Want a Kindergarten that has it all? A strong academic foundation, a warm environment that fosters curiosity with plenty of outdoor play every day.
Canadian International School (CIS) is excited to announce that its new Kindergarten wing will be opening in January 2023. Designed to bring the outdoors in and support the school’s inquiry and play-based approach it will house the school’s nursery to grade 1 student community and will have a spectacular new Outdoor Discovery Centre.
Purposeful play in the great outdoors and more
Learning through inquiry and purposeful play is at the heart of a student’s kindergarten education at CIS.
Purposeful play and inquiry-based learning engages children, triggers their curiosity and enables them to solve problems creatively. Exploring concepts through interactive activities such as water play means you really can learn all about volume and capacity through the hands-on process.
“Play is an effective learning tool and not something that is done in place of learning. CIS believes in providing opportunities for students to learn through purposeful play both in the classroom and outdoors, so they can develop not only imagination and empathy but also their language and social skills”.
Dr Colleen Drisner, primary principal Lakeside campus
Designed to facilitate play-based learning
An enormous 2,600 square metre (almost three quarters of an acre) outdoor discovery centre will connect with spacious and natural light-filled classrooms.
Much more than a playground
When children are outside they are quickly inspired to get active and run, jump and climb. These activities, in turn, spark brain development, sharpen social and gross motor skills and generate strong academic performance.
CIS students will get to play every day in the ODC which has some extra special features: a sound and art gardens to experiment in, a mud kitchen and Eco pond. Plus plenty of grassy hills, nature tunnels, a play fort and a yoga lawn.
Through playing with mud, water, sand and loose objects such as sticks, stones, mesh and rope, students will engage in imaginative and creative thinking while solving problems. They will learn to calculate, measure, invent, estimate, specify, analyse, hypothesise and test theories, thereby developing their thinking, communication and research skills.
Learning pods
Lakside’s unique learning pod design has been incorporated into the new wing. Grade level classrooms that house students in the English and Chinese-English and French-English bilingual programmes will feed into dedicated light-filled learning pods, providing exhibition spaces and fostering a strong sense of grade level community.
Specialist spaces to support children’s development
The CIS team have been creative with some of their new early years learning spaces. The new junior library will house a large selection of age-appropriate books, a gross motor room and a working instructional bakery.
New facilities for the whole school community
Students school-wide will enjoy the wing’s new full-sized gymnasium that will serve as an additional practice and tournament facility for older students, an indoor 25m swimming pool, dance studio and 200-seat black-box theatre.
Learn more at the CIS April open house, RSVP at www.cis.edu.sg/admissions/open-house
