What Makes Parkside Special ?

Literacy Enhanced Programming

Literacy involves a continuum of learning enabling individuals to achieve goals, develop knowledge, potential and to participate fully in their community and the greater society.

Parkside achieves this by offering a wide variety of engaging experiences that implement activities to develop the following:

Oral language- through songs, poems, stories and everyday communication, Phonological awareness- through rhymes and pro-vocational activities

Print awareness- through pre writing experiences, books and letter concepts, Emergent writing-through hands on activities with a variety of materials Early comprehension- through challenging hands on activities, as well as integrating literacy skills across the curriculum and programming.

Integrated Science Exploration

Science is the process by which we discover how the world works, a way of thinking the method by which we discover how the world works, and a way of thinking the method by which a creative mind can construct order out of chaos and unity out of variety.

Parkside achieves this by offering open-ended science that develops a wide range of developmental growth where children are actively engaged in order to enhance:

• a sense of the real world into the classroom and into children’s lives. – teamwork and collaborations through group work
• a recognition of different learning styles and encouragement of learning in more than one area of the curriculum: math- graphing, language arts- vocal conversations of observations, Art- creating drawings of predictions or implementations.
• Facilitation of experiences that develop new concepts and skills through hands on learning and observation that help enhance processing skills.

Physical Education Daily

In the building blocks of learning movement would be considered the foundation of the pile of blocks.

Parkside achieves this by implementing gross motor activities daily to help develop the following;

• balance, coordination, self-esteem & body awareness, through games and sports
  promote fitness and self-confidence, through planned individual achievement activities from LEAP BC.
• support muscle skill development & explore movement, through opportunities to run and play.
  connect with the natural environment by using the field, forest and surrounding areas.
• stimulate imagination and creative communication, by recreating imagery: wind movements, growing like flowers etc.
• Yoga classes, facilitated by a trained children yoga instructor

Mathematics Incorporated

Mathematics provides a powerful means for understanding and analyzing the world in which we live.

Parkside achieves this by offering a variety of developmentally appropriate experiences which:

• enhance comprehension, by deciphering the language of math and relaying it back to the children and their world
• helps children understand numbers, shapes, colors, patterns and counting to build self-confidence in the children by instilling the knowledge of how to manage the items in their world, which also builds a sense of ownership.
• Give the opportunity to learn math skills, building necessary connections in the childrens spatial awareness.
• Allows the mind to process the skills necessary for future learning.
• Increases the vocabulary needed to process math and helps children discuss their world, giving them new ways of telling and understanding stories; more monkeys, less monkeys.

Music Class

Music is academic, music is physical, music is emotional, music is for life.

Parkside, in collaboration provides many opportunities for music exploration, benefiting children in the following ways;

• fine motor skills are improved by improvisational dancing and the handling of instruments
• vocal and speech development are developed with singing, rhyming and poetry
• extending vocabulary skills
• improving listening skills and concentration
• creating positive effects on brain development, increasing higher cerebral functions including the ability to handle logical and mathematical concepts
• facilitating emotional, spiritual release and creative medium for self- expression, self-concept and self-esteem.

Creative Arts Media

The arts are one of the main ways that humans define who they are. They often express a sense of community and ethnicity. Because the arts convey the spirit of the people who created them, they can help young people to acquire inter- and intra- cultural understanding. The arts are not just multi- cultural, they are transcultural; they invite cross-cultural communication. They teach openness towards those who are different from us. By putting us in touch with our own and other people’s feelings, the arts teach one of the great civilizing capacities – how to be empathetic. To the extent that the arts teach empathy, they develop our capacity for compassion and humaneness.

Parkside offers a huge variety of art experiences which:

• help develop creativity, imagination, cognitive skills, problem solving abilities, emergent printing skills as well as fine motor skills with the handling of different mediums.
• Improve sensory awareness, manual dexterity, increased concentration and hand eye coordination.

• Build self esteem and affirmation through achievement
• Allow a venue of self expression and concept building 

 

Multicultural Honouring

Diversity is good. Diversity is needed. Diversity adds value to the world. The “other” is good. The “other” is needed. The “other” adds values to the world. The “other” is also part of our reality. We consciously seek and define strategies to celebrate reality – acknowledging, respecting and appreciating the fact that humanity is diverse and richer because of this diversity.

Parkside values and acknowledges diversity and multi cultures in order to;

• empower children with affirmation of individuality
• emphasize an appreciation of diversity and grow cultural awareness with understanding and respect
• help build a sense of identity and pride
• foster open-minded viewpoints and inclusion
• grow a wider perspective of community

Emotional Empowerment

The emotional centers of the brain are intricately interwoven with neocortical areas involved in cognitive learning. There is a direct link between emotions and learning.

Parkside understands the link between emotions and learning and supports this by helping the children:

• identify and understand their own feelings
• empathize, by understanding and identifying others feelings
• manage strong emotions and their expressions in a positive constructive manner -Establish and sustain relationships
• gain self-awareness, acknowledge different perspectives and the value of cooperation
• validating emotions and supporting healthy emotions with others