KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM (3 yrs 8 mths - 5 yrs)

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Hester How Early Learning Centre takes great pride in offering an ​all-day, all year-round kindergarten program for children, with a very low student/teacher ratio of 10 students to one educator (RECE). Families have direct contact with an educator on a daily basis.  In addition to the school kindergarten curriculum being incorporated into our program, our play-based learning includes educating children how to make good choices, play fair and understand the importance of inclusion. We celebrate diversity through our various cultures, languages and family make-up.  Our classroom projects allow children to explore topics, such as earth awareness, recycling, world celebrations and animal habitats.  

WHAT DOES OUR KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM OFFER?   

• A play-based learning environment, that includes individual and small group activities, that will prepare children academically and socially for grade one 

• A teacher to student ratio of 1:10, with the same educators throughout the day 

• Curriculum calendars emailed monthly 

• Before and after care as part of a seamless day 

• Open every day of the year, except for statutory holidays 

• Weekly music classes taught by a Royal Conservatory trained educator (in addition to the daily music activities led by the classroom educator) 

• Weekly library visits, including book borrowing 

• Winter ice skating in the Nathan Philip’s Square ice rink 

• Healthy hot lunch and two snacks served on a daily basis, including organic milk and organic fresh fruit   

• Special events and extracurricular activities, i.e. visiting artists with expertise in yoga, dance, fitness, literacy, puppetry, music and magic 

• Field trips to Centre Island, live theatre and local events 

• Parent involvement is welcome, especially at our fall family curriculum meeting, our open house in the new year for prospective   kindergarten families, our annual family picnic, field trips and our winter skating program 

• For kindergarten children enrolled in the centre, younger siblings are given wait list priority for enrolment in our infant, toddler or preschool programs

CURRICULUM HIGHLIGHTS THROUGH PLAY BASED LEARNING  

Play based learning through “emergent curriculum” focuses on exploration of the classroom environment and the development of social and critical thinking skills.  

READING  

·  Identify letters and letter sounds  ·  Use reading tools independently  ·  Identify objects that begin with specific  letters  ·  Read short words and/or stories  

WRITING  

·  Print letters, short words and sentences in workbooks  ·  Print/understand use of upper and lower case letters  

MATH  

·  Number recognition to 100  ·  Addition/Subtraction  ·  Patterns  ·  Counting forwards and backwards  

·  Measurements  ​·  Simple Fractions  ·  Telling time 

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS & PROJECTS  

·  Animal Habitats  ·  Life Cycles  ·  Three R’s  ·  5 Senses  ·  Develop investigative skills  ·  Collecting Facts  ​·  Cause & Effect

COMPUTER  

·  Understand basic use and operation  ·  Educational math and alphabet  ·  Recognition of letters and numbers, turn taking, reading readiness, making predictions.  

EXTRACURRICULAR  

·  Music with a qualified music teacher  ·  Skating (Nov-Mar)  ·  Yoga  ·  Playground  ·  Weekly Library Visits ·  Field trips ·  Cooking  ·  French Language Classes

V.I.P  STUDENT OUTCOMES

·  Development of self confidence, self regulation, self reliance,  problem solving skills, independence and leadership skills  ·  Reading independently  ·  Counting and identifying numbers up to 100  ·  Development of skills in early math both practical and mental  ·  Printing sentences independently