- Age Group: 3-4 Year Olds
- Class Size: 12 Children
Room 5 is a 6:1:2 integrated preschool classroom for 3 and 4-year-olds. We have both nursery school students and program students in our classroom. There are 4 staff members in Room 5; a Special Education teacher and three teacher’s assistants.
All year long we work on fun and exciting ways to increase our reading/writing, math, academic, attending, social, play, and independent life skills. Each student is able to have his or her school experience involve programming that is specific to his or her needs to make the experience in Room 5 the most meaningful to him or her through one-to-one sessions or small group sessions that have goals that target child-specific needs.
Room 5 uses the Learning Without Tears curriculum to help increase literacy, pre-writing, and other fine motor skills and the Touch Math curriculum to help increase different math skills.
Recently in Room 5....
7.13.26 MOTOR Groups!
It’s ESY! We have so many fun things planned for our students to learn and grow this summer.
Here’s one. Each summer we have Motor Centers, put forth by our amazing Motor Team of PT and OT! Every child and every class gets to take part; classes travel to the gym to attend their slot on a weekly basis. This week’s theme being bugs and insects, the kids had all sorts of challenges and fun this morning. We paired up with Room 4!
6.4.46 Learning Through Play
Play Center time in Room 5 offers something for everyone. At this time, students explored magnetic letters, built with snap-together toys at the table, and drove trucks across the rug as they played alongside their classmates. A new pack of police vehicles was also opened independently by a student under the supervision of his teacher.
While it may look like simple fun, these activities support a wide range of skills. Magnetic letters help build early literacy and letter recognition, snap-together toys strengthen fine motor skills and problem-solving, and truck play encourages imagination, language, and social interaction. Most importantly, this time gives children opportunities to make choices, engage with peers, and learn through play—the work of childhood!
5/20/26 – Butterflies in the Making!
Every year since 2020, Crossroads has been blessed to have the amazing support of the Bender Scientific Fund of the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region. Their grant funds our beloved Butterfly Unit, something that each classroom enjoys and benefits from. We receive the cups of caterpillars, and observe as they wind up into their J form, then form their chrysalis and finally emerge as beautiful creatures to be released into our Bender’s Butterfly Science Garden.
3.27.26 Oobleck Experience
Room 5 had some fun exploring oobleck—a fascinating, hands-on sensory material that’s as fun to make as it is to play with! Oobleck is created by mixing cornstarch and water, forming a unique substance that acts like both a liquid and a solid. When you squeeze it, it feels firm, but when you let go, it flows right through your fingers!
For our students, playing with oobleck is more than just messy fun. It supports sensory exploration, fine motor development, and scientific curiosity as they poke, squeeze, and watch how it changes. It also encourages language and social interaction as they describe what they feel and share the experience with peers. Activities like this help children explore new textures in a safe, playful way—building comfort, curiosity, and confidence.
