The kindergarten should be able to propose experiences that take into consideration the specific needs and skills of the children who attend it
It is useful to clarify immediately that Any risk of anticipatory monkey of primary school by the kindergarten should be avoideda risk and a method of interpretation of this much wider and widespread relationship than you can imagine.
There are many kindergartens who, by organizational methods, by setting the teacher-child relationship, for methodological approaches, for operational practices, especially with the children of the last year, seem more than small primary schools.
The haste is bad adviser
A way often supported by the haste and “anticipatory will” of many parents, Under the pressure of a culture of haste, of the competition, the need to arrive “first”. In some cases these schools are completely similar to the “primine” past, the little useful classes of children who begin primary school at five years, one year before the age of compulsory schooling.
The best way that has a kindergarten to prepare for its children to the following school degree is to operate according to a quality approach that has been carried out and developed in our country in the most innovative realities and experiences (for example the Italian-Swiss educational center of Rimini, the municipal schools of Reggio Emilia and all of the Emilia Romagna region, the Montessori schools).
Let’s talk about an approach that considers the child as the subject of rightswhich interacts with peers, with the environment and culture. It is thanks to this intertwining that the child builds his identity, conquers his autonomy and acquires a competence fueled by his own potential.
Children in the center
To achieve all this it is necessary starting from children and their ideasplace them at the center of school work. As much as in this age group, children can experiment in activities, experiences, discoveries and quality learning through a playful approach, in the framework of a network full of social relationships with peers, with adults, with the environment and with cultural objects, The more the basic skills will make their own necessary to face the learning of subsequent degrees, not only those of primary school.
On the contrary, the previews of organizational and methodological forms proper to primary school, especially if reference is made to a traditional model of this school, produce a opposite and counterproductive effect since they force children to operate according to “rigid” waysfar from their real needs and introduce a “artificiality” which, frequently, even in the first primary school classes, causes them to be a surveillance towards school work, towards reading and studying. For example, we should reflect if there is no some relationship between the way children learn to read and write in first class and the statistical data that indicate our country as one of those in which we read less.
Returning to the kindergarten, what has been said above does not want to indulge in an idea of kindergarten as a place of “trancili”, but exactly the opposite, A school capable of proposing experiences and activities that keep the needs of children in great consideration and at the same time calibrated on their skills, able to make interesting proposals and at the height of the interests of children.
Skills of the child to 4 and 5 years old
Children at 4 yearsin general, are able to:
- Put ten balls or raisins in a bottle in less than 20 seconds
- Cut a strip of paper of 2.5 cm length with a precision of 1.5 mm
- goat
- grab with your hands a ball that is launched (not making her bounce first on the body)
- Make a length of the length of 60 cm
- Remember four figures in sequence
- use verbal language in an understandable way to 90%
- Copy a square with the marker
- Draw one or two letters and numbers
- Take off the T -shirts and sweaters alone
- put your socks correctly
- wash and dry face and hands effectively
- Pass the comb and brush through the hair
- Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket to be washed
- set the table with the help of an adult
At 5 yearsalways in general, are able to:
- Put ten balls or raisins in a bottle in less than 18 seconds
- Cut a square with a precision of 1 mm
- run by being able to avoid obstacles
- run jumping with alternate step
- Stay on one foot for only 10 seconds
- count correctly up to ten objects
- Write their name in Stampatello
- Draw a recognizable face with eyes, nose, mouth
- drink from a fountain without the need for help
- Eat alone and bring a tray with your dish above
- clean up after going to the bathroom
- dress without the need for help
- make the first knot to tie your shoes
- look in both directions before crossing the road
- take a bath or shower when they are reminded of them
Work proposals must take into account these skills so that they can be effectively and repeatedly experienced and practiced by children, with the aim of refining and increasing them: this It is the most effective way to prepare for primary school.
