VALUES FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN AU UTHORS: Alič Cirila, Burjek Janja, Emeršič Metod, Ipavec Nina, Istenič Vesna, Jerina Martina, Kržič Katarina, Le Roux Neža, Marinko Irena, Marinko Jurij, Opeka Tina, Rezan Gültekin Rabia, Slakan Urška, Ünlükahraman Güllü, Zori Nalan, Zrimšek Pavlina Leila, izobraževan nje in raziskovanje, d.o.o. VALUES FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN This handbook was written as a part of the Erasmus+ project Ethical values for preschool children and was funded within it. Disclaimer The information in n this handbook is for general education purposes only. We endeavouur to keep the information up to date and correct but we cannot make warranties of any kind about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information. Any reliance you place on such information is at your own risk. In no event will we be liable for any loss oor damage including without limitation, indirect or consequetial loss or damage or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data in connection with the use of this handbook. Naslov: Values for preschool children Authors: Alič Cirila, Burjek Janja, Emeršič Metod, Ipavec Nina, Istenič Vesna, Jerina Martina, Kržič Katarina, Le Roux Neža, Marinko Irena, Marinko Jurij, Opeka Tina, Rezan Gültekin Rabia, Slakan Urška, Ünlükahraman Güllü, Zori Nalan, Zrimšek Pavlina Vrsta: Priročnik za vzgojitelje predšolskih otrok Izdala in založila: Leila d.o.o. Leto izida: 2016 Izdaja: 1. izdaja ISBN © Copyright Leila d.o.o., 2016 Kopiranje in razmnoževanje brez pisnega dovoljenja Leila d.o.o. je prepovedano. CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 373.2(035)(0.034.2) 37.015.31:316.752(035)(0.034.2) VALUES for preschool children [Elektronski vir] : [handbook] / [authors Alič Cirila ... et al.]. - 1. izd. - El. knjiga. - Ljubljana : Leila, 2016 Način dostopa (URL): http://vrtec.leila.si/download/handbook.pdf. - Na vrhu nasl. str.: Erasmus+ ISBN 978-961-91608-2-4 (pdf) 1. Alič, Cirila 287372800 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 ACTIVITIES THAT ACQUAINT PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WITH ETHICS ............................................................................. 14 RELATION TOWARD ONESELF .................................................................................................................................... 15 Activity: HYGIENE (1 year) ............................................................................................................................................... 16 Activity: CLOTHING: Buttoning and hanging up jackets (3 years) ................................................................................... 19 Activity: EXERCISE (11 months) ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Activity: DUST BIN (4‐5 years) ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Activity: THE SILENCE GAME (1‐6 years) ......................................................................................................................... 23 Activity: REST (1‐6 years) ................................................................................................................................................. 24 Activity: VERBAL EXPRESSIONS – dialogue with adults (18 months) .............................................................................. 25 Activity: VERBAL EXPRESSIONS ‐ books (6 months) ........................................................................................................ 26 Activity: VERBAL EXPRESSIONS – rhymes and songs (15‐18 months) ............................................................................. 28 Activity: EXPRESSING ONESELF THROUGH DANCE (18 months) ..................................................................................... 29 Activity: EXPRESSING ONESELF THROUGH MUSIC (18 months) ..................................................................................... 30 Activity: FINE ARTS – painting by easel (18 months) ....................................................................................................... 31 Activity: SPEAKING THE TRUTH (when the child starts speaking) ................................................................................... 33 Activity: PINOCCHIO (4‐6 years) ...................................................................................................................................... 35 RELATIONSHIP TOWARDS OTHERS ............................................................................................................................. 36 Activity: LOVE BOARD (4‐5 years) .................................................................................................................................... 37 Activity: I LOVE YOU (4‐5 years) ...................................................................................................................................... 38 Activity: MY BEST FRIEND (4‐5 years) .............................................................................................................................. 39 Activity: LET’S DO SOMETHING FOR PEACE (3‐5 years) .................................................................................................. 40 Activity: RULES OF RESPECT (3‐4 years) .......................................................................................................................... 41 Activity: ‘WE SHOULD BE RESPECTFUL’ (5 years) ............................................................................................................ 42 Activity: 'I HAVE DRAWN AN APPLE ON MY TREE' (4‐6 years) ........................................................................................ 43 Activity: MY SWEET MUM (3‐4 years) ............................................................................................................................. 44 Activity: FAVOUR BOX (4‐5 years) ................................................................................................................................... 45 Activity: HELPFUL CHILDREN (3‐5 years) ......................................................................................................................... 46 Activity: STORIES: THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER (4‐5 years) ................................................................................... 47 Activity: THERE IS NO OTHER 'ME' (4‐5 years) ................................................................................................................ 48 Activity: PREPARING AND SERVING FOOD (18 months) ................................................................................................. 49 Activity: POLITE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS (1‐6 years) ................................................................................................. 51 Activity: TAKING CARE OF A YOUNGER CHILD (3‐6 years) .............................................................................................. 53 Activity: SHARING THINGS WITH OTHERS (4‐6 years) ..................................................................................................... 54 Activity: BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION (2‐4 years) ................................................................................................................. 56 Activity: DISCUSSING RELATION TOWARDS OTHERS: What is right and what is wrong (2 years) .................................. 58 Activity: I CAN WAIT – OBSERVING SOMEBODY (2 years)............................................................................................... 60 Activity: RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING EMOTIONS 1 (3 years) .................................................................................. 62 Activity: RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING EMOTIONS 2 (3 years) .................................................................................. 64 Activity: RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING EMOTIONS 3 (5 years) .................................................................................. 66 Activity: RULES IN THE KINDERGARTEN (1‐6 years) ........................................................................................................ 67 Activity: GOOD MANNERS (2‐6 years) ............................................................................................................................. 68 Activity: CALMING DOWN BEFORE LUNCH (1 year) ........................................................................................................ 69 Activity: GRATITUDE ‐ Is life generous with me? (4 years) .............................................................................................. 70 Activity: THE RESPECTFUL CHILD (4‐5 years) ................................................................................................................... 71 Activity: MY RESPONSIBILITIES AT HOME (4‐5 years) ..................................................................................................... 72 Activity: CLAP THE RIGHT THING (4‐5 years) ................................................................................................................... 73 Activity: THE ‘C COURAGE’ GAME (4‐5 years) ..................................................................................................................... 74 Activity: BEING TOLERANT TO DIFFERENCES (4‐5 years) ................................................................................................. 75 Activity: RESPONSIBILITY CHART (4‐5 years) .................................................................................................................... 76 Activity: WE ARE HANDING OUT CHOCOLATE (5 years) .................................................................................................. 77 ATTITUDE TO THINGS.................................................................................................................................................. 78 Activity: SWEEPING AND WASHING (18 months) ............................................................................................................ 79 Activity: COLLECTING TOYS (3‐5 years) ............................................................................................................................ 81 Activity: SETTING THE TABLE (18 months) ....................................................................................................................... 82 Activity: CARDS OF OPPOSITES – what is right and what is wrong, honesty, responsibility (3 years) ............................ 83 Activity: HOW TO SHARE, HOW TO WAIT (3‐6 years) ...................................................................................................... 85 Activity: HOW TO CARRY A CHAIR (3 years) ..................................................................................................................... 86 Activity: TIDYNG UP (1‐6 years) ........................................................................................................................................ 87 ATTITUDE TO THE ENVIRONMENT .............................................................................................................................. 88 Activity: RUBBISH SORTING (3 years) ............................................................................................................................... 89 Activity: CONSERVING WATER (1‐6 years) ....................................................................................................................... 