Kindergarten School
Mini-Skool's kindergarten school program is one of the best you can find, as well as extremely convenient for families who need a full day of child care.
Auditory skills, reading and writing, visual discrimination, art projects, letter concepts and math awareness are consolidated into this multi-sensory, child-oriented program. Weekly themes, with related activities, assist in developing your child’s knowledge base, attention span and effective communication skills.
Mini-Skool's Discovery Areas, located throughout the classroom, will challenge your child's keen and curious mind. The Kindergarten Discovery Areas include: Creative Art, Music & Listening; Manipulative Cognitive, Library & Language, Home Living, Construction Block, Dramatic Play, Science & Nature, Sound Table and Math Discovery and computers.
Mini-Skool's teachers encourage and model courteous and thoughtful behaviour as your child begins to develop solid and meaningful friendships. Our teachers use their experience and training to ensure that each child's day is balanced with physical activities, love and most of all, fun!
In preparation for grade one, Mini-Skool's kindergarten program provides a more school-like structured setting. The low teacher to child ratios experienced by your child at Mini-Skool will give him or her, a huge advantage. Your child will be given the time and attention required to provide a solid foundation for a lifetime of continued learning. In addition to our kindergarten learning programs, your four and five year old will be encouraged to talk about feelings and emotions, and to take responsibility for their actions.
Kindergarten Reading, Writing and Math
Program Overview
Your child's educational journey continues as we introduce our chosen language and math programs.
Kindergarten Reading and Writing with Jolly Phonics
No philosophy of reading is complete without reference to phonics. Mini-Skool has chosen Jolly Phonics to teach your child in a fun and interactive way. Your child will learn the letter names and sounds with an enjoyable multi-sensory approach. Learning how to blend letters, to read and to write words are all part of the fun of Jolly Phonics.
Low teacher to child ratios at our kindergarten school allow the teachers to spend the extra time with those children who require additional support. If your child is excelling in the program, supplementary work is provided to ensure that he or she remains challenged. We want every child to receive the full value of the program.
Mini-Skool teachers have taken the time to divide Jolly Phonics into a custom designed two year progressive program, to challenge both JK and SK children. The program is divided into three terms: September-December, January-March, and April-June. Each child in JK receives a personal binder to house their work sheets. SK children receive an accordion file folder to house their various workbooks. As the children progress through the terms, additional supplements to the program are introduced, such as "Jolly Jingle" songs, "Word Baggies", "Book Buddy Bags", "Printing Journals" and "Language Arts" journals.
To ensure that the program is successful, we ask that you support and assist your child when required. You will be informed every step of the way by informational letters and Developmental Record reviews during parent evenings as your child progresses through the terms.
The basic skills for reading and writing covered by the Jolly Phonics program are:
- Learning the letter sounds (including initial consonant and vowels)
- Learning letter formation (correctly printing the letters)
- Blending (forming words by combining letter sounds to make words)
- Identifying sounds in words (beginning, middle and ending)
- Spelling and identifying familiar words ("tricky" words)
French
Our program goal is to have french introduced in a fun and interactive way through circles, props, charts and stories.
Our teachers will encourage children to become comfortable with using basic french words in everyday conversations. Our focus is on verbal speaking but the children will recieve written worksheets to do at home.
Studies have proven that children who have early French immersion programming function at higher proficiency than those who develop later in thier school years. Mini-skool strives to offer an introduction to French that will give them a head start to future grades.
Kindergarten Math
Mini-Skool is proud to be using an all new program called "Math Works" for our JK and Sk students. The Math Works program is based on all strands of mathematics with 25 units of work. Children are given the opportunity through creative, stimulating and open-ended activities to develop thier ability to work with others, improve on thier individual math skills, as well as other learning experiences.
The Five Strands of Mathematics are:
- Number sense and numeration.
- Spatial Sense and Geometry.
- Patterning.
- Data Management and Probability.
- Measurement.
Your child's Junior and Senior Kindergarten years each end with a Graduation Ceremony that you will never forget!
