The lesson today in Cathi K-Cross's kindergarten class at Neil M. Ross is bears. The 15 kindergarteners sit with rapt attention as she reviews what they have already learned about the animals.
Bears for example have claws. Bears have fur and bears are mammals. Bears growl, as do kindergartners reading that out loud.
In Mme. Sally Archdeacon's French immersion class at Leo Nickerson the lesson of the day is patterns. To teach this concept she lines up her kindergarten students along the edges of the carpet where they gather for stories and other lessons.
She holds a large box of blocks in her arms, prepared to tip it over onto the carpet, but first she explains the lesson. She knows once she pours the blocks, attention spans will be very limited for anything she has to say.
The kindergarteners pounce and dive into the spilled blocks, with squeals of delight and glee. Once the madness dies down, they go about the process of creating a pattern. They are supposed to put three blocks of different colours in a repeating pattern. At first some simply try to build the biggest string, others have a pattern of only two blocks, but fairly swiftly, with a little help from Archdeacon, most realize their errors.
Though in different languages, different schools and different boards, both classes are pilot programs that could be commonplace across the province next fall.
During her leadership bid, Premier Alison Redford said she would bring full-day kindergarten across the province within a year of taking office.
Learning basics
Both teachers have lengthy experience teaching kindergarten and both say they were sceptical when their first group of all-day students came through the door.
K-Cross, who is in her second year of teaching full-day kindergarten, said she was surprised at how well her students did in the full-day class.
"When March came along I really saw growth in what the kids were able to do. They were just so much more ready to be able to sit and to do things and it made such a difference."
She said in previous years she had felt rushed, but the full-day classes gave her time to slow down and make sure the children really understood everything.
"We got through most of our program, kindergarten is such a full program."
Archdeacon, who is in her first year with a full-day class, says she learned quickly the children are capable of a more than she thought.
"If you engage them in the right way they can use the time effectively," she says. "They teach me I can ask more and more of them and they will do it."
Both teachers view kindergarten as the place where the basics necessary for more learning to happen are taught.
"We work on the letters, we work on the sounds, we work on putting those together to create sounds and getting them to the idea of what a word is," says K-Cross.
Archdeacon says even something as fundamental as the alphabet can still be a foreign notion for a child who is just starting to learn.
"That is not a built-in concept. We aren't born into that, it is something we have to teach. I want it to make sense to them, about why is it like that."
The same principle applies to numbers says Archdeacon.
"It should be deeply understood, what is a number and what is the symbol of number."
Free time
After the lesson in both classrooms the children are sent for some free play. They spread out across the room engaging in smaller activities, from the sandbox to the smart board, which proves popular in both classes.
While somehow watching all the children at the same time, K-Cross explains that play is part of the learning.
"Kindergarten is based on play so when you go to the children, you don't just say go play. There are areas you ask them to go to, specific centres."
K-Cross said it is in that structured playtime that students do much of their learning.
Archdeacon said play also allows for social interactions many of the children aren't yet used to.
"It is about societal norms, how to behave with each other and resolve arguments and that sort of thing. It all happens here."
Sandra Cimino, the principal at Neil M. Ross, said having the students there all day helps them become a bigger part of the community. She said half-day programs mean there are some programs that they are not a part of.
"They miss out on some of the school activities because we can't have them all between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. when they are here."
David Quick, a Greater St. Albert Catholic School Board administrator, said they would welcome the funding for full-day kindergarten.
The board started offering the program two years ago and Quick said they have seen the educational benefit.
"There is more time for children to have the time to grow, both in the academic and social areas," he said. "You won't see teachers talking to parents saying we really think your child could use another year, because they picked up the extra half-year in kindergarten."
He said the curriculum hasn't changed for the full-day program, but instead students have more time with it.
"What they have the opportunity to do is cover all the curriculum they have in the half-day program, but spend more time so they are thinking more deeply and learning more deeply."
Both boards charge extra fees for the full-day program because the province only covers the costs of a half-day program. At Neil M. Ross, Bertha Kennedy and Albert Lacombe, the three schools that offer the program in the Catholic system, the cost is $325 per month.
In the protestant system, where full-day kindergarten is offered at Elmer Gish, Keenoshayo, Leo Nickerson and Ronald Harvey, the cost is $320 per year.
Quick said the full-day program fits into the lives of many families.
"For a lot of families it just makes a whole lot of sense to take advantage of what the school has to offer."
He said the program is more than subsidized day care and is a true educational advantage.
"It is a convenience to parents as well as a nice asset to children and it does give them a head start."
Leo Nickerson principal Kevin Jones said parents find both the all-day everyday program and the all-day every other day program can fit around work in a way regular kindergarten can't.
"Families work that way, not often are parents going to work three hours per day, but they might work every second day."
