Junior Kindergarten
St Mary of the Lake Preschool focuses on developmentally appropriate, play-based learning opportunities for children to safely thrive with. Individual needs and interests are nurtured through enriched hands-on, self-directed activities and play. We confidently foster all early childhood developmental domains - social, physical, intellectual, creative, and emotional, in our progressive planning and enhanced classroom environment. On top of this, your child will learn to navigate the dynamics that come with a classroom setting, such as cooperative play, democratic practices, and respect. These essential skills are just a few amongst the array of learning that your child will experience in our preschool, which in turn will safeguard their success as they mature into Kindergarten.
Your child will explore:
- Opportunities in our well-equipped classroom, library, gymnasium, and outdoor space.
- Emergent, play-based activities based on developmental domains while corresponding with monthly themes.
Our certified Early Childhood Educator and qualified team will work closely with students to nurture the following competencies in regards to each developmental domain, all of which support academic and behaviour achievement:
Social:
- interact with peers appropriately
- appropriate manners
- appropriate self-expression
- self-regulation skills
- self care & independence (ie: dressing for outdoors, proper hand washing)
- democratic practices (ie: turn-taking, sharing, problem solving, collaboration, cooperation)
- learn to navigate peer-based setting appropriately
Physical:
- Fine motor skills such as: pencil grip, scissor grip, proper zipping, fastening buttons, safe threading, packing belongings independently.
- Gross motor skills such as: catch, throw with aim, hop, skip, safe climbing, walking in line, recognizing directions
- Body awareness skills such as: recognizing Left and Right body parts and doing actions accordingly, chewing with mouth closed, being aware of self.
Intellectual:
- recognizing name
- phonetic awareness
- connect alphabet letters to corresponding sound
- properly pronounce words and form sentences.
- respond to directions and questions appropriately
- communicate questions and thoughts appropriately
- provide appropriate responses for Who, What, Where, When, and Why questions
- identify numbers and amounts by saying it out loud and pointing to answer
- make predictions (ie: what’s going to happen in a story)
- recite and act out familiar rhymes, poems, and movements
- investigate book pages from left to right
- beginning efforts to sound out words (phonetics)
- preliminary writing
- develop vocabulary bank
- recognize and identify colours
- think through scenarios to problem solve
Creative:
- use multiple colours in art creations
- use imagination in creations and dramatic play
- express self via play
- carry over stories or thematic ideas into play and art
- problem solve and create/play adaptively
- discover new, appropriate ways to safely succeed
- use/create music with voice or safe objects in their play
Emotional:
- identify emotions
- self-regulation skills
- appropriate self-expression
- empathy
- patience
- recognize emotions of others and investigate (ie: notice that a peer needs help and offer it)
- confidence and self-worth
- trust
- positive outlooks
- desire to attend school