Your child’s first year of school is very important to us; a great start paves the way for many more enjoyable years of learning! The SSIS Nursery program aims to set the hearts and minds of both you and your child at ease. Our caring teaching teams, consisting of one foreign teacher, one local teacher and a full-time teaching assistant, work together to create a warm and welcoming learning environment for your child. The Nursery program is play-based, teaching children both academic and life skills through engaging games, music and movement activities, art and science projects and developmentally-appropriate learning materials. Nursery children also take part in the Primary Years Programme of Inquiry, examining four inquiry units per year. Past units have included “Me, Me, Me”, an exploration of the aspects that make us who we are—our body parts and what we can do with them, gender, eye and hair color, age, place in our family, and our five senses; “Animals from A to Z”, a look at living things, large and small and “Colors Around Me”, a unit focused on expressing oneself through art.

At SSIS, all Early Years classrooms have instruction in both English and Chinese. Nursery children have the opportunity to use and learn Chinese and English everyday. A typical schedule for a Nursery class would look something like the following:

8:30-9:00 Morning greetings, free play in classroom
9:00 Morning circle time in Chinese or English
9:15-9:45 Morning snack in the Nursery Dining Room
9:45-10:30 Outdoor play on the playground or directed physical education activities indoors
10:30-11:15 Free play at learning corners, continuous with small group activities— typically Program of Inquiry or other focused lessons in English or Chinese
11:15-12:00 Music and movement activities/library time
12:00-12:45 Lunch in the Nursery Dining Room
12:45-1:00 Tooth brushing, toileting
1:00-2:15 Rest in the Nursery Nap Room
2:15-2:30 Afternoon snack in the Nursery Dining Room
2:30-3:15 Lessons with Visual and Performing Arts specialists
3:15-3:20 Getting ready to go home

Nursery children also take part in a wide variety of special events throughout the year, including Early Years Book Week (October), Student Portfolio Sharing (November), the Chinese New Year Celebration (February), Early Years Sports Day (April), Early Years Dance Assembly (May) and the End of the Year Concert (June).