** Please call to arrange a tour and pick up a handbook & application **

Programs

Our services include Toddler, Preschool and Kindergarten Enrichment Programs. There are a total of 10 students in the Toddler class overseen by two ECE Teachers (or an ECE & B.A//B.Ed). The Preschool classes include 16 children overseen by two ECE Teachers (or an ECE & B.A//B.Ed). The Kindergarten class has a capacity of 16 students overseen by two ECE Teachers (or an ECE & B.A//B.Ed Teacher).

Children start each day in the same room, and throughout their day flow together with their class to the other room, allowing for different experiences, and a refreshing change of environment. The Yellow room is the creative room, with opportunities for painting, sand & water play, play dough, block building, as well as the daily creative art project and science activity. The Lavender room focuses on cognitive play  and activities, including circle time, show & share, dress-up, family centre, puppets, music, reading area as well as cognitive games and puzzles.

Every day includes time in the large gymnasium, during which children play organized games, ride tricycles and cars, practice ball throwing, balancing and parachute play. Weather permitting we will venture outside to our fenced play area for some active play.

Each day, midway through the program children are served a nutritious snack including a fruit or a vegetable, crackers and water, as well as occasionally a dip, cheese, or yogurt.

There is a strict NO PEANUT policy at the preschool and no outside food is permitted. Birthday party and other celebration treats must be in the original sealed package and certified nut free. A list of nut-free bakeries is available from the school.

We often enrich the program with outings and visitors to the school and encourage parents to share their knowledge/culture with the class. We provide specialized music & Sportball® classes for the children on a weekly basis.

Program Hours are:

Morning programs: 9:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m

Afternoon programs: 12:45 p.m - 3:15 p.m

Full Day Program: 9:00 a.m - 2:55 p.m

Activities/Themed Learning

Activities at Uptown Yonge Preschool follow weekly theme units, which are incorporated into each activity (circle discussion, songs, creative, manipulative play, puzzles, books etc). Thematic units include: All about me, Dinosaurs, Weather, Seasons, Plant life, Colours, Concepts of over/under etc., Farm Animals, Sea life, Spring etc. This method maintains the interest of children and provides much excitement in the program.

Children participate in multicultural programming, learning to appreciate each other's similarities and differences. We celebrate holidays and birthdays, as well as special days such as Pajama Day, Beach Day, Backwards Day, Hat Day, etc. We encourage community awareness & involvement by recruiting class visits by Policemen, a Vet (along with some furry friends) Firemen, Doctors and Dentists.

Our monthly newsletter keeps parents informed about current school activities. Please take the time to review it each month.

Toddler Program

Our toddler program offers a warm, supportive atmosphere in which children can develop social, emotional and self-help skills, gaining independence, having fun and expanding their experience. Focus is placed on language development, fine & gross motor skills as well as social interactions/impulse control. Children are also exposed to colours, shapes number, and name recognition

In the Creative Room:

• Daily creative activity (using a variety of mediums: glue, paint, recycled materials, nature, chalk etc).
• Painting & Drawing
• Play dough & modeling clay
• Sensory tables (water, rice, nature, noodles, cornmeal etc)
• Cooking & Baking (Multicultural & Holiday)
• Wooden blocks, "Duplo", shape sorters which help develop
• Children's fine motor skills and imagination.

In the Cognitive/Dramatic Room:

• Interactive Circle, Story & Discussion time (inc. show and share,
• Songs, calendar discussion)
• Puzzles & Magnets, pegboards etc.
• Pretend/dramatic play props (costumes, career props, dolls etc.)
• Puppet theatre & puppets
• Family Living Centre (play food & kitchen items, dolls)
• Books according to the weekly thematic unit and reading corner
• Transportation toys
• Cognitive: Shapes, Colours, Letter and Number, and own name
• recognition, serration, matching, classification
• Manipulative & stacking/nesting toys
• Felt board
• Fine Motor Activities-shape sorting, zippers, velcro
• Wide variety of toys such as farms, animals, dollhouse

Preschool Program

Preschoolers are full of questions, and excitement to learn about the world they live in. In a supportive and caring environment, they are free to pretend, imagine, experiment, make friends and gain independence. Carefully selected developmentally appropriate activities are selected each day to encourage learning and creativity. Children progress in number and letter concepts, are introduced to phonics and sight words, progressing unhurried at their own comfortable pace. Socially acceptable interaction is modeled and conflict resolution skills are taught.

In the Creative Room:

• Daily creative activity (variety of mediums: glue, paint, recycled materials, nature, chalk etc.)
• Painting & Drawing
• Play dough & modeling clay
• Science Activities (children will be encouraged to consider "how, when, why?" eg. Sink & float)
• Games, colour mixing, milk, food, colouring and dish soap experiment)
• Sensory tables (water, rice, nature, noodles, goop, ice, cornmeal etc)
• Cooking & Baking (Multicultural & Holiday)
• Wooden blocks, Lego/kinetix

In the Cognitive/Dramatic Room:

• Interactive Circle, Story & Discussion time (inc. show and tell, calendar and weather work)
• Puzzles & Geoforms & Board Games
• Pretend/dramatic play props (costumes, career props, dolls etc.)
• Puppet theatre & puppets
• Living Centre (play food & kitchen items, dolls)
• Books according to the weekly thematic unit and reading corner
• Transportation toys
• Cognitive: Shapes, Colours, Letters and Number recognition, serration, matching, classification
• Manipulative toys
• Phonics & Number concepts as developmentally appropriate
• Magnets
• Felt board
• Fine Motor Activities (stringing, cutting, tracing, mark making)
• Wide variety of toys such as farms, animals, dollhouse

Kindergarten Enrichment Program

** This program supports, enhances and complements the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum **

The smaller group size and opportunity for more personalized programming is a perfect complement to the child standard Kindergarten program.

