Creating a loose parts’ springboard!

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Andreas, a kindergarten kid, had the brilliant idea to create a springboard using loose parts, particularly old tires arranged in a pile and a pallet, serving as a ladder).

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First step was to collect all the items needed for his idea. Second one was setting up his construction and testing, while the final step was…. the actual game!

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In a few minutes, all pre-K and kindergarten class formed a long queue in order to jump off this makeshift springboard!

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Its one more time I see waste material (items with no practical use from an adult’s point of view) to become the center of children’s outdoor play. Kids only add imagination and ingenuity- so easy for them!

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(from Chrysa Vaitsi, cross-class projects’ coordinator in Athens school)

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Ophthalmology class in school bus!

20130821_193831-1Children always laugh when they see my eyes like this!

One day,  kids asked me: “hey, what’s happening with your glasses and they can make your eyes so big? We want to know how you see”!

I told them eye-doctor says I have Hypermetropia. “And how does he know?” they further asked. So, I brought them printed papers with numbers and pictures, like the ones eye-doctors use.

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They started examining themselves

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and also asked to be examined by their friends.

IMG_20151204_083031Then, I gave them my glasses to understand “how I see”. Children tried them in many ways and said “Woooooow, everything looks bigger through your glasses!!!”.

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They got really excited by all this. Now, they may decide to construct an eye-clinic in class, examine other children and prescript the right glasses!!!

(by Spyridoula Patouna, teacher in pre-K class in Athens)

Free Play

Free play emerges everywhere, you just need to let it happen.

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Free play involves anything, you just need to have stuff around.

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Free play can be more fascinating if you have a friend to mess with.

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Free play can be relaxing, you just need to let yourself be.

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Free play can be collaborative, you just need to share it with your friends.

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Free play is natural, it’s play and it’s free!

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(by Spyridoula Patouna, teacher in pre-K class, in Athens)

Hanging a paper tape in babies’ class

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I hanged the paper tape over babies’ heads and they instantly started to experiment with it.

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Stretched their body in order to reach the tape, touched it, twisted it and eventually, as were trying to play with it, they improved their movement.

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And beyond that: discovered one more tool to communicate each other!

(by Anastasia Kouroubali, teacher in babies class in Athens)