93 Activity: HOW TO TREAT FOOD WITH RESPECT (1‐6 years) ............................................................................................. 94 Activity: GARDEN AND PLANTS IN A KINDERGARTEN (1‐6 years) .................................................................................... 95 Activity: GROWING PLANTS (5‐6 years) ........................................................................................................................... 97 Activity: TAKING CARE OF ANIMALS (1‐6 years) .............................................................................................................. 98 Activity: WHICH ANIMAL AM I? (3‐5 years) ...................................................................................................................... 99 Activity: HOW TO USE AS LITTLE PLASTIC AS POSSIB BLE (3.5 years) ............................................................................... 100 Activity: RECYCLING SCRAP PAPER (3 years) .................................................................................................................. 101 Activity: TURNING OFF LIGHTS (4‐6 years) ..................................................................................................................... 102 Activity: BEING FRUGAL (4‐5 years) ................................................................................................................................ 104 ATTACHMENTS ......................................................................................................................................................... 105 A Pleasant – unpleasant ................................................................................................................................................. 106 B Pleasant – unpleasant feelings .................................................................................................................................... 106 C Emotions – three‐part cards ........................................................................................................................................ 106 D Emotions and events, pictures .................................................................................................................................... 106 E Emotions and body ...................................................................................................................................................... 106 F Worksheet: My feelings ............................................................................................................................................... 106 G Worksheet: When I… .................................................................................................................................................. 106 H Worksheet: Letter of relief ......................................................................................................................................... 106 RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING FEELINGS ..................................................................................................... 133 Letter of relief ................................................................................................................................................................. 135 LITERATURE .................................................................................................................................................................... 136 Dear preschool teachers, parents of preschool children and other educators: This handbook is a part of the project Erasmus+ with which three kindergartens La petite academy and Angela's kindergarten from Slovenia and Gulten ve ömer ünlükahraman Anaokulu from Turkey wish to contribute to the theoretical findings and practical possibilities to expand ethical issues among young children. The project would also like to encourage further research on ethical issues in preschool education. We hope that the descriptions of numerous activities will be useful especially for preschool teachers and parents who can use the manual as a tool that explains how to acquaint children with certain values. We started with different activities from the most usual ones like hygiene to those that present values themselves, e.g. speaking the truth. The activities are according to the Montessori system divided in 4 groups: 1) Relation toward oneself, 2) Relation toward others, 3) Attitude to things, and 4) Attitude to the environment. Each activity is described by its name, age of children for whom the activity is suitable, values that are developed by the activity, direct and indirect aim, materials necessary for realization of the activitiy, concrete description of the activity and possible extensions. The activities can be included in the annual yearly plan of the kindergarten so that teachers systematically acquaint children of the corresponding age group with appropriate values. It can also be used just from time to time when teachers or parents feel that it is necessary to discuss with children a certain value. In such a case they can find the appropriate value in the table of contents and perform the activity in accordance with the instructions. In the majority of cases it is possible to introduce some own ideas, replace the necessary materials with something else and/or either shorten or extend the activities. Some of the activities are presented also in video recordings on the website http://vrtec.leila.si/erasmus/projekt-erasmus-eticne-vrednote-za-predsolske-otroke-4/. This might help those who like to see and not just read about things. Our project was performed by three partners whose work is based on three different preschool curricula. La petite academy uses Slovenian national curriculum, Angela's kindergarten works on the bases of the Montessori programme and Gulten ve ömer ünlükahraman Anaokulu follows the Turkish national curriculum. We have different views on the below described activities of value education. Many of the activities are acceptable for all of us but there are also some that we find foreign or even unacceptable for our way of work. We read all the activities with interest but will not be able to use all of them. We hope that all the readers who will use the handbook will take a similar tolerant point of view. We wish that this handbook would be extended in the future therefore we will be grateful for additional descriptions of activities from Slovenian, Turkish and other kindergartens. Therefore you are kindly invited to send your contributions to the project coordinator: info@leila.si. 6 7 Contemporary theoretical research on values among preschool children Individuals, society and humanity can exist, live together in harmony and peace, and survive if they respect values and realize them (Aydin and Akyol Gurler, 2012). Values help to create the way of thinking of individuals, understand the world and give meaning to the developments in the social environment (Hokeleki, 2011). Protecting the values and transferring them from generation to generation is very important for the quality of life. Family is the most basic institution that transfers values from generation to generation and prepares children for their life in the society, as it is the first social structure where humans are born, raised, cared and protected (Sengun, 2013). Also the kindergarten is important for children’s development (Arslan, 2010). In the kindergarten children get socialized and start to acquire the social values, attitude and behaviour expected from them (Dinc, 2011). In this period, children simulate parents' and teachers' behaviour and take them as model. Behaviour of parents and teachers as model and their attitude to children are among the most important information sources for children (Nesliturk, 2014). A number of authors (Johansson et al., 2014) claim that education in values should start already in the preschool years because this is important for a tolerant and responsible society. Children are able to differentiate between distinct social domainns and separate moral values from m conventional and personal values (Killen & Smetana, 2006; Thornberg, 2009; Jarc, 2014; Montessori, 2011). Teachers should be a good model and should educate chhildren in creative ways, and provide an environment in which children could constructively research moral themes because childrenn are susceptible for impressions and imitate those who they admiire. Among the first important scholars who investigated moral development in rrelation to cognitive development are Piaget and Kohlberg (Thompson, 2011) who suggested that it is necessary to start with moral education already in the preschool period and that adults play key roles in this education. Many researchers from the whole world have dealt with this theme up to noww and have shown how and which values should be transmited to preschool children. Very important is Hoffman’s theory on empathy and its relation to social behaviour and moral principles and/or his opinion that the ability to familiarize oneself with emotions of other people and care for others are essential for human survival, thatt they contribute to the quality of life and to social interactions (Hoffman, 2000, 3- 4). Early prosocioal behaviour is motivated by egocentrism because of the childrrens' wish to reduce their distress connected with empathy. When children develop and are able to consider emotions and needs of others, they become more prosocial and altruistic. Montessori (2011) emphasized especially respect of other children's work, waiting, patience, etc. Johansson and other authorrs investigated values like e.g. what is right and what is wrong, how to take care of others, justice and rights – that one should not hurt others, that it is necessary to help each other and to share things with other people, that 8 people should be kind, polite, do what is expected in the class, do one's best, be friendly and include others in the game (Johansson et al, 2014). Peterson and Siegal found out that preschool children can appreciate the truth because already three-year old children differentiate (much better than expected) between lies and mistakes (Peterson and Siegal, 2002). Nowak-Fabrikowsky dealt with values like trust, respect, honesty, responsibility, empathy, self-control (Nowak-Fabrykowski, 2010). Wainman's research about inclusion and/or exclusion on the basis of gender and ethnicity showed that the majority of children were inclusive and rejected the ideal of not playing with somebody of different gender and colour (Wainman et al, 2012). Kopnina (2013) explored attitudes toward consumption among the Dutch children (this research was made among upper-elementary level of children – 7–9 year old and not among preschool children) and found out that children usually discussed consumption as related to environmental problems and expressed relatively high environmental concern. The children saw “sustainable consumption” as the only solution to the perceived problems. However, those who belonged to relatively rich society felt guilty because of too much consumption while other groups which contained mainly immigrants saw consumption as something desired. The parents of preschool children have a very important role in education. Malti (2013) claims that parents play an important role in the development of moral emotions and that the children need to experience the support of their parents. Parents are important for ethical education of their children because they represent models that children follow. Parents teach children how to behave and their teaching depends upon their own beliefs concerning morality (Camodeca, 2015). Parents can transmit their moral beliefs with