Yes I Can Nursery School of Toronto

At Yes I Can! we offer a caring, stimulating learning environment to enhance each child’s strengths while fostering leadership skills and promoting activities that build confidence, self-esteem and a life-long love of learning.

Thank you for the recognition of deeming us an “Award Winning” school.

A warm, inclusive and enriched early learning setting, where children of differing abilities learn side by side.

Our highly qualified teachers, supported by our Community Partners, allow us to further our dreams of providing unique, innovative, Early Childhood Education programs to children in the community ages 18 months to 10 years.

Two convenient locations: 3335 Yonge Street (at Fairlawn) and 25 Old York Mills Rd

We offer: Before and After the Bell Programming for youngsters at the local community schools, Fabulous Saturday Programs and Teeny Twos, Nursery School (5 Days a week:AM & PM), Enriched Kindergarten (5 days a week:AM & Full Day as of September 2014), Specialized Classes for children with ASD and/or social communication delays.

School Programs

Teeny Two (Ratio 1:5)

• TEENY Two’s are 18 months ++
• Monday through Friday 9 – 11:15 am (choice of days)
• Two teachers for 10 children, Ratio 1:5
• Big Block Building complete with representational vocabulary building play stations
• Teeny Tunes (Enthusiastic Music Circle) with puppets and props
• Felt Board Fun / Story Time
• Rhythmic Routines (Creative Movement with Musical Instruments)
• Hands on Science Fun (making glue, playdough, goop, bubbles)
• Silly Sensory Explorations (sand, water, goop, playdough, bubbles, Easter grass, Shredded newspaper…..)

Nusery  (Ratio 1:6)

• FREE PLAY
• SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY
• Cooking / Snack
• Drama
• Quiet Time for Story Sharing
• Creative Movement
• Letter Box / Cognitive Circle

Enriched Kindergarden (Ratio 1:8/1:10): The children enjoy and participate in

• Phonics:  is the stepping stone to our reading and printing activities.  Phonics lessons are offered in small groups.
• Co-operative Game: this is a fun way to learn turn taking skills, develop leadership traits, work co-operatively for end results and follow through with simple game rules while developing good sportsmanship.
• Creative Movement: this is a fun and physical time of the day for the children to develop body awareness, spacial relations while fostering their ability to follow directions. Enjoying the tempo of cultural music, the children enhance their co-ordination skills.
• Creative Arts:  this expressive time is a period of the day where the children get to develop skills in pasting, cutting and painting using a variety of bias-free materials to reinforce concepts, giving them pride in their accomplishments.
• Mathematics: this is an area of exciting, hands-on learning which focuses on developing and understanding basic mathematical skills.
• Language Arts:  this is an important part of your child’s day where we encourage them to effectively communicate with their peers and teachers.  The children’s vocabulary is expanded by opportunities to relate personal experiences to narrate stories of interest, prod with “Wh” questions and finally to enjoy the printed word.  Children will also have the opportunity to create and edit stories of their own!
• Geography:  an opportunity to expand the horizons for the children.  We do this through an introduction of Canada which includes Aboriginal heritage, and countries/cultures that interest the children.
• Science: opportunities are offered through cooking and experiments for the children to compare, measure, predict, estimate and problem solve as they enjoy hands-on explorations.

Autism Programs

Junior Communicate

Yes I Can! Junior Communicate is a beginner level class, focusing on basic social communication between the children, each other and their teachers.

RATIO:  One teacher for every 4 students.aitplane girl

APPROACH: the philosophy of the class stems from Dr. Stanley Greenspan’s basic principles of “floortime”.

This approach is proven to help children expressively and receptively communicate in a variety of ways to their caregivers/peers. The Floortime Approach is used in many of the aspects of the program, but especially predominant at ‘freeplay’.

GOAL: To expose the children in a small group to routine and structure,(the beginnings of school readiness skills), making them feel comfortable in their surroundings to help reinforce communication between each other and the teachers.  The use of visuals and schedule boards aid in this process.  The pictures are used to reinforce the verbal word, giving them more opportunity to be successful.

The delivery of this programming offers opportunities to expand both the expressive and receptive vocabulary.

Senior Communicate

Yes I Can! Senior Communicate is an intermediate level class, focusing on social communication between children, expressive and receptive language and building imaginative play skills.

Ratio: One teacher for every 4 students.

Approach: The philosophy of the class stems from Dr. Stanley Greenspan’s basic principles of “floor time”. This approach is proven to help children expressively and receptively communicate with there peers/caregivers. The Floortime Approach is used in many of the aspects of the program, but especially predominant at ‘free play’.

Goal: To expose children to small peer group where they can practice imaginative play skills, increase vocabulary and develop social communication with peers. The use of visuals and schedule boards aid in this process. The pictures are used to reinforce the verbal word, giving them more opportunity to be successful. This program provides the opportunity to increase expressive, receptive and social communication skills.

Building My Social Skills

We are pleased to have the opportunity to offer a skill building group targeting social settings, complimented by creative music.

The program will begin and end with group circle/music time and will concentrate on building school readiness skills and peer interaction (turn taking, appropriate participation, following instructions and include peer initiation).

During small group time, the teacher/adult ratio will be 4:1 as the children experience and practice the social skills associated within each activity.

Kindergarten Readiness (Ratio 1:8)

Language Arts and Phonics: Children will work on letter sounds and begin practicing the formation of the various letters using programs such as Handwriting without Tears and Jolly Phonics.  Through the use of playdough, paint and various materials we will practice creating the letters in a variety of different ways.  The children will use a combination of writing materials such as fat pencils, highlighters, golf pencils, etc to assist with fine motor work.  We will practice printing letters on a daily basis in our Journals.

Mathematics: The children will work on one-to-one correspondence, counting, number recognition, sequencing and the early stages of addition and subtraction.  A variety of manipulatives will be offered, such as Base Ten Blocks to practice counting, Unifix cubes for patterning and number sense.  We will practice printing our numbers on a daily basis through the use of our Journals.

Creative Arts: We will use art as an opportunity to reinforce both the letter and number of the week.  There will be an option of two cognitive arts based on both the letter and number of the week.  Arts and Sensory explorations will enhance the program.  Choices of wet/dry sensory will be available.

Science and Discovery: The children will make predictions and observations as well as record their observations through the use of pictures.  Small group experiments will be conducted where children will have the opportunity to take part in the process.  This time will also include cooking a variety of different recipes.  The children will have the opportunity to follow directions, work as a team.

Music and Story Time: This time of the day will provide the children with the opportunity to take part in an interactive story.  There will be a choice of felt board stories, audio stories as well as big books.  We will do a small book share unit in the second half of the school year where each child will get to take home a story of their choice.  During Music Time the children will engage in a variety of cooperative songs.  They will be working on skills such as memorization, sequencing, patterning, turn-taking, sharing as well as the enjoyment of music.

Summer Camp

York Mills - Morning Summer Camp

The morning runs 8 weeks – 9:00 to 11:30am – it is an integrated preschool experience for children 2 years, 3 months to 6 years of age. The children are divided into 2 groups. The older children begin outside (fenced in) with arts and crafts and sensory. The inside group enjoys big block building, drama center, free play/floor toys.

Each group has morning snack and music in the location where they begin their day. Mid-morning the groups switch locations, so that both groups get the opportunity to enjoy both inside and outdoor experiences. Note: there is a rainy day plan in the gym.

Yonge / Fairlawn - Morning Summer Camp

Summer camp will run for 8 weeks with the option of attending bi-weekly.  Families will have the choice of attending Mon-Fri, Mon/Wed/Fri or Tues/Thur.

Children will be separated into groups according to age and development.  Each group will rotate through the classrooms that will be set up with a variety of different activities.  In our free play room, the children will enjoy tabletop toys, a dramatic center, large block building, books and puzzles.  In the arts and sensory room, the children will get down and dirty with their unique creative expressions as they enjoy painting, water play, gak, goop, playdough, etc…. Our final station will be Gross Motor/Creative Movement.  The children will also engage in a group co-operative game that will be planned on a weekly basis.  Some of the children’s favourites in the past have been Parachute, Dance Freeze and a Musical Marching Band.  Each group will end the morning with an interactive music circle where they will enjoy a variety of different fun and exciting Yes I Can songs complete with musical instruments and props.