PROGRAMS
PRESCHOOL PROGRAM
We have licensed preschool programs (Hagersville and Ilderton location) with a teacher to child ratio of 1:8. Children in this program range from 30 months – 4 years old. Educators implement our program statement and policies to provide caring, engaging, and safe environments and experiences for the preschoolers. The preschool program spends at least 2 hours a day outdoors (weather permitting) and has a rest/nap time shortly after lunch (12:30-2:30pm). The preschoolers learn through relationships, interactions, exploration, play and inquiry-based programming and projects.
What does our preschool program look like?
SOCIAL SKILLS.POSITIVE INTERACTIONS
Our teachers provide positive and warm interactions with all the children at our centre. Our toddler staff are trained with handle with care, and work to create meaningful relationships with each child, as well as encourage positive interactions between peers.
Children learn through interactions with teachers and peers, they are encouraged to problem solve, cooperate and be nice to their friends.
Dramatic play experiences with other children and teachers allow children to work on vocabulary, problem solving, friendship building, and perspective taking and working on having positive interactions with people around them.
QUALITY CARE
“Let the child be the scriptwriter, the director and the actor in his own play.” — Magda Gerber
Literacy
In the preschool classroom children are exposed to different letters and their sounds.
Children will work on recognizing letters in their name, then recognizing their full name, then working on printing their name.
Teachers use “Handwriting without tears” when teaching children how to write their names and provide many opportunities to practice writing.
Teachers read high quality children books throughout the days to encourage print awareness and a love for reading. Our teachers take time to pose and answer questions, as well as use story extensions to make the stories they read come to life for children and enhance their learning.
Books are made available to children at all times of day, and children are encouraged to take care of the books.
EARLY NUMERACY
Preschools work on various cognitive skills based on their individual readiness. Children work on learning to count, classifying and sorting, patterning, recognizing numbers and other early math skills found in the Ontario Early Learning Framework. At our centre children learn through play, guided instruction and some direct instruction on skills such as counting and number recognition. Teachers work to ensure they know the best methods of teaching each individual child the curriculum.
EXPLORATION/INQUIRY/PLAY
Children learn through play, exploring and asking questions and therefore are encouraged throughout the day to do these. Children are exposed to sensory and science experiences, where they can explore and ask questions freely.
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY/OUTDOOR LEARNING
We believe outside is the best place for children to learn. Planned and emergent activities take place in the play yard each day. Children ask questions about things they find in the play yard such as snails, different leaves and the clouds they see in the sky and teachers work to provide them with connections from the natural world to their lives.
We strive for our children to get more than enough physical activity in every day (with activities being planned to ensure this happens inside and outside daily).
Physical activities that will instill a love for movement and being active, while developing gross motor skills
OBSERVATIONS AND COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS
Strong communication with parents – daily emailed reports with developmental observations, nutritional and care information.
Teachers actively observe your child’s development and skills, keeping notes and emailing you on skills they are working on along with pictures.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Children are provided with healthy morning and afternoon snacks as well as a nutritious lunch. We find that children in our preschool classroom are more willing to try new foods at the centre with their friends than they sometimes are when they are at home. Children learn to wash they hands before and after eating and going outside – they learn that washing out hands will help them stay healthy because it gets rid of germs. Children also learn about body part through songs and stories. Our preschool program takes time to teach safety, including road and fire safety, as well as safe choices in the classroom so they can avoid getting scrapes and bruises.
SINGING, DANCING AND THE ARTS
Preschoolers have many opportunities throughout our program to explore sounds, music and musical instruments in a variety of contexts and from a variety of cultures. Dancing is a great art as well as physical activity they our preschools love to do. Our preschool program has craft materials open all day long where children are free to grab what they would like and begin creating and expressing.