By Andrea Strachan,
Vice Principal Elementary School, Lakeside Campus
The Canadian
International School (CIS) early years classrooms (ages 3 – 6) are
inspirational and vibrant learning spaces that utilize years of research about
how children learn best. We base our programme on the International
Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) with an inquiry and play-based
approach – an approach at the heart of substantial research documenting the
importance of play in young children’s healthy development and learning.
Our purpose-built
school facility fully supports our inquiry and play-based programme. All our
classrooms are organised around learning “pods”. These are large, open,
shared spaces where teachers can set up hands-on learning centres organised in
ways that support learning through inquiry and play. For example, in numeracy
our students explore volume and capacity concepts through “hands on” waterplay
stations. This approach allows us to work with small groups of students and to
differentiate teaching to suit the academic needs of each learner.
Inquiry and play-based
learning at CIS does not mean a chaotic approach to learning or a lack of
guidance by teachers. Instead, it is a balance between a classroom rich
in child-initiated play and focused learning guided by our teachers. In
all child-initiated play activities, our teachers are actively present.
They monitor, engage, and where needed, guide the children’s play,
answering their questions, building on their ideas and introducing new content
and concepts as appropriate.
To find out more information about CIS’ inquiry and play-based learning programme, please visit www.cis.edu.sg.
