Community is the key for a successful re-opening

July 19, 2020 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

by John Yiannoudis*

Traditionally, one of our preschool’s strong points has been the unconditional families’ trust built on a number of reasons but big time on school open door policy.

In Dorothy Snot, parents were always welcomed to come in at anytime without prior notice and were offered numbers of options to get involved in school life. Quite often this proved to be disruptive for daily operation, but it has been our strong belief that parents’ active involvement in school bears more good than bad; builds mutual confidence, enhances children’ development and increases the interaction & learning within the community.

However, the covid-19 lockdown and the reluctant reopening took us into another planet with new rules; and a core one is keeping adults outside. This is hard for all to accept and in our minds could be a crucial factor to keep children further in home.

Well, forty five days after the most successful reopening we could imagine is clear that a big chunk of this success comes straight from parents’ trust and love towards the school. No happiness around if despite our strict covid-19 hygiene policy, parents would chose to keep children at home; instead though, 85% of school families returned within the first three weeks.

Living now in the age of the virus, is our core duty to keep finding new innovative ways to maintain and further build this trust. We have to be communicative and smart, make good use of technology and come up with new covid-19 compatible ideas to bring school life out in the open and keep interacting with families. In a future article I will write more.

In any case, all we educators must bear in mind that strong community bonds are key for a successful covid-19 school operation. It’s absolutely normal for families to be afraid, reluctant and precautious; and it’s our task to beat their fear and make them feel safe and included through open communication, honesty and empathy.

Building a strong school community is an absolute must for a successful reopening. Now more than ever, we have to work together with families to re-invent the play-based school of the post covid-19 era.

* John is Dorothy Snot preschool & kindergarten co-founder & Director

Transferring play into real life conditions

February 3, 2019February 3, 2019 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

We do offer a DIY class in kindergarten, in order to introduce 6 y.o. children into creative thinking & problem solving attitude.

For example: by constructing a hydraulic robotic arm from scratch, children transfer their play into real life conditions by engaging in the following. They:

Derive the plan
Measure the dimensions
Cut the wood
Trial and error to make the junctions work
Understand how the hydraulic pumps work
Team & coordinate to make the arm move in all three dimensions

While the above consist the most fascinating play, yet encourage children to develop numbers of skills and engage deeply into creative thinking and innovation.

But most of all it’s just freely selected & non-directed play. Adults do not direct or impose, only inspire and facilitate. It’s not by coincidence that, when such a project is over, children rarely play with the outcome. They have enjoyed most playing during the construction!

Through the eyes of Riddhi

June 23, 2018 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

by Riddhi Nandola*

From my experience, at Dorothy Snot, I can truly say it is an exceptional school. From the first moment to the last, my time spent there was incredible. My first interaction with the school was my walk up to the building and seeing the bright and colorfully painted exterior giving it a feel of welcoming and warmth. Little did I know that the teachers and children would be just as, if not more, kind and welcoming.

My entire classroom was filled with happy and active children. The joy contained by these children was in part due to the extraordinary effort put in by the teachers. I saw first hand the work they put into making the days for the children not only fun but an effective and creative way of learning. The time these teachers spend with the children in school is only half the energy they put into making the school days a good time. They spend a lot of their time out of school preparing lessons and activities for the children.

The school is known for its “play-based” learning, which is a great way for children to absorb as much material as well as expel all the pent-up energy in them. From reading & writing to yoga and outdoor education, the children have a vast amount of opportunities to learn.

The school offers multiple different classes from English to Art, to Outdoor Education. The students are grouped off into their respective classes where they are able to participate in the class and then rotate into another class. This allows the children to interact with the teachers more, thus giving more attention to them, which is always a positive for younger children. Following these lessons, the children are involved in a free play which allows them to be creative while also subconsciously discovering more about their selves.

Overall, the school is designed and includes teachers that allow the children to grow up to be well rounded and kind individuals.

* Riddhi, a student from Canada, became part of our our school during May and June 2018, while participating in AIESEC’s “International Kindergarten” exchange program

Drawing a Kenyan flag

February 4, 2018 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

Jenny coming from Kenya & kindergarten kids together draw a Kenyan flag

International Fairy Tea Party Day 2017

September 23, 2017September 23, 2017 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

On International Fairy Tea Party Day we went on a hunt for fairies and found all the evidence we need to prove that fairies do exist!

After reading a story about a naughty fairy, we looked for fairy signs.

Flowers where fairies like to sleep.

Acorns they like to eat

Fairy rings

And wands they use to turn anyone in anything they want.

After spending the whole day tracking them we decided to dance in a circle to call for them.

They didn’t appear but they left a surprise for us instead. They filled the place with colors!

And sprinkled fairy dust all around

They even gave us wings to fly

They also left a book for us to read.

After reading it we act out the story and threw a fairy tea party in their honor.

What better way to celebrate the wonderful world of nature all around us?

While sparking their imagination, children exercised their tracking skills and learned how to spot the tell-tale signs of fairies.

(by Claire Hadjinikolaou, our English language teacher)

Small talk over art class

May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

Kindergarten kids enter into small talk over art class, trying to arrange who is attending who’s party over the weekend!
Allowing children to take full ownership of their school life, is always a huge boost for their confidence. Our kindergarten kids feel completely free to talk and discuss in class over all issues affecting their social life. Art class time is a great opportunity for that!

(you may not be able to understand Greek, but you will surely enjoy the following video!)

Mixing cultures

March 21, 2017 / dorothysnot / 1 Comment

Hosting students or teachers from other countries, is a desirable situation in our kindergarten!

Early this year we had the luck to be joined by Shriya, an education student from India.

We love this process cause helps our children to understand the diversity of the world and to spot the differences between humans and civilizations.

As always foreign students do, Shriya presented us her country and her family. She told us about Indian civilization and Indian mythology, participated fully in school life and played a lot of games with the kids.

The difference in language is always a bit of barrier, but kindergarten kids find a chance to exercise their English and become really enthusiast when manage to understand each other.

Of course, most of fun was the time of bollywood dancing!

So long for our next host. Shriya, thank you so much for being in school, we hope you had as good time in Dorothy Snot kindergarten as we had!

Let it snow in Athens!

January 10, 2017 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

Living in a hot Mediterranean city like Athens, snow is a rare thing to see, downtown. But today, it was one of these days!

Being unfamiliar with snowy weather, the Municipality of Athens advised all schools to remain closed. However, a brave play-based school like Dorothy Snot is not afraid of some snow flakes!

The sure thing is our kids loved it. Being able to play with snow in the heart of the city is such an unusual experience down here. Not to mention that most of our 4 and 5 y.o. had not ever seen Athens in white!