The Florida Voluntary Pre-kindergarten Education Program (VPK) is available free of charge for children who are four years old, on or before Sept. 1st of the current school year. This program is 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. We offer a morning or an afternoon session. Parents may choose to extend their child’s day for an additional fee.
Interested in learning more about the early learning coalition of Duval’s Free VPK programs?
“According to the State of Florida, 80% of all Florida four year olds attend VPK. Of those children, 79% who finished VPK were ready for kindergarten while only 55% of children who didn’t attend VPK were kindergarten ready.”
The number one educational priority for any quality VPK program is to prepare children for kindergarten. At the Discovery Tree Academy, each teacher creates a daily schedule which is posted inside the classroom and is constantly followed. This creates a safe, structured learning environment where your child feels confident discovering and exploring as part of their daily lessons.
Our teachers create lesson plans that include systematic and purposeful activities to address the five domains of early learning:
1. Approaches to Learning
2. Social & Emotional Development
3. Physical Development
4. Language Communication Emergent Literacy
5. Cognitive Development and General Knowledge
Through these lesson plans children are engaged in large group circle time, small group & individual instruction, and learning center exploration. The Discovery Tree Academy® teachers consistently model the language of inquiry and discovery. The partnership between Discovery Tree Academy teachers and our families is crucial to ensuring your child has a positive experience in school. Open and continuous communication is an extremely important practice for our teachers.
The Discovery Daily Report
The Discovery Tree Academy has an Academic Advisory Board who helps to implement our philosophy into what we do each and every day. The Academic Advisory Board is responsible for integrating our philosophy and mission into the curriculum that is taught from infants to VPK.