Teaching/Learning Approaches

How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years
A resource about learning through relationships for those who work with young children and their families

Key Elements of the Kindergarten Program

Emergent Curriculum

Emergent curriculum allows teachers to collaborate with children around their ideas, questions, development, and topics of interest. It is a continuous cycle that requires teachers to observe children and to listen closely for their ideas. Observation and listening are followed by the teacher's thoughtful response, which builds on what the children are doing and thinking. 

Stacey, Susan. The Unscripted Classroom: Emergent Curriculum in Action. St. Paul: Redleaf Press, 2011. Print.

Flow of the Day

Literacy and Mathematical learning is embedded throughout the day. Children are provided large blocks of time for inquiry-based and play-based learning that follows the student's interest but is also planned and purposeful. There is a balance of whole, small group, and individual instruction.

Creating Invitations for Learning

Creating Invitations for Learning supports educators as they prepare to create a learning environment that inspires creativity, wonder, curiosity, and excitement in children.

An invitation to learn is a display of materials, carefully selected and arranged, that draws children’s attention and engages them in a world of wonder, exploration, and discovery. The invitation to learn is purposefully and intentionally designed with curriculum outcomes in mind. As the children interact with the invitation, the educator observes and documents the children’s interests, thinking, and learning. The children’s questions and interests can become the focus for an inquiry.

Creating Invitations for Learning, Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, November 2010

Fundamental Principles of Play-Based Learning