School Year
The school year at Happy Valley Ranch Preschool consists of a 9-month program that runs from September - May. Happy Valley follows the same Holiday Schedule as Jeffco Public Schools.
We offer morning and afternoon classes. Morning classes are 3 hours long and afternoon classes are 2 hours and 45 minutes. Children may attend 2, 3 or 4 days a week. We have small class sizes of 16 children and 2 teachers. The children are grouped by ages into four classes. The Popcorn and Peanut classrooms are for children that are 3 years old and the Bubblegum and Crackerjack classes are for children entering Kindergarten the following year. Children must be 4 years old by October 1st in the current school year to be placed in the Bubblegum and Crackerjack Pre-K classrooms.
Happy Valley Ranch Preschool believes in delivering the highest quality preschool experience for your child. That is why our curriculum and lesson plans are aligned to the Colorado Early Learning Guidelines and Colorado Academic Standards. Our teachers have either Bachelor and Associate level degrees or Certificates in Early Childhood Education. Our teachers will closely monitor your child's development and provide a first semester and second semester Developmental Asessment Report as well as a parent-teacher conference in April.
A typical day at Happy Valley consists of hands-on and interactive play in our Learning Centers, Classroom Meeting, Small Groups, Outside Play (including interaction with our farm animals) Snack and Literacy Circle. Children are served a healthy snack consisting of fruit and vegetables along with a carb and water or milk.
Curriculum
At Happy Valley Ranch Preschool, our curriculum focuses on helping children successfully grow in all areas of child development and all of the necessary skills for Kindergarten readiness. These areas of development include: social, emotional, language, literacy, math, science, social studies, and physical development concepts while fostering creativity and engaging with all of the animals that live at Happy Valley. Both the Second Step and Get Set for School Curriculum are used at Happy Valley.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The "Second Step" Curriculum is an early learning program that focuses on teaching important skills related to children's social and emotional development including executive-function skills which are the foundation for self-regulation and social-emotional competence. It teaches children: listening, focus, empathy, emotion management, friendship skills, and problem solving. Second Step is the curriculum of choice of the Jefferson Center for Mental Health and we are proud to say that we were awarded the curriculum via a grant they sponsored several years ago.
ACADEMICS
The “Get Set for School” curriculum is a complete research-proven Pre-K program. It combines purposeful play with multi-sensory materials and experiences that provide children with an engaging, developmentally appropriate introduction to school. Used to teach skills such as Language, Literacy, Writing, Math, Social Studies and Science, through music, movement, building, coloring and multi-sensory activities, children have fun as they develop important Kindergarten readiness skills.