Sudbury Catholic District School Board
March 30, 2021

Creating Endless Possibilities: What happens in Kindergarten lasts a lifetime

Director's Corner

Our vision at Sudbury Catholic Schools is to create leaders in learning and faith and we begin that process as soon as students enter our buildings for the first time! In this blog we will explore the amazing learning that takes place in our Kindergarten classrooms every day. Working as partners, our teachers, early childhood educators and other support staff create the conditions where students can learn through exploration and play. It is upon this foundation that our students continue to grow and develop, mind, body and spirit.

In our Kindergarten program, the four “frames”, or broad areas of learning, are used to structure thinking about learning and assessment. The frames are:

Belonging and Contributing

Self-Regulation and Well-Being

Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours

Problem Solving and Innovating

Here is what that looks like in our classrooms!

Our Catholic Faith

Faith is infused throughout the Kindergarten program by honouring the liturgical year, learning about the Catholic virtues and values of the month and celebrating Catholic Education Week. An essential question is asked throughout the program: Where is God? Students find God in every aspect of life and are able to articulate this in a variety of ways such as through stories, songs, drawings and discussions.

Technology Integration
Our students and teachers participate in a variety of learning opportunities that involve technology and innovation, providing access to technology and digital tools of the 21st century. Technology integration also fosters global competencies including: critical thinking and problem solving; innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, learning to learn/self-aware and self-directed learning; collaboration; communication; and global citizenship. Various digital technologies have been embedded into our Kindergarten program. Examples include:

  • MacBooks for staff and iPads for students
  • Apple TV to project learning activities and games
  • A variety of learning applications to use on the iPads including: self-regulation tools, Toy Theatre, Mathies, Reading games and more!

French Immersion
Early French Immersion begins in our Kindergarten program. Through French as a Second Language programs, students will communicate and interact with growing confidence in French, one of Canada’s official languages, while developing the knowledge, skills, and perspectives they need to participate fully as citizens in Canada and in the world.The French language is used in the classroom for most of the day (90% is taught and spoken in French and 10% is taught in English through religion).

Let’s explore some of our classrooms…

St. David Kindergarten Class Embraces the Outdoors

Karen Healy, kindergarten teacher at St. David school has enjoyed utilizing outdoor learning with students throughout the year. Using the outdoor space provided by the school, Karen and Early Childhood Educator Deanna Delamorandiere have incorporated large blocks of outdoor learning daily.  This has provided a unique opportunity to work on literacy and numeracy skills outside of the traditional classroom setting.  The students truly enjoy learning on the land and come alive when they are outside. Not only are they learning many different skills, but connecting with the land has also been very beneficial for their self-regulation and well-being. 

They have also been sharing regular updates with parents and guardians by uploading daily photos and videos to the SeeSaw App. At the end of the year, parents are able to download their child’s portfolio and have a record of pictures from their Kindergarten year!

“There is something special about being part of a student’s first experience with school.  The students grow so much over the course of two years and it is wonderful to be a witness to that and to support them in the beginning of their educational journey,” said Karen.

Students spend time outdoors each day to work on their literacy and numeracy skills

Remote Learning Teaching Team Creates An Environment of Inquiry Based Learning Online

Kelly Beaton (teacher) and Lindsay Lavallee (Early Childhood Educator) are teaching French Immersion Kindergarten remotely through the Remote Learning School. They believe that effective remote teaching resembles what teaching looks like in the classroom. It is centered around what students are curious about and what gets them excited. In their experience, an engaged student is going to make more of an effort to learn in order to satisfy their curiosity.

“It is such a privilege to be part of our students’ lives at the very beginning of their education, when they are full of wonder and open to discovering the amazing world around us,” said Kelly.

The class recently conducted a dinosaur inquiry where they built their programming around questions generated by the students. Through this, they were able to find ways to practice French oral language, reading, writing, math, physical activity, art and role play, all while conducting their scientific inquiry. As a culminating activity, students created their own dinosaur fossils by making salt dough, sculpting it into the shape of the bones, teeth and footprints they had learned about, then baking and painting their fossils. Later, they had a blast acting as junior paleontologists to excavate their creations, applying their new knowledge along the way (i.e. sorting teeth belonging to herbivores and carnivores).

“This school year has really challenged us to think outside the box, from lesson plans to engaging social connections via our remote classroom. I’m so proud of all our students and how well they’ve adapted to a non-traditional learning environment!” said Lindsay.

Virtual Kindergarten students enjoyed a St. Patrick’s Day celebration!

St. Paul School Embraces Team Atmosphere in Kindergarten Classes

The Kindergarten classes at St. Paul School embrace the team atmosphere and try to interact with each other as much as they can. They enjoy being able to bounce ideas off of each other and support each other throughout the school year.

This year, classes have been completing many virtual Science North field trips to provoke thinking and inquiries and apply that to their own learning environments. The teaching teams have also focused a great deal on zones of regulation to help identify feelings and have included Kelso’s Choice to support problem solving in their classrooms. They have also had students lead morning meetings so that all have an opportunity to shine!

Developing trusting, positive relationships with students and parents and guardians is so important. The teams continually find ways to be communicate with parents/guardians such as through communication books, displaying student work on social media channels and completing regular feedback forms and surveys.

Much like all of our teachers and educators, the teaching teams at St. Paul School enjoy and embrace all of the milestones and challenges that kindergarten brings!

“As educators, we embrace teaching the students to read and write. We love seeing them use strategies learned in class as they demonstrate growth in their learning and watching them use these skills as the year progresses.Their energy, enthusiasm and love of learning is contagious and inspires everyone around them!”

The teaching teams at St. Paul School

Remote Teaching Teams focused on self-regulation!

Kindergarten Teacher Holly Reilly and Early Childhood Educator Cindy-Lynn MacLennan have been heavily focused on self-regulation in their remote kindergarten class. Students have been focused on identifying emotions and coming up with strategies to help maintain focus and create a mindful focused brain. Students have loved learning about their brain and what it does for them through the MindsUp program. The program places a focus on the parts of the brain and its functions. Students have been able to share their knowledge and navigate their emotions to specific strategies which can be used to help bring them back to the colour green (Zones of Regulation).

“I am proud to be a kindergarten educator! I love that in kindergarten we always have so much to share or something we are wondering about,” said Cindy.

“I take pride in having experience as both an Early Childhood Educator and a teacher. I love being able to celebrate small victories and milestones with students in kindergarten. Through an online environment, we have embraced a new way of learning and slowly our students have helped create this same sense of community in a digital world. I love hearing students from different schools ask one another about their experiences even through a computer screen. Their resilience continues to shock and amaze me!” said Holly.

All of our schools are staffed by caring and talented staff who are committed to creating the best possible learning environments for our students. To learn more about all of our innovative, welcoming and caring elementary schools view their websites HERE!

Still have questions about our Kindergarten programs? Don’t hesitate to contact us at info@sudburycatholicschools.ca

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