Kindergarten: what is the program?

How is the nursery school organized?

The nursery school is organized in a single cycle, the cycle 1. The apprenticeships are spread over three years: the small section (PS), the medium section (MS) and the large section (GS). 

What do we learn in kindergarten?

“Kindergarten is a caring school, even more so than the later stages of the school career. Its main mission is to make children want to go to school to learn, assert and develop their personality ”, we can read on the National Education guide. Nursery school will indeed consist of a discovery and a beginning of learning. But it is not only formal learning: the child also develops his social skills, and the pleasure of learning. Kindergarten allows children to learn to live together.

The Kindergarten program is divided into five areas of learning: 

• Mobilize language in all its dimensions 
• Act, express yourself, understand through physical activity 
• Act, express yourself, understand through artistic activity 
• Build the first tools to structure your thinking 
• Explore the world

Primary school and nursery school, what are the differences?

Note: when we talk about primary school, we usually think of the classes of CP, CE1, CE2, CM1 and CM2. this is not quite fair! Indeed, the term primary school also includes kindergarten classes. Classes ranging from CP to CM2 belong to elementary school.

What are the school days in kindergarten?

In Kindergarten, there is 24 hours of class per week, and the school year takes place on 36 weeks. The 24 hours a week are divided into eight half days.

Language, at the heart of kindergarten learning

Know how to communicate is one of the main challenges of the four years of nursery school. Language learning will be broken down into two parts: oral and written. These two skills will be studied from simultaneously. First, the teacher will encourage the children to express themselves, through the words they will have already heard at home. He will thus guide the child little by little in his discovery of language, and its effects on others. Through situations and activities, children will gradually be able to develop their language, and their phonological and alphabetic awareness. Phonological awareness is an identification of sound units when speaking, while alphabetic awareness is the understanding that language and letters are a transcription of these sounds. At the end of kindergarten, children will be asked to know communicate with adults and other children, but also knowing how to recite nursery rhymes and songs from memory. 

As for writing, kindergarten will allow children to begin to understand how it works. Before entering primary school, they will be asked to know how to identify the letters of the alphabet, but also to distinguish between cursive writing and writing in block capitals. They will also have learned to write their name in cursive script. The learning will consist initially in initiating the children to the gestures of writing, then from the middle section, the child will perform his first writing exercises. 

The role of physical activity in kindergarten

Sport is a very important activity for young children. It allows them to channel their very great energy, but also to develop their motor skills. This is why the National Education recommends that teachers do an activity session every day of a duration of up to thirty to forty-five minutes. These sessions will be organized in such a way as to make the children act in space, over time and on objects, but also manage their balance.

A social dimension will also be required in the exercises since the students will learn to collaborate, communicate but also oppose each other. By the end of kindergarten, they will know how to run, throw and jump. During physical education exercises, they will also work on coordinating their movements, alone or with others. 

Kindergarten: an introduction to art in Cycle 1

In kindergarten, the child will discover the different means artistic expression, mainly music and the plastic arts. The pupils will indeed learn to draw, but also to realize plastic compositions in volume (with modeling clay for example). On the music side, they will learn to discover their voice and learn to sing via nursery rhymes. An introduction to musical instruments will also be given. The goal is also for children to refine their listening, as well as their auditory memory. In addition to music and visual arts, a “live performance” component is included in the kindergarten program. This involves mime, theater or even the circus. 

At the end of kindergarten, students will be asked to know how to draw, whether to reproduce reality or in any imagination. Musically, they will know a small repertoire of nursery rhymes and will know how to play with their voice to change timbre (high, low…). An artistic education in general very appreciated by children.

Mathematics: the discovery of numbers and shapes

As important as words names them will appear during the four years of kindergarten. Little by little, children will learn to understand and use them. Through exercises, they will thus gradually be able to express the quantities, but also know how to write the first digits and numbers. By the end of kindergarten, children should be able to say numbers up to thirty and write them in numbers up to ten. They must also understand the concept of unity and the concept of addition. 

Through manipulation and language, children will also be able to begin to determine the different forms, such as square or triangles. Before arriving at elementary school, they should be able to classify and select objects according to their shape, but also according to their length or weight. They should also be able to draw flat shapes.

Kindergarten: discovering the world

Understanding the world in which we live is one of the objectives of nursery school, and it goes through the essential notions that are time and space. Children will thus be asked to learn to use the time markers such as “then”, “after” or even “during”. They will also need to know how to locate themselves in time (day, week, season, etc.). In terms of space, they will need to be able to start using the spatial markers, succeed in making a known path, but also in being in relation to objects and other people. 

This axis of exploration will also go through a discovery of the living, that is to say life animal et vegetable. Kindergarten students will thus understand the different stages in the life of animals and plants. They will also discover their own body, learn to name its different parts, as well as the basic notions of personal hygiene.

The kindergarten program also includes awareness of dangers present in the environment. Children will also learn to master tools, through the concepts of cutting, gluing and construction. a digital shutter, indispensable today, will also be present, with the use of tablets, computers and cameras.