Our Program

Inquiry-Based Learning

Common features of inquiry-based learning:

• Students conduct multifaceted investigations extending over long periods of time.
• The projects deal with real-world questions that students care about.
• Students encounter obstacles, seek resources, and solve problems in response to an overall challenge.
• Students make their own connections among ideas and acquire new skills as they work on different tasks.
• Students use authentic tools (real-life resources and technologies).
• Students get feedback about the worth of their ideas from expert sources and realistic tests.
• Problems are presented in their full complexity.
• Students find interdisciplinary connections between ideas.

Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten

A day in Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten begins with free play. Once everyone has arrived the class gathers for their first meeting. It is a time to talk about their current project and discuss the schedule of the day.

From the meeting, children move into centers of their choice. These centers include: blocks, house corner, light or water table, puzzles, etc. In kindergarten snack time is flexible. Children choose when to eat their own snacks depending on how they want to arrange their work time. Children in junior kindergarten eat their snack at the same time so that teachers can supervise hand washing and it creates a social atmosphere.

After working in the various centers, children clean up and have a second meeting where they sing songs, have stories and sharing. There are daily physical activities. Once a week students receive music instruction.

Project topics are chosen based on interests expressed by the students. The projects run anywhere from six to twelve weeks. Some projects have been: bones, light, transportation, electricity, grocery stores, newspapers, insects and growing things. Field trips and guest speakers are an essential part of the project approach which puts learning into context for students.

Over the course of the school year the inquisitive nature of the children is encouraged as the students themselves choose what they will learn within the framework of the classroom and each project. The students gain confidence through daily routines. They learn new vocabulary, articulate their thoughts and explore the topic to make sense of the world around them.

Elementary School

Every day at the Child Study Centre elementary school begins the same way - children read. Grade one children read aloud several times - to a parent, to their teacher, or to a buddy. From grade two onwards, the children are reading novels to themselves silently and the first half hour of the day is quiet, still and focused. Upon completing a book, the children respond to what they have read in a variety of ways including art, written responses, and dramatic re-enactments.

The rest of the morning is filled with teacher-directed learning of language arts and mathematics from the Alberta Education curriculum. A collaborative approach addresses multiple learning styles and abilities. Social studies and science work are included in project work.

Project work is inquiry-based or research-based learning, which allows children to explore a topic of interest in detail. Large blocks of classroom time are devoted to in-depth study, so that children can become deeply engaged in their investigations. This time is critical to encourage learning that is self-motivated, reflective and complex.

Working in groups or individually, children research and organize their findings, then present their ideas through writing, drawing, model-making, dramatic play, games, art, music, displays and mathematics. Teachers document all of this work in elaborate classroom displays that showcase the learning that is occurring. Information is then shared with parents and families in a collaborative celebration.

Once children have completed their research and developed their project idea, they are expected to follow it through to completion. In some cases, children will learn to expand their horizons or perhaps, bring them back down to earth. We think of it as freedom with responsibility.

At the end of a busy afternoon, teachers often turn the lights down and spend the last half hour of the day reading novels aloud to the class, giving children a chance to relax and reflect on their day at school. Some choose to draw or write in journals, others just to lie back on pillows and let their imaginations soar.

Classroom Visitors

On any given day, children may work with education students, researchers or international visitors on special projects of interest. Sometimes the whole class may be involved; other times, only a single student or a small group. These classroom visitors come to teach, to research or to observe.

Specialty Subjects

All specialty subjects such as music and physical education are taught in accordance with the Alberta Education Curriculum. In these areas, the Child Study Centre benefits from its link to the University, particularly in music and Phys Ed. Children are sometimes taught these subjects by experts-professors, graduate students and education students-sometimes temporarily and other times, on a long-term basis.

French is introduced in Grade Four and is provided by the teacher on staff at Garneau School.