Activities include a balance of free-play, more structured individual & small group activities as well as a developmentally appropriate amount of explicit instruction. Daily Circle time includes a theme-related story/songs/fingerplays, topic discussion, calendar work (days of the week, months of the year, today is____ yesterday was ____etc), and show and tell.  This format allows children their opportunity to shine and be heard. Children are assigned daily tasks/"jobs" that afford responsibility and foster independence & self-esteem.

The teacher's role is to guide student's to make connections through active learning, in a context relevant to them.  It is through this approach that children learn & retain information, without rote learning, undue stress, or losing their thirst fort knowledge. Children are encouraged to explore new activities and to reach their highest potential in a nurturing, supportive environment.  Following are the elements of the program, in addition to play-based activities described in the preschool program.

Program Goals

Literacy

• Literacy Program, introducing children to the letters of the alphabet through songs, rhymes and poems.  Discovering the sounds they make individually and together, as well as how they are used to form words.
• Sight word reviews
• Beginner reading individually & in a group
• Identifying the author of a book, predicting what will happen next, narrating pictures without hearing the story, continuing a friend story etc.
• Recognizing their own name and learning to print it
• Journal writing

Mathematics

• Counting to 100
• Quantity and number relationships
• Adding concrete objects
• Beginning fractions (1/2, that an item can be divided equally)
• Sequencing (Smallest to largest, Tallest to Shortest, first to last)
• Problem solving (What can we do if we have 2 cookies and 4 friends?)
• Measurement (using everyday items such as paperclips, erasers, hands)
• Collecting data & graphing: (eg. Simple Graphing of favorite colour apple by each child gluing their coloured paper to the appropriate bar.)
• Experimenting with force, volume, measurement using sand and water sensory play as well as everyday items.
• Sort, classify and compare 2D and 3D objects
• Weight (using balance to compare weight of everyday objects vs. weights or each other)
• Sorting and classifying (by colour, texture, mammal vs. reptile etc)
• Patterning: identifying, recognize and describe patterns in everyday life (male vs. female, tall, tall, short etc) and representing concretely using pattern blocks, friends or toys, as well as drawing them.
• Time: gaining an understanding of the passage of time, the functions of a clock etc.
• Money: may involve market prop with teachers acting as customers.  Learning to identify Canadian currency and it's value (what is a dime? Is it more than a penny? What do we call a 1-dollar coin?)

Self Identity/Self-Image/Social Conscience

• Children are encouraged to speak, tell stories, and maintain balanced conversations with peers.
• Positive self-esteem is cultivated & nurtured
• Self-regulation: Teachers work with children to control impulses, use appropriate means of communicating and interacting while maintaining positive self-worth.
• Encouraging understanding and appreciation of diversity
• Our obligation to help others, have respect for ourselves and others and giving back to the community

Science & Technology

• Exploring the natural and human made environment
• Ask questions making a hypothesis & examining results ("what will happen if we?")
• Free and guided inquiry into various objects
• Plant & Animal Life: (stages of growth, parts of a plant, Butterfly Life Cycle, Animal Classification)
• Safe usage of technology
• Using gears, ramps, pulleys
• Guided use of Kindergarten computer program/computer & internet usage safety

Health & Safety/Physical Activity

• Activities geared towards development of large and small motor control (bouncing, kicking, running, jumping, pedaling, balance, throwing etc.)
• Lacing, threading, using a pencil & scissors
• Nutrition (visit to the local grocer, healthy eating, cooking/baking)
• Safety (seatbelts, helmets, safe/unsafe secrets etc)
• Sportball Gym Program®

Visual Arts

• Specialized Music Program
• Dramatic play in the family living center with varied and changing props
• Puppet Theatre
• Daily process-oriented creative activity
• Play-dough & clay
• Group creative activity work: working as a team to create.
• Children are encouraged to see themselves as artists
• Representing thoughts & feelings through artistic expression
• Learning about & exploring artistic genres (Impressionism, Abstract etc.)

Further Activities

Reading to children is positively related to their future reading success. When reading teachers point out familiar objects, encourage children to ask questions, point out the direction of the words, the author, title etc. Following the story, children are encouraged to discuss their favorite parts, how they feel about the story etc. and participate in quiet reading.

We are aware of the importance of regular exercise for children, and work toward helping children make positive associations with regular activity.  Every day children participate in gross motor activities involving parachute games, climbers, tents, tricycles, toddler cars, balls, bean bags, hoops, balance beams.  Preschoolers are also introduced to organized games and sports.

The program plan for each class is posted in the classrooms each week.

We offer a nut-free environment and serve nutritious nut-free, organic meals.

Specialized & Enhanced Programming

We offer specialized music, daily french & Sportball® classes. Field Trips are taken to a variety of places such as: Farms, museums, Zoos, Reptilia, Pumpkin & Apple Picking, local parks & gardens.  Parents are encouraged to volunteer.

For more information about licensed childcare in Toronto visit www.toronto.ca/children

Daily Schedule