Educational Programs
Full-Day Kindergarten
Full-day kindergarten is designed to give your child a stronger start in school and in life – by providing four- and five-year-olds with an engaging, inquiry and play-based learning program during the regular school day. Children are involved in a variety of learning opportunities to help them investigate, problem solve and collaborate, under the guidance of an educator team that includes a teacher and early childhood educator.
Full-day kindergarten will help your four- or five-year-old get ready for Grade 1.
The teacher and early childhood educator are guided by a new curriculum, which is based on the most up-to-date information about child development and how children learn best.
We know that through play-based learning and a culture of inquiry, children develop a strong foundation for learning in all areas. This includes:
- problem solving and creative thinking;
- thinking critically about ideas and information in literacy and math;
- learning to think for themselves, understanding their feelings and those around them, recognizing and respecting differences in others, and assessing the consequences of their actions;
- understanding their connections, contributions and relationships with others as part of a group, a community, and the natural world;
- developing socially and emotionally through their relationships with other children and the educators who guide them; and
- developing as a citizen, through a sense of personal connectedness to various communities, like their class, their grade and their school.
Through informal meetings, parent conferences or written communication of learning reports, parents will receive regular updates on their child's learning.
Examples of Activities in the Classroom
These activities help children learn through play and inquiry.
Exploration and Investigation
Several children design small boats and then bring them over to the water centre. Each child puts his or her boat in the water and then places one shell at a time in the boat. Another child helps keep track of the number of shells using a simple tally. The teacher or early childhood educator asks the children to find out which boat held the most shells before sinking and think about how it is different from the other boats.
Creative Thinking
A small group of children make several attempts to build a tower as tall as the tallest child among them. Through trial and error, they discover that if they make the bottom of the tower wider they can build it taller. They draw a picture of the finished product and label the pictures to show their solution.
Observing and Learning
After making bird feeders from recycled materials, the children fill them with seeds and place them in the tree outside their classroom window. They watch the activity that takes place at each of the feeders and record what they see. With support from the teacher and early childhood educator, and based on their own observations, some of the children change their feeders and place them back outside to see if the birds will eat more seeds or land more easily.
Kindergarten Program
Is your child about to enter kindergarten? This document sets out what four- and five-year-olds will learn in Ontario’s two-year kindergarten program and how educators will help your child learn through play and inquiry.
|
Elementary School
Approximately 1.4 million students attend Ontario's 4,000 publicly funded elementary schools. The focus in these early years is to build a foundation in key areas that will help unlock each student's potential.
Strong literacy and numeracy skills are the critical foundation for all other academic achievement and for a lifetime of success. The government's goal is to have 75 per cent of students achieving the provincial standard (equivalent to a B grade) in reading, writing and mathematics.
Elementary School Program
Secondary Education
Approximately 1.4 million students attend Ontario's 4,000 publicly funded elementary schools. The focus in these early years is to build a foundation in key areas that will help unlock each student's potential.
Strong literacy and numeracy skills are the critical foundation for all other academic achievement and for a lifetime of success. The government's goal is to have 75 per cent of students achieving the provincial standard (equivalent to a B grade) in reading, writing and mathematics.
Every student is unique, and our high schools are changing to meet students' individual needs.
Innovative programs that help students customize their learning are helping more students graduate. The government's goal is to have 85 per cent of students graduating.
Every student learns in his or her own way.
This means meeting the needs, interests and strengths of all students, engaging them in learning and better preparing them for graduation and beyond.
Secondary School Program