Prairie Catholic Day Care, located on-site at the St. Gabriel’s campus, is a perfect solution for the working parent who has school children at PCS and/or a younger child that requires day care. The day care opens its doors at 7:00 am, allowing parents to drop off students and non-school age siblings before school begins. At the appropriate time, students are taken over to the school and younger siblings remain to enjoy a fun day of learning and activities.
Day Care Director, Lori Jung, has been running Prairie Catholic Day Care for 14 years. Lori, with the help of her cheerful, loving staff, focuses on making each and every day with your child a fun learning experience. You will enjoy walking around the room and seeing the art projects your child has created and viewing the many pictures Lori takes of your child participating in activities during the day.
Accepting children 3 and up (if potty-trained, and upon director approval), Lori and her staff work with the children as a group and individually. Through the course of a day children have their choice of games, puzzles, computer activities, and videos. Fine motor skills are learned during daily craft time, where the kids work on seasonal art projects. Large motor skills are put to use during playtime on our new playground, or in our attached gym. Your child will also be learning days of the week, numbers, alphabet letters, seasons, weather, writing, spelling and word recognition. Several times a year, the children go on ‘field trips’, walking around the area to discover nature and how nature changes as the seasons change. Children also get use to the Elementary School by eating lunch in their cafeteria, visiting the library and attending performances and parties with the other children. This helps to ease fears of attending school as they are already familiar with where bathrooms are, who the teachers are, and enjoy seeing their siblings and meeting their friends.
If your child attends Pre-K, which is a half-day program at PCS, then your child will be escorted to and from the school at the appropriate times. Your child can attend Pre-K in the morning and be taken after school to the day care, or can go to day care in the morning and will be taken to the school to attend afternoon class. The day care also has an afternoon program to watch students after school. The afternoon program is open until 5:30 pm.
Although Prairie Catholic Day Care is perfect for parents who send their children to Prairie Catholic School, as it runs congruently with the school year, opening in late August and closing in late May, it is not a requirement for your child to attend. Also, your family does not have to be Catholic to attend our day care. Any family who wishes to have their child in a loving Christian atmosphere is welcome.
If you have any questions, or would like a tour,
please call Lori Jung at 326-5383.
Prairie Catholic Day Care