First School Curriculum
First School provides part-time care and instruction for children in three different programs.
Our curriculum was developed using the Arkansas Preschool Frameworks and Creative Curriculum designed to help children acquire social competence and the skills they need to succeed as learners. Children participate in a balance of social/emotional, physical, cognitive, language, artistic, and spiritual activities, both structured and unstructured. Our creative theme-based curriculum and activities were designed to incorporate all learning styles and levels of development while making learning fun.
Parents’ Day Out
This program is for children 12 months to 35 months. It provides primary caregivers a respite while their children thrive in a creative, nurturing, and safe environment. Our program offers the lowest child-to-teacher ratios in the area. Classrooms have their own restrooms and open directly to their own age-appropriate playground.
The Parent’s Day Out Classes are divided by age, using birthdays. For the 2024-25 school year, use the chart below. This information will change in December.
Toddler (12-20 months): December 2023 – August 1, 2024
Younger 2’s (21-28 months): April 2023 – November 2023
Older 2’s (29-35 months): July 30, 2022 – March 2023
Session 1: June 3- June 27
Session 2: July 8 – August 1
Preschool
Our preschool program, for children ages 3 and 4 years of age, consists of a half-day of instruction with the option of extending the day to include lunch and rest time. Classes are limited to 10 students, with 2 teachers per class.
For the Preschool Classes, we offer two classrooms for each age group, including Younger 3s, Older 3s, Younger 4s, and Older 4s. Within each group, we divide by birthdays:
Older students: August – January
Younger students: February – July
Kindergarten
This class is designed for children who will benefit from 5 days of instruction at a higher level, in a low child-to-teacher ratio before starting elementary school. It is for children who have a level of maturity as it will be structured as a kindergarten class, but will have more individualized instruction for children that need it to develop and build a firm knowledge base. The class is taught by an Arkansas-certified teacher and structured to follow the Arkansas Kindergarten Frameworks.
Summer Program
In addition to the school year programs listed above, First School also offers a summer program.
The summer program is offered on M/W and/or T/TH, no Fridays, and there are two sessions:
Session 1: June 3- June 27
Session 2: July 8 – August 1
The hours are the same: 8-noon or 8-2:30 pm. For the summer program children are placed into classes according to their age on August 1. Our students promote to the next class level at the beginning of the school year.
The summer program has an elementary camp for children who have completed kindergarten through 2nd grade.