At UMS, we believe that focusing on the whole child is crucial; this means we must not just focus on developing the children’s minds, but their bodies as well. Regular physical exercise is essential to children’s overall health and development. We have, therefore, incorporated it into the school in ways other than formal physical education classes. During circle times in the classroom, students participate in songs and games that encourage movement, and twice daily students are allotted blocks of outdoor recess times.  As part of our enhanced curriculum, students participate in regular Physical education classes with our specialized teachers. These highly qualified teachers have incorporated the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association (OPHEA) curriculum into our school’s Physical Education program. In physical education classes, not only do the students have the opportunity to be physically active while learning important skills, but they also work on developing self-esteem, learn about good sportsmanship, and develop positive exercise habits while having a great deal of fun! Through monthly themes, such as hockey, yoga, dance and creative movement, gymnastics, and ball skills, students develop spatial awareness and locomotion skills, stability, balance, ball skills (rolling, bouncing, kicking, throwing), safety skills, and they learn about how to work together as a team.

Students at UMS are progressively introduced to French vocabulary over their Pre-Casa and Casa years to develop solid foundations for their future learning. Apart from learning simple conversational skills in French such as how to say hello, goodbye, how are you, I am fine, thank you, etc, students also learn vocabulary words such as the date, parts of the body, fruits, vegetables, and other foods, as well as colours, numbers, sizes, weather, parts of the house, the seasons, school related words, family members, methods of transportation, and clothing. Students are taught in a fun and interactive manner using stories, props, songs, actions, games, pictures, and activity sheets. UMS French teachers use a unique program called AIM (Accelerative Integrated Method), which makes language accessible for different types of learners. The basic premise of this method is that students learn and remember better when they associate gestures with the words they are saying. AIM includes defined gestures for 700 essential French words. As this approach is also used in our Elementary program, it allows our Casa students, entering grade one at UMS, a smooth transition into our grade one French program.

Students in our Casa program are given the opportunity to visit their school library once every six-day cycle. During the library class they are read a story, discuss the story, answer questions about it, and are then invited to borrow a book to take home and read with their families. Borrowing books they must care for and then return, helps children learn about responsibility and trustworthiness. We are pleased to be able to offer the students libraries stocked with many wonderful books to stir their senses, inspire their imagination, and spark a love of reading that will last a lifetime! We believe these classes are essential; reading skills lay the foundation for children’s successes inside, outside, and beyond school. Reading comprehension ensures understanding of written word and opens doors for future successes.

UMS offers students the opportunity to participate in a computer class to develop their computer and technology skills using different games, apps and activities. Initial teaching focuses on mouse control, following instructions, focusing, and sharing. Once in the Casa program, students progress to learning the parts of the computer and how to operate it, becoming familiar with the keyboard and word processing, grouping and sequencing, responsibility and care of the computer and resources, and exploring the characteristics of multimedia. Students of all ages have the opportunity to work with ipads and a SMARTboard. Benefitting from the small class sizes, students have ample time to work directly with the computers. Consequently, as they progress through the curriculum, students are able to use increasingly advanced programs, becoming familiar with the many different features and functions of the computer and software. Graduating Casa students then move on to build on their outstanding computer skills in our Elementary Building’s new state-of-the-art IMAC computer lab.

A very important element of our Casa program is arts and crafts. While engaging in many creative activities, students develop their fine motor skills as well as important sensorial skills, such as colour recognition and learning about shapes, textures, and sizes. Our students also practice essential practical life skills, such as folding, cutting, and measuring.

As part of our Casa curriculum, students have the opportunity to participate in Show and Tell in their classrooms. By participating, students develop self-confidence, have fun being creative, discover interesting facts about a wide variety of topics, and learn more about their fellow classmates. They have the opportunity to do the following:

• Learn how to speak and listen
• Learn how to be an audience
• Learn how to introduce themselves
• Learn how to ask inquiry-based questions
• Learn how to make connections
• Learn how to anticipate and observe
• Learn how to practice critical reasoning skills
• Learn how to practice storytelling
• Learn how to distinguish between similarities and differences
• Learn how to use vocabulary
• Learn how to use descriptive language.