This week, we welcomed everyone to their classroom! Ms. O and I have been working very hard in August and this week to create a homelike school environment that will feel safe, warm, and familiar to students transitioning from home. We have 27 students and a big, beautiful space and lots of open-ended, natural materials to spark connections and curiosity. When you click through the photos you should see lots of evidence for what we believe kindergarten students learn best through: lots of literacy and math materials for them to choose themselves, interesting objects from outside ready to be investigated and learned from inside, cozy reading areas with soft lighting from lamps, natural building materials that can be combined and recombined in a variety of ways. You'll see light tables with neat things to place there to learn from, engaging objects left out on the windowsill, sensory bins with sand, rice, leaves, or ooey gooey materials waiting for exploration. For technology to explore we have a listening centre with CD player and books, an overhead projector, a laptop we all use in turn, and 5 iPads to share with the other K class at Tos.
Maybe you noticed these things at Meet the Teacher, and maybe wondered about what you DIDN'T see. Rest assured, if you didn't see it there was a reason we didn't include it. You won't find a lot of commercially produced materials, a big calendar, or plastic toys that have only one function or tell the child what to do. You won't see photocopied sheets or artwork where we all do the same thing. You won't see limits telling children how many can be playing at a centre. We have research-based reasons for doing or not doing each of those things, and are happy to answer any questions you might have about our program.
We had a great first week in the Tos Kindergarten! If you have signed media release forms, you may see pictures of your child on this blog! Please let us know if that is a problem.
Maybe you noticed these things at Meet the Teacher, and maybe wondered about what you DIDN'T see. Rest assured, if you didn't see it there was a reason we didn't include it. You won't find a lot of commercially produced materials, a big calendar, or plastic toys that have only one function or tell the child what to do. You won't see photocopied sheets or artwork where we all do the same thing. You won't see limits telling children how many can be playing at a centre. We have research-based reasons for doing or not doing each of those things, and are happy to answer any questions you might have about our program.
We had a great first week in the Tos Kindergarten! If you have signed media release forms, you may see pictures of your child on this blog! Please let us know if that is a problem.