The students get to experience all that fun and learning throughout the day because they rotate from one activity centre to the next. There are ten activity centres to explore from throughout the instructional day. They are encouraged to share, to explore, to invent, to use their imagination and to care for each other. The students also learn about responsibility when they clean up their activity centre before moving on to the next activity centre.
Activity Centres
At the Reading Centre, students practice their reading skills. They learn their phonetic sounds. They listen to each other read, we discuss oral comprehension skills and how they can relate the story to their own personal experiences (inferencing). Reading is so much fun!
At the Writing Centre we learn to print. We print words, sentences and our name. We also get to draw an illustration for the sentence(s) that we have written - visual communication. It is so exciting to learn how to print! Writing is exciting! It rhymes!
At the Math Centre we add and subtract. We use manipulatives to help us understand the strategies needed to get to the answer.
We have fun creating at the Visual Arts Centre. We study different artists like Picasso and Monet. We use our imagination to create fictional animal species. We love to display all the beautiful artwork!
We explore in science and at the Science Centre in our class. We use the magnifying glasses, the microscopes and the test tubes to conduct experiments and use the scientific method of experimenting. We go outdoor in our playground to explore science - We look at the plants, insects, etc.
The Drama Centre is engaging. It’s exciting to dress up and pretend to be whatever I want to be! I use my imagination. I share my costumes. I role play. I change my voice. I move as my character would move. I also put on a play for my classmates. I don’t forget when I’m supposed to come in for my lines! It’s called timing. Sit down, relax and enjoy the show!
At the Dance Centre we get to express our feelings.We also learn that there are modern dance routines that we can learn. Enjoy dancing the chicken dance!
At the Social Studies Centre we learn about our local community.We go for community walks. There’s a lot of cross curricular learning happening in a Full Day Kindergarten class. We learn about our planet, how to keep the earth clean and how we are responsible global leaders. We discuss our heritage and our traditions.
Religion and Peace Education
Religion is part of everyday learning. We pray, we read from the Bible, we practice Jesus’s teachings by caring for one another and we go to church (Holy Cross Catholic Church) as a school community once a month for mass. Fully Alive and Peace Education are part of the Religion program.
Vocal Music
The students will have their own Vocal Music teacher. Vocal Music is taught three times a week. The Vocal Music teacher has their own classroom. The students will be transitioning to the Vocal Music class with guidance from the classroom teacher and the ECE. Sometimes, the Vocal Music teacher will stay with the students in their own classroom.
Physical Education and Health
The students will have Physical Education 4 times a week. The students will have Health class one time per week. The Physical Education teacher will pick the students up from the classroom and take them to the gym. Please remember to wear your velcro/slip on running shoes and to have an extra pair of running shoes to stay in the classroom. The Health teacher will come to the classroom to teach Health. Sometimes, the Health teacher will use the school library for Health, if it is available.
We practice Daily Physical Activity (DPA) every day. Depending on the day, we exercise in the classroom or outside in our yard. Some of the DPAs include Yoga and Dance. You can check the examples out by clicking here.
The Holy Cross Library
As a class, we will have school library visits once a week. The students will be able to pick out one book to take home per week. We ask that the library book be returned before our library date or on the day we have library. When the student brings back their library book, the student may have a book exchange and take out another library book.