We are happy to open our Adventure School (formerly Playschool) to children ages 3-5 every weekday from 9am-1pm with food provided. Inspired by the Forest School Movement and Playwork Principles, we follow an emergent curriculum. In practice, this means that our activities are based on the childrens’ interests and are kept open-ended through the use of simple invitations such as loose parts. In this way, we encourage creativity, self-awareness and autonomy by empowering children to truly take on their own projects and be active participants in the school.
We begin and end our days outside, bringing our materials with us, so that this process can benefit from a natural setting.
Music is a large part of what we do, with ongoing opportunities to play different instruments, continuous exposure to songs in French and English, and the use of songs in our routines and daily activities.
Adventure School is bilingual, with both French and English present each day through ateliers in the community, songs, reading, and more.
What does this look like?
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Our Space |
Our space has been designed to encourage children’s imaginations without over-stimulating them. Our toys allow children to determine how to play with them and are kept to a minimum, with a rotation of curated collections that fill the space with possibilities rather than things. We also provide opportunities for exploration through gardening and food preparation, as well as artistic activities such as working with clay or various mediums of paint in a variety of ways. |
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Routine |
We begin and end each day with free play. We recite simple poetry together to signal a change in pace and the transition from one part of the day to another. We use our morning circle time and each meal as a time to focus in on routines and to help ensure continuity from one day to the next. |
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Activities |
Music, crafts, exploring the Champ des Possibles, caring for plants, painting with local artists, dancing, reading, plays, looking for snails, playing in the leaves, and more! We spend time outside each morning and afternoon, be it a trip to the park, exploring the nearby field, or another neighbourhood adventure. Our art and other group activities focus on a variety of gross motor development and fine motor skills. You can see our activities in action on instagram and facebook. |
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Food |
Lunch and snacks are provided with an emphasis on simple foods that the children can participate in preparing. We focus on homemade foods we can prepare from scratch. Food is organic and local when possible, with bulk foods such as beans purchased through local co-ops and vegetables purchased at Marché Jean Talon. We compost food scraps through a community compost. See a sample weekly menu here. |
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Discipline |
We strongly believe in practicing and promoting non-violent communication. We understand that conflicts often arise as children face new challenges and explore their own boundaries. As such, we see it as our job to work with parents to help children through these transitions rather than to punish them with timeouts. We use respect of the space, objects in the space, and the adults and children in the space as our base for conduct and discipline and aim to help children act using empathy and understanding. |
You can read more about our approach here and see our activities in action on instagram and facebook.
Ages: 3 – 5 years
Days: Monday – Friday
Time: 9 AM – 1 PM
Language: Bilingual
Site: Adventure School meets outside every morning in the Marché or the Champ des Possibles, and moves inside for lunch in cold weather, special activities and extreme weather conditions (hail, thunderstorms, and extreme cold in the winter).
To add your child to our waitlist, please fill out our online registration form.
If you have previously added your child to the Playschool waitlist, they have been automatically transferred to Adventure School’s waitlist.
Outdoor free play in the city 