Kindergarten now an all-day affair in Ontario

All students starting their first year of school in Ontario today had a full day in the classroom.

The full day kindergarten program rolled out across the province today, but there are still some unknowns as to whether the it’s benefiting kids.

The program was gradually added to schools across Ontario starting in 2010. The final schools made the transition to full day this year. Now that everyone’s on the same page, it’s time to look toward the next step.

As four and five year olds begin a new school year, they’re in for a different learning experience than previous generations.

Kindergarten teacher Chantal Jacka explains, “We’ve taken away all those writing sheets where we would write the letter “w” across the row each way.”

All Ontario kindergarten students will now have every day, full day learning using a play-based method. “It allows them to develop their personalities and their likes and their dislikes and allows them to explore things that are of interest to them.”

Education minister Liz Sandals says the full-day strategy is working, and qualitative data suggests full-day kindergarten students are better prepared to enter grade 1. “All those things that make kids ready to learn are precisely the things where we see the scores improving.”

But there aren’t any hard numbers yet. This year, the first group of students to experience two full years of the program enter grade 3. Their EQAO test scores will be under close scrutiny to see whether full-day kindergarten translates into improved standardized test scores.

“Today for example, was probably the most seamless first day of grade 1 that I’ve had.”

Grade one teacher Elyse Tassoni, is already noticing a difference in her students who came out of full-day kindergarten, and says they are better adjusted to the classroom environment.

A play and inquiry-based learning strategy makes them more take-charge than previous cohorts, but by working at their pace, they end up achieving more.

“To watch a child who couldn’t write or read and it clicks and they’re able to do it. And a lot of that has to do with full day, every day. That they were doing things at their own pace, at their own level. And now they’re ready. Now they’re ready to fly.”

Changes to the full-day kindergarten curriculum haven’t really been reflected in the learning plans for grades 1 and 2, so some teachers are finding it hard to transition to desk work after kids get used to 2 years of play-based learning. The province says they have plans to extend some of those learning strategies into the primary years.