Nursery School
Registration for Nursery program 2023-2024 is open! Secure your spot today!
At NNS, we offer 5 days a week morning sessions. We open our doors at 8:45 a.m. with pick up at 11:30 a.m. Our daily schedule involves a lot of free play where children are able to move to various centres. We have a calender circle where we learn names, numbers, and letters through songs and games. After snack we gather again for a planned activity. These activities are based on children's interests and work on small motor skills, gross motor skills, congnitive development, and social development.
Curriculum Statement
At Norwood Nursery School, we believe children learn through play. Our daily schedule has been designed specifically to encourage sustained and intricate free play experiences in order to make the most of learning opportunities. It is also predictable to provide a sense of security to the young children in our care. Transitions are kept to a minimum, always bearing in mind the developmental needs of the children. Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) guide children through transitions by remaining present, singing and using finger plays, all the while supporting children while learning how to self-regulate.
By allowing for large blocks of uninterrupted play, the children are given the opportunity to explore freely. This is very valuable for children as it is the basis of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development. Early Childhood Educators organize the environment to encourage and facilitate positive interactions with their peers. For example, we set up each of our areas for 2 or more children to play together, give children words to use while interacting, and situate ourselves to be clearly visible and available to all children. ECEs engage with the children, asking open ended questions to aid in language development, cognitive thinking and social reasoning.
Our staff-led activities include both child-inspired and seasonally directed experiences. ECE’s observe children’s play to determine their interests and then build on these interests and curiosity in our interactions, the play space and materials and experiences. For example, putting out books, magazines, posters, art supplies, and other imaginative play materials, or providing an activity related to the season or a particular topic of interest. Children learn skills such as cooperation and problem solving while building together; critical thinking and physical skills like coordination and control of motor movements while experimenting with sand and water; sharing and turn taking while playing games; conflict resolution, names of feelings and empathy when talking and engaging in dramatic play.
We understand that children develop at differing rates, and as such, are careful to implement activities to enhance children’s skills wherever they are. Our program balances the needs of our diverse population, and allows for children with additional support needs to feel part of our community of learners and growers. We offer an anti-bias, non-competitive interactions, environment and experiences, and we celebrate all languages, cultures, abilities, religions, and lifestyles so children feel they belong but are also exposed to similarities and differences amongst our community. For example, we include dolls of various races, ages, and both genders, dress up clothes of various cultures and genders, gender appropriate language, books and posters depicting various family make-ups. We include families and community by inviting community members to read stories, having a “Star of the Week” program where we highlight a family for the week and learn about how they live, and taking walks to the local parks.
Our staff get to know families by speaking with them daily, inviting them to volunteer, and through monthly newsletters. We offer an “open-door” policy to families and encourage everyone to participate and contribute as they feel comfortable. We document our learning through photographs and create photo boards for families to see and take part in our learning.
