teamwork
Christmas Party 2015
Free Play
Free play emerges everywhere, you just need to let it happen.
Free play involves anything, you just need to have stuff around.
Free play can be more fascinating if you have a friend to mess with.
Free play can be relaxing, you just need to let yourself be.
Free play can be collaborative, you just need to share it with your friends.
Free play is natural, it’s play and it’s free!
(by Spyridoula Patouna, teacher in pre-K class, in Athens)
A cloud in toddlers’ class
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)
So many ideas!
During time of free play, I took a roll of toilet paper and cut it into pieces. Then, Anastasia came and asked me what I was trying to do.
I told her “I’m trying to think what to do with this material, but I can not. Can you help me”?
She said we can make a case for pencils using the whole roll. Katerina came at the table and constructed a perfect case!
Then another idea came up. “We can make bracelets with the pieces you cut!”. So, Katerina, Artemis, Emily and Andriana made lots of beautiful bracelets.
Katerina said “hey, my case can also be used as a hanger for the bracelets!
Emily had another idea, and made a nice palm-tree!
So many ideas, with just some pieces of recycling paper…
(by Spyridoula Patouna, teacher in pre-K class)
A day full of shadows (part 2)
(presentation by Irene Lithoxopoulou, teacher in post-toddlers class, in Athens)
A day full of shadows (part 1)
(presentation by Irene Lithoxopoulou, teacher in post-toddlers class, in Athens)
Process-based learning
Free play in class is an important part of the day, for any play-based preschool.
Through play, children imagine, create, disagree, negotiate, learn to solve problems, explore materials – but also develop their relationship with other children.
The decision of our kindergarten kids to construct a privacy box for their medical corner, gave them the opportunity to master all the above, plus to connect play with maths.
Children got divided into groups and began to work. First, paid a visit to the local carpenter to pick their wood.
Then, returned to school and started to work….
- grouped pieces of wood according to height, shape and size
- measured the length of the room and distances between the woods
- chose the proper pieces for their construction
- picked the rest of the staff needed, such as screws, nails and glue
- calculated the quantities
- chose the right tools.
While doing the above, class entered into assumptions, cooperation, testing, made mistakes and worked together to produce a certain result. But mostly, enjoyed the process!
(by Stavroula Gaoutsi, kindergarten teacher in Athens)
Dad of Philip helps children connect their hand-made antenna
Last year’s pre-K class worked on a project about communication (how we talk and listen one another, when away).
Under this concept, kids decided to create their own antenna to be able to listen to radio, in class. And so they did. But, then had to find a way to connect it to the radio.
So, they called in class Vasilis, dad of Philip, who is an engineer, to help them finish their project
With his assistance, children managed to connect the antenna….
Life-derived Learning 