In the Pre-K classrooms at Unity Point School in Carbondale, learning begins long before students open their first textbooks. It starts with building towers out of blocks, shaping Play-Doh into pizza slices, and gathering on the floor to listen to a favorite story. For the youngest learners in the building, school is a place where curiosity leads the way.

Teacher Sara Sellers and paraprofessional Dianna Hagler guide that experience every day in one of the school’s multi-age Pre-K classrooms. Students ranging from three to five years old learn together in an environment designed to balance play, structure, and discovery.

Sellers has been part of the Unity Point Pre-K program since 2018 and previously spent more than a decade teaching in another early childhood program connected to Southern Illinois University. Hagler has worked at Unity Point for eleven years and spent many years before that in preschool and daycare settings throughout the region. Together, they bring both experience and patience to a classroom filled with young learners.

Right now, their classroom includes seventeen students. Sellers explains that the multi-age structure is intentional. “They can start at three years old and go up to five years old,” she says, noting that students grow and learn together in the same classroom community.

Five-year-old Violet Jordan is one of those students, and she has strong opinions about what makes Pre-K fun. When asked about her favorite part of the day, she answers immediately: “I like to play in centers.”

Those centers form the heart of the classroom. Violet eagerly describes several of them. “We have the block center and the kitchen… and we have the library and the Play-Doh.” Around the room, children move between areas where they build, read, imagine, and create.

What looks like simple play is actually designed to build important skills. Sellers explains that many people assume Pre-K students simply play all day, but every activity connects to learning goals. Students practice writing their names, recognizing letters and shapes, counting numbers, and learning how to communicate with classmates. “We don’t just play,” Sellers explains. “We are playing and learning through our play.”

Projects often help bring those lessons together. Recently, the class has been exploring a pizza-themed project. Students have read books about pizza, drawn pizzas in their journals, and even created their own versions with art supplies and Play-Doh. Violet proudly remembers making a Play-Doh pizza during the project. The study will end with a special outing when the class visits a local pizza restaurant together. Sellers explains that the trip serves as a “culminating event” that helps students connect their classroom learning with real-life experiences.

The school day begins around 8:25 each morning when students arrive for breakfast. Afterward, the class gathers for a whole-group meeting where teachers review the schedule and classroom expectations before reading a story together.

Those expectations are part of a program called the Pyramid Model, which helps children learn positive behavior and social skills. Violet can already recite several of the classroom rules. “We listen and follow directions,” she says. She continues proudly, “We take care of our things… we take care of ourselves… and we stay safe.”

After the morning meeting, students move into choice time, selecting which centers they want to explore. Later, they rotate through small-group activities led by Sellers and Hagler, focusing on skills like counting, writing, and social-emotional development.

Following lunch, students head outside or to the gym for time to run and play before settling down for an afternoon rest period on small cots while soft music plays.

When nap time ends, Hagler leads music and movement activities that give students a chance to sing and dance before enjoying a snack. Violet says one of her favorite songs is Icky, Sticky Bubble Gum.”

By the end of the day, students have read books, practiced letters and numbers, explored creative centers, and spent time learning how to be part of a classroom community.

For Sellers and Hagler, that is the real purpose of Pre-K. These early years help children develop confidence, curiosity, and the social skills they will need as they move through school.

Violet already shows signs of that growth. She proudly shares that she can count all the way to one hundred and that pink is her favorite color. For now, though, she is happy spending her days building, drawing, reading, and learning alongside her classmates.