stories, explanations why their way of behaviour is right or with daily talks and comments among family members about different situations that include themselves or others. Nesliturk (2014) examined the effect of mother attitude on the values of preschool children like responsibility, respect, cooperation, righteousness, friendship and sharing. Children take attitudes demonstrated by their parents as model for learning values and adopt them by simulation and identification. These attitudes turn to habit and become integral part of personality. Children raised in a democratic way develop in creative, open, critical people who are able to express their views, to question rules and can produce alternative ways of the problem solving. They have high level of selfperception, and good communication with environment (Pesken Akca, 2012). Too authoritarian attitude has negative effect on the social skills and self-confidence of children (Roopnarine, 2006). Children raised in a family environment adopting too permissive parental attitude are supposed to have low social skills and self-confidence, high egocentrism, lack of responsibility and low academic achievement (Afat, 2013). De Leon (2012) investigated positive social behaviour among preschool children and their parents by using the microsystem framework of the Bioecological Systems Theory. She found that the parents who participated in the research appreciated especially the following values: being polite and respectful especially to adults, being obedient, being caring towards their siblings, being helpful, and being generous (i.e., share food and toys to siblings and playmates). Several researchers emphasize that parent training is an effective treatment for transmission of values on children (Kierfeld et al, 2013). It was found that early parent trainings improve aggressive and oppositional problem behaviour in young children and reduce delinquency in later adolescence and adulthood. There is evidence that behavioural parent trainings are effective as individually 9 administered intervention and as group-based training. However, practical and psychological obstacles (stigma, travel time, work schedules, and financial costs) often prevent families from accessing therapist-led face-to-face interventions. Havighurst, Wilson, Harley, Prior and Kehoe (2010) wanted to improve emotion socialization practices in parents of preschool children and based the preschool parenting programme on the research evidence that parents’ responses to their children’s emotions and their ability to coach them influence emotional and behavioral functioning in children. The results showed that parents in the intervention condition reported significant improvements in their own emotion awareness and regulation, increases in emotion coaching, and decreases in emotionally dismissive beliefs and behaviors. Kindergarten teachers are the second most important factor in education of preschool children. Harcourt and Mazzoni (2012) claim that teachers are key persons in promoting the rights and responsibilities of preschool children and that they should establish sensitive relationships with them. Also Arslan (2010) quotes that the preschool teachers play a major role in the development of children during preschool years. Brock (2012) tried to create a model of preschool teachers’ professionalism from practitioners' perspectives. The typology made by research of a group of preschool educators includes seven dimensions of professionalism: 1) knowledge, 2) qualifications, training and professional development, 3) skills, 4) autonomy, 5) values 6) ethics and 7) rewards. The dimension of values represents sharing of a similar ideology based on appropriate knowledge, education and experience, strong belief in teaching and learning through play-based curriculum, beliefs and principles for appropriate provision that meets children's and families' needs, committment to professional values and vocation built on moral and social purposes and accountability to the children and families. The dimension of ethics includes ethical principles and engaging with values regarding the education and care of children, high level of commitment to professional role, to children and families, collaboration with colleagues, being inclusive and positive toward diversity in relationships with children, families and communities, code of ethics applied to everyday practice. Arslan (2010) investigated the communication skills and interpersonal problem-solving skills of preschool teacher trainees in Turkey. The individuals are in an interaction and influence each other therefore it is necessary for each person to pay attention to the other’s problems and use a constructive way of problem solving, to be supportive, accepting, and to initiate and maintain good communication. He suggests that the education of preschool teachers should include the topics like problem solving and communication skills. Öztürk (2010) recommends that preschool teachers consider their ethical codes and reflect whether their own professional conduct meets the moral standards. He thinks that teachers should pay attention especially to the following: Civil rights, educational politics, and the school system. Teachers should be aware of their responsibilities. Teachers should determine their ethical principles using cases and circumstances. Teachers should be aware of ethical principles. 10 Teachers should take into account various moral theory when they determine ethics rules (especially general principles such as justice, human rights, or respect for persons; an ethics of care, compassion, virtue theory, and evolving traditions of one’s community). Teachers should provide peace and happiness to children, develop their positive social relationship, and respect their ideas and personalities. Teachers should be responsible, cooperative, honest, and respect knowledge, curiosity, thinking creatively, and learning throughout life. Teachers should be aware of values such as respect for social rights and justice and eliminate discrimination. Kovačič Peršin (2013) mentions that preschool teachers should have appropriate education and that they should be morally strong personalities. Especially the strong personality in ethical sense is important because teachers mainly function as models. Thompson (2011) suggests that colleges/universities for preschool education should offer courses about how to teach moral education in kindergartens. The teachers should have a voice both when designing the curriculum to include their own innovative methods of teaching values as well as they should discuss with parents which values should be transmited to children. Dumčienė (2014) claims that partnership between parents and educators is most important for the holistic development of the preschool children. Also Tirri and Husu (2000) say that values of preschool teachers, parents and children are in permanent mutual dialogue. In literature there are not many practical cases about how teachers transmit values to children in practice. The research of Nowak-Fabrykowski (2010) asked teachers if they could elaborate on specific lesson plans, books and activities, if they remembered some episodes, stories in which their children demonstrated caring, what they would advise the new teachers struggling to help develop caring dispositions. Very few teachers answered but some gave examples: they pass the »kindness necklace« to someone who has been caring. Some try to be models how to be a kind, caring teacher in the classroom; there is role playing with children, stories about caring and kindness; they use everyday opportunities: helping a child that does not understand work, that gets sick in class, use thank you and excuse me, make Valentine's Day cards for veterans in hospital, welcome special needs children, each child donates stuffed animals and health care products to poor children, children offer to tie someone’s shoe, share glue stick, play together on projects, bring in five toys to share with a hunger centre. The kids care about their friends when they are absent for being out sick. In one school the teacher told the story about a child who emptied his piggy bank so he could give the children their 20 items. Every year she prepared rules of behaviour such as ‘Always walk, keep hands and feet to yourself, use kind words, be quiet when the teacher is speaking, try to work things out yourself’. When someone does something wrong or uses ‘words that hurt’, children sit down together and each tells their side of the story. They work it out. Empirical research about values in Slovenia and Turkey 11 The project about values among preschool children included also empirical research among children, preschool teachers and parents. The samples are not representative but give an insight into the opinions of children, parents and preschool teachers. Interviews with preschool children (38 interviews with children, 23 in Slovenia and 15 in Turkey) show that preschool children understand the values of sharing, cooperation and agreement when solving conflicts with friends, that they care about good feelings of others, try to include all children in the group and offer them help if they need it. Children are happy if they receive attention. They are aware that kindness and nice behaviour contributes to good feeling. Preschool children know the following values: inclusion in a group, cooperation, help, attention, giving presents, politeness, respect, friendship and kindness. Preschool children use basic polite words: thank you, please, excuse me, I love you. When they are in the kindergarten in a group with other children, they find relationships with their friends more important than rekationships with adults. Adults teach preschool children about what is right and what is wrong, about appropriate behaviour and obeying rules. Children are aware of the positive importance of rules in the kindergarten. They find the following rules important: respect the body of other child, speak in low voice, be careful with materials so that they do not get damaged, they take care of one's own and of others' safety. Preschool children are aware of destroying nature and know different ways how men destroy nature. They are also acquainted with ways how men can take care of nature. The most often basic rule for care about nature is to put waste in the waste bin. Preschool children have feelings for other children and are ready to share their things with other children. Questionnaires for parents were distributed to 130 people and we received 96 answers. The majority of parents who answered the questionnaires were between 25 and 40 years old, half of them women and half men. The analysis of the questionnaires for parents offers the following findings: parents believe that a preschool child comprehends education of ethical values and that he/she understands values. Parents find the following values important: responsibility, courtesy and respect, understanding what is right and what is wrong, truthfulness and self-confidence. Parents expect from the kindergartens to transmit to their children the following values: courtesy and respect, helping others, cooperation, responsibility, friendship, understanding what is right and what is wrong, and to develop child's imagination.There are two effective ways to transmit values on children: adults as role model and daily talks with children that include different situations. Parents need personal discussions with kindergarten teachers to help and cooperate in the education of the child and to solve discrepancies concerning values and education.The majority of parents support values transmitted by kindergarten. It