Academic Year
We consider important to have many items that reflect the children’s life (for example: kitchen items, small appliances that no longer work, costumes, as well as other toys or tools from the children’s house or backyard.). These items allow children to imitate adults and also create situations with their peers, which simulate real life events in which it is necessary to reason with problem solving strategies. Children feel more at ease with things they know, home items used as toys reflect who they are as well as their personal culture.
The following corners form part of each classroom: arts, dramatic play, building games, manipulation games and book/quiet corner. Material for the class is carefully selected according to the needs and interests of the children and is changed periodically. Material included in the environment may be natural, commercial, non-commercial or recycled.
- Arts: Painting, paper of different colours, twigs, buds, cotton balls, glue, markers, crayons, boxes, tubes, cardboard, pieces of carpet.
- Dramatic play: Pots and kitchenware, bags, suits, shoes, small rocks, empty food containers, mirrors.
- Building games: Legos, boxes, wheels, wooden blocks of different shapes and sizes, bricks, cardboard tubes, tires.
- Manipulative toys: small blocks, games, puzzles, connecting games.
- Book/quiet corner: Books in English and French, compact disks, cassettes, pillows, family albums, stories made by the children.
We ensure that every child enjoys a rich learning experience by providing an environment that is:
- Organized and welcoming
- Bilingual
- Equipped with interesting material, ready and available to all children
- Equipped with material that is open, which can be used in different ways. This allows the children to broaden their experiences, stimulate their imagination and encourages their autonomy by allowing them to independently chose, use and return the material.
- Designed to foster different types of games, for example: blocks, dramatic play, arts corner, sand/water table, manipulative toys and flexible reading corner, which allow the children to expand their game by bringing material from one corner to another.
- Equipped with material that reflects the diversity of interests of the children.
- Set to foster the development of motor skills, for example: outdoor games, play structure, sand square (cars, shovels, pots, etc.), drawing table, etc.