The Kindergarten Program in a Snapshot

The Full-Day Early Learning–Kindergarten program is a child-centred, developmentally appropriate, integrated, full day program of learning for four and five-year-old children. The purpose of the program is to establish a strong foundation for learning in the early years, and to do so in a safe and caring play-based environment that promotes the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of all children.

The Kindergarten Program is a two-year program that is built on Four Learning Frames;

1. Belonging and Contributing,

2. Self-Regulation and Well Being,

3. Demonstrating Literacy and Math Behaviours and

4. Problem Solving and Innovation.

1. Belonging and Contributing

This frame encompasses children’s learning and development with respect to:

• their sense of connectedness to others;

• their relationships with others, and their contributions as part of a group, a community, and the natural world;

• their understanding of relationships and community, and of the ways in which people contribute to the world around them

2. Self-Regulation and Well Being

This frame encompasses children’s learning and development with respect to:

• their own thinking and feelings, and their recognition of and respect for differences in the thinking and feelings of others;

• regulating their emotions, adapting to distractions, and assessing consequences of actions in a way that enables them to engage in learning;

• their physical and mental health and wellness.

The abilities of children to regulate their own emotions, behaviours, and attention increases over time with maturation, experience, and responsive relationships. Supporting self-regulation is a central focus of early development because self-regulation skills lead to physical, social, emotional, behavioural, and cognitive competence.

3. Demonstrating Literacy and Math Behaviours

This frame encompasses children’s learning and development with respect to:

• Communicating thoughts and feelings – through gestures, physical movements, words, symbols, and representations, as well as through the use of a variety of materials;

• literacy behaviours, evident in the various ways they use language, images, and materials to express and think critically about ideas and emotions, as they listen and speak, view and represent, and begin to read and write;

• mathematics behaviours, evident in the various ways they use concepts of number and pattern during play and inquiry; access, manage, create, and evaluate information; and experience an emergent understanding of mathematical relationships, concepts, skills, and processes;

• an active engagement in learning and a developing love of learning, which can instil the habit of learning for life.

4. Problem Solving and Innovation

This frame encompasses children’s learning and development with respect to:

• exploring the world through natural curiosity, in ways that engage the mind, the senses, and the body;

• making meaning of their world by asking questions, testing theories, solving problems, and engaging in creative and analytical thinking;

• the innovative ways of thinking about and doing things that naturally arise with an active curiosity, and applying those ideas in relationships with others, with materials, and with the environment.