Little Minds Blossom and Hearts Shine
Kindergarten
Spectrum Northern Lights School’s kindergarten follows a holistic approach that focuses on the whole child and connects their development with the world and people around them. We follow an inspired curriculum taking the best of various child-centric, Montessori and Reggio early learning pedagogies.
Physical development
Cognitive development
Language and communication development
Social and emotional development
Our methodology aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills through a spiral approach, by revisiting and engaging with topics and skills in more depth at each stage.
The focus is on helping learners meet internationally established milestones for early development and to prepare learners to easily transition into Cambridge Primary, or the next stage in their education.
Curriculum Areas
A Rhythmic Year
Each year, month, week and day has its own rhythm and schedule that
helps support the sense of predictability and calm in today’s busy
children. Upon entering their classroom each day, a different activity and
mood greets the children. Through the course of each school day, the
same general rhythm is followed. This provides a strong sense of wellbeing for the children. When the young child knows what to expect, they
can relax and work on the more important aspects of working and
playing together imaginatively.
Music - Movement - Story Curriculum
The music - movement - story curriculum provides the basis for many
aspects of learning. As the children sing together as a whole class, there
is a sense of wholeness and purity to the tunes and it lives naturally in
the consciousness of the small child. The fairy tales provide a
multicultural experience of emotional, intellectual and physical
achievements and failures. The stories offer nourishment for a child’s imagination and play as well as guidance for social interactions. They
also immerse the children in articulate language experiences and a
foundation of speech, sound and composition.
Play - The essence of Kindergarten
Play is real work for children. We actively provide a learning environment
abundant in outdoor time and activities. Outdoor experiences of
swinging, jumping, running, digging, climbing, sitting, stirring, sliding
offer the needed gross motor work for the child. The unstructured play times help the children figure out for themselves,
and with each other, how to cooperate and how to share. Imaginative
play is especially important for allowing children to take on different
characters and roles, and be able to imagine what it is like to be another
person.
Finding Meaning in Practical Work
An important task for young children is learning how to use their bodies
in a balanced and competent way. Meaningful work alongside caring
adults helps children develop coordination and sensory learning—
essential for later academic learning. Practical activities and tasks like gardening, cleaning, and cooking help
lay the foundation for formal learning in reading, math, and science in
the grade school. These activities promote sequencing, hand-eye
coordination, eye-tracking, and number sense as children measure,
count, and classify in their work and play.
Practical Arts
In the early childhood years, practical arts are embedded in the daily,
weekly, and seasonal rhythms of the year. The experience of the whole
process, rather than the finished product, is the reason that practical arts are incorporated into the day. Finger knitting, sewing, embroidering, wetfelting, and wood working permit the child to explore a variety of
materials (eg. wool, yarn, fabric, wood, water). The children also learn to
use tools.
Festivals
Festivals are a way of celebrating the rhythm of the Earth. We strive to
bring a universal nature to our celebrations of festivals through their
connection with the rhythms of the earth. The school community comes
together in celebration and reflection. In taking time out of our regular
schedules to come together as a community, gratitude and rhythm are
built in ways that deeply nurtures children.
Cognitive Work
Cognitive Work is introduced to children through movement, play, stories
and art. Reading and writing are brought in the curriculum in a phased
manner starting with identification of the single sounds, blending of
sounds, working with sight words and gradually progressing to reading
and writing sentences. A love for books is brought in the children right
from the early years through the story readers. Numeracy work enable
children to learn through play, nature of numbers and the skills of
sequencing, grouping and taking away. As the fine motor skills
strengthen through practical art and purposeful work, children take slow
but steady steps towards writing.
People and community
Our teachers guide and include the children in everyday tasks which
bring them joy and a sense of accomplishment.We believe that children
have a great deal to learn from real experiences and interacting with
members of the community. Our dedication to community learning has
allowed our children to experience an array of interesting interaction and
learning from experts - scientists, athletes, doctors etc. Frequent trip in
and around the city has also strengthened this understanding of the
community.
What is unique about us?
Our curriculum is rich and diverse based on observation and study of the
child. The children are exposed to a language rich environment with a lot
of singing and stories, sparking imagination and creativity. Providing for
an active interaction with the world through direct experience, it enables
the child to develop an understanding of everything around him in his
own terms.The curriculum includes free creative play, movement,
language, sensory experiences, rhythmic-artistic activities, a playful
exploration of nature and surroundings where adults are facilitators in
work processes.
Our Mixed-Age Kindergarten Program is carefully designed to
encourage a healthy rhythm of active and quieter pursuits. Our teachers
cultivate the children’s imagination, sense of wonder, and ability for
sustained attention
