Welcome to PreK!
 
I love teaching young children.  They bring a curiosity and love of learning to each and every day! I am a firm believer in learning through play. Through play, they are developing social skills, oral language skills, and perfecting those fine and gross motor skills needed to enter into Kindergarten.  We infuse movement and music into each day through songs, fingerplays (fine motor), rhymes, and gross motor movements.
Our PreK day is a mix of student lead, play-based learning, and teacher-directed lessons and activities. We are very active learners in PreK-4.

Our PreK-4 day begins with a short period of fine motor practice as we welcome our friends to school.  This fine motor practice includes scissor work, pre-writing practice, play dough creations, bead threading, hole punching and more.  It's a great time for us to socialize a bit while we get our fingers and hands moving.  Afterwards, we join our Morning Meeting as a group where we write our morning message together, count the days of the month, report our daily weather forecast, and and explore a few fun facts about our weekly theme. After Morning Meeting, we spend about an hour exploring our classroom centers.  The students are able to visit centers that include dramatic play, building, art, or sensory play. They can explore activites at our light table, read a book in our library, or excerice those fingers at our manipulative table.  During center time, each student will participate in at least 1 teacher led small group activity.  Small group activities allow us to customize the learning to the student to ensure that they are learning at a level appropriate for them. After centers, we gather as a group to read and enjoy a story together before our midmorning snack. Our second meeting of the day after snack, focuses on alphabet and number recognition as well as pre-writing skills.  This may include games, scavenger hunts, directed drawings, movement songs and more. We end each day outside on our playground.  Fresh air and movement is so important for our age group.  We go outside every day except in extreme weather.  We love jumping in puddles, making snowmen, and searching for rainbows after a light rainfall. 

While this is my fourth year teaching at St Ann School, I have been an active participant in the St Ann School community for the last 12 years.  My 3 youngest children are St Ann Students, and my oldest is a student at Notre Dame HS.  I have been very involved with St Ann School PTA and continue to volunteer when I am able. When not teaching, I can be found home with my husband, four children, 2 dogs, and a cat.  I love to read and craft in my spare time. I am very happy to be part of the St Ann School family as both a staff member and as a parent.  It's not often that people are given the opportunity to do what they love at a place that they love.  I am blessed to have been given just that!  

Please feel free to reach out to me any time if you have questions about our PreK program!  You can reach me at msocha@st-ann-school.org