Welcome to RPCC:
River Parkway Children’s Centre is a warm, nurturing, stimulating environment where children develop creativity, independence, co-operation, and discover the joy of learning.
River Parkway Children’s Centre is a non-profit daycare located near the neighbourhoods of Westboro, McKellar Park and Woodroffe North in Ottawa. Situated near the Kichi Zībī Mīkan in a lovely spacious setting that offers tranquillity and ample greenspace, our centre cares for 57 children ranging in age from 18 months to 6 years.
Celebrating 56 years of child care, River Parkway has been in operation since 1968. Many of our staff and dedicated early childhood educators have been with us for over 20 years.
Program Philosophy:
At River Parkway, we view all children as being competent, capable, curious and rich in potential.
To strengthen the quality of our programs and ensure high quality experiences that lead to positive outcomes in relation to children’s learning, development, health and well-being, we use the Ministry of Education documentation regarding programming and pedagogy “How Does Learning Happen?”(HDLH).
HDLH is a professional learning resource that provides a common framework to help programs focus on knowledge from research, theory and practice on what’s most important for children. It encompasses a broad range of program philosophies and approaches.
Our programs are child-centred and play-based, designed to meet the overall developmental needs of the children in the areas of socialization, emotional growth, intellectual ability, and physical maturation. With the nurturing guidance of our early childhood educators, activities each day reflect a healthy balance between play and rest, active and quiet times, structured group times and individual activities. Outdoor play is a daily feature of our program, weather permitting.
We offer the following programs, based on age:
- Toddler Program (we accept 3 children under 18 months as long as they are walking)
- Junior Preschool Program
- Senior Preschool Program
Daily Schedules
Parent Handbook:
Find additional information about our Centre, the policies, and more in our Parent Handbook.
Specialty Programming:
We aim to provide a diverse range of programming for our children and invite guests to lead special instruction.
We do have “Music and Movement” classes with Amy Visneskie, enhancing the children’s creativity through music and movement! The children love to shake their instruments, dance and sing as loud as they can!
We have visited the Carlingwood branch Library for a special storytime.
On special occasions, we visit the Unitarian House (retirement residence on Cleary Ave) to greet the residents. This is very popular at Halloween with all the children in their costumes!
We also enjoy putting on a holiday concert for parents, Mother’s Day Tea, and Father’s Day activities.
Each classroom displays our Monthly Activity Calendar to show all our programs, birthdays and special occasions coming up that month!
You can download some past newsletters here, to give you an idea of the monthly programming and events.
Play As You Learn
Creative Area
Children explore and acquire knowledge of a variety of materials, media and techniques, from clay to collage, to watercolour and wood gluing. This provides abundant opportunity for sensory exploration and so importantly, children’s freedom of expression. Finger paint your way to fun.
Science Area
This provides age-appropriate activities for observation, exploration, discovery and experimentation of the physical and natural world. Plants, seeds, sand, water, seashells, prisms, all contribute to children’s understanding of cause and effect, action and reaction and categorizing. Possibilities are endless as children grow with respect for our environment and the natural world. Our planet says thank you.
Imaginative Area
The house keeping area, doll play, dress-up clothing and props all promote social-emotional skills and relationships. It is through dramatic play that children learn to communicate and co-operate. They acquire socially desirable ways of interacting, playing and imagining. Who wants to be the bus driver?
Cognitive Area
Activities are provided to promote memory, problem solving language, and logical thinking through books, puzzles, games and construction activities such as Lego, unit blocks,and accessories. These hands-on experiences promote conceptual understanding and develop children’s increased attention to tasks. That’s when we hear children exclaim, “We did it!”