A New Kindergarten Site by The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario

We are excited to welcome you to A Thousand Moments of Learning. We called this site A Thousand Moments of Learning because that is exactly what happens in busy kindergarten classrooms across Ontario.  Our vision for this site is that it will become a hub for sharing best practices among kindergarten teachers from across the province….and beyond!

Visit the site often to see the lastest resource pages, to learn about professional development opportunities, to leave comments on our blog, and to interact with colleagues from across the province.

We hope you find the site useful and welcome your suggestions for additions and/or improvements.

About the Blog

The team of two teachers, Melanie and Vanessa who participated in the Kindergarten Makeover Webcast have agreed to help to write a regular blog this year to show other teachers how the set up of their room and the time spent with the children in the centres allows them a wide range of opportunities to observe children.

L to R: Melanie Murphy, TDSB Kindergarten teacher; Joan Littleford, ETFO Executive Assistant; Vanessa Grieve, TDSB Kindergarten teacher.

They are joined this year by Sil in the morning so the large space is now filled with 60 little ones in the morning and 40 in the afternoon. Lucky they had a large space! With that many children it is crucial that routines are in place that are easy for the children to follow and that allow some flexibility to meet the needs of a diverse group of children. We will get to know some of the challenges as well as the many joys of teaching Kindergarten.

We hope that you will check the blog regularly and follow Melanie, Vanessa, and Sil as they engage in some reflective practice with you throughout the school year.

Joan Littleford from the ETFO staff will also add some comments from time-to-time when she visits this classroom and others.  This will help to build our reportoire of what and how we can observe and assess children in a play-based or an inquiry-based kindergarten learning environment.