Arts Play promotes: creativity, self-esteem, fine motor growth, mathematical reasoning, spatial awareness and independence.

Through exploration children convey ideas and feelings

Through dance, music, visual arts or dramatic play, children use open ended materials and other media to draw, model, create music or perform. Children often experiment with arts play as a way to explore and learn using body movement, role-playing, acting and vocal or visual interpretation. Children can also use music or art media to convey their ideas or feelings by expressing them through body movement, vocal, dramatic or visual representations.

Construction play promotes:

creativity, large and small motor growth, perseverance, self-regulatory abilities, metacognitive thinking, oral language, cooperation, problem-solving abilities.

When children build or take things apart, they engage in construction play. They do so to learn how things work and to repurpose everyday objects for other types of play. Building forts, cars and imaginary or real-world objects provides a means for children to make meaningful connections to how things work.

Language play promotes:

A sense of belonging, speaking to be understood, emergent literacy skills, vocabulary, risk taking, oral fluency, listening for understanding.

When children play with words, rhymes, verses and songs that they make up or change, they build language capacity. Children learn about the sounds of language and how meaning is made when they tell and dramatize stories. Language play develops children’s inner voice and gives them a greater understanding of their place in the world. Young children are fascinated by language, including foreign languages, especially when language is presented playfully in story, verse or song.

Large Motor play promotes:

Coordination, willingness to participate, spatial awareness, balance, muscle strength, physical fitness.

Children will show their natural desire to climb, run, slide, swing, jump and engage in every type of movement possible. Large-motor play is often associated with children having fun while developing coordination, balance, stamina and physical fitness. It has also been shown that children who actively engage in longer periods of daily large-motor play are more likely to experience cognitive, emotional and language growth.

Risk-taking play promotes:

Knowing how to take risks enhancing new learning

Running down a steep hill, using sharp tools, hopping on stepping stones to cross a puddle or climbing a tree are examples of risk-taking play. Think of risk-taking play as play that involves children exploring heights, speed and new spaces; playing with tools; and using elements in their environment to climb on, under and over. When children test their abilities through risk-taking play, they learn how to master challenging environments, understand personal capabilities, develop confidence and gain independence.

Rough and Tumble play promotes:

Safe outlets for releasing energy, self-control, social competence, empathy, taking turns, improved communication skills, regulation of attention and persistence.

From a physical standpoint, rough and tumble play provides a natural outlet for children to release energy while exercising large muscles.The social learning during rough and tumble play improves social skills as children learn more about themselves and others. Rough and tumble requires children to show self-control and empathy toward others, cooperate, share, adapt their actions, take turns, resolve conflicts, develop leadership skills and self -regulate impulses and aggressive behaviour.

Rules-based play promotes:

a sense of comfort and security, confidence, sense of belonging, social flexibility and adaptability, and purposeful use of materials for learning.

When children begin Kindergarten, they are capable of showing their developing ability to to make up their own rules. They are also at a stage that allows them to begin to show the social skill that comes with adapting rules to each play and learning situation.

Sensory play promotes:

Mathematical and scientific reasoning, vocabulary development, cooperation, empathy and collaboration, and large and small muscle control.

Most children enjoy exploring different textures, sounds, and smells while playing with dirt, sand, mud, water and other materials. Not only do children enjoy learning about the properties of various substances, sensory play helps children develop cognitively, linguistically, socially and emotionally, physically and creatively. Learning with the senses leads to greater retention in all areas of a child’s development.

Make-Believe play promotes:

A sense of comfort and security, coping strategies, willingness to participate, creative problem solving, social problem solving.

Make-believe play is an all-encompassing category of play that is rich with oral language, problem-solving and imagination use. Anything becomes possible during make-believe play. Ultimately, make-believe offers children a safe avenue to make sense of their world and to learn how to cope with new, scary or challenging experiences.

Small-motor play promotes:

Hand-eye coordination, visual tracking, control of mouth and lips to form words, comprehension (connecting actions to words, cause and effect)

Small-motor play involves the careful and precise control of small muscles in the hands, feet, fingers and toes. Playful activities that encourage children to experiment and challenge use of small muscles has impact beyond the domain of physical development and it plays an important role in helping children begin to make sense of their world.

Mastery play promotes:

Competence in doing new things, confidence, willingness to take risks, independence and mindfulness,

When children are stimulated and challenged by learning something new they can become fixated on activities associated with what they are learning. When a child repeats actions to solve a problem, it is “mastery play.”

In self-selected mastery play, the child explores solutions that will help them achieve success in a goal they have set for themselves.

Symbolic play promotes:

Independence, imaginative play, self-motivation, intrinsic learning, and creativity.

Symbolic play represents a developmental step in learning when there is no longer a need for specific objects to be used in play. This fun stage of development is where children delight in pretending. Symbolic play affords children opportunities to gain more control over their environment freeing them up to independently play and learn.

"A Classroom that is functioning successfully as a third teacher will be responsive to the children's interests, provide opportunities for children to make their thinking visible and then foster further learning and engagement."

Susan Fraser

"The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky."

Margarette McMillan (c1925)

The children will be given the opportunity to spend a great deal of time in the natural environment. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful forested area with an outdoor classroom situated beside the school.

Kindergarten students will

• count to 10 forwards and backwards
• show, describe and compare quantities of things up to 10
• sort objects based on a single attribute
• recognize groups of 1–5 objects arranged in a familiar way
• play, read and use storytelling to explore and talk about how to solve problems
• connect numbers to everyday life
• recognize and create patterns, using objects, sounds and actions

For more about Kindergarten Mathematics, refer to the program of studies.

Children arrive and play at small park

• Morning Sharing Circle
• Snack
• Recess
• Playful Centers (Children work in small groups at rotating centers)
• Music
• Gym
• Lunch
• Recess
• Afternoon Sharing Circle
• Wonder Time ( In class or out in the natural area)
• Dismissal
• Children are brought to the buses before the other school students.
• Children that are being picked up. Park and meet Mrs. Kitson at the end of the sidewalk closest to the arena.