New Prague Area Community Education

Early Childhood Screening is a FREE, simple check of how your child is growing, developing and learning. State law requires children to be screened between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. The state of Minnesota requires health and developmental screening for every child before kindergarten entry into a public school. New Prague offers this service at no cost. Screening is not a substitute for health care from your family physician, dentist, or other health care providers.Early childhood screening checks: Fine and gross motor skills Vision and hearing Speech and language development Height and weight Cognitive and social development Immunizations Appointments typically take an hour. Follow these steps to make an appointment Click on the location and month you would like to schedule. Select a date and time that works with your schedule and select “Enroll Now”. Complete all requested information and select “Enroll”. The next page is the Shopping Basket. Click “Check Out for $0”. If your registration is successful, you will receive an immediate email confirmation that includes your screening date and time. Note: If you are a new user to the Eleyo registration system and have created a new account during the registration process, you will receive two emails. One to welcome you as a new Eleyo user and another to confirm your screening registration. If you do not receive a course confirmation email a few minutes after registering, your registration is not complete and your appointment is not valid. If you need assistance with registration, please email npscreening@isd721.org or call 952-758-1674. Finally, prior to your child's appointment, you will be emailed the screening paperwork. Please finish the paperwork prior to your appointment, save them, and email to npscreening@isd721.org or print them and bring them along with you.

Are you a daycare provider in the New Prague Area School District? Our Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program has an opportunity just for you called Daycare Express. Providers register for a 45 minute visit from a licensed Early Childhood Teacher. The visit will include a circle time with singing, Mr. Bear’s clue bag, a story, and activities designed around the theme of the book. Providers will receive one CEU certificate for the visit and each family will receive a newsletter with ideas to use at home. Providers can register for one visit or up to nine visits during the school year (once a month maximum). If you have any questions or need more information please contact TaraLund at tlund@isd721.org

The district preschool classes will provide an opportunity for your child to attend school independently, make their first real friendships, build emerging literacy and math skills while also expanding social emotional skills. Students will develop a love of lifelong learning and the confidence in school readiness skills in preparation for kindergarten at New Prague Area Schools. There are a variety of full-day and half-day class schedule options to provide your family choices that work best for your child. All of these classes can be combined with PreK-WRAP Childcare to provide your family with a schedule that works best for you. Most classes are held at the Early Learning Center at the Central Education Campus in New Prague. The Monday through Thursday full-day classes at Falcon Ridge Elementary and Eagle View Elementary follow the same strong tradition of the preschool classes that are held at the Early Learning Center located at the CEC. Warm and welcoming environment where children build peer friendships. The students will become a community of learners as they spend the day together. Families will have the option to have a free school lunch provided or families can also provide a daily home lunch, and they will eat together in the classroom. Child-centered approach to learning Play-based learning throughout the classroom instructional day. Playground time will be with similar-aged peers or at a time dedicated just for their class. Research-based curriculum Inclusive classrooms Family involvement is encouraged Licensed early childhood teachers and highly trained paraprofessionals A nature-based classroom is also available. This class will meet three afternoons a week. The preschool years are when children’s brains develop more quickly than any other time. Play-based education in an outdoor learning environment allows children to explore the world around them while developing their whole selves. It provides an authentic experience that promotes creativity, attention span, and enjoyment in learning. Our nature-based classroom will have the goal of being outside a minimum of 50% of the time throughout the school year, reserving indoor time for extreme weather conditions. The class will meet each day at Falcon Ridge Elementary. This will allow an opportunity to use an indoor classroom when necessary to set the stage for learning, but the majority of the time each day will be held in the outdoor nature center at Falcon Ridge Elementary. Monthly field trips to Cedar Lake Farm on outside class days and busing cost for off site adventures are included in this class. 2024-2025 School Year Classes