Risky Play

December 12, 2016December 12, 2016 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

Toddlers class (2-3 y.o.) is usually the point in time for children to start experimenting physically. They feel strong now and ready to take risks.

Here, risky play gets into the picture. Of course, we do not encourage children in school to jump out of the windows! But, on the other hand, we do not either overprotect them when seem ready and confident to take the extra mile…

Watch Dimitris in the following video, to consciously explore how it feels to fell!

(video by Jenny Diamantopoulou, teacher in toddlers’ class in Athens)

Play in toddlers’ class

October 17, 2016October 17, 2016 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

Play, is:

Two painter balls in a box

Building towers using glasses

Meeting your friends under the table

Wearing strange metal shoes

Wiping the salt

Playing music

Inventing a way to reach the balloons up in the ceiling

Spreading the clothes

Talking with your best friend

And after all these exhausting things, go to sleep!

Play is life. Children’s life.

(by Jenny Diamantopoulou, teacher in toddlers’ class in Athens)

Sharing is a great thing

May 28, 2016June 1, 2016 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

One day, Thanasis brought in toddlers’ class a book titled “This is mine!” Two friends who play together but find it too hard to share their toys…

“How easy is for us to share our toys?”, we asked children. Not so easy…

One small car in our class had the same problem. It was alone, because it could not share its toys. So, we decided to help it…

We became friends with the small car and drove it to the big “Luna Park of sharing”, the place where all children and cars share their toys.

Each one of as waited at his/ her own station, to drive the small car towards the next station and finally up to the end of the road, where the Luna park was. When the small car arrived there, it wasn’t alone anymore!

Kids played, cooperated, waited patiently for their turn, but most important helped the small car to understand that sharing is a great thing…

(by Jenny Diamantopoulou, teacher in toddlers’ class in Athens)

“Well done for choosing the book by yourself!”

January 31, 2016February 1, 2016 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

One day in toddlers’ class, Cynthia decided to read a story for her friends.

She chose two books and asked Helen: «Helen, which one do you want to read?” Helen chose one of them and Cynthia said: «Well done Helen for choosing the book by yourself!»

Then, children sat in a circle and Cynthia started “reading” the book. All were listening carefully and of course at the end had questions. But Cynthia, had all the answers!

(by Jenny Diamantopoulou, teacher in toddlers’ class in Athens)

A cloud in toddlers’ class

November 30, 2015 / dorothysnot / Leave a comment

One day Eleni, Thanasis and Mirto while playing in class, looked up and saw a cloud.

“Wow, let’s bring it down here”, Eleni said. But that wasn’t so easy. Children raised their hands, but understood they weren’t tall enough.

Suddenly, Thanasis said: “we need a ladder” and he went in another room to find one. But there was no ladder around…

Then, Mirto had another idea. She grabbed a chair and climbed on, and rest of the kids followed.

They raised their hands once more, but…

The cloud was still away. Kids tried and failed again. They didn’t managed to bring down the cloud. But it didn’t matter, at all!

The most important was that they didn’ t ask me for the cloud. Children did the whole thing just by themselves, shared so many ideas using words and tried everything they believed could help them accomplish their purpose.

And after failing again and again, they just moved to another game…

(by Jenny Diamantopoulou, teacher in toddlers class)