Woodland Hts. School devotes program to early learners, parents

Most suburban children are introduced to school gradually, through two- and three-day per week preschool programs that gently nudge them into the learning environment. Not so at Woodland Heights School.

Preschoolers at the Streamwood school attend class five days per week while kindergartners attend a full-day program instead of the traditional half day. Unit District U-46 opened the early learning center in a former elementary building last fall to target the needs of at-risk children, including those classified as low-income, bilingual, learning disorders, and similar factors which may interfere with their learning potential.

To make sure that these students get a proper start in education, the Woodland Heights staff has worked together to create learning experiences that incorporates, yet goes beyond traditional curriculum.

Principal Sue Smith noted that two of the most visible aspects of this approach at Woodland Heights are intensive "centers" created by staff inside the classrooms, as well as monthly parent-child activities. The latter generally center on some sort of craft, such as creating collages or mobiles, or decorating food.

"Right now in the school we have play centers that are skating rinks and ice cream shops," Smith said. "This is not the normal type of center and it forces the students to use words that they normally would not use."

Bilingual preschool instructor Rebecca Ortega, whose classroom has a section with a pretend ice rink, agreed.

"They learn in Spanish and English when they play," Ortega said. "We want them to develop their skills in both languages."

Woodland Heights has 16 half-day preschool classes served by eight teachers and eight teacher aides, with the curriculum split between English-speaking and bilingual classrooms. The facility also has seven full-day kindergarten classes.

Working hand-in-hand with the intensive learning centers are the regular parent-child activity days. While such activities are often a staple at preschools for occasions such as Thanksgiving or Mother's Day, Woodland Heights staff schedules them monthly. The time in school does more than provide parents with an opportunity to work with their child and see their progress. It also allows them to learn how to work more effectively with their children at home.

"These activities give the parents ideas on what they can do with their children to help them to learn," said instructor Anna Vasquez. "They're used to having them coloring in books and we give them ideas such as how to read stories to their children."

The bilingual classes do their parent-child activities in individual classrooms while the mainstream classes meet as a group in the multi-purpose room. A different instructor plans the activities each month. Preschool teacher Barb Buscher planned the February activities, which included decorating cookies, presenting finger plays, and reading a book as a group.

"One of the things that meeting as a group does is it gives parents a chance to meet other people," Buscher said. "Some of them have become friends now and they meet outside of school."

Buscher added that having parents see how the instructors read stories to the students is a model on how they can do the same thing at home, while showing finger plays helps to finely tune small motor skills.

Maria Soto agreed that meeting with her son Anthony's teacher has aided her in guiding her son at home.

"A lot of the things that they tell you to develop their skills are simple, like buying thicker pencils so they can grip them better," Soto said. "Just keeping up with practicing skills they learn here, even if it's just for five minutes a day makes an improvement."

Instructor Vasquez added that because of the monthly activities, both students and adults see the importance of schooling in their lives.

The Woodland Heights curriculum has had unforeseen benefits, too, for some of the students. Barielle Santiago of Streamwood is much more outgoing than she was previously, according to her mother, Sheila.

But attending the school has had additional benefits. Barielle, could already speak English and converse in her mother's native Filipino tongue, is now learning a third language. Santiago requested that her daughter attend a bilingual session so she could learn Spanish and be able to talk with her father in his native language.

"She's talking more now in English, and now she's learning Spanish and teaching me, too!" said Santiago.