Senior Starfish
(5 to 6 years old)
In kindergarten, we approach learning holistically, offering stimuli that are meaningful for children and creating connections with modern everyday life and both their local community and society at large. We rely on children’s natural instinct to discover and understand the world around them, and games that harness this instinct, to organise learning situations and explorations that help them develop their metacognitive abilities. We thus turn learning into a fascinating, life-long process for our young students.
Child and Communication
Language
In addition to facilitating inter-personal communication, language is a means of personal empowerment that permeates all aspects of our personal development and social activity. We’ve divided our Language Module into three subsections, which interact and complement each other:
Verbal Communication:
We provide our Senior Starfish opportunities to participate in activities that encourage oral communication and help them:
- enrich their vocabulary,
- assess information and other people’s opinions critically,
- adopt the rules/principles of language, both as a structure and as
- a communication system,
- adapt codes of communication to unique
- situations and socio-cultural conditions,
- show respect and interest for different ways of communicating, especially as regards people with disabilities (e.g. sign language).
Written Communication:
Our Senior Starfish engage in activities that encourage them:
- to enjoy reading books and various written texts,
- engage in total, pretend and participatory reading activities,
- assess the content of written texts critically,
- respect all efforts to engage in the written word,
- evaluate the usefulness of the various semiotic modes in the production of written texts and assess the “permanence” of the written word over time.
Multilingual Communication:
Today, toddlers are growing up in a multicultural society. To participate effectively in various activities both at school and in the wider sociocultural environment, toddlers need to have their communication needs covered (both comprehension and text-production level). They need to understand the importance of languages, respect linguistic and cultural diversity, and accept and recognise the value of their linguistic and cultural roots.
As part of this, our Senior Starfish continue their journey of discovery into the English language. Our kindergarteners participate in educational scenarios specially designed for their age, with enjoyable, creative activities in English. Through play, children slowly build their own English vocabulary and begin to use it to communicate and express themselves.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
ICT have become an important part of everyday life, irrevocably changing how we approach information and creating new channels and opportunities for communication, exchange of information and expression. They can be powerful tools for learning, enabling children to express themselves and create in a variety of media that fit their individual attributes and needs.
Haptic Robot Programming:
Our Senior Starfish play with Kobit, the robotic mouse. It’s a programmable floor robot that children can program using keys embedded on it. It can make precise movements and perform steps, moving forward and backward, and turning left and right. This robotic mouse introduces children to the basic concepts of programming (sequence, repetition, selection).
Child, Self and Society
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
Pre-school children need to develop personally, socially and emotionally to structure their personality and the relationships they develop with their social and natural environment. At our kindergarten, we make the most of everyday situations to foster communication conditions and developmentally appropriate experiences for our Senior Starfish, and help them:
- formulate a positive self-attitude,
- correctly assess their capabilities,
- achieve autonomy,
- understand and express their feelings,
- regulate their behaviour,
- address challenges,
- understand and accept that their actions have consequences,
- set improvement goals,
- associate and cooperate with others, valuing pluralism and diversity,
- develop a positive attitude towards learning.
Social Sciences
Our Senior Starfish participate in activities designed to help them understand their place as active, responsible citizens in society, and develop their ability to express their ideas and suggestions, all with the goal of allowing them to play a role in decisions concerning them. Children construct their social identity by developing their knowledge and perception of history, getting acquainted with their customs and traditions, participating in society, understanding their rights and obligations and their relationship with both the natural and the man-made environment.
Children and the Natural Sciences
Mathematics
Toddlers participate in learning situations that utilize their everyday life experiences and highlight how mathematics help solve actual problems.
Natural sciences
We make the most of our kindergarteners’ natural curiosity and fascination for the natural world and natural phenomena to gradually introduce them to scientific thought processes.
STEAM
Our Senior Starfish also learn through LEGO Education’s educational package: STEAM Park. STEAM is an educational solution that introduces children to its methodology through practical and experiential processes. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) is an approach and way of thinking that helps children explore, experiment, observe, ask questions and embody their learning through play.
Mr. Parker, the director of the STEAM park, assigns our Senior Starfish a new mission each time he meets them! He tasks them with improving the park’s functionality while also making it attractive and fun for visitors. And so, our Senior Starfish take their first steps into the scientific thought process…
Children, Physicality, Creation and Expression
Movement Education
Our Senior Starfish get involved in organized kinetic experiences, designed to help them discover their body and use their motor capabilities creatively. Through movement, kinetic games and physical activity, our young students have the opportunity to increase their self-confidence while also finding motivation and participating in kinetic activities. It’s their first step on their lifelong health and well-being journey.
Arts
For children, the arts present themselves as a learning experience intimately connected with their need to express their ideas, feelings and opinions on issues and situations that concern them, in a creative way.
Visual Arts
Our Senior Starfish have the opportunity to become small artists, experiment with materials and produce their own creations.
They become acquainted with works of art through questions, lines of thought and narratives, and try to grasp the artist’s thought process while also formulating new ideas to better understand a situation.
The Art of Theatre
Our Senior Starfish obtain experience of theatre through participation in theatrical games and performances. Toddlers develop their means of expression while enjoying their experience of theatre.
Music
Guided by our music teacher, our Senior Starfish are introduced to the world of music, musical expression and performance.
