A favorite habit of our babies lately is to look themselves in the mirror. They make faces, cry and observe their bodies with pride. They talk or laugh, watch that and get excited.
That kind of sensory play assists babies to begin forming a positive connection with themselves.
So, in order to further develop our sense of self-awareness, but also boost our confidence, we put on some color in our faces and we all looked in the mirror!
And as Marina said, “Wow”!!!
(by Maria Gryllaki, teacher in babies class in Athens)
Some days, the only thing you have to do as preschool teacher is to observe and just keep being proud of your team! That feeling I had a few times during last days, in my classroom.
My team consists of toddlers, children between 2-3 years old. Their mood changes from one minute to another, but lately they have been using their imagination in a unique way.
One day, Thanasis and Eleni were playing with dough, while Ilia came in the room carrying her little teddy bear. Immediately, an impromptu role play game popped up, from nowhere!
Children started making food with dough for Ilia ‘s teddy bear, because Ilia confirmed that it felt really hungry.Suddenly, Thanasis observed that Teddy bear felt cold and run around the classroom to find a coat and socks for it.
After that, teddy needed a walk and children began walking it around the classroom. Up to the moment a wild storm began! Then, everybody run away to find the best possible shelter for teddy, which was under a table.
For more than twenty minutes children kept being excited in this role playing. Moving from one state of mind to another, on their own initiative, using their imagination, their oral communication skills and body language in an unbelievable way.
I feel really proud of my children!
(by Evangelia Nteka, teacher in toddlers class in Athens)
Who doesn’t know about Darth Vader? The answer is me. This was true, until the day children in the school bus taught me everything about him…
Whoever believes adults have nothing to learn from children, makes a big mistake! Consider me, for example. I learned so much about Darth, even where he lives. Next day I even had the chance to meet him!
It was a little daunting at first, but it is so interesting to become a child again and see the world through their eyes….
As always, the game was so creative. They told me, “We made our own monsters”.
(by Eleni Triantafyllopoulou, teacher in post-toddlers class in Athens)
Last Monday, only Cynthia, Poppy and Marina from toddlers’ class participated in swimming lesson.
Girls got ready in few minutes after lesson was finished. We had plenty of time since post-toddlers’ class was still in locker room. So, l asked them what we were going to do, and theιr answer was “We can discover the place!”
And so the game began…
We found water in the road…
And jumped in it….
We focused on the plants…
Smelled them….
And brought one back to school….
But time was running so fast, so we had to return in our school bus!
(by Chryssa Vaitsi, teacher & projects’ coordinator in Athens school)
These days we have a visitor in our school. His name is Henry and he is a student from Taiwan. Henry will be with us for six weeks and so we have the opportunity to learn many things about his country and culture.
Few days ago, he prepared a very interesting presentation, in order for our children to get to know Taiwan.
We saw Taiwan on the map and he told us it looks like a leaf! We saw its flag and photos of his city.
After that, we tried together to speak Taiwanese! We translated many words from Greek to Taiwanese and he wrote the name of every children using Chinese ideograms.
Our kids were excited and many of them proved to be quite talented in Chinese writing.
Henry thank you, you are most welcomed in our school !!
(by Stavroula Gaoutsi, kindergarten teacher in Athens)
“Hey, what are you doing, again?” Me: “I’m not doing anything, yet. I’m trying to think of what to do”. “I know!!!! Why don’t you make something?” Me: “Like what? It would be nice to make a table game. Any ideas?”
“Yes! We can make streets, and pavements and street lights”!
“Oh, and we can make a football field”!
“And we can make a jungle!!!” Me: “A jungle?! Really?!”
“Yes! We will paint in on the box! And we can put our animal toys in there and we can play in the jungle”!
So, now we’ve got three new table games in pre-K class!
Always think twice and do not throw anything! Just let it to children’s imagination…
(by Spyridoula Patouna, teacher in pre-K class in Athens)
Life-derived Learning 