Quality in pre-school

Diletta’s Job-Shadowing My experience in Sweden started on May 25 th, 2009 at the “ Dalaborgs förskola ” located in the Municipality of Vanesborg, Sweden.

The chosen focus area is: outdoor activities of the children pointing out the institutional organization of areas, timetables, staff.

Nature and open air life are chosen as spaces, containers of a variety of people, of ages, of abilities.

In itinere construction of the experience. The child learn by means of an open-learning-method using wood, stones and shapes in a creative way and/or according to the moment need.

Around the wheelbarrows there is a workshop involving the abilities organization, thanks to a more hands-help (parents) in which the child is lively present.

Open Focus Areas (Decroly’s Centres of Interests), mainly based on the motivation of the single child. The environment offers many suggestions, the child freely chooses.

The sleep time is a routine, carried out through the use of baby prams laid outside. Many reasons for that, all of them strictly connected to the wellness and health of the child.

In the garden you can find real and big structures; all items are not produced by the specialized industry. Here the exploration is real as a “made up game” would be opposite to the concept of “real knowledge”.

The sand and the ground are the location for experience, their hands dig and shape freely. The structure is expressly conceived for that and the perimeter is like the compass for the explorer: it defines the area, let the children recognise the meeting place.

Focus on basic competences and development of independence. The presence of the tools tell us as well that a project is being carried out. Through the handicraft tools the child learns, becomes able and build, together with the adult,what he conceived before in his mind.

The best practices continuously need languages and shared representations. Thanks to uphill paths the child gradually trusts more his abilities and become more confident.

Ground, air, water and fire are the symbolic elements of their annual educational plan and let identify the different path-workshops. The garden is the place where imagination and reality continuously meet and the children invent tales and games linked to life and dream experiences.