Junior Kinder Room

Children aged 3 years to 4 years

Junior kinder is an important time in your child’s social and emotional development as they go through significant growth. They begin to understand their emotions, although do not have the ability to fully regulate these yet, they do know the difference between feeling happy, sad, afraid or angry. Our knowledgeable educators design programs that provide opportunities to explore and understand these emotions while acquiring the skills of self-regulation. The junior kinder children are also beginning to show greater interest in playing cooperatively with other children and are forming strong friendships with their chosen peers. Our team understand that children benefit from positive social interactions, and design play-based programs that encourage this type of collaborative learning.

During the junior kinder year children display more advanced physical skills and love engaging in experiences that allow them to move and be active. Our teaching team run a year-round indoor-outdoor program to encourage children to participate in active learning. They also venture out into the Alma Treloar reserve regularly to extend on their gross motor skills, engage in risky play, explore the environment, and have hours of fun.

Verbal communication is another area that develops at great speeds during the ages of 3-4, children learn a lot of new words and are stringing together longer sentences. Our program supports this growth through literacy-focused, play-based and teacher-initiated experiences. By three and a half years old the junior kinder child knows 1200 words, so our program also involves LOTS of conversation.