Questions and Concerns

The following articles address issues that Quebec Kindergarten teachers encounter in their schools.  If you do not find the answer to your question here, contact us.   

To Play or not to Play
A presentation prepared by Kim McGrath fir a 2 day Preschool Education workshop.  in our context, we define play as "Activities that are freely chosen and directed by children and arise from intrinsic motivation." Here are questions which are often encountered by Presschool educators.

• What are children developing while at play?
• True or False?   Play is play - as long as children appear to be engaged in something, it is contributing to their overall development.
• True or False? Children have been playing in daycare for the last 5 years. They are ready for more academic-based learning.
• True or False? Some play is better than no play.
• True or False? The earlier children learn to read and write, the better off they will be.
  ** Get the entire presentation in PDF format

The effects of increase in teaching time at elementary on time organisation in pre-school.
Teaching time at elementary has gone up from 23h30 to 25 hours a week. Even though pre-school time was not increased, this change has a direct impact on K children since they often now also have de facto increased school presence time . More

Progressive entry (entrée progressive)
Provisions that allow implementation of progressive entry at the beginning of the Pre-School year are now included (in annex) in the teachers’ collective agreement. The main objective of progressive entry is to help the children bond with their teacher. More

Standards and procedures: what have they to do with preschool educators?
Section 96.15 of the Education Act stipulates that the principal is responsible for approving, on the proposal of the teachers, the standards and procedures for the evaluation of learning. It is imperative for Kindergarten teachers be involved in determining these standards and procedure. More

What is the mandate of the Kindergarten teacher?
A kindergarten teacher asked Christiane Bourdages Simpson: "Should my expectations for a K child at the end of a school year be the same as those of any other K teacher or subordinate to the expectations of the cycle 1 teacher?" More

What is the difference between kindergarten and daycare?
Christiane Bourdages Simpson
This question targets the specific nature of kindergarten, its mandate, the learning done by children and the role of the teacher. More