4-Year Old Program
Junior Kindergarten
The pre-kindergarten and junior kindergarten programs concentrate on the developmental skills of early childhood and allow each child the opportunity to acquire important readiness skills at his/her own rate. The curriculum focuses on the development of perceptual skills, auditory and verbal communication skills, as well as pre-reading and pre-math skills.
Pre-K Early Literacy Learning in Arkansas (Pre-K ELLA) is the foundation of our Pre-K and Jr.-K curriculum. The Pre-K ELLA program implements developmentally appropriate experiences that promote emergent literacy skills for children prior to their entry into kindergarten. Pre-K ELLA is based on the Arkansas Early Childhood Education Framework.
The curriculum is supplemented by teacher-made activities and projects that enhance the planned curriculum and offer enrichment and/or remediation as needed. A calendar and a basic outline of skills to be covered will be sent home monthly.
Teachers
Lynley Billingsley grew up in Camden, AR and actually began teaching at the ripe age of 14 when a dance instructor hired her to instruct the classes. She graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 1995. A resident of Hot Springs and teacher at St Luke's for a year and a half, she and her husband just celebrated their one year wedding anniversary. They have 2 "children"...a border collie named Barnaby and a pug named Franklin, who enjoy stopping in at school to say hello to the class every now and then!
Janie Smith is beginning her seventh year at St. Lukes, with the last six years as a junior kindergarten teacher.
She has a degree in early childhood/elementary education from University of Texas at Arlington. She taught for eleven years in Texas with the majority of her teaching experience in kindergarten.
Mrs. Smith has been married to her college sweetheart for thirty-eight years, and they have one daughter who is married and living in Texas. Grandchildren are still on the wish list.
Miranda Mabry grew up in Hot Springs and attended Hot Springs schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade. She graduated from Henderson State University in May 2011 with her Bachelor's of Science in Education, currently licensed to teach Pre-K through 6th grade.