is interesting that parents find important values such as responsibility, courtesy and respect, what is right and what is wrong, truthfulness, and self-confidence but they expect that the kindergarten convey to the children the values of courtesy and respect, helping others, cooperation, developing imagination, responsibility, friendship, what is right and what is wrong. Parents find truthfulness and self-confidence important but these two values are not on the priority list of values that kindergarten teachers are expected to transmit to preschool children. On the other hand, developing 12 imagination and friendship are not among the most important values of parents while they expect that kindergarten teachers should transmit them to children. The questionnaires for preschool teachers were completed by teachers from different kindergartens: by kindergarten teachers of the private kindergarten La petite academy and some kindergarten teachers from a public kindergarten (both working on the basis of Slovenian national curriculum); the teachers of the catholic private kindergarten Angela's kindergarten which performs the Montessori programme and some teachers of other Montessori and catholic kindergartens in Slovenia, and teachers of the kindergarten Gulten ve ömer ünlükahraman Anaokulu in Turkey. We distributed 150 questionnaires and received 87 answers. Preschool teachers were mainly women between 20 and 45 years old. The analysis of the questionnaires for preschool teachers offers the following findings: preschool teachers find values important and they wish that they could deepen them. Teachers include values in their work but not systematically. Teachers think that they should pass on children the following values: respect, honesty, love, responsibility and gratitude. These values correspond with their personal virtues.Teachers think that the best way of transmitting values is being role model. This way is emphasized also by parents. 54% of kindergartens have written values and 76% take care for personal growth of teachers. 84% of teachers and their assistants have similar or almost similar values. 13 ACTIVITIES THAT ACQUAINT PREESCHOOL CHILDREN WITH ETHICS 14 15 Activity: HYGIEN NE (1 year) Age: 1 year and more Value: Indeppendence, self-confidence, responsibility towards oneself and towards others, and care for oneself. Direct aim: Developing coordination of movements, concentration, sense for order, independence, and care for oneself. Indirect aim:: Developing sense of hygiene, care for people, politeness and respect, calm down a child, learning cultural habits. Materials: washbasin, soap, towel, mirror Presentation: WASHING HANDS 1. I roll up my sleeves. 2. I turn on the tap. 3. I get my hands wet. 4. I turn off the tap. 5. I soap my hands. I lay down the soap. 6. I soap the entire surface of my hands, each finger separately. 7. I turn the tap on and wash my hands under the running water. 8. I turn off the tap. 9. I wipe my hands with the towel. Extentions: I can use materials specially prepared for washing hands: a low table, a bowl,, a soap, a soap holder, a brush, a brush holder, a hand towel, a cleaning towel, a jug for water, a bucket, an apron, a large plastic placemat. I invite the child to come to the table. I put on the apron. I get some water with a glass jug. 16 I pour water into the bowl so that it is half full. I place my hands into the water with palms down. I raise my hands from water, turn them and place them into water with back down. I raise my hands from water and let water run off. I soap my hands: first my palms, then back of the hand. I lay the soap off. I rub the soap into palms and fingers. I put my hands in water to wash off the soap. I take the brush and clean each nail separately (my hands above the bowl). I wash the brush in water and put it back on its holder. I put my hands in water and rinse them twice. I raise my hands above the bowl and wait till the water flows off. I take a towel and wipe my hands and each finger separately. I hang up the towel on its place. I smell my hands. I take the bucket and put it on the floor. I take the bowl with both of my hands and pour a part of the water into the bucket. I rinse the bowl with the rest of the water (with circular movements) and pour the rest of the water into the bucket. I wipe the bowl and the placemat with a towel. I carry off the bucket with water to the toilet and pour it away. I put the bucket on its place. I put the towel with which I wiped my hands in a basket for dirty linen or put it on the clothes rack to dry. I prepare a fresh towel for the next child. Other presentations in the area of hygiene: USING THE HANDKERCHIEF Materials: a box with handkerchiefs, a waste-paper basket I bring a small basket with handkerchiefs. I take a handkerchief and unfold it. I put the handkerchief on the palms of my hands. I take the handkerchief to my nose with both hands. I cover my nose with the handkerchief. I press one of my nostrils with the forefinger of one hand and blow through the other nostril. I repeat the procedure with the other nostril. Then I gently blow from both nostrils. I fold the handkerchief in two. I leave the handkerchief folded in half. I lift the handkerchief folded in half towards my nose and repeat the procedure. If necessary, I wipe the nose again. 17 I fold the handkerchief. I throw the handkerchief in the basket. COMBING HAIR Materials: a ccomb, a brush, a mirror I take the comb or the brush with one hand. I place the brush on the top of my head. I move the brush to the end of my hair. I repeat the procedure several times over all parts of my head. WASHING FACE At home: Washing one's teeth Washing one's feet Taking a shower Comments: We enable the child that he/she performs these activities independently. 18 Activity: CLOTHING: Buttoning and hanging up jaackets (3 years) Age: 3 years and more Value: Taking care for oneself and for the oothers, independence, self-confiddence, tidying up oneself and tidying up a room. Direct aim: Coordination of movements, concentration, coordination eyes-hands. Indirect aim:: Learn how to do up a button, how to hang up a jacket. Materials: Button frame, children's cloths Presentation: BUTTONING I place the frame on the table so that buttonholes are on my left side and bbuttons on my right. I start to unbutton above and continue downwards. I take the button with my left hand and lift it a little. I take the cloth with my right hand on the side with the buttonholes and push the button through the buttonhole. When the button is half in the buuttonhole, I take the button with my right hand. I continue unbuttoning to the end. I divide the two pieces of cloth. I say: “Unbuttoned.” I first cover the right part with buttons and then the left part with buttonholes. I start to button from above to the bottom. I take the cloth with my left hand and the button with my right hand and puush the button through the buttonhole. I can say: “A buttonhole. I push the button.” I button all thhe buttons in the same way from above to the bottom. When the work is finished, I say: “Buttoned.” 19 HANGING UP A JACKEET I put the jacket on a low table or on the flooor. I arrange the sleeves. I turn the collar outwards. I put the hanger in the shoulder part of the jacket. I arrange the collar in the previous position. I button or fasten the jacket. I take the hanger and hang up the jacket. Extension: Children practice with other frames, e.g. zips, snap fasteners etc. Children who are not in a Montessori kindergarten, practice buttoning of clotthes with bigger buttons. Hanging up cardigans and jackets is practiced each time when children take ooff their jackets, in the dressing room of the kindergarten or at home. Comments: For a beginning, it is good to have big buttons. It is easier to practice with frame than with cloths. Children's buttons on their cloths are very sm mall. It is necessary to show the child very clearly how to unbutton them m. 20 Activity: EXERCISE (11 months) Age: Since the child enters the kindergarten. Value: Health, responsibility, independence. Direct aim: Physically active children. Indirect aim:: Normal physical development of children. Children acquainted with importance of a healthy way of life. Materials: Radio, resources on the playground and in the gym that are available. Presentation: GROUP EXERCISING IN THE ROOM I invite children to stand in a circle. I switch on the radio – pleasant music. I start to wallk in the circle and wave the children to imitate me. When the music stops, we stop, too. We stand in the circle facing inwards. I start singing bans, children sing with me. We sing and show: Now on the nose, (We put one hand on the nose and drop the hand.) Now on the head, (We put the hand on the top of the head and drop the hannd.) Now on the roof (Both palms touch over the head.) And on the ground. (We separate palms, move with fingers and and bend our knees. We drop our hands on the floor.) I dance like a spinning top, nobodyy can do it my way. (We take by hands and slowly walk in the circle.) Who doesn't know me? (We loose the hands aand turn towards the middle of the circle. Our hand swings to the left and to the right.) I am a fine rain from the sky. (We make a step towards the middle so that the circle becomes smaller. We turn right and tap droplets on each otherrs' back.) Who doesn't know me? (Our hand swings to the left and to the right.) I am a fine rain from the sky. (We tap droplets on each others' back.) Extension: Group exercises in the room: beside activity songs it is possible to use also other ways of moving in the circle: dancing, walking in different ways (e.g. toes – heel walkiing, sideways, jumping….) Comments: It is necessary to consider appropriate level of child's development and skills when practicing exercises. 21 Activity: DUST BIN (4-5 years) Age: 4-5 years Value: Positive behavior. Direct aim: To be able to distinguish between the right and wrong behavior. Indirect aim: To develop self-confidence. Materials: Cardboard box, notice board, colored cardboards, glue and scissors. Presentation: I make a dustbin with children. I provide a notice board. Positive and negative behavior is written on two sets of cards, each in different colour margin. I distribute the cards among the children. In turns, the children bring back the cards they have. The teacher reads the behavior on card and if it is positive behavior, the child sticks it on the board. If it is negative, the child throws it in the dustbin. Extension: We can work in a group and again show the appropriate behaviour so that the children remember it. Comments: The teacher gives remarks about the importance of behaving well. 22 Activity: THE SILENCE GAME (11-6 years) Age: 1-6 years (and more) Value: Cooperation, tolerance, respect Direct aim: The child calms down, self-control. Indirect aim:: The child learns how to control his/her body. The child makes a contact with himself. The child does not disturb other children. Materials: Inside or outside: a line, flowers, cushions Presentation: We sit on the line and place our hands on our knees. Our hands, legs, our body is peaceful. We are aware of breathing. We close our eyes and stay silent for some moments. Extension: When working with younger children we can place a musical box in the middle of the circle, open the window, and concentrate on listening. In the middle of the circle we can light a candle and observe the flame. Children sit and silently pass on an object which they closely examine. During the silence game they listen to music. 