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Reminders:
- November 4: No Building Blocks. No school for students. Parent/teacher conference day.
- November 5: No Building Blocks. No school for students.
- November 27-29: No Building Blocks. No school for students. Thanksgiving break.
- December 23- January 3: No Building Blocks. No school for students. Winter break.
About Building Blocks PreSchool
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide a foundation towards kindergarten readiness.
Explore, Get Set, and Go!
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Curriculum Overview
The Building Blocks Program utilizes the HighScope Curriculum as the foundation. HighScope is a DESE-approved early childhood curriculum. High Scope students will:
- Become independent, responsible, and confident-ready for success in school.
- Learn to plan many of their own activities, carry them out, and talk with other children and their teacher about what they have done.
- Learn through active involvement with people, materials, events, and ideas.
- Gain knowledge and skills in important concept areas, such as creative representation, language and literacy, initiative and social relations, movement, music, classification, number, space, and time.
In addition, all of our classrooms use the Fundations and Heggerty Pre-K curriculum. Fundations is used to teach letter-sound associations and letter formation. The Heggerty curriculum uses nursery rhymes to introduce students to language play and phonemic awareness skills. The focus of these lessons is on exposure, not mastery.
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Fundations Curriculum
Overview
The Fundations® Pre-K Activity Set provides an introduction, or “pre-dose”, to the letter sound and writing skills that are taught to mastery in the Fundations Level K program. It is not intended to provide a full pre-k literacy curriculum.
Our Pre-K Activity Set follows the same principles of instruction as all our other programs: explicit, systematic, interactive, and multisensory. Activities offer ample opportunities for students to practice and receive feedback.
Skills
The Fundations® Pre-K Activity Set supports students’ emerging understanding of the alphabetic principles of letter-sound associations and alphabetic order, and the written language skill of manuscript letter formation.
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Knowledge of the names and sounds associated with printed letters
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Ability to manipulate the sounds of spoken language
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Ability to rapidly name a sequence of letters, numbers, objects, or colors
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Ability to write isolated letters or one’s own name
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Ability to remember the content of spoken information for a short time
First Semester: The focus during the first semester will be on teaching the alphabetic principle of letter sound correspondence with the whole class Students will practice:
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Recognition of the alphabetical order of letters a-z
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Letter name, keyword, and sound for the 26 letters of the alphabet (letter-sound correspondence)
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Visual connection between the letter name, its sound, and its grapheme (or written representation)
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Second Semester: Further development of letter-sound correspondence (alphabetic principle) will continue with the whole class, and letter formation skills will be introduced. Students will practice:
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Letter formation for lowercase letters
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Letter formation for uppercase letter
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Association of a sound with a letter that is written
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Association of a sound with a letter that is written
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Heggerty Curriculum
Overview
Heggerty lessons teach phonological & phonemic awareness skills daily including rhyme, phoneme isolation, blending, segmenting and manipulation. Students will also practice 2 early literacy skills, including building alphabet knowledge and language awareness.
The lessons are oral and auditory, allowing students to hear sounds in words, even if they don’t yet know the letters that represent the sound. Teachers use Heggerty lessons as a warm up to instructions that teach the alphabetic principle. This allows students to hear the sounds in words and match them to the letters, helping students see the reciprocal relationship between phonemic awareness and phonics.
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Students will gain an understanding of rhyme by hearing and repeating rhyming word pairs.
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Students will isolate the initial sound in spoken words with focused consonant sounds. *Students will learn to blend two words into a compound word.
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Students will isolate the final sound they hear in a spoken word with focused consonant sounds.
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Students will learn to segment a compound words into two individual words
Skills
Rhyme Repetition
▶ SKILL FOCUS: When words rhyme, we hear the same middle and final sounds.
Rhyming words are introduced as words that sound alike because we hear the same middle and final sounds.
Initial Phoneme Isolation
▶ SKILL FOCUS: We are listening for the first sound we hear in a word
Blending Two Words into a Compound Word
▶ SKILL FOCUS: When we blend, we put two small words together to make one big word.
Blending combines two small words into a compound word. The two individual words are said first. Students can be instructed to “say it fast” when blending the two words together.
Phoneme Isolation: Final Sounds
▶ SKILL FOCUS: We are listening for the last sound we hear in a word.
Students will hear words that begin with a specific focused sound, and isolate the last sound they hear.
Segmenting a Compound Word into Two Words
▶ SKILL FOCUS: When we segment, we listen to a whole word and separate it into two words.
Segmenting separates a compound word into two individual words. Students hear and say the whole word aloud, and then separate the word into two individual words.
