A Whole Team Effort!

There are many players on the Kindergarten team who work together to engage children in inquiry-based learning in a child-centered and integrated environment.  At school we acknowledge the important role that parents/guardians have in their child’s education.  Parents/guardians are the children’s first teachers and we welcome any input as well as help around the classroom from these important team members.  When the children come to school a highly qualified team consisting of a teacher, an early childhood educator, and principal are ready to help the children learn in an inquiry rich environment that consists of a balance between child-initiated play and play guided by a qualified team member.  Through child-initiated play, children are able to interact with others and make meaningful discoveries to guide their own learning.   Guided play is carefully planned and a team member intentionally responds to, challenges and extends children’s learning.  Through on-going observation, children show what they know and they can do.  A team member uses the information gathered to determine the next steps for each child’s inquiry and personal growth to support further learning.     

In this picture, the children have initiated play at the Blocks/Construction Center.  They have decided to build a movie theatre.  The two students are at the ticket booths while the other students are finishing the construction.  Students are meeting various Kindergarten curriculum expectations.  Please refer to the section Information About the Kindergarten Curriculum for further information about the curriculum expectations. 

 

In this picture, the Early-Childhood Educator (ECE), is guiding the children's learning at the Science Center. Children are learning about plants and growing plants.  The ECE is guiding their learning by responding, challenging, and extending their inquiry.    

We welcome parents, grandparents, and other important family members into our classroom to join in and participate in our learning journey.  We believe that families are important in helping to achieve learning success!

 

Inquiry Through Play- Playing IS Learning!

What do children enjoy doing the most?  PLAYING of course!  Play is the most important learning tool that children can use in Kindergarten, because it helps them to discover, think, reflect, self-regulate, and LEARN.   Children’s natural curiosity to play and explore their environment should not be overlooked. Play-based learning has been researched and proven to be developmentally beneficial to children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.  When children are playing in an integrated learning environment, they are creating, comparing, communicating, problem-solving, investigating, imaging, sharing, role-playing, and experimenting.  In addition, play-based inquiry allows children to improve and build on their literacy, numeracy, and oral communication skills in an environment that is meaningful for children and takes into consideration individual interests, learning needs, and the developmental continuum.  Inquiry-based learning in Kindergarten is not one-sized fits all learning!

In this picture students are digging for dinosaur fossils and strengthening their fine motor skills at the same time!