Curious about what your child will experience at an MOE Kindergarten? Here’s the lowdown on all the exploration and discovery that happens in this happy place.
Is your child turning five in 2024? These are exciting times ahead! The Kindergarten 1 and 2 years are the final couple of years that your child will be spending at preschool before heading to the ‘big kids school’.
Naturally, it’s an exciting period for both you and your child. As a parent, you may have questions as to how the kindergarten years will prepare your child for primary school. Your kiddo, on the other hand, might be wondering what it takes to be a ‘big kid’. This is where MOE Kindergarten (MK) sets itself apart from others. Not only does its curriculum equip your child with strong social skills and a good foundation in literacy, numeracy, and bilingual skills for primary school, it also preps them for the next big step – going into Primary 1!
How do the MK teachers do it? Read on as we take a sneak peek into what a day is like at an MK.
A day at MK
7.50am
You’ll be dropping off your child and saying your goodbyes around this time before children go through a quick health check and start the day of learning at 8am. As each MK is located within a primary school, your child can see the ‘big brothers’ and ‘big sisters’ who are dressed in a different uniform heading to the school. They recall you mentioning that these are kids from the primary school aka ‘big kids school’, which they’ll be attending one day too. They secretly wonder if they’ll be as tall and smart as these ‘big brothers’ and ‘big sisters’.
8.05am
Learning is in session! Your child goes outdoors and watches as the teacher lays down some newspapers, tape, and a huge rainbow parachute. She explains that they’re going to do Parachute Toss today. But first, they’ll need to make their own ball from the newspapers.
The teacher demonstrates how every child can use their hands and strength to crumble the newspapers into the shape of a ball. “Now, it’s your turn to try it!” the teacher says. Your child starts crumbling the newspaper with their hands, and voila – they made a newspaper ball! The teacher then helps the children tape their newspaper balls to keep its round shape.
Next, the children get into groups, each child holding a side of the huge rainbow parachute with the newspaper balls in the middle. “Lift the parachute to toss the newspaper balls. One, two, three, go!” the teacher exclaims, and up go all the newspaper balls! So this is how we can work with our friends to make newspaper balls ‘fly’, your child thinks, by moving the parachute up and down with their hands. After that, the children try tossing a bigger plastic ball to see if they can make it fly higher!
When the children head indoors for the next learning activity, they walk past the Music & Movement room and exclaim that they can’t wait to have the Music & Movement activity that’s happening tomorrow. That’s when the teacher will play their favourite songs, and they can learn and perform new groovy dance moves with the class.
8.45am
What comes next is literally the highlight of the day! During HI-Light and Learning Centre time, your child will get to discover the world around them like little explorers. As the class will be heading to the zoo soon, the teacher has prepared a board full of photos of animals. “What animals can you see?” the teacher asks. Raising their hands, the children excitedly answer, “A lion! A polar bear! A giraffe! A snake!” After that, the children get into their groups and are given a poster of the zoo. It has a schedule of activities and more photos of animals. The children discuss the activities they can do during their visit and even list out some questions for the zookeeper. They ask:
“When do the animals sleep?”
“What do the elephants eat?”
“How can I become a zookeeper?”
Afterwards, they move to different learning centres to engage in activities of their choice. Some children are keen to find out more about the diet and habitats of the animals; some want to make their favourite animal using play dough; while others pretend-play as vets, animal trainers, and wildlife guides.
9.55am
Snack time! Your child queues up in an orderly fashion with their friends to take a piece of the delicious-looking steamed bun and a mini packet of milk. The children are learning self-help skills to be independent and responsible: if they accidentally spill some milk on the table, they know where to get a tissue to clean the spot. After eating, they place their plates into a pail that has been set aside for collection. They then take turns washing their hands, remembering to turn off the tap after they’re done.
10.10am
To your child, Starlight Literacy time is about storytelling. Seeing the teacher pick up a book always puts a smile on their face. Will today’s story be about the hawker centre? Rainbow cakes? Or maybe even a story about how families celebrate festivals in Singapore! Your child will be enthralled with stories in English and their respective Mother Tongue Languages! But that’s not all – there’ll be fun activities like singing songs and rhymes, playing word jigsaw games, and maybe charades too!
12pm
Your child waves at you excitedly when they spot you at the gate. After saying goodbye to their teacher, they start to tell you about their day: what they did and learned in the MK. “Did you have fun?” you ask. “Yes, a lot of fun!” your child says as you head home, excited for the next day at MK.
If you have also enrolled your child in the MK’s full-day Kindergarten Care (KCare) service, your child would be in KCare from before and after their MK session (ie. from 7am till 7pm). They can look forward to engaging in activities like tinkering, cookery, as well as sand and water play with their friends. All these, within the same premises at the MK!
What else can you expect from a day at MK?
Being a kindergarten that’s set up by the Ministry of Education, you can expect MK’s curriculum to have a distinctive Singaporean flavour. And we’re not just talking about local food – your child will be learning about the people, culture, and festivals in Singapore. As these are aspects of life that can be easily found around them, learning will be more fun and real for the kiddos as what they are learning is highly relevant to their daily experiences.
You can look out for the Weeks of Wonder (WoW) projects too. Each term, your child will get to investigate a topic of their interest, collaborating not just with their friends and teachers but with you as well to further explore and make new discoveries about the topic.
Last but not least, MK has a unique advantage that prepares your child for primary school as they get into the last term of Kindergarten 2. The five-week component is included in the curriculum to give your child a glimpse into life as a primary school student, with opportunities to learn from the ‘big brothers’ and ‘big sisters’ themselves!
Check out the MK Experience for yourselves at the upcoming MK Open House
Alll 55 MKs will be having their Open Houses on either 11 and 18 February 2023. You’ll get to speak to the teachers, learn more about its flagship HI-Light and Starlight Literacy (English and Mother Tongue Languages) Programmes, as well as check out what the spacious MK learning environment is like.
Dates: 11 and 18 February 2023
Time: 9am – 1pm
Venues: Your nearest MK! Check out the full list of MKs here.
You can find out more info about the Open House or your nearest MK (there are 55 MKs to check out!) via its website.
This post is in partnership with MOE Kindergarten.
