Nursery

Three year old children often experience their first steps away from parents and home in the Nursery program. The Toronto Waldorf School program offers a safe, home-like experience for 12 children, led by a Teacher and an Assistant. Each class offers three mornings, Monday through Wednesday, or Wednesday through Friday, from 8:30 am to 12 noon. Parent Evenings, held frequently through the year, involve parents in the life of the class. We offer a few spaces in our kindergarten classes for families that require a 5-morning or 5 full-day program for their nursery-age children.

Play as a Foundation for Healthy Development

The Nursery program is designed to allow children to get to know the world through play and make their first social contacts in a group setting. The classroom is filled with natural materials and beautiful objects available to children to enhance imaginative play of all types.

Hands-on work by the teachers, such as baking, cleaning and gardening lends itself to imitation, the young child's first and most fundamental cognitive exploration of the world before reaching the age of seven. Imitative play provides children with experiential nourishment from which they will be able to build healthy emotional and cognitive lives.

Class Rhythm

Each class has a daily and weekly rhythm which guides each morning and week. This rhythm provides continuity and consistency to support the children in their exploration of this new environment. Activities include:

• Artistic activities include watercolour painting and drawing with beeswax crayons
• Circle time with nursery rhymes, songs and movement games
• Free play time indoors
• Stories accompanied by hand puppets to fill the child's need for a concrete, visual experience
• A nutritious snack prepared daily shared by children and teachers
• An hour of outdoor play in the nursery play garden daily
• An adventure walk into nearby fields, school farm and forest each week

The Nursery curriculum is designed to meet the developmental needs of three year old children. For this reason, the After-Care Program is not available to Nursery children. The program supports each child's healthy, balanced development: physical, social and cognitive. In Waldorf terms, this is often expressed as "head, heart and hands".

For further information, see Events (tours, Open House) and Admissions (process, tuition).