:30 am
KSDK-TV (channel 5) 5:30 am - 8 am
KMOV TV (channel 4) 5:30 am - 8 am

In addition, you can access the Principia web page (www.prin.edu/hotline) and find the link to current information regarding school closings.

Late Starts
A late start usually means that school will open at 9:30 am. The radio and television stations will state whether Principia is closed or will have a late start. This information will also be posted on the web and hotline.

Early Dismissal
During the school day, if severe weather (ice/snow) occurs, you will be notified about early dismissal in time to pick up your child. Please consider that our students travel from a very wide geographical area, where weather may be inclement in one area and not in another. Also, the safety of children traveling on the Elsah buses is of primary importance.

Lunches (see special section on Lunchtime)

Dressing for Pre-School

• Clothing should be:
• Simple
• Washable
• Sturdy
• Safe
• Not too tight
• No T-shirt pictures of violent cartoon characters

This Means:

• Large enough in the waist
• Snaps rather than buttons
• Long enough in crotch not to bind
• Pull-on elastic waistband required for three-year-olds
• No overall straps for three-year-olds

For Boys and Girls

• Slacks or jeans that will take hard wear (lightweight for fall and spring; heavier weight for cold weather).
• Shirts or simple blouses. If girls wear dresses, slacks or jeans should be worn underneath for active play indoors and out.
• Shoes that are sturdy and provide good support, either canvas or leather, tie or Velcro closings — not slip-ons.
• Boots should be either the shoe-boot kind (over stocking feet — easier for young children) or overshoe type (make sure your child can put them on without help). Cowboy boots may be worn for riding the pony, but another pair of shoes must be brought in the tote bag for playground use, since cowboy boots are not good for running and climbing.

Other Clothing Needs

• Lightweight sweater or windbreaker for mild days
• Lightweight jacket or sweatshirt for cooler days
• Warm, heavyweight jacket for cold days
• Snow pants for cold weather — 40 degrees or lower
• Boots for rain or snow — A single pair can be used for all three seasons if they’re not too bulky
• Hat that covers ears (if a hood is attached to jacket, ties or Velcro must work)
• Knit or polar-tech mittens, not gloves, required for nursery and recommended for all Pre-School classes

What Else to Bring

• 1 lightweight blanket for fall and spring
• 1 heavier weight blanket for winter — a beach towel serves well for all seasons
• 1 waterproof sheet (nursery children only) — minimum 24" square
• 1 plastic bib (nursery children only) with velcro closing at neck
• 1 box tissues, regular size, to be shared in the classroom
• 1 tote bag and 1 paint smock (both can be ordered inexpensively through the Pre-School Mothers’ Club)
• 1 pair bedroom slippers (junior class only)
• 1 package of medium-size safety pins for notes going home

Emergency Box Items
Each child is provided with an emergency box and requires the following items from home, to be kept at school in the box:

• 1 T-shirt
• 2 underpants
• 1 pair of slacks or jeans
• 1 sweater or sweatshirt
• 1 knit cap
• 1 pair mittens
• 1 pair of old shoes or tennis shoes that still fits
• 1 pair of socks

These items should be checked for size from time to time, since children grow fast.

Other Suggestions
Please have child’s name on each article of clothing, especially those which may be removed during the day: both shoes, both boots, both socks, both mittens, coats, sweaters, jackets, hats, snowpants. Names should also be on all items in emergency box.

Loops sewn at the necks of coats, sweaters, and smocks help the children hang their clothing on locker hooks; cafe curtain rings work well.

Transportation
Elsah Bus
Daily transportation between the Elsah and St. Louis campuses is provided for a nominal fee. Pre-Schoolers have an adult chaperone and an older student helper on their bus. More detailed information about arrival/departure times, routes, rules, and so forth is provided to all Elsah families in August.
Elsah bus charges are billed to your account.

Car
When arriving by car, we ask that you observe several simple safety-related rules: 1) Please pull right up to the curb to let your children off. Make sure there is an adult on duty to welcome your children. 2) Please don’t ever leave your car unattended immediately in front of the school. This area is for pickup and drop-off only and should be kept clear for emergency vehicles.

Driving on Campus
Every car driven on campus must be registered with the Dean of Students’ Office, and the identification decal issued for each car should be affixed as requested. Members of your family who drive on campus are asked to be familiar with campus driving regulations.

Charges for Services
Information concerning current charges for services is sent each year on a separate sheet from the Admissions Office. Adjustments will be made, if requested, on your food and transportation statement if your child is unavoidably absent for five or more consecutive school days.

Food
Charge per semester includes midmorning fruit juice, hot noon meal, and milk and snack in afternoon after naps. All Pre-Schoolers eat the school’s noon lunch.

Laundry
Sheets are furnished (except the waterproof pad required for nursery children) and washed weekly at no extra charge.

Parent-teacher communication
Note to the Teacher
Please pin a note on your child’s shirt citing any information helpful for the teacher to know (i.e., special family activities, parent or parents away, child staying with someone other than parents, any special needs of child at the moment, etc.)

Remember, too, that the Pre-School should always be notified through a note pinned to a child or phone call to Pre-School of any necessary change in transportation plans. If bus children have a change in bus-riding arrangements going home, please phone Pre-School supervisor AND Lower School secretary and leave message for bus chaperone.

Phone Calls
Pre-School has 24-hour voice mail to receive messages (314-275-3557). Prompt replies are made. Urgent calls can be made to 314-434-2100, ext. 3392, our hall phone during the school day. A teacher has to leave class to answer this phone, so use only for urgent circumstances.

Special Treats
If you’d like to arrange a special party or treat at school for your Pre-Schooler and his or her classmates, please notify the teacher at least a day in advance; this enables us to avoid having two parties the same day. Any treat should be kept very simple; a cupcake or cookie and a pretty napkin make a party for a Pre-Schooler.

Christian Science Information
Attendance at Sunday School
While you’re a Principia family, it is expected that you and your children will attend church and Sunday School regularly and that at least one parent will become a member of a local branch church. This encourages fulfillment of Principia’s purpose — that of serving the Cause of Christian Science.

Campus House
Principia’s special care facility — Campus House — is conveniently located near the headmaster’s home and the two dormitories. It provides the quiet, healing atmosphere and loving, wise care students need when working out a physical problem. Campus House is staffed by class-taught Christian Science nurses.

If your child ever needs special care, you will be notified by phone of the nature and extent of the problem. All phone conversations are intended to inform, interpret, encourage, support, and motivate. A diagnosis is not made by the Christian Science nurses. They support the healing work being done by you and the Christian Science practitioner on the case.

Under circumstances where medical attention is requested by the parent, it may become necessary for the child to be away from Principia during this reliance period. Each case will be reviewed by the school administration.
Principia’s Care Department appreciates working closely with you and your children in caring for their special needs. If you ever have any questions, feel free to call the nurse on duty: 314-434-0732 or 314-275-3590.

Objection to Immunization
Missouri has a law requiring children attending public, private, parochial, or parish schools in the state to be immunized against a prescribed list of what are termed communicable diseases. Schools are held responsible for keeping records on each student in this matter.

The law also states: This act “. . . shall not apply to any child if one parent or guardian objects in writing to his school administrator against the immunization of the child.” However, it should be noted that in the case of a potential communicable disease outbreak, the health authorities have the right to exclude students who cannot prove medical immunity.

In order for Principia to enroll your child, each year we must receive from you by the opening day of school the required “Immunization Exemption Form.” This form (which will be included with your enrollment packet) gives you the option of either submitting a record of all the required immunizations or requesting exemption from immunization.

In making this objection, it is wise that we all — school, student, and parents — actively, consistently, prayerfully support the stand on which our objection is based, acknowledging God’s unceasing protection of His children from discord of every sort. We know that this kind of daily prayerful support has been our students’ protection in a most wonderful way for many years and that it will continue to be so.

Policy on Communicable Diseases
Any Principia student presenting such a problem is required to leave school and be under the care and responsibility of parents until the healing is complete. Principia acknowledges the power of divine healing without limitation and, in so acknowledging it, must assume the responsibility for requiring that a complete healing be evidenced before the student can return to school.

A student who has been absent with a suspected contagious disease may return to classes when all symptoms and signs of disease are no longer in evidence and when there is every indication of complete healing. No student may return to school as long as there are physical symptoms or signs of disease. If parents request that their son or daughter who still shows signs of the contagious belief be allowed to return, Principia can consider approving the return only if the family wishes to obtain a physician’s approval.

Is there anything else you want to know about Pre-School?
We have attempted to make this website as complete as possible. If you have further questions, please feel free to call the Pre-School (314-275-3557). Voice mail will take messages when the supervisor is away from the phone — day and night. We are glad you are going to be a part of the Pre-School family and are looking forward to getting to know you and your children better during this upcoming school year.