of the Holistic Curriculum
The Kindergarten Exploration Program is set mainly outdoors, the play area of which is designed for children to explore and discover nature. Teachers’ set up learning centres each day that facilitate exploration and discovery. For example, a spot for sand and water contains large shovels, watering cans, tubes, trucks, pails, stumps and sticks. Students mix, pour, design, create, play and build with these materials. Teachers ask questions that facilitate discussion and encourage exploration.
Connections to the earth are fostered through (1) gardening, (2) weekly nature walks, and (3) visits to our partner organic farm. Each day is a new journey for the children, and the teacher and children document it with dried plants, art, photos, drawings, paintings, writing and stories. At the end of each year, Kindergartens host a Kindergarten Discovery Walk that showcases the Kindergarten journey and celebrates the graduation of the Senior Kindergarten children.
Each day, students participate in circle times with music, storytelling, poetry, second-language lessons, and shared reading. Other activities may include gym, music and/or library, depending on the year’s schedule.
In the primary years, students develop a connection to living things and nature. Some examples include watching: a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly; winged migrations each year; salmon migrate on the Humber River; chicks hatching; and a plant growing. Imaginative nature stories help to form an image of the phenomenon that the students observe. Aboriginal stories and songs that teach about livings things are told to students.
Teachers introduce Math concepts through fun-filled, imaginative stories. The children learn about addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through the story of King Equal and the Four Gnomes. The children revisit this story when they learn about place value and Tricky Mischief enters the scene. They practice math skills through music, movement, games and hands-on activities.
Real-life math activities connect math skills to the children’s lives, such as opening a class store to learn about money. In grade 3, students build a dwelling from environmentally sustainable materials. This project is the culmination of the math and science skills that students learned in earlier years.
Music, art, drama, and poetry enrich and enliven Language Arts lessons. Phonics and word-decoding skills are taught through imaginative stories. The school follows TDSB’ s balanced literacy approach. Sage stories from diverse cultures help to educate students about social-justice themes. Fables and trickster stories are told to deepen the children’s understanding of social relationships.
Continued in Junior and Intermediate Years
Back to Holistic Curriculum