23 Activity: REST (11-6 years) Age: From 1 to 6 years Value: Cooperation, tolerance, respect – breaak, reading, listening to music. Direct aim: Satisfying the physiological need of rest, calming down, politeness and respect to the needs of others who need rest. Indirect aim:: Strengthening brain connections. Children learn how to feel thheir own needs and needs of others. Materials: A stretcher bed and a pillow, a story/fairy tale, peaceful music or the kindergarten, teacher's singing or sounds from the nature. Presentation: We introduce a routine: after lunch the children go to the toilet, wash their r mouth and hands. Those who finish first, place the stretcher beds, wworking in pairs. Children lie down on their beds and cover themselves. We sing or recite a song or a lullaby. The kindergarten teacher utters the wish: »Have a pleasant rest.« He/she reads a story (it can be a story in more parts which is read the whole week). After reading it is possible to put on peaceful music. When children who need rest, fall asleep, the others can stay up and choose a quiet activity/play. When the child wakes up, he/she folds the blanket and together with his friend put their stretcher beds on their place. Extension: We can have a peaceful corner wiith a stretcher bed or with a pillow. The children can go there whenever they want and/or calm down if they need to. We can prepare the cards of sequence to inttroduce routine after lunch (suggestion: photos of children concering individual steps which are placed so that children can see them). Comments: We can discuss with children the steps of the routine. The kindergarten teacher can present how to lie down on the bed. The teacher or the child who knows it, quietly lies on the bed. 24 Activity: VERBAL EXPRESSIONS – dialogue with adults (18 months) Age: Communication from birth on, real verbal dialogue at the age of 18 months. Value: Self-confidence, politeness, respect, tolerance Direct aim: Encouraging the child's linguistic development. Create and cultivate relationship with the child. Indirect aim: Extend the child's comprehension. Enrich vocabulary. Material: A child and an adult. Presentation: We speak with the child in a slow and clear way from the first day on. We use the time of nursing to speak with the child. When the child starts with vocalization we let him/her know that we hear him. He/she says something, we listen to, we say something, he/she listens to. When the child produces a voice, we repeat it. In this way we encourage the child's wish to communicate. We never make fun if the child does not pronounce words correctly. When the child starts to use words and makes grammar mistakes, we do not correct him but repeat the word in an accepting and quiet way. Extension: The level of speaking with the child depends on his age. Comments: We never speak with the child in a language full of diminutives. The child must hear how to correctly pronounce certain words and how to name things in the right way. The child is attracted by the relationship between him and the adults and by hearing his own voice. The child likes the feeling of being accepted (I speak, they understand me). 25 Activity: VERBAL EXPRESSIONS - books (6 months) Age: When the child sits on the lap and we can hold a book in front of him. Value: Respect, self-confidence, responsibility, development of imagination. Direct aim:To discover what the books offer, to support the growth of vocabulary, and to extend the child's comprehension. Indirect aim: To introduce the literary language (grammar), to improve the quality and quantity of the language, to present the printed word and enable awareness of the printed word, and to encourage reading. Materials: Different books, book shelves. Presentation: I invite the child to read with me. We sit together so that we can both see the book. I read and/or describe pictures. I read as long as the child wishes it. Extension: Different kinds of books: Books with pictures without words (wood, cartboard). If possible, choose books that contain pictures of only one thing: family members, toys... Books with pictures and one or two words on one side (e.g. a red pepper). Books with pictures and simple text. Each side shows one thing (pages are not connected in a story). We read the text and the child can see what happens (e.g. A child is having a bath.). This exercise is suitable for children of 12 months. Books with pictures and a story. Poems, rhymes, songs. Comments: The first books should not contain more than two to three pages (real pictures of animals). We can soon add some words that tell what happens (e.g. A cat is sleeping.). The book should present things from real life (photos and/or illustrations of animals, plants etc.; animals do not speak …). Illustrations should be real: plants and animals. We can produce books for small children ourselves. 26 We read and repeat the story as often as the child wishes (we can negotiate for one or two readings). Children namely strive towards perfection, wish to know things by heart and remember them. Children love routine and repetition. Do not pile up books near us: take one book, read it and return it on the shelf. Then take the next book. Books should be placed on the shelves with regard to the level from the top to the bottom. Books should be shelved in the language corner with a low table and a chair for the child. Books are always available for children. They can choose any book they wish and whenever they wish. We hold a book with both hands. Children are attracted by different books and by their contents. 27 Activity: VERBAL EXPRESSIONS – rhymes and songs (15-18 months) Age: From birth onwards (before birth - singing); 15–18 months: rhytmic language with movement; from 18 months onwards: poetry connected with pictures. Value: Respect, self-confidence, development of imagination. Direct aim: To enrich children's vocabulary. To stimulate brain development (poetry and rhymes harmonize functioning of the left and right brain). Indirect aim: To realize the printed words – the meaning: to become aware of the importance of printing, to find pleasure in reading, to understand words, to present a different way of using the language (syntax). Materials: Books and/or picture books for children, objects, pictures. Presentation: I invite a child to come and sit down. We sit down so that we can both watch the book. I read poetry so that I take care of the rhythm and rhymes. I read as long as the child wants. Extension: Different picture books, different rhymes suitable for the children's age. Comments: We must be careful to choose the right books. We use short songs for younger children who repeat them. The best for very young children is haiku (5, 7, 5 syllables). Important parts of the day should be connected with music and songs. We can connect poetry with pictures. Contemporary children are not very keen on poetry (because of TV and different relationships in the family). They are not aware of the importance of repetition (TV does not offer it). It is possible to tell a poem or rhymed sentences by heart – without using the book. 28 Activity: EXPRESSING ONESELF THROUGH DANCE (18 months) Age: 18 months and more. Value: Self-confidence, development of imagination. Direct aim: Developing fine and gross motor skills, developing rhythmic movement and introduction into dance. Materials: A basket with transparent scarves (just like for gymnastics) and rhythmic music. Presentation: I invite children to the line. I bring a basket with scarves and offer one to each child. I present the song and movement. I invite the children to cooperate. Extension: Activities on the line and moving with music should change as much as possible. It can be connected with seasons, holidays and other events. We use different materials (scarves, balloon, ribbons…). Comments: We learn new songs and enrich the vocabulary by music. 29 Activity: EXPRESSING ONESELF F THROUGH MUSIC (18 months) Age: From birth on we use a music player. We show the child how to use it when he is 18 months old. Value: Responsibility, self-confidence, develoopment of imagination. Direct aim: Dancing. Indirect aim:: Preparation for dancing takes place on the line. Development of awareness of music: tune and rhythm. Materials: Music player, fixed on a place wheere children can press buttons. Presentation: I invite children on the line. I present them music (a song, a story) and the author. I invite children to listen to music. I acquaint children with instruments and sounds included in music. Extension: Different CDs. Expressing music through drawing or painting on paper (from 4 years onwards). Presentation: I prepare materials for drawing and painting. I put on headsets and switch on the radio. I listen to music. During listening to music I draw my feelings on the paper. Comments: Music player must be safely fixeed in a place where children can switch it on, press the on and off button and switch the player off. There should always be a possibility that the child listens to music with headset if he wants to. Children are attracted by the sound of music from the player. Songs with text enrich children's vocabulary. 30 Activity: FINE ARTS – painting by easel (18 months) Age: From 18 months onwards Value: Self-confidence, aesthetics Direct aim: Children learn to paint with a brush; development of fine motor skills, concentration, visual differentiation, development of creativity. Indirect aim: Independent production of ideas; focussing children's attention on observation of specialities, characteristics, differences; free experimentation with artistic materials and tools. Materials: An easel, paper of appropriate size, paint colour holders and brushes in each holder, a cleaning sponge for the easel, a sponge holder, a glove for dry cleaning. Presentation: I put on my apron for painting and invite the children to put on their aprons. If they do not want to I do not force them. I prepare a piece of paper and fix it on the easel with magnets. I open all colours I prepared and put in the brushes. I take a brush from the first colour and make a line. I put the brush on its holder and take the brush from the the next paint colour holder. I make a new line and return the brush on its holder. When I finish, I sign the painting. I put the painting on a place to dry. I put a towel on the floor, and place on it a bucket, a jug, a sponge and a dry towel. I bring water in the jug and pour it in the bucket. I take the sponge, wet it, wring the water out and clean the easel and the shelf with colours. I take the bucket with water and sponge to the toilette, pour the water in the sink, wash the sponge under running water and wring the water out. I take the bucket and the sponge back. I dry the bucket with a towel. If the floor is wet, I dry it with a mop. I put the jug, the sponge and the dry towel in the bucket. I fold the towel and put it on the bucket. Extension: Three holders with brushes or six holders with brushes. Watercolours. Palette with colours. Painting a portrait. Comments: 31 I start with one or two colours. I prepare several colours so that the child can choose one. I sign the child's painting. Children are attracted by traces of the brush. 32 Activity: SPEAKING THE TRUTH (when the child starts speaking) Age: Since the child starts speaking. Value: Truthfulness, justice, honesty, respect. Direct aim: To teach children that truth is nice and lie is not. Indirect aim: Children in concrete situations and during real stories internalize truth as something normal and lie as something unacceptable. Materials: White tissue, dripping-tube and ink. Presentation: I prepare white tissue so that all children can see it. I take some ink in the dripping-tube and let drops fall on the tissue on one place. I do this for some time so that the ink spreads and that this attracts children's attention. “What have I done, what have you seen?” Children answer. “What happened with the ink that I dropped on the tissue?” Children answer that it spreads. If they do not, I give them some more questions (e.g. how did the ink achieve the edge if I dropped it on the place in the middle of the tissue?). “What do you think – if I dropped only one drop of ink, would it spread, too?” Children answer. Which piece of tissue is easier to clean – the one that is more black or the one that has a small spot of ink? Children answer. “It is similar when we lie. A lie is just like an ugly black spot on our heart. When it comes there we must work hard to stop and clean it. If a lie remains or we continue with lies, it is similar to this big spot which is spreading on the white tissue. It is difficult to remove so many lies from our heart and our conscience troubles us.” We can stop conversation and continue next time. If children listen carefully, we can continue. “Each of us has conscience. Does anybody know what this is?” Children answer. “Conscience is our internal feeling that informs us what is right and what is not. When I do something wrong or tell a lie, my conscience troubles me. If I correct the mistake, my conscience is not troubled. If I continue with lies or do wrong things, my conscience is more and more troubled and I feel worse and worse. It is like a dog that barks and follows me although I want to go away. But the dog is nearer and nearer and his barking is louder. I have no peace.” “What would you do to have an easy conscience?” Children answer. 33 “I would like to invite you to really care for your conscience and try to speak the truth although it is sometimes difficult.” Extension: Reading stories about truthfulness and other children's books on this theme. Discussion about the proverb: A lie has no legs in a way similar to the one in the presentation. Speaking with children about rules at home, in the kindergarten and on the street. We discuss why we have such rules, that rules enable us to live better. Then we tell that one of the rules everywhere is also speaking the truth. Comments: It is necessary to differentiate between children's imagination and a lie with an intention (e.g. a lie that a child went to the bathroom); younger children do not quite differentiate between reality and truth as adults. We do not punish the child when he lies but try to find out the reasons, if it is a lie with intention or a lie because of fear or shame. In such a case we try to explain unpleasant consequences and encourage the child to regret the mistake. 34 Activity: PINOCCHIO (4-6 years) Age: 4-6 years Value: Truthfulness Direct aim: To be able to understand that telling lies is bad. Indirect aim:: To help students become honest and truthful individuals. Material: The storybook Pinocchio. Presentation: The students sit on comfortable cushions. The teacher attracts children’s attention by rhymes. He introduces them the story book. He then starts to tell them the story paying attention to stress and intonatiion and showing them the pictures. After the story is finished, he talks to them about the story. He underlines that telling lies is a very bad behavior and that the truth will come out at the end. Extension: The children who say that they didn’t lie in thhe classroom are awarded with various cards by the teacher. At the end, the child that gets the most cards is awarded with a toy he likes most. 35 36 Activity: LOVE BOARD (44-5 years) Age: 4-5 years Value: Love Direct aim: To be able to grasp the importance of love. Indirect aim:: To be able to understand and love each other. Materials: Board made of cardboard, children’s photos, coloured felt-tip peens. Presentation: On the board we attach the photos of childreen. The teacher asks each child everyday who is his best friend. A star is drawn near the picture of the child whose name is told. After one weeek, the stars for each child are counted. The child with the most stars is selected as tthe most beloved child of the week. The teacher awards that child. Extension: Envelopes of Love Envelopes of love are prepared. The children put hearth-shaped papers in the envelopes of the children they love most. The child with the most hearts is awarded at the end of the week. Comments: While these activities are done students are asked why they lovve their best friend most. 37 Activity: I LOVE YOU (4-5 years) Age: 4-5 years Value: Love Direct aim: To help children express their feelings in the right way. Indirect aim: To grow up individuals who are able to express their feelings in the right way. Materials: Crayons and painting sheets. Presentation: The children sit in semi-circle. One of the children stands up. The teacher says ‘Repeat what I’m going to say’. He says to a child in front of him ‘I love you’. The teacher tells them that they should stand up in turns and tell one thing why they love their friends. The teacher goes on saying that everybody should start his speech with ‘I love you because…’ and encourages every child to participate. Extension: After the activity, the teacher tells the class to close their eyes. He wants them to think. ‘What did we learn from the game? Which of your features do your friends like most? How does it feel to be loved? Whom do you love most? Then he receives the answers of the children. Comments: The teacher must pay attention to get answers from every single child and to lead them to use positive sentences for each other. 38 Activity: MY BEST FRIEND (4-5 years) Age: 4-5 years Value: Love Direct aim: To teach children to love each other. Indirect aim: To help children grow up as individuals that love their lives and friends. Materials: Pencils, colorful paints, worksheets with picture frames. Presentation: The teacher talks with children about loving their friends. He asks them who their best friend is. They go to the working desks. The children are asked to complete the dashed lines on the picture frames with a pencil. Then the teacher asks them to draw the picture of their best friend in the frames. Their works are exhibited on the class board after the activity. Extension: The game ‘Who is this?’ is played with children. How is this game played? One child is asked to describe his best friend to the class and the others are asked to find who that child is. The child who defines who that is, continues with the game. 39 Activity: LET’S DO SOMETHING FOR PEACE (3-5 yearss) Age: 3-5 years Value: Peace Direct aim: To be able to define the positive behavior in order to live in peace. Indirect aim:: The effect of our behavior on other people and the society. Materials: The story of Cinderella. Presentation: As warm-up, the teacher asks children to describe some real cases of good behavior. They are encouraged to think over and find the behavior that people do not like and that destroys peace among people. Then, teacher initiates a brainstorming sessiion about what these attitudes may cause. After warm-up, one partner is selected for each child. He asks them to show a positive attitude towards their partners. In groups, children discuss what positive attitude is. We discuss the feelings of the children during the activity. Then the partners change places and again the positive attitudes are discussed. The teacher encourages them to think the negative version and bad results are discussed. Teacher finishes with a drama session, the children’s eyes closed. Extension: The children may be asked to draw and paint the picture of “peacce”. Comments: While the story is read, the teacher underlines the positive and negative attitudes of the main characters at home. Attachments: The story of Cinderella. 40 Activity: RULES OF RESPECT (3-4 years) Age: 3-4 years Value: Respect Direct aim: To be able to wait for one’s turn. Not to be impatient. Be respectful towards friends. Indirect aim: To grasp the rules of respect and develop collaboration. Materials: The song 'Let's get in queue'. Presentation: The song 'Let's get in queue' is sung by the whole class. Then a chat is started about what is explained in that song. Children get in queues. It's underlined what they should be careful about while getting in queue. Extension: Stories can be read to them and a notice board can be prepared about the issue. Attachments: The song 'Let's get in queue' LET’S GET İN QUEUE Let's get in queue, Let's get in queue, We should respect people (2) At the shopping At the fountain, in the minibus Let's get in queues in the bus Without cheat, without a fight Let us respect the queues (2) 41 Activity: ‘WE SHOULD BE BE RESPECTFUL’ (5 years rs) Age: 5 years Value: Love, respect Direct aim: To understand the need to be respectful towards seniors. Indirect aim:: To make them realize the importance of respect for humanity. Materials: Walking stick, shalwar, eton jacket, skullcap, false beard, toy steering wheel Presentation: We prepare everything for drama. A bus setting is prepared arranging the seats in the classroom. A child is assigned the role of getting on the bus in an old disguise. One of the other children gives him his seat. The old man thanks him for this kind behavior. The driver moves the bus. While the old man is getting off the bus, all children try to help him. In this way, the importance of helping the old people is underlined. shalwar eton jacket skullcap Comments: It’s underlined that the kids should always give seats to seniors in public transportation vehicles. 42 Activity: 'I HAVE DRAWN AN APPLE ON MY TREE' (4-6 years) Age: 4-6 years Value: Friendship and self-confidence Direct aim: To help children understand the meaning of friendship. Indirect aim: To help them learn the importance of friendship throughout their lives. Materials: A4 papers (with drawn trees), finger paint, a brush Presentation: At first the teacher asks children what trees and plants need to grow. After answers are obtained, the picture of the tree is shown and said it is the tree of friendship and self-confidence. Their ideas are obtained and a discussion is initiated about how to behave to have a strong friendship. Then the trees are distributed. A red apple is drawn for every positive behavior they describe, and it is written below what apple it is. Then the tree is exhibited on the board. Extension: 1. Trees are handed out to every child. 2. They are made to do the activity according to answers received. Comments: Help is given to kids that have no idea. Furthermore, to fortify that value, children watch the ' Baby elephant' cartoon. 43 Activity: MY SWEET MUM (3-4 years) Age: 3-4 years Value: Love Direct aim: To help the children understand the value of love for mum Materials: A4 papers, paint Presentation: Children are asked to draw a picture that symbolizes their love for their mums. Then a chat session is started about these drawings. Teacher asks what every single line means and writes it under each line. The teacher asks them to explain what the love for mum means and writes it under the drawing. Extension: They talk about what the love means. Morever, the whole class can learn a poem about love for mother. A poem about mothers can be produced. Comments: As the concept of love is abstract, visual aids must be used. For example, teacher can make them watch cartoons about the theme. 44 Activity: FAVOUR BOX (4-5 years) Age: 4-5 years Value: Being helpful Direct aim: To recognize the importance of helping friends and people in need. Indirect aim: To be able to grow up in people who are aware of the importance of helping and sharing. Materials: Carton box, colored cardboard, glue, scissors Presentation: The carton box is folded and ornamented with children. The papers are cut in the shape of hearts. The teacher tells them that they are going to write on these papers the favors they’ve done during the day and throw them in the box. Before going home, they will open the box and award the child that has made the most favors. At the end of the day the box is opened and the favors are counted. The child with the most favors is awarded. Extension: The teacher sends letters to parents informing them what their children can do at home about favors and helping. (Giving the extra clothes to those in need, sharing the cake with neighbours etc.) . Comments: The teacher remarks about the importance of helping our seniors and old people, sharing our extra or unused clothes with those in need. 45 Activity: HELPFUL CHILDREN (3-5 years) Age: 3-5 years Value: Giving help Direct aim: To be able to help the children in other schools who are in need. Indirect aim: To be able to understand the importance of helping. Materials: Stationery (books, pencils, crayons etc.) Presentation: The teacher makes a chat with children in the class about helping and tells stories about the importance of helping. He asks: ‘Kids, do you also want to help other children that need help?‘ The collected materials are taken with children to the brother school that had been determined by the school previously. Comments: Official permission of the local authorities and necessary security measures are to be taken beforehand so that children can go to the other school safely. 46 Activity: STORIES: THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER (4-5 years) Age: 4-5 years Value: Responsibility Direct aim: To bring up responsible individuals who are aware of their duties. Indirect aim: To bring up individuals who respect their responsibilities. Materials: The tale of ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ Presentation: The teacher draws attention to the responsibility of children by explaining educational children's tale. Answer and question sessions are made about the difficult situation that happened to Grasshopper. After the original tale is told to children, the children make up their own version for the end of the tale and both are dramatized in an appropriate way. They speak about responsibility while evaluating what they feel during dramatization. Extension: If the story is told with bigger pictures it will become much more efficient. Comments: If we raise our tone of voice on the value we would like to mention, we can attract their attention. 47 Activity: THERE IS NO OTHER 'ME' (4-5 years) Age: 4-5 years Value: Self-confidence Direct aim: To bring up individuals who are self-confident. Indirect aim: To bring up individuals that are aware of their features and that have place in society. Materials: The mirror. Presentation: Teacher gives all children small mirrors. Then he tells them: “All of us have different features in different areas. In order to remember your features that are unique to you and to tell one of your features that is different from your friends, please take a look at the mirror. This feature might be your eye color, hair color, your style of smiling, your clothes or shoes, your feelings or anything you can do now.” Extension: First the teacher stands before the mirror. He tells one of his own features and thus becomes a model for children. Comments: If there are children who do not mention their features the teacher tells the class the best feature of these children. The features of the children that receive inclusive education shouldn't be mentioned. 48 Activity: PREPARING AND SERVING FOOD (18 months) ) Age: From 18 months onwards Value: Responsibility, care for others, help, politeness, friendship. Direct aim: Get acquainted with the feeling of responsibility, care for oneself, development of positive self-image, social skills, awareness of the needs of other people. Indirect aim:: Politeness and respect, development of concentration, peace education. Materials: A banana, a plate, a knife, a cuttinng board, a tray Presentation: FOOD PREPARATION I put on an apron. I prepare a cutting board. I take a banaana. I break the banana below its stem. I peel the banana one part after the other and put the peelings on the board. When the banana is peeled, I put it on the board. I throw the peelings in the organic waste binn. I take a blunt knife and hold the banana with my other hand. I start cutting – I cut from the right to the left. When the banana is cut, I put the pieces on the plate. I take the cutting board and the knife to the sink for washing dishes. We put the plate with banana pieces on a shelf for snacks or on a table where children can take them. We wash hands. I take off thee apron. SERVING FOOD I put the food on the table so that it looks nice. I offer the guest a napkin. I take the tray and slowly bring it to the guest to whom I wish to offer food. I say: “Here you are.” He answers: “Thank you.” or “No, thank you.” Extension: We give the child also some other fruit or vegetable or bread and butter. Comments: We should be careful with cutting and offer the child a suitable knife or some other tool for cutting apples. 49 50 Activity: POLITE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS (1-6 years) Age: 1 (when children start speaking) – 6 years Value: Politeness and respect Direct aim: Learn different polite words and expressions for various opportunities. Indirect aim: Use right expressions in practice. Materials: No special materials are necessary. We can use what is in the room (a glass, a table). Presentation: GREETING WHEN ENTERING THE ROOM Children stand in semicircle. The kindergarten teacher introduces the activity: »Today you are going to learn how we greet when we enter a room or pay a visit to somebody.« The assistant enters the room. He/she goes to the teacher, shakes her hand and says: »Hello.« The teachers answers: »Hello.« Both sit down to the children. Discussing the theme with children: when we greet, whom we can greet in the kindergarten, which words we use to greet in the morning, in the evening (good morning, good evening). HERE YOU ARE, THANK YOU, PLEASE (which words we use when we help each other) The teacher tells children who are sitting in semicircle: »We are going to learn when we say here you are, thank you and please.« The teacher writes and then lets the pencil fall. The assistant picks up the pencil, puts it in the hand of the teacher and says: »Here you are.« The teacher takes the pencil and says: »Thank you.« The assistant answers: »You are welcome.« Discussion with children about other opportunities when we can say thank you. PLEASE Children sit in semicircle. The teacher introduces the activity: »You are going to learn how we ask for something.« The kindergarten teacher comes to the assistant and says: »Please bring me a handkerchief.« The assistant answers: »Of course« and brings the handkerchief. Discussion with children about other opportunities when we can use the word please (e.g. When we wish help we can say: »Please help me.«) 51 I AM SORRY The teacher says to the children in the semicircle: »Today we are going to learn how we say sorry.« The kindergarten teacher accidentally bumps into the assistant. She looks at her and says: »I am sorry.« Discussion about the theme: When we say sorry. Comments: We introduce things to children in the same way, for each case we use appropriate words. Children are taught about polite expressions during their life in the kindergarten. Teachers are models for polite behavior. Children do not need many artificial situations. We use each real situation that enables us to use polite words. 52 Activity: TAKING CARE OF A YOUNGER CHILD (3-6 years) Age: From 3 to 6 years Value: Responsibility, helping others Direct aim: To help younger children to get dressed, to put on their shoes; to feel useful and experience solidarity. Indirect aim:: To be able to perceive the needs of others; one’s own engagement to help. Materials: When a younger child needs help, you discuss the situation with the older child. Presentation: I choose an older child and take him to the younger child who cannot put on hhis shoes. “Look, he cannnot put on his shoes. Can you heelp him, please?” “You are happy if somebody helps you when you cannot manage to do it, aren’t you?” When the older child finishes I say: “Thank you; you have been a great help. This feels nice, doesn’t it?” “Whenever you notice that someone needs help, you ask them if you can help.” Extension: The child from the older group can visit the younger group in the morning and help there. Comments: With praise we encourage the child to help next time he sees someone needing help. 53 Activity: SHARING THINGS WITH OTHERS (4-6 years) Age: 4 to 6 years Value: Generosity, love, friendship Direct aim: Learn how to share things Indirect aim: Caring for other people, cooperation, empathy Materials: A small bag of raisins or something similar, a costume or something that helps to change identity. Presentation: Children sit in a circle. I also sit down, I am a bit dressed up, I change my voice (= I play a role), and I introduce myself with a new name (John) and eat raisins. I stare at the children. »What? Anything wrong? I like raisins very much. Oh, they are so sweet. Yummy! What? Why are you watching me in this way? Would you like some raisins, too? Oh, I have to share them? Yes, O.K.« I ask children to prepare their palms and to shut them as soon as I put something in their hands and hide them. I go from one to the other child and put a raisin in their hand (or not). When I finish, I ask them to take a look at their hands. I expect that the children who did not get a raisin, will not be happy. »What, aren't you happy? I shared my raisins with you. I gave raisins to some of you! Do I have to share with all of you? If I do, will you all be happy? Will you all be pleased? But I will not be happy because I will stay without my raisins… So what, I can go to the shop and buy myself a new bag of raisins. Well, here you are…« I give each child one raisin. »Was it good? Have I done it properly? Do we have to share so that all children get something? Am I a good friend now?« I take a look at all the faces. I say that I am happy that nobody protests anymore, that they are pleased and that nobody stayed without a raisin. I feel well, too. “Some children even said thank you!” When we finish eating I take off my costume. We resume the experience. »What was John doing when he came to us? He was eating raisins without offering them also to us. Our mouths were watering for raisins. We wished to eat them too… Was it nice that he did not offer raisins to us? After we told him that it would be nice if he shared raisins with us, what did he do? How did he share raisins? Was it fair or not? Those who did not get a raisin please raise your hands. How did you feel? How did you feel when you got a raisin? What about John, how did he feel at the end when he offered raisins to all of us, when he made us happy? Very good. Thank you for teaching John how to be generous, how to share happiness with others.« 54 »What about you, have you ever shared things with others? What did you share? Was it difficult to share? How did you feel? How were the feelings of those whom you gave presents, with whom you shared things?« I emphasize that it is important that we are all happy. Both the person who shares as well as those who get something should be happy. »Let’s sing: If you are happy.« Extension: We fold a sheet of paper in half. On one half we draw with color pencils what is easy to share and on the other half we draw what is difficult to share with others. We intentionally do not provide tools and facilities for group activities for all children. In this way children should cooperate, share them, lend them to each other, negotiate who needs something, they learn how to be patient and to wait for their turn. We invite grandparents and/or elderly people and ask them to tell how they shared things many years ago. We ask children what it means to share things with others and why this is so important. We tell them to imagine how the world would be like if nobody shared his/her things. How would people feel? We should discuss with children how we share things in the family, in the kindergarten, among friends. We share environment with all people and animals in the world. We all share responsibility for the environment. Russian fairy tale: A rabbit and a turnip. 55 Activity: BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION (2-4 years) Age: 2 to 4 years Value: Friendship, respect, dignity, love Direct aim: To celebrate birthday, to pay attention to the person who has birthday. Indirect aim: You are special, you are here to give your contribution to the world. Materials: Special chair for the person who has birthday, paper crown, small candles, instrumental music for children. Presentation: The birthday boy/girl sits on a special chair. We put a paper crown on his head. Other children sit around him. I have a short speech - how Mr. and Mrs. X were happy when they learned that they were expecting a baby. How they thought if it would be a boy or a girl. How they chose his/her name which is really beautiful and which he/she will have for the whole life. About the first, second, third year of life, about all his achievements (he/she learned how to eat, walk, speak). For each year we light a candle either on the cake or on the tray. We sing the birthday song and the birthday boy/girl blows out the candles. Then there is the rite of dancing around the birthday child. We put on instrumental children music. I hold hands with children and lead the dancing. Contents – I speak (Dancing) We are gathered here to celebrate the birthday of our X. (We hold hands and walk in the circle.) Our birthday boy sits in the circle. (We point our fingers at him.) Today is his special day. (We clap our hands 3 times.) Let's show how happy we are that he is a part of our world. (We narrow the circle and stoop down to the birthday boy.) Let's show how big he is. (We stand up and raise our hands.) It is pleasant to celebrate in the kindergarten among friends. (We crouch and hug and try to swing.) X celebrates already his …birthday today. (We stand up. We hold hands and walk towards the birthday boy and back so that the circle extends so many times as the birthday boy is old.) We congratulate the birthday boy for his birthday. (We stand up, jump, clap our hands and call: Happy birthday!) Each child expresses his wishes, one after another. If the birthday boy prepared something, he shares it with other children. 56 57 Activity: DISCUSSING RELATION TOWARDS OTHERS: What is right and what is wrong (2 years) Age: 2 years and more Value: Politeness, respect, what is right and what is wrong, friendship, cooperation, help, love, fairness, justice, self-confidence. Direct aim: Children learn different ways of behavior towards other people. They learn what is right and what is wrong. They start to learn how they can express their disagreement with words instead of pushing and hitting. Indirect aim: Children know how to express their disagreement with words. They internalize the feeling what is right and what is wrong. They try to be honest. Relations to other people are no more difficult because they can solve conflicts. Materials: Opposites flash cards, a rug Presentation: We arrange children in a circle and present opposites flash cards. We tell which means right and which wrong. We speak about behavior to other people – we help each other, do not pull down toys of other children, we do not fight, we greet each other, we put things in order, we say sorry, thank you … Then we seek solutions for unpleasant situations. E.g. we ask a child: “Do you like if your schoolmate pulls down your tower? Tell him that you do not like it and ask him not to do it again.” And so on with each card. Then we can mix the cards, children find the right one and tell what they remember about the picture. Extension: We can draw many other cards that show relations to other people (what is right and what is wrong). The cards can be black and white and children color them. We invite children that they try to remember right and wrong behavior and draw it, describe it, play a role or show it by pantomime. We can read together also the book Bonton za otroke/Good manners for children (Joanna Krzyanek). Comments: We seek opposites with small children. With older children it is possible to find different solutions. We observe the child's attention and understanding and correspondingly shorten or prolong the presentation. Attachment: Opposites flash cards: 58 59 Activity: I CAN WAIT – OBSERVING SOMEBODY (2 years) Age: From 2 years onwards Value: Respect, care for others, patience Direct aim: Children calm down, coordination of the whole body, concentration. Indirect aim: Children respect each other. They become aware of other children and pay attention to them. Respect of other people's work, learning by observation, learning patience. Presentation: OBSERVING WITHOUT QUESTIONS: I slowly and quietly approach to the child whose work/play I wish to observe. My hands are on the back. I stop some steps from the table where the child sits. I observe the child. When I stop observing, I silently move away. Explanation: The kindergarten teachers asks a child or a group of children: What did I do? Did I speak? Did I touch the table? Where were my hands? OBSERVATION WITH QUESTIONS AND TOUCH: I slowly and silently approach the child whom I wish to observe. I put my hand on his shoulder and ask: "May I watch you?" If the answer is negative, I must silently go away. If the answer is positive: I place myself some steps from the table with my hands on my back and observe. I bring a chair by the side of the child (who is sitting), I sit down and observe. When I stop observing, I put the chair on its usual place. Extension: The kindergarten teacher presents in a similar way other simple activities that he wishes to introduce in the daily plan: CHANGE OF A TOY OR OF PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT The teacher shows by role play how a child should arrange to change a toy with his friend. I quietly approach a child who is playing. I say: “I like this toy, too. Would you lend it to me for some time.” 60 The other child says: “I am playing with it now but we can change toys after some time.” I say: “OK. I will count to e.g. 20. Then we change toys.” I count slowly, then the child gives me his toy. I NEED HELP OF THE TEACHER The child comes to the teacher who works with another child. He puts his hand on his shoulder and quietly waits. When the teacher finishes his discussion with the child, he turns to the other child (who is waiting) and asks him what he would like. Comments: Two kindergarten teachers present the situation to one child or to a group of children for the first time. These exercises should be performed every day and consistently in the course of the day. In this way, children learn the behavior and it becomes spontaneous. The group becomes less loud. 61 Activity: RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING EMOTIONS 1 (3 years) Age: 3 years and more Value: Character development, tolerance, self-confidence and care for others Direct aim: Children become aware of and identify pleasant and unpleasant feelings. Indirect aim: Emotional literacy, understanding other people, paying attention to one's own feeling and to feelings of other people. Materials: Cards Presentation: The teacher starts discussion with a child: sometimes we feel well sometimes not. This does not always depend upon us. It happens that something causes different emotions in us. These emotions can be pleasant or unpleasant. I would like to show you different photos and you will try to find out if an event is pleasant or unpleasant for you. Here it is written: pleasant and unpleasant. The teacher puts down the word pleasant on one side of the table and the word unpleasant on the other side of the table. The teacher shows a photo of children playing in the playground. He invites the child to describe the photo. The child tells how he would feel if he was in the playground. He puts the photo under the corresponding word. He continues with the next photo in a similar way. When all the photos are arranged the teacher can ask the child to describe an event when his feelings were pleasant or unpleasant. The child can shuffle photos again and arranges them himself. Extension: The child draws an event (pleasant feeling) on one half of the paper and unpleasant feelings on the other half of the paper. Children (individually or as a group) can make their own set of photos with pleasant – unpleasant feelings. Children of 4 years: PLEASANT – UNPLEASANT FEELINGS Children arrange cards with words meaning emotions in two categories: pleasant – unpleasant. The way of work is similar as with photos but children describe emotions (if they know them). If not, emotions are described by the teacher. 62 Comments: The activity can be performed individually with one child, with a smaller group or with the whole group of children. Attachments: A Pleasant – unpleasant B Pleasant – unpleasant feelings 63 Activity: RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING EMOTIONS 2 (3 years) Age: 3 years Value: Character development, tolerance, familiarization with others, care for others Direct aim: Children recognize four basic emotions by expression on one's face: joy, fear, anger, sadness. Indirect aim: Emotional literacy, understanding other people, paying attention to one's own feelings and to feelings of other people, respect. Materials: Three part cards Presentation: The teacher starts discussion with a child: we sometimes feel well and sometimes not. We can give names to our feelings. The teacher shows one picture and says: “Expression on the face of the child shows that the child is angry. When do we feel anger?” We continue with discussion, list more situations. The teacher shows the next photo and has a similar discussion with the child. The teacher takes cards with words and reads the names of emotions. Children put words to the photo. At the end the teacher shows the third set of cards with photos and words. They check if they correctly sorted the words to photos so that they put beside the third card. Children shuffle all the photos again and arrange them independently. Extension: When children know four basic emotions, they can arrange cards with photos that show certain situations that cause emotions. Photos can be replaced by cards with words so that children can think about situations themselves and do not need to connect emotions with photos. For children of 5 years: EMOTIONS AND BODY Children can sort cards with words – names of emotions. They describe how feelings are expressed on the body. Comments: The activity can be performed individually with one child or with a smaller group of children. 64 Attachments: C Emotions – three part cards D Emotions and events, pictures E Emotions – events and words 65 Activity: RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING EMOTIONS 3 (5 years) Age: 5 years Value: Character development, tolerance, familiarization with others, care for others Direct aim: Children can describe their feelings and their emotions and connect them with different situations. Indirect aim: Emotional literacy, understanding other people, paying attention to one's own feelