OAK PARK STAFF

All full time staff members at Oak Park have obtained their diplomas in Early Childhood Education. Lakshmi Narain in the KinderCare Room has received a Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education.

TODDLER ROOM

Welcome to the Toddler Room! It is a fun and exciting place to be. This is the youngest age group at Oak Park. The children in this room range from 18-30 months of age. The teacher-child ratio is 1:5, with the maximum amount of children in the room being 10.

The Toddler Room can be full of many “firsts” for the children. It may be your child’s first time away from home and in a social group setting. We want to assure you that this is a safe and stimulating environment. Our wish is that your toddler be as comfortable in the Centre, and with the staff, as they are at home. The toddlers are in a stage of development where they are accomplishing many new milestones: first words, first achievements, and first friends. As the staff, we are there every step along the way as your child grows and develops. Extra hugs and cuddles are what we specialize in!

Ultimately the main goal of the Toddler room is to create an atmosphere where children can feel free to be children. Where they can laugh, learn, and develop through a play based curriculum. The Toddler Room provides the children with developmentally appropriate activities that promote growth as well as exploration and excitement. These activities include circle time songs and games, creative experiences, sensory play, and much more. The Toddler Room is full of happy friends and smiles!

JUNIOR ROOM

The Junior or “Teddy Bears” preschool group is the next step up from the Toddler Room. Children here range from 21/2 to 3-31/2 years of age. There are 8 children in the room and one staff. We also have the pleasure of having students from Fanshawe College and Oakridge Secondary School in our classroom. The children look forward to seeing and interacting with them and they greatly enhance our program.

This is a very busy group, and we enjoy a wide variety of activities. We love role playing in the house centre, creative activities (especially anything that involves gluing!!!), and using various toys and manipulative material around the classroom.

One of our routine activities is circle. During this time we discuss the calendar, weather, numbers, colours and alphabet recognition (we know the first letter to everyone’s name!). We are also learning new words from different cultures we have in the centre as well as some basic sign language. We like to incorporate multiculturalism into our classroom though the use of music, books and the different foods served at lunchtime.

There are many activities offered in this room to promote growth. Puzzles, colouring, small manipulative material such as connecting toys, peg boards etc. all help with developing fine motor skills. We have play and sorting games, as well as a V-Smile learning system to promote thinking and logic. There is also a huge playground where a climber set, bikes and scooters, balls and lots of spaces for games help promote gross motor skills. The Junior Room is a fun room, full of energy, smiles and always laughter!

SENIOR ROOM

The Senior or “Dinosaurs” Preschool group has a ton of creative fun in the room. The children have moved up from the Junior Room and are approximately 3-4 years old. Their days are busy with a mixture of planned activities and free play for the children to learn and explore. We try to incorporate the children’s interest in our program though circle time, craft time and having various materials throughout the room. Our circle time consists of learning the alphabet, recognizing colours, counting , sounding out words, discussing the calendar and learning about the weather. At this time, we expand a little more on what the children have been introduced to previously. We also embrace the many various cultures we have in the classroom by learning different words and languages, listening to different kinds of music and trying a variety of ethnic foods. Throughout the day we offer activities that allow children to practice their fine motor skills (manipulating toys, painting, colouring, puzzles, etc) and gross motor skills (outdoor play, building with large blocks, and yoga twice a month). The children always look forward to upcoming events in our room, such as changes the season, holidays and different celebrations. There is always something fun and exciting going on in the Dinosaur Room.

KINDER CARE

Our most senior class group name is “Deer Friends”. Our class is comprised of children who are in the JK or SK class at a school, or are soon going to be at school in JK, SK or Grade 1. The highlights of our program include learning to count up to 100, recognizing numbers and lower case and upper-case alphabet letters, doing simple addition and subtraction (basic math geared towards their age), and learning basic literacy of inner words and phonics. The children work on their story picture journals almost daily. We do a hands-on science activity once a week. As part of our multicultural program we try to celebrate each child’s cultural heritage, including learning different culture’s greetings and counting to 10, listening to their music and locating the people and culture on the world map.

Our class participates in a project called “Pennies for Peace”. This is an organization started by Mr. Greg Mortenson, whose aim is to educate children (mostly girls) in Afghanistan and Pakistan border areas. Our penny donations go towards building and supporting schools in poor, inaccessible and neglected areas. Our children’s enthusiastic response, as well as that of parents and community members, has already raised nearly $100. Furthermore, the children take pride in helping other children “far, far away” who are not as fortunate as them. “Yoga Barb” has also donated money from children at her yoga school and Marcela, our Director, has donated change collected by her Book Club members. Dr. and Mrs. Bajura (former member-parents) have set up a “Pennies for Peace” jar for us at their local dental clinic. Sarah Miller has done the same at Good Life Fitness,, as well as Paul Alfonso at Dial Auto Repair. In recognition of our hard work, Oak Park has received a Certificate of Appreciation from Pennies for Peace.

If you would like to learn more about “Pennies for Peace” please visit http://www.penniesforpeace.org or contact them directly at info@penniesforpeace.org.

Please do visit us and donate!