Families will be invited to the Welcome to Kindergarten event at the school the student will be attending in September. If you have any questions, please contact the school office.
What is Welcome to Kindergarten?
Welcome to Kindergarten (WTK) is a FREE Kindergarten orientation program sponsored by The Learning Partnership, a national charitable organization dedicated to championing a strong public education system in Canada.
The goal of Welcome to Kindergarten is to provide pre-school children with the resources and experiences to begin their formal education with a foundation in early learning and literacy that is nurtured in their home.
Before starting school, children across Canada are given preparatory resources and experiences to position them for school success and lifelong learning. Parents/caregivers and their children are invited to attend a workshop at their neighbourhood school where they receive early learning and literacy resources as part of the Welcome to Kindergarten Program and learn strategies for using the resources with their child.
What does this look like in West Vancouver School District?
- The Learning Partnership provides training for school principals, Kindergarten teachers and community partners on implementing the WTK program with parents and children.
- Resources for WTK Bags and family orientation workshops are delivered to schools.
- At Kindergarten registration, families are invited to return to the school to attend a WTK orientation session(s).
- School staffs and their partner community agencies work together to plan and deliver the WTK orientations and extension or follow-up activities.
- At the WTK orientation workshops, families receive the Welcome to Kindergarten bag of early learning resources.
What happens at a Welcome to Kindergarten workshop?
Parents/caregivers and children are invited to attend a Welcome to Kindergarten orientation at their neighbourhood school, where they receive the early learning resources in the Welcome to Kindergarten Bag and learn strategies for using the resources at home. At the orientation, families connect with Kindergarten teachers, school resource personnel and staff from community support agencies.
What’s in a Welcome to Kindergarten Bag?
- magnetic letters and numbers
- templates of upper and lower case letters and
numbers 1-10
- concept, counting and story books
- crayons and pencil, glue stick, round end scissors
- a scribbler and coloured construction paper
- parent information pamphlet, Have Fun and Help Your Child Get Ready For School (translations available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Cree, English, Farsi, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Ojibwa, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese)
- playdough – provided by school
