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A Successful Pairing at Anne-Hébert

It’s well known that young children are usually fascinated by their older peers, while for the “big kids,” contact with younger children can be a special opportunity to share their knowledge.

At the Franc départ centre at l’école Anne-Hébert, we wanted to capitalize on the richness of this pairing of younger and older children, by developing a partnership project between the centre’s young children and the older Grade 1/2 students.

The first phase of the project was launched in March, with a shared reading session in the school library. The children from the Franc départ centre, accompanied by a parent, had the chance to have a story of their choice read to them by a team of two or three readers from the Grade 1/2 class.

The experience gave the older children the opportunity to practice reading aloud to a captivated audience, while at the same time encouraging early literacy in the young children. This first activity was so successful that it has since been repeated; we expect to add combined art activities to the calendar as well.

The partnership between the Franc départ centre and the school allows young children to familiarize themselves with various rooms in the school, such as the library, to develop links with older children, and to get acquainted with a teacher at the school. These are small important steps on their path towards entering kindergarten.

This project was born from the idea of developing partnerships between the Franc départ centres and the schools to facilitate young children’s transition to kindergarten. It follows from the BC Ministry of Education’s “Reflecting on Quality” approach, implemented in all Franc départ and Strong Start centres in BC to guide new projects and initiatives.
 
For more information about the “Reflecting on Quality” tool, please consult the web page on this subject.

For more information about Franc départ centres, visit www.fpfcb.bc.ca/franc-départ.