Little Starfish
(4 to 5 years old)
Our Little Starfish continue their education in Pre-Kindergarten. Our aim is the (physical, emotional and cognitive) development of our young students and their well-being. At “Karavaki”, our toddlers are centre-stage in the educational process and have an active role in shaping it. With the developmental characteristics of this age in mind, our Pre-Kindergarten education is designed to help children develop the skills that will allow them to respond critically and creatively to environmental challenges.
Personal and Social Development
A key goal of early childhood education is toddlers’ Personal and Social Development. Our entire educational program has been constructed with this in mind. We also make sure to enhance it with targeted activities. We encourage our Little Starfish to develop well-adjusted personalities, effectively servicing their personal needs (self-discovery, accepting uniqueness, positive self-esteem, independence and self-regulation, personal empowerment, sex education and self-care) and getting to grips with environmental requirements (social identity, empathy, understanding, cooperation, communication, respect for rules, creativity and maintenance of relationships, acceptance of diversity, adaptation).
Language
Language helps us communicate, build interpersonal relationships, share experiences and knowledge, inquire, express our feelings, make requests, joke, wish, complain… Language, whether written or spoken, is fundamental to our pre-kindergarten educational program.
Spoken word
Over the course of their school life, our Little Starfish are given opportunities to participate in activities that build oral communication: speaking (producing speeches) and listening (comprehension). Toddlers are encouraged to participate in discussions, in which they learn to wait their turn, articulate their thoughts clearly, listen and understand their peers, recount personal experiences and describe objects and events, provide reasoning for their opinions and actions, discuss and negotiate to convince others of their choices and decisions.
Writing
Our Little Starfish engage in language activities through which they uncover the secrets of the written word. These activities help them understand the communicative purpose of written language, discover the conventions of the written word (for example, how to read from left to right), recognize letters and words,
“read” inscriptions and messages and enjoy their experience with books. What’s more, pre-school writing development also entails fine motor skills exercises meant to help toddlers develop the muscles necessary to grip and use writing tools.
Children’s Literature
Our school’s daily educational program includes structured literature reading activities for our pre-kindergarten children. We’ve developed these activities to make children fall in love with reading. Our children also develop a host of different skills, including their verbal abilities, through the conversations we have when reading literature and the activities that may follow (play-acting scenes from the books, memorising poems and songs). What’s more, our Little Starfish also read books that provide knowledge and information and open excellent opportunities for meaningful discussions. Books are windows into a world of knowledge.
Lending Library
Our pre-kindergarten classroom has a small bookshelf where Little Starfish can flip through books during the school day. Leafing through books, children come into contact with writing and connect it with the spoken word. Through them, they cultivate a love for reading, observe images, pretend to read, create their own story with the heroes, comment, learn to notice books…
At our school, we have a large lending library with over 1900 books. Toddlers are free to visit the library, where they have the opportunity to leaf through and borrow books.
Mathematics
In Pre-kindergarten, we use Mathematics as a reasoning and problem-solving tool. Our main goal is to unlock ways of mathematical thought in our toddlers and help them understand how and why mathematics are useful in our everyday lives. Our Little Starfish engage in activities that are familiar and meaningful to them. Our toddlers have the opportunity to explore spatial concepts and relationships as they play. They can compare, classify, create and expand on patterns, make matches, order objects, become acquainted with numbers 1-5 and 0 and learn about shapes.
Arts
Children have always best expressed themselves and their ideas, thoughts, experiences and feelings through drawing and painting. By participating in artistic activities, our toddlers develop their creativity, ingenuity, imagination and aesthetic perception. Our main focus in these activities is the process, not the result. Each of our Little Starfish has the opportunity to observe, come into contact with and explore materials (tempera, watercolour pencils, magic markers, crayons, oil paints), create two-dimensional visual representations and discover their own unique abilities.
Theatrical Games
Our Little Starfish play theatrical parts! They engage in creative activities and have the opportunity to express feelings and ideas, take initiatives, collaborate, decide together, “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”, develop their critical thinking skills and find solutions. They find imaginative ways to use and combine materials, utilise their own experience and create simulations of life.
Music
Our toddlers participate in musical activities. Guided by our musician, they can sing and play with the percussion instruments of our musical corner. Music, just like other means of creative artistic expression, provides children with an outlet to express themselves and explore different means of communication apart from and in parallel with speech.
Physical Education
At our kindergarten, physical activity is an integral part of our daily program. Our Little Starfish participate in organized kinetic activities through which they develop and apply their basic motor skills (stabilization, movement, object handling), understand their body, comprehend space and time, get acquainted with how the human body functions, understand themselves and others as well as the world, learn to trust, interact and cooperate, develop their confidence, accept and respect individual differences and cultivate a positive attitude towards movement to ensure their health and well-being.
Music and Movement Education
Our Little Starfish participate in Music and Movement Education activities that develop their movement skills, like trotting, deep knee bends, imitating the movements of birds, walking on tiptoes with their arms extended above their heads, deep squats and flexing their spines. The music and movement education activities of our Physical Education programs focus on movement as related to rhythm. Through these activities, our objective is to help toddlers develop physically while cultivating their sense of rhythm and musical memory.
Traditional games
Our Little Starfish play traditional games. Various types of Tag, Tug-of-war, little Eleni, Hopscotch, Find the ring… Traditional games are a vital aspect of a country’s cultural tapestry. They’re games played by the older generations and passed down verbally or with demonstrations to the new generations. These games give toddlers the chance to become acquainted with tradition while also developing their cognitive awareness, understanding of mathematical (counting, grouping, comparing, decision-making) and linguistic conventions (rhymes, scat and rhythmic songs) and social skills (cooperation, team spirit, will, patience, respect for the rules), all while having fun!
Environmental Observation
We encourage our kindergarteners to explore both the man-made and the natural environment around them. We want them to observe, ask questions and get involved in exploring anything they might find interesting. The objects of their “study”? Man and his creations, animals, plants, natural phenomena, the properties of matter, planet Earth and our solar system, how shadows are formed…
Life outdoors
At “Karavaki”, toddlers have the opportunity to play in the school playground. They can walk, run, climb, jump, interact with their peers and develop social skills…
At our school, toddlers aren’t confined to indoors. We take them on walks around the school, where they have the opportunity to make use of all their senses and knowledge and broaden their horizons.
S.T.E.A.M.
Our Little Starfish also learn through Lego Education’s educational package: Coding Express. It provides toddlers the unique opportunity to liven up a train: they can make its lights flash on and off, sound its horn, have it stop to refuel, make it change direction or stop at stations by placing the respective programming bricks on the rails. Each “coding brick” corresponds to a specific action, and each action is a new opportunity for children to test and retry solutions and cooperate to deal with challenges.
Through play, the system introduces toddlers to the basic principles of coding and the S.T.E.A.M. philosophy. S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics), is an approach that helps children embody their learning and produce comprehensive thought.
It cultivates the following skills:
- Assumption of responsibilities and cooperation,
- Understanding cause and effect,
- Problem solving,
- Critical thinking,
- Language development: idea presentation,
- Logical structures: Sequence of instructions, Retry, Conditions (if… then).
Skills Workshops
Skills Workshops are a groundbreaking teaching and educational action that was incorporated into the compulsory daily program of all kindergartens after the success of its pilot implementation in 2021. these skills workshops give toddlers the opportunity to participate in activities that develop their critical thought, creativity, imagination, cooperation, communication, initiative, organisational and problem-solving ability.
English
With the guidance of our English teacher, our Little Starfish begin their journey of discovery into the English language. Our kindergarteners participate in educational scenarios specially designed for their age, with creative activities in English. Through play, children slowly build their own English vocabulary and begin to use it to communicate and express themselves. Our goal is to instil a love of English in our students and leave them with a positive outlook on other languages and cultures.