Maternelle
Maternelle/Kindergarten welcomes children from 3 to 6 years old:
Petite section (PS): 3-4 years old
Moyenne section (MS): 4-5 years old
Grande section (GS): 5-6 years old
LEARNING APPROACH
- Commitment to the task
- Explication and institutionalization
- Ownership
- Evaluation
5 LEARNING AREAS
My School’s Kindergarten follows «le socle commun de connaissances, de compétences et de culture» recommended by the French Ministry of National Education, with the 5 learning areas:
- Develop language skills in all of its aspects
- Act, express oneself, understands through physical activity
- Act, express oneself, understands through artistic activity
- Build the first tools to organise one’s thoughts
- Explore the world
Organization: Rituals, Spaces & Play Corners
Aim & Objectifs
The kindergarten’s ultimate aim is to help each child become independent, in accordance with defined procedures, and to allow them to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in mastering the basic learning skills in the first year of Primary School.
The highest priority of the kindergarten is for the children to acquire rich, well-structured oral language, which can be clearly understood by others. In the kindergarten, the child establishes relationships with other children and with adults.
They exercise their motor, sensory, emotional, and intellectual skills; they learn to form relationships; they develop into students. They discover the universe of the written word.
The kindergarten encourages the development of all the young children they receive by responding to their individual needs. It widens their sphere of relationships and allows them to discover games, to investigate, to create things freely or with guidance, to participate in a rich and varied range of exercises which will contribute to forming their personality and to their cultural awakening.
The program of the kindergarten, without hourly curricular requirements, presents major domains of activity to be covered over the three years which precede the start of compulsory schooling; it fixes the objectives to be attained and the skills to acquire before the transition into primary school. In implementing the program, the developmental stages and rhythm of the child must be taken into account.
The Role of Language in Maternelle
“Doing” is not enough; the child’s involvement in action, the physical, and the sensory is not sufficient to develop a reflective approach to the learning situations experienced.
It is truly the combination of “doing” and “saying” that allows the child to build their learning. Therefore, the teacher must set up sessions and organize the environment to allow the child to acquire vocabulary in both French and English related to play areas.
We wanted to share with you this quote from the philosopher Krishnamurti, which aptly summarizes our role as teachers and educators:
Education is understanding the child as he is, without imposing on him an image of what we think he should be
