Whats Going Down at Kindertown: Exploration, Discovery and Preschool!

This is the year when all the child’s hard work, learning curves and milestones acquired during their early years of Kindertown are applied and challenged on a daily basis by a curriculum and program that emphasizes exploration, discovery and innovation. Just as important are the daily and subtle provocations and activities that help our preschool children get ready for ‘big school’. Each day, and through every experience, our educators are constantly incorporating ideas of numeracy, literacy, science and self-help skills into the activities, providing children with a head start once they graduate from Kindertown.

In the first few months of the preschool program, children spend time with our educators to take ownership of their classroom, their feelings and community. This means deciding upon what roles and responsibilities are needed in the classroom, where certain learning environments should go, and the best ways to help one another. A large part of the preschool program consists of regular adventures to the Eramosa Karst, Valley Park Community Center and in sunnier days - Felker Falls. Our preschool children learn to love the spaces and places that make up our Kindertown neighborhood, as well as an appreciation for the environment and people that make up our world.

Through observations, discussion and engagement between educators and children, these experiences help inform and guide the programming in our classrooms. Each and every day, our children find something interesting to bring back into the classroom, and it will be up to our educators to help them take that fascinating moment and expand upon it. We try to utilize every learning environment in our classroom to help create new knowledge and inspire new ideas. Whether this is through art, dramatic play or table top activities, our educators take big ideas and shrink them into opportunities of play. Our Kindertown preschool program will then evolve from deep conversations - for example a discussion about our own body - like how the stomach is responsible for breaking up the food we eat - could grow into one about different food from different cultures around the globe and all the things that make them unique, diverse and beautiful. Through books, technology, parent participation and community spaces throughout Hamilton, we take these ideas and curiosities even further in an attempt to stimulate all the sense of learning.

However, it’s when the spring has sprung that our preschool program really takes off! This is when we begin to plant for our Kinder-Garden, adventures consist of rides on the Hamilton Street Railway Bus to places like the Gage Park Greenhouse and Downtown Hamilton Farmers Market. Our children and their families begin to experience new places across their city, and get a sense of how different communities can help us learn to love our local. It is during the spring and summer months that our city becomes the classroom - and Kindertown - our home.

Finally, once things return to normal (hopefully this year!), children and their families celebrate all their success and accomplishments at Kindertown with our annual graduation ceremony. It’s usually one of the happiest but saddest times at Kindertown - however, we know that each K-Town graduate will go out into their communities and shine bright for a new educator, in a new school!