MOE Kindergarten @ Blangah Rise

A note from our Centre Head
At MOE Kindergarten @ Blangah Rise we believe that children are curious and active learners. Our teachers seek to engage children to make discoveries and explore the world around them. We help our children to learn concepts and develop good learning dispositions.

The preschool years are critical in laying a strong foundation for children in the 6 learning areas: language and literacy, numeracy, social emotional competencies, aesthetics and creative expression, discovery of the world, and gross motor skills. Our teachers engage children in purposeful play and quality interactions to facilitate children’s participation and involvement in learning.

We seek to involve parents as partners in centre activities and learning as we believe that parents’ involvement helps the child to feel safe and secure in the learning environment. Children also develop better social skills and show improved behaviour when their parents are involved at school.

We plan collaborative activities with the primary school so that our kindergarten children can build confidence and social skills with children of different age groups and be familiar and comfortable in the physical school environment.

My team and I look forward to an exciting year together to give our children a strong start for life!

Ms Marina Ho
Centre Head

MOE Kindergarten: On to A Strong Start!

Vision : A Strong Start for Every Child
Mission : To nurture active and confident explorers with positive values, through a holistic curriculum and in a safe, supportive and caring environment
Values : Love, Respect, Courage, Integrity

Our Programmes:
MOE Kindergarten @ Blangah Rise (MK@BR):

• Offers a 4-hour Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2 programme for children aged 5 and 6 years old

• Provides 3 different Mother Tongues Languages (MTL): Chinese, Malay and Tamil
• Follows the MOE school calendar of 4 terms and school holidays

For parents who require a full day service, MK@BR offers Kindergarten Care (KCare) services.

Our Curriculum:
MK@BR believes that children are curious, active and competent learners. Guided by the key teaching and learning principles in MOE’s Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) framework, our curriculum has been intentionally designed to nurture the holistic development of our children so as to support the transition process and to lay a strong foundation for life-long learning. The curriculum is also guided by two pedagogical practices: learning through purposeful play and learning through quality interactions. It includes a distinctive Singapore flavour, whereby our activities, teaching and learning materials and resources incorporate local stories, songs and dances, so as to allow our children to learn in familiar and authentic contexts.

Our Partnerships:

Our Collaborations with Blangah Rise Primary for a smoother transition

For preschool students to transit smoothy from preschool to primary school, they require different knowledge, skills and dispositions. Our MK Total Curriculum aims to nurture children holistically, so that they are confident, demonstrate strong social skills, and have a good foundation in literacy and numeracy

MOE Kindergarten @ Blangah Rise has the advantage of being sited in Blangah Rise Primary School and our students have the opportunity to engage in different exciting activities even before stepping into Primary 1. We work closely with the primary school to plan transition activities for our K2 children so that they have a good overview of what to expect in primary school.

In Term 1, our K2 students had the opportunity to learn simple coding through a fun application “Scratch Junior” on the IPad. They learnt how to tap in the commands to get their character to move forward, jump, dance and even sing! This distinctive programme in BRPS had our MK students’ hands on in their learning.

In Term 2 our MK students also learned how to think like “engineers” through the exposure to the ALP (Applied Learning Programme). Learning how to construct a tall building with straws and clay exposed our students to problem solving skills when their building fell. Adopting the virtue of perseverance, our preschoolers had to try several times and were happy when they succeeded.

Another valuable experience our students had was using the IPad to take good photos. Basic skills of photography were taught and our students were beaming with pride when they captured photos of their “tall building”. Seo El said “See my photo, it’s nice !”.

Each of these activities saw a Primary school teacher in-charge explain to our MK students the fun programmes that Primary school has, allowing our students to understand that beside learning core subjects, there were also other areas of learning to explore. Our students were awed each time and realised that primary school was such an exciting place!

Ms Su Yi and Ms Candice, Ee our K2 teachers, shared that the special niche programmes extended the learning of our preschoolers beyond the daily curriculum. In the process, our preschoolers have definitely built their confidence and curiosity for active learning.

Our MK students also learn about the 7 Habits of Mind and learn to practise them each term. This learning will continue to be impressed on them when they transit to BRPS, where these habits are reinforced. Our preschoolers are prepared for a strong start in their school journey as the transition journey has been thoughtfully laid out ahead for them.

On To A Strong Start
At MOE Kindergarten, activities are planned throughout the year with the primary school students to enrich our children’s learning. This regular exposure to the primary school helps our K2 children to make a smooth transition to Primary 1. Joint celebrations include Chinese New Year, National Day, Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali, Racial Harmony Day, Teachers’ Day and Children’s Day. They also participate in joint Drama and STEM activities with the lower primary students.

Our K2s end the year in Term 4 with 5 weeks of experiential learning. They find out what is in a “bigger school”, understand the changes they will experience and learn how to manage their feelings and adapt to change. They learn by asking curious questions to find out more about primary school life. They receive the answers to their questions through interviews with the Principal and Vice-Principals. The questions that our children ask show thought and eagerness to know more about primary school life. Some questions that our children have asked include: How many classrooms does the primary school have?” “What kind of CCAs are there? “How many subjects are there?” What food do we eat in the canteen?” Our school leaders patiently answer every question posed to them.

Our children also tour the primary school and view the many different areas and special rooms such as the Blooming Garden, basketball court, library, Science labs and Art rooms. Different lessons like PE, English, Music and Art are arranged for our children to participate in with the lower primary children. This exposure helps our children to feel assured that lessons in a “big” school are not as different as what they experience in MOE Kindergarten. Our children definitely display readiness to transit to primary school learning as they are able to follow through the different lessons.

On different days, our children go to the canteen to practise counting money to buy snacks, mainly fruit cups and drinks. In Blangah Rise Primary School, SATS Catering provides recess meals for the primary school children, hence our kindergarten children also have the opportunity to order a snack from SATS and learn to tap their card to make their purchase. This is part of the unique experience at MK@Blangah Rise.

Our children document their experiences in their Transition Journal. This allows them to reflect on and capture precious moments of their transition experience.

Our children have much to look forward to when they move on to primary school in Blangah Rise. They are familiar with the physical building and the routines. In addition, the primary school teachers make the effort to know the MK children before the start of the new school year.

This is what we do and believe in to give our children a STRONG START!

View this video to find out more about MK@ Blangah Rise through an interview with our previous Centre Head!