Why children thrive at Butterfly Learning Centre:
Butterfly Learning Centre constantly assesses and improves the ways we interact with your child. In an attempt to always exceed provincial and regional standards, Butterfly Learning Centre has incorporated the following methods into our daily routines and professional expectations.
Butterfly Learning Centre programs are designed using the ELECT (Early Learning for Every Child Today) document as a guide and resource. The six guiding principles that reflect beliefs, values, experience and current research are incorporated into each classroom setting. These principles are:
Butterfly Learning Centre's programs are designed using Emergent Curriculum – a well-researched method for teaching that has proven to better engage children and help them develop.
Emergent curriculum is based on the students' interests and passions as well as the teachers'. To plan an emergent curriculum requires observation, documentation, creative brainstorming, flexibility and patience.
Rather than starting with a lesson plan which requires a "hook" to get the children interested, emergent curriculum starts with the children's interests. This is not to say that the teacher has no input; in fact, teachers may well have a general topic they think is important for children to study and may purposely include certain materials or experiences related to it as jumping off points.
"We are the stage directors; curriculum is the teacher's responsibility, not the children's. People who hear the words 'emergent curriculum' may wrongly assume that everything simply emerges from the children. The children's ideas are an important source of curriculum but only one of many possible sources that reflect the complex ecology of their lives." Elizabeth Jones, Author
How Does Learning Happen is a professional learning resource introduced by the Ontario Ministry of Education and adopted at the Butterfly Learning Centre.
As followers of this curriculum, our teaching is structured to promote healthy development in four foundational conditions: Belonging, Well-Being, Engagement, Expression
Belonging refers to a sense of connectedness to others, an individual's experiences of being valued, of forming relationships with others and making contributions as part of a group, a community, and the natural world.
Well-being addresses the importance of physical and mental health and wellness. It incorporates capacities such as self-care, sense of self, and self-regulation skills.
Engagement suggests a state of being involved and focused. When children are able to explore the world around them with their natural curiosity and exuberance, they are fully engaged. Through this type of play and inquiry, they develop skills such as problem solving, creative thinking, and innovations, which are essential for learning and success in school and beyond.
Expression or communication (to be heard, as well as to listen) may take many different forms. Through their bodies, words, and use of materials, children develop capacities for increasingly complex communication. Opportunities to explore materials support creativity, problem solving, and mathematical behaviours. Language-rich environments support growing communication skills, which are foundational for literacy.