Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Parish School in Huntington, West Virginia Offers Kindermusik® Free to Their New Pre-School Program That Will Open in the fall of 2005

Our Lady of Fatima Parish School will offer Kindermusik, the premier music program for young children, free to their pre-school. The pre-school program and a second kindergarten are new additions to the school in result of the tremendous growth the parish is experiencing. The pre-school will be a half-day morning session for four-year olds. Both the new pre-school program and the second kindergarten will be available starting in the fall semester of the 2005-2006 school year.

Renovation and construction for the new additions begin this summer after school lets out. A Media/Fine Arts Complex was purchased to provide the extra room for the expansion. The complex is located right next to the property and will become the new library and art classroom. The previous library will be converted into the second kindergarten, which puts it right across the hall from the original kindergarten. The original art building will be renovated to house the new pre-school program.

Not only will extra space be needed for the expansion project, but also extra staff. Three new teachers will be welcomed to the Fatima faculty in the fall – a pre-school director, a pre-school aide and a kindergarten teacher.

There will be no need to hire a separate Kindermusik teacher because the current music instructor, Mr. Crank, will be teaching the classes. Mr. Crank is a licensed Kindermusik instructor and calls teaching young children about music his, “passion.” Kindermusik instruction will take place in his existing classroom.

“All children are musical! Kindermusik realizes that fact and uses music as a tool to help develop the whole child – physical, psychological, emotional, social, cognitive, speech and language development.” Mr. Crank says about teaching Kindermusik for eight years. “The goal is to have musical children, not child musicians.”

“It is so exciting to have Kindermusik incorporated in the new preschool curriculum. This is truly cutting edge for this area. I found Kindermusik to be a fantastic program which encourages parental involvement through at-home activities and fosters creativity and an appreciation of music. I hope parents will see what a tremendous asset this is to our program” says parent, Sue Dransfeld. Mrs. Dransfeld’s children have experienced Mr. Crank’s Kindermusik instruction first hand years ago in a previous class.

Our Lady of Fatima Parish website will have up-to-date pictures and information of the renovation and construction going on throughout the summer. Information and online registration for school can be found at www.ourfatimafamily.com.