Norridge Park District's Preschool

Norridge Park District's is proud to offer preschool with “wrap-around” care for those parents who need care with their child's education.

Just the same as the Academy's popular Preschool Program, the children are combined in ages from three to five years in one classroom.

The curriculum follows the Illinois State Board of Education's Early Learning Standards and uses the Work Sampling Portfolio System as a source of observation and assessment of each child's cognitive growth and development.

In addition, the Zoo-phonics and Math Their Way programs guide instruction in reading and math readiness.

The classrooms are set up with a variety of activity centers designed to develop and enhance each child's learning.

The program is play-based and developmentally appropriate for preschoolers. Children who will be going into Kindergarten the following year are exposed to activities that develop and strengthen a variety of skill objectives needed to be successful as they move up to elementary school.

Norridge Park District's Preschool Philosophy rests on its commitment to aid and assist in each child's individual growth and development through developmentally appropriate practices including play.

It is through play that a child can master abstract concepts and acquire cognitive, social/emotional language, cultural awareness and motor skills in a nonthreatening environment.

At the Academy, we believe that each child is unique, with his/her own individual strengths, and the environment created at the Academy offers each child the opportunity to develop his or her own individual differences and skills.

We recognize and accept the family as the child's primary caregiver and teacher, and seek a partnership with each child's family as we help lay a foundation for his/her future.