For us it is important that in this delicate age, the path is differentiated from the activities of the older ones: children of two and three years like to "get their hands dirty", play with salt colors and pastes without even seeing a " finished product ", but fully enjoying the creative process. The routines that we have studied for them are not intended as monotonous repetitions, but as stable moments that help the child to consolidate his own safety towards the "school" experience.

 

The youngest are therefore entrusted to the care of Stella, who has been teaching for twelve years and like all of us, a great lover of children: through specific activities Stella accompanies children to become aware of their first experiences, following the natural rhythm of their growth.

 

Activities of different kinds will be carried out, always elaborated to start learning while having fun, guiding children through the context of pre-reading and pre-writing; Stella knows how much we can underestimate the difficulty, for children, of discounted gestures, like holding a pencil correctly. For this reason, she invents activities of all kinds (from scraps to salt dough, from "writing" with flour to collages with recycled materials) to prepare fertile soil in the child's ductile mind, exploiting this crucial phase to stimulate those activities that will prepare him for the scholastic environment.

 

Workshop Book

 

The children entrusted to Stella can even grasp her passion for reading, insistently asking her to offer them new stories, accompanying them in reading aloud and requesting their favorite books: these then become cues to develop themes such as colors, seasons, friendship and family.

​

«Reading aloud to children from an early age is a very engaging activity and strengthens the adult-child relationship. Pediatricians indicate that shared reading during the first three years of life is the most important thing parents can do to support the child's cognitive and emotional development. "

 (from Born to Read)

 

 

The moment of reading is always seen as a special event by our children who prepare themselves in a circle, next to the teacher, ready to discover the reading chosen for them. Generally, a particular space is reserved for reading, after a snack, as a moment of gathering or before lunch to separate the activity carried out during the morning from lunch. In some cases, however, reading an illustrated book represents the real activity of the morning. In this case, we tend to choose a reading that can be, in addition to involving and capturing the attention of children, a starting point for reflections, questions and sharing of experiences.

 

In a kindergarten, reading texts and illustrated books allows the child to enrich their language, as well as to broaden their imagination. Reading or listening to a story can represent a magical moment where every child enters a fantastic world and with their own imagination and fantasy, they can experience the same emotions as the characters and be an integral part of the story.

 

Inside the school there are libraries structured in such a way that every single child can choose which book to dedicate themself to without having to ask for help from the adult present, thus moving independently.

 

Our reading workshops are designed and organized on the basis of several fundamental elements such as:

- Age of the children

- Theme of interest or children's requests

- Theme concerning a particular festival, a season or an aspect that the children want to elaborate

 

In our opinion, it is not necessary to present too many books to children on different themes and aspects, it is better, on the contrary, to dwell on an advance selection made by us in order to offer children only those that are considered important at a given moment, thus allowing them to focus and give each book the attention it deserves.

 

After each reading, the text will be reworked in a different way using, for example, images, posters, shapes, colors, letters and any graphic technique that can help the child to foster interest as well as the acquisition of information.

Our goal is to transmit the passion and love for reading not only to children during the days spent with us at school but also to parents who, at home, will be able to guarantee continuity to the experiences made with us.