Bell sounding for full-day kindergarten
By Steve Kidd
Penticton Western News
August 19, 2010

The Okanagan Skaha School District isn’t expecting any problems with the start of full-day kindergarten at six of the district’s elementary schools….

“We identified the six schools early in the process,” said school superintendent Wendy Hyer, who explains that kindergarten teachers went through an orientation process in May and June to acquaint them with the changes.

“A full day is a lot different from a half day. In May we actually had a one-day kindergarten session on what does full-day kindergarten look like, what’s the focus,” she said. “Full-day kindergarten is purposeful play, it’s not meant to be mini-Grade 1.”….

 “The whole focus of early learning is learning through creative play. It’s really around exposing children to social and emotional development, how to interact with other children, physical development, are they outside playing, developing motor skills, learning how to use scissors or colouring books, all those little physical skills that help them get ready for school.”

Another big part of the program is oral language skills, which Hyer said doesn’t mean reading, but speaking and developing a vocabulary as a precursor to being able to learn to read.

“So the focus of early learning is being able to expose kids to those types of activities so they develop the skills they need when they enter into Grade 1,” she said.

Hyer said she is getting mixed reactions from parents — some want their children in the full-day program, though their school isn’t offering it yet, while others whose children are going into full-day kindergarten are not as keen about it.

“It has been a bit of a mix, but not a lot of feedback from parents to me,” she said, adding that the big concern seems to be how the children will adapt to a full day. But the experience at Giant’s Head Elementary, which already offers a full-day program three days a week, shows that the kids adapt well and like being there.

“They’re quite resilient actually,” Hyer said. “It just becomes a question of structuring the day to make sure there is a good balance of things, to make sure there is free play, focused play, and having snack time and play time outside and those sorts of things.”