Toddler
Our focus is to provide children with a welcoming learning, care, and supportive environment that promotes each child’s development.
Pedagogy and Philosophy
Canadian Children Learning Centres is based on the child development model. Learning through play is viewed as the cornerstone of the curriculum.
Our Pedagogy is “the understanding of how learning takes place and the philosophy and practice that support that understanding of learning”.
Mission
Our mission is to provide an excellent, engaging, and developmentally appropriate environment where young children can succeed in a safe, structured, and nurturing environment.
Curriculum
Curriculum (the content of learning) guided by Early Learning for every child today “ELECT” and pedagogy (how learning happens) guided by How Does Learning Happen? HDLH in early years settings.
Both Pedagogy and Curriculum are shaped by views about children, the role of educators and families, and relationships among them. The Ministry of Education has released the Ontario Early Years Policy Framework, which articulates the following vision for early years programs: “Ontario’s children and families are well supported by a system of responsive, high-quality, accessible, and increasingly integrated early years programs and services that contribute to healthy child development today and a stronger future tomorrow.”2 How Does Learning Happen? HDLH, to help educators focus on these interrelationships in the context of early years environments.
The foundations for Learning are:
Belonging
Every child has a sense of belonging when s/he is connected to others and contributes to their world.
Our program offers security, sense of belonging, affection and strong relationships between educators, children and their families in order to allow each child to thrive as being competent, and develop to their full potential. We foster the children’s exploration, play and inquiry; and incorporate indoor and outdoor play, as well as active play, rest and quiet time, into the day, and give consideration to the individual needs of the children receiving childcare;
We believe that: Each interaction and communication with children in a positive way is an opportunity to support their ability to self-regulate. We plan carefully for easy transition between activities and programs. We view children as being competent, capable, curious and rich in potential.
Well-being
Every child is developing a sense of self, health, safety, nutrition and well-being.
Our programs seek to stimulate children’s Well-Being. Our programs nurture children’s healthy development, offer a safe environment to learn in and support their growing sense of self. We encourage curiosity and nurturing well-rounded healthy growth for all children based on their individual levels of development throughout the day by providing:
• Developmentally appropriate indoor and outdoor learning activities within positive environments. Being active in exploring nature.
• Respect for each child’s culture and traditions. Provide positive reinforcement for trying new foods. We are a nut free facility. We provide healthy nutritious meals prepared on site by a certified cook. Following the Canada food guide for all meals and snacks. Our menu has been reviewed by a Dietitian. We accommodate children and staff with their diet requirements. We post in all classes, staff room, office and kitchen a list of allergies or intolerance according to parents notifications.
• A program that addresses each child’s need for fun, creativity, active play (indoors and outdoors), communication skills, problem-solving and decision-making skills, cognitive growth, social interaction, rest, and nutrition. Staff plan for and create positive learning environments and experiences in which each child’s learning and development will be supported and which is inclusive of all children, including children with individualized plans. The environment is treated as third teacher. Children are supported in setting up the environment and staff are making sure all materials are available to them. Children are encouraged to value teamwork, interdependence, and group play. Preschoolers are observed during active indoor and outdoor play time. Daily reports are sent to parents about the skills learned.
Engagement
Every child is an active and engaged learner who explores the world with body, mind, and senses.
We emphasize on plans that are child-initiated and adult-supported experiences. Children are learning within a culturally diverse community. Children learn to relate to their peers, and to trust and respond to others. Children learn to understand and respect all cultural traditions. We provide children with easy access to all materials. We use open-ended questions which support inquiries. We post observations on a child’s developmental achievements (Lillio app).
We foster links between children, their families and the broader community as there is an understanding of the valuable contribution other resources can make towards the development and support each child learning experiences (the Librarian from the Public library come every month for story-time and songs) (During spring break Ottawa U. Science students come to give workshops about science topics like we did in Kanata Branch parts of the tulip flowers and magnets). Cheo also will be involved by sending screening clinics to parents if interested to attend the immunization or child development screening clinics and much more programs we will work with Cheo to develop in the future.
The staff observe and document (storyboards, graphs and photos) illustrate how the approaches are being implemented into the program. We Celebrate all Celebrations that children celebrate. We ask parents to share with us their traditions, for example songs or recipes or crafts.
Expression
Every child is a capable communicator who expresses himself or herself in many ways.
Every person, regardless of age, deserves to be treated with respect. We support positive and responsive interactions among the children, parents, childcare providers and staff.
Every Friday, children are encouraged to participate in show and tell in front of their peers and educators. Annually children get to show their parents their achievement books.
We believe that our childcare staff offer support and encouragement to families and respect their wishes, and that quality childcare requires staff who are well-educated and have a commitment to both child and family.
An opportunity for family members to actively participate in strong partnerships with teachers to share an understanding of our program and each child’s individuality and to build an accurate picture of their strengths, abilities and overall development. Parents are always asked to give suggestions and feedback. Our newsletter is an open window for parents on our Centre’s activities and news.
We support staff or others who interact with the children at our Kanata North or Hunt Club branches to participate in Workshops and online learning related to continuous professional development.