At St. Paul of the Cross School, we believe that education stimulates the natural inquisitiveness of children and focuses their desire to learn. We believe that each student is a unique individual who we encourage to act positively as part of the Christian community and in society. Through an enriched prayer life, an awareness of the needs of others, and study of our faith, students will grow in their daily life.
St. Paul of the Cross believes that early education for the whole child needs to provide the opportunities for a young child to reach his/her potential and to develop in a safe, nurturing environment.
St. Paul’s Early Childhood programs include oral language, memory, focused attention skills, and self-regulation. These skills shape the way children learn to read and answer math problems as well as aid in conflict resolution. These skills require instruction, both from parents and teachers.
Our Kindergarten program is designed to expand and enrich content area with activities and curriculum that are uniquely suited to Kindergarten students. Our academic based program focuses on reading (letter/sound recognition and sight words), written letter formation, hands-on mathematics, and science. Social Studies is introduced through the study of communities and community interactions.


RELIGION
The children listen to a bible story each week. We learn bible songs and do activity sheets to reinforce the stories. Children attend mass once a week as well as prayer services.


LANGUAGE ARTS AND READING
We use the Fundations series, by Wilson Language Basics. This series focuses on letters and sounds for the first 12 weeks of school. Every week several letters are practiced. Each letter has a specific keyword that is associated with it. For example, the letter Tt’s keyword is a top (the toy). All the letters, including long and short vowels, have keyword cards that are used daily to reinforce the letters, sounds and keywords. Children also work on sight words at home. It is the expectation that each child will know 150 sight words by the end of the year. All this is incorporated into journaling, which we will begin after the first of the year. Kindergarten also uses a guided reading program to enhance comprehension, writing and fluency.


MATH
We use the Kindergarten set for the Math in Focus series. We work on writing numbers, patterns, sorting, telling time, money and addition/subtraction to name just a few of the topics. All the chapters use hands-on manipulatives or activities to reinforce the topics.


SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES
Themes are introduced each week. Apples, space, weather, dinosaurs, nutrition, dental health, and seeds/plants are just a sampling of the topics that we cover. We learn songs, read stories and do activities to reinforce the concepts that the children are expected to learn.