Next Prep Academy

💕 Love & Kindness in Action 💕

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Valentine's together by sharing heartfelt gifts they lovingly made in class and exchanging special treasures from home. It was a beautiful morning of connection and community. Through these shared experiences, the children practiced kindness, gratitude, and the joy of giving, core values we nurture every day at Next Prep 🌸

🌟 A big milestone moment! 🌟

This week, one of our students began reading! She worked on matching consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) words to images, building confidence, phonetic awareness, and a true love of reading. Watching learning click is one of the best parts of our day. So proud of all the work she did to get here! 💛

✂️ Cut. Fold. Glue. Sparkle! ✨

Making Chinese lanterns gave our students the opportunity to practice cutting skills, careful folding, gluing with intention, and painting with glitter while celebrating Lunar New Year through art and exploration. 🏮

❤️ Painting from the heart! 🖌️

This Valentine’s Day, Next Prep's proud artists practiced brush control, creativity, and focus while turning hearts into colourful masterpieces. As children painted with thin paint brushes, they strengthened fine motor skills, practiced hand-eye coordination, and explored self-expression, one brushstroke at a time! 🎨✨

🪥 Practical life is the foundation of independence, and also a core part of the curriculum at Next Prep Academy. Tooth brushing practice strengthens coordination, sequencing, and self-confidence, skills that carry into every part of a child’s day.

Splashy experiments and big discoveries 💧

Exploring what floats and what sinks helps children practice careful observation, make predictions, and record results, laying the foundation for scientific thinking.

Messy work is meaningful work 🌻

Tong activities strengthen the small muscles of the hand, support bilateral coordination, and prepare children for future writing, all the while, keeping learning exciting, joyful and hands-on!

Tiny hands are at work!

At Next Prep, learning is hands-on and purposeful. Tracing sandpaper numbers supports fine motor development and helps children internalize number shapes through touch and movement, increasing number recognition well before they are ready to hold pencils and write numbers.

📚 Hands-on reading in action!🖍️

Children are matching CVC words to images, building phonetic awareness, letter recognition, and decoding skills. In this photo, we have a student practicing the sound made by a short "i" vowel and she is pairing words like "sit", "dig", "rip" and "kid" to its corresponding photos. Through this fun activity, children develop early reading skills, phonics knowledge, and grow their confidence with letters.

😊 Learning to notice the details 🎨

This face matching activity helps children recognize colours, amounts and spaces while strengthening visual discrimination, concentration, and attention to detail. All very important skills for both academic and social development.

✏️ Preparing the hand for writing 🖍️

Working with the Metal Insets strengthens the small finger muscles, refines pencil grip, and and practices left-to-right movement. This focused work lays an important foundation for confident, comfortable writing.

🏛️ Careful hands, focused mind 😊

Working with the Roman Arch blocks helps children develop concentration, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills as they carefully balance each piece to form the arch.