Kindergarten
The aim of our Kindergarten
The aim of the British Junior Academy of Brussels is to provide Early Years education integrated with child care provision. This creates both a foundation for the child’s early development and a sound basis for life-long learning. The Kindergarten offers full-time or part-time availability for children aged 3 and 4 and provides a stimulating, safe and caring environment for our very youngest learners.
Young children have a wide range of experiences, competencies and interests when they join the school at the age of three, four or five. It is our aim - with well trained and qualified practitioners, and a well resourced and planned curriculum - to advance their learning and so provide rich opportunities for children to be happy and to succeed in an atmosphere where they feel secure, cared for and valued.
Our two youngest children are thriving at the BJAB and love going to school. BJAB is a warm, welcoming and secure place where the children feel happy and safe and therefore learn a lot.
— BJAB Parent
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Personal, social and emotional development
At the beginning of the school year we are all getting to know each other either for the first time or getting to know each other again after the long summer holiday. So we start the term with some simple fun activities to help the children to settle in happily.
The children will be put into activity groups: the ladybirds, butterflies, caterpillars and bees, this gives the children a sense of belonging within the class.
We will be learning about the kindergarten rules and how to play cooperatively together, sharing toys and games.
We are very keen to get to know the children and their families and we encourage the children to bring in interesting objects, books or photographs from home to help us in this. Equally if you have an event or celebration from your culture or country we would like to know about it so that we can share it with the rest of the class.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Communication and being able to express him/herself is an important part of a young child’s development. We put a lot of emphasis on these skills in the kindergarten and encourage them by reading stories, using role play and simply by listening to the children and what they have to say during mat times and group discussions. This all helps to develop good listening and language skills.
We will be introducing a range of activities to encourage the children’s fine motor skills; such as tracing, threading, cutting and sticking and puzzles.
Wednesday is library time; the children can borrow a book and exchange it for a new one the following week. In this way the children get to share something from school with their parents.
Mathematical Development
We develop the children’s number skills in many ways; by using number rhymes and games and simple activities such as laying the table or counting blocks in a construction. All these types of activities are incorporated into the normal day’s routine; we also do more specific maths activities aimed at the different age groups.
The pre-kindergarten children will be making a colours book. We will have a colour of the week, where the children can bring in an object of that particular colour from their home, for the colours table. There will be various activities involving that colour throughout the week.
The kindergarten children will be making a shape and number book. We shall be looking at and identifying basic shapes such as triangles, circles and squares and encouraging the children to use them in a variety of ways from construction with 3D shapes to shape pictures and printing.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Our main topic this term will be ‘places around us’. This topic will cover homes and places in the local community such as shops, hospitals parks etc. We shall be looking at different types of housing around the world and how people live. We will be talking about how we get to school and the different types of transport we can take. We shall be making dens out of various materials and thinking about how they can be constructed.
Then just before half term we will be talking about autumn and taking our first school trip of the year, to the forest to collect autumn leaves, conkers and acorns.
Creative development
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Physical Development
Our gym sessions will be taking place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and we would ask that the children are dressed so that they can move freely - for example - in jogging suit and training shoes. Tuesdays will be our weekly BEAM sessions which is a physiotherapy programme designed to develop good fine and gross motor skills. Thursdays we will be concentrating on using the apparatus in the gym. Learning to move safely on the various apparatus and using skills like; climbing, crawling and jumping.
We will also be enjoying a weekly music and movement session where the children will enjoy moving to their favourite tunes.
Information, Communication and Technology
The children will use the interactive white board on a regular basis this school year. We will have specific activity time on a Tuesday and Friday afternoon. Everyone will have the opportunity to explore the painting programme and various other simple interactive games and activities on the Internet.
French
The children will participate in daily French lessons (apart from Wednesday). These will take the form of a 20 minute session where they will learn basic vocabulary, songs and stories in line with our current topic.
© 2011-2012, British Junior Academy of Brussels. Accredited member of the Council of British International Schools.
