Families of young students attending the Soboba Tribal Preschool were invited to a back-to-school event on Aug. 27 where classrooms were open for visitors. Teachers shared their goals and expectations for the upcoming year, which began on Aug. 4, and answered all questions.
Director Lenora “Ponie” Mojado made a video about important schoolwide instructions that was shown after teachers shared their individualized presentations at 3:15 and 4:15 to accommodate everyone’s schedule. “I appreciate your dedication to your child and their academics,” she said. “My door is always open.”
Visitors were greeted with school-related inflatables outside the front doors and welcomed by Mojado and Administrative Assistant Maria Hernandez upon entering the lobby where bulletin boards featured an introductory message from each teacher and aide as well as their class schedule and lesson plans.
Julissa Garcia is the preschool teacher for a class of 16 three-year-olds. The mother of a three-year-old herself said she is excited to have been at the school for more than eight years. She considers herself a lifelong learner at heart and looks forward to growing with her students this year.
The classroom is filled with lots of signage in the Luiseño language including a billboard with the children’s faces in a craft they completed, titled “wólaancha” which translates to “let’s grow.”
This is teacher’s aide Jess Thompson’s third year in the preschool classroom. Working in childhood education has been a passion of hers since she was a child herself. She strives to create a safe, loving, and secure environment for each child to ensure that their preschool experience is nothing but the best.
During the first month, Garcia and Thompson are working towards familiarizing students with the daily schedule and routines and mastering self-help skills. With this being the child’s first school experience, their main priority is to ensure that the children feel safe and supported in the classroom. They are committed to creating a nurturing environment where each child feels welcomed and valued. Plenty of opportunities to build strong, trusting relationships with the children while encouraging friendships with their classmates will be provided.
With assistance from the Soboba Cultural Department, the teachers will continue to implement more Luiseño language lessons for the children. They made some changes to the classroom layout they feel will be more conducive to learning. They are not going to be using the Smartboard all the time as they want lessons to be more interactive and not reliant on technology.
Garcia said for the few hours they have the children, they will be doing the same lessons but in more creative ways that the students will respond to more. She said they added a little listening area to their library center at the end of last year and it has been very successful. The audio books and recordings include songs in Luiseño. Five of the children attended summer school.
Sunnie Razon said her daughter Millian watched her older sister Khloe attend the preschool every day, so she was excited to start school herself. “She loves to count by playing hide and seek and she loves (refrigerator magnet) letters,” she said.
Teachers Ana Garcia and Amanda Juarez are sharing their vast experience with 14 pre-kindergarten students as they help them “go from caterpillars to butterflies” this school year. Their focus will be based on the abundant and creative stories written by children’s book author Eric Carle. They worked together to hand draw and paint the classroom wall’s oversized décor reflecting “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?” and other book titles. Their collaborative goal is to create a safe, joyful space where the children will love to learn.
Garcia has more than 25 years’ experience in the early childhood field and said teaching preschool has always been her passion. She has worked in various school settings throughout her career but said that Soboba Tribal Preschool has been her home for the past eight years. She loves watching the children’s growth and development.
“This class is definitely on top of it; they are already gravitating towards writing,” Garcia said. “They came in being able to identify their names. All but two attended our summer school and 13 of them were in the preschool class here last year.”
Juarez began working in early childhood education more than 20 years ago. She brings her love of crafting to the classroom through colorful art and fun projects. Because there are less students than last year, the teachers welcome the opportunity to have more time to work one-on-one with the kids.
They eagerly shared with parents that everything they do in class is done with a purpose and is a learning experience. Purposeful play, letting the students play as they are learning, has received a lot of positive feedback and has been working well for the pre-k class.
Tekla Diaz said her son Levi Fuentes attended summer school and really liked it, so she enrolled him in the pre-k class. “He’s always talking about the food,” she said. Students are served breakfast in the morning during the 30-minute drop off period and lunch in the afternoon during pickup time.
Betsy Post is starting her first full year as a kindergarten teacher at the preschool, working closely with intern Jasmine Basquez. With a classroom theme of growth from “tiny seeds to mighty trees,” they are eager to bring new experiences to the 17 students that will be spending their school days with them. Post taught grades K-4 for 12 years with her first position being in a kindergarten classroom. She is happy to be teaching this grade level once again.
Post said it is already evident that her students all love hands-on science lessons. “We also have a lot of crafty, artistic kids this year,” she said. All but one attended the preschool last year so they are familiar with the overall routine and layout.
Current academic goals for her students include identifying letters and sounds and writing alphabet letters and numbers clearly. By the end of the year, she expects all students to be able to read 40 sight/high frequency words, know all short and long vowels, be able to do small addition and subtraction problems, have the ability to sound out unfamiliar words, and retell a story.
Post shared some ways parents can help when their children are at home. Reading together daily, encouraging independence, asking the child about their day, maintaining a bedtime routine and making sure they are on time for school will all help foster a stronger performance in the classroom.
During the back-to-school event, kids were given a four-item scavenger hunt that allowed them to give their parents a mini tour of the classroom while searching for each item.
Parents were also invited to share a motivational note to their child that will be kept in their desk to refer to throughout the day. Comments such as “have an amazing day” to “be nice to your friends” were written on the “memo” that will be laminated to withstand daily wear and tear.
There was also a short questionnaire to help the teachers understand the children better. Parents wrote three words that best describe their child, two things teachers should know (such as strengths and weaknesses) and one wish they have for their child this year. Most are looking forward to having them be able to read more on their own.
After classroom visits, families were invited to visit with vendors in the multipurpose room and enjoy homemade soup for dinner, if they chose to do so. Tribal Family Partners, Sylvan Learning, Daughter of Soboba Committee, and members of Soboba Fire, Department of Public Safety, Tribal Family Services and Soboba Cultural Department were among those offering information and fun freebies for the kids and their families.
Taryn and Anthony Grant were attending the event with their pre-k daughter Talla. Her three older siblings attended the preschool in the past and some shared what they liked about it.
“I learned about connecting more with my culture,” said Anaya, who is now a fourth grader at San Jacinto Valley Academy. Her brother Liam is in second grade at SJVA and said the experience helped him give a presentation on his culture. Both agreed having cousins attending at the same time was an added bonus.
For more information, please visit https://preschool.soboba-nsn.gov.