Alphabet Knowledge
▶ SKILL FOCUS: Singing an alphabet song helps us learn the letter names.
Singing an alphabet song helps us learn the letter names.
Each day the students will sing or chant an alphabet song (any version can be used) to develop alphabet knowledge.
Word Awareness
▶ SKILL FOCUS: We will listen and say a sentence aloud.
Nursery Rhyme
▶ SKILL FOCUS: Singing and playing with nursery rhymes helps us develop early literacy skills.
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Building Blocks Philosophy of Learning
In a caring and positive atmosphere, we create a warm and happy place for preschoolers to learn. As we bridge the gap from home to school, we guide children to a continued good self-image while building social skills in a school setting. Sensory, motor, perceptual, and language skills are introduced through materials and activities which are both child-centered and teacher-directed. Work is planned which emphasizes the process rather than the product, fostering a sense of accomplishment and pride. The focus of learning is on readiness skills needed in kindergarten. Based on the theory that children learn through play, classroom routines encourage active involvement, meaningful experimentation, and reinforcement through repetition. Schedules are designed which balance structures and free choice, as well as active and quiet times. Recognizing that children grow in predictable stages, we treat each child as an individual, working from the level each child has attained and moving forward one step at a time. We teach a love of learning by allowing children to feel success without pressure.
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Entrance Requirements
Building Blocks Preschool is a tuition-based preschool for Fox C-6 resident children that are between the ages of 3-5 years. Our classrooms are located in various elementary schools throughout the district. Entrance requirements for Building Blocks include:
- Must be a Fox C-6 School District resident.
- Must be 3 years of age by July 31 of that school year.
- Must be completely potty-trained and bathroom independent.
- Parents must provide transportation.
Building Blocks highly recommends all families schedule a developmental screening (DIAL) through the Parents as Teachers program prior to starting Building Blocks. This screening will give valuable information on your child's development as well as confirm your child will be successful in our general education program.
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Program Hours & Locations
Building Blocks operates Monday - Friday. Classroom hours vary by building (hours are subject to change to align with building start and ends times should they be adjusted prior to the start of the school year):
Schools: Fox and Rockport Heights - 7:15 am - 3:15 pm
Schools: Meramec Heights(24-25 school year), Hodge, Seckman - 8:15 am - 4:15 pm
Building Blocks hours of operation on scheduled half days:
Schools: Fox and Rockport Heights - 7:15 am - 12:15pm
Schools: Meramec Heights(24-25 school year), Hodge, Seckman - 8:15 am - 1:15 pm
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TUITION, FEES, AND BILLING INFORMATION FOR THE 2024-2025 SCHOOL YEAR
Registration Fee: A non-refundable registration fee is collected each year in the amount of $50 per child. ($75 max for family)
Weekly tuition: Tuition is $150.00 per week. Payment is due on Friday, prior to the week of service. If you have more than one child enrolled in Building Blocks, there is a 10% discount off the total tuition (siblings must be living in the same household).
You can pay by credit/debit card on your child's portal, or by personal check and/or money order. Please give a check or money order to your child's teacher. Building Blocks does not accept cash payments for tuition.
The weekly tuition will only be adjusted on weeks with scheduled days off school such as holidays, or school closures due to inclement weather. Payments will not be prorated for days missed due to illness, planned vacations, or any other absences.
Late Fee: If payment is not made by Tuesday, you will not be allowed to drop off your child and a $10 late fee will be assessed. Failure to make weekly payments may result in your child's enrollment being terminated. Any questions or concerns regarding weekly tuition may be addressed to the Building Blocks office staff.
NSF FEE: A $15.00 fee will be assessed on all "insufficient funds" (NSF) checks and charged to the child's account. If we receive 2 NSF checks, it will become necessary for us to request all future payments in the form of a money order or credit card.
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Character Kids Club
If you need before and after school care (Character Kids Club- CKC) Parents will need to register for that program separately. CKC is available to all Building Blocks families at an additional fee. More information can be found on the CKC website.
Meet our Building Blocks teaching staff
Building Blocks Contact Information
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Office Phone: (636)282-6915
Fax: (636)218-5773
Office Address: 849 Jeffco Blvd., Arnold, MO 63010 (Fox C-6 Service Center, Main lobby entrance)Director of Child Care Services
(636)282-6915 ext. 2640
Assistant Director of Child Care Services
(636)-282-6915 ext. 2657
Secretary: 636-282-6915 Ext. 2620
Secretary/Registrar: (636)282-6990 ext. 7158