The Grasshopper Room!

The Grasshopper classroom is our Pre-K classroom.  Most children in this class will transition from High Hopes to kindergarten. Children in this classroom are 4 and 5 years old. In this classroom the  DLM Early Childhood Express curriculum is implemented.  The class size for this group is 16 children with a ratio of 1:8.  The teaching team for this class is: Kensey Hall and Nae Callihan.

Grasshopper Room Added Values

Lead Teacher: Jessica Buckley, double major in Bible and Psychology from Lipscomb University. Been with High Hopes since July 2008.
Assistant Teacher: Rob Smeets

DHS Mandated ratio is 1:16
TN 3-Star ratio is 1:13
High Hopes teacher to student ratio is 1:8

Development screenings conducted twice a year, once in the beginning of the school year and once in the late Spring, to assess student progress and growth and allowing teachers to assess skill levels and target specific developmental deficits for each child, as well as, allowing teachers to ensure that each child is prepared for kindergarten. Nationally normed kindergarten readiness test administered during the summer before kindergarten. Daily communication sent home on each child regarding activities, behavior, sleep routines, etc.

Curriculum: The DLM Early Childhood Express is a holistic, child-centered program that nurtures each child by offering carefully selected and carefully sequenced learning experiences, based on the latest neuroscience research. It provides materials and ideas to foster to social-emotional, intellectual, and physical development of children, while nurturing the natural curiosity and sense of self that can serve as the foundation for a lifetime of learning. The DLM Early Childhood Express is developed with the whole child in mind, providing opportunities to develop concrete skills through experiences with music, art, storytelling, and teacher-directed lessons that, in addition to skills development, emphasize practice and reflection. There is a heavy emphasis on kindergarten readiness skills such as letter and number recognition, handwriting skills, phonological awareness, and pre-reading skills.

Supplemental Curriculum: Handwriting Without Tears; a curriculum that focuses on skills beginning with pre-writing concepts and following through developmental stages to writing letters and numbers. Handwriting is taught every day by the teachers, with a staff occupational therapist coming in the classroom to supplement the learning through hand-strengthening activities and fine motor practice.

Age-appropriate technology is available, providing relevant skills for future classrooms in learning how the technology works, how we can gather information using the internet, and providing other learning-based games for the classroom.

Classroom utilizes a multi-sensory approach to learning, incorporating sensory activities daily.

In regards to discipline, first and foremost, a positive-praise theme is used, in order to foster good behavior within the classroom. Redirection is also used consistently in our classrooms. If behavior issues persist, the teachers work closely with the parents and our therapy staff to create an individualized behavior management/modification plan for the child.

Grasshopper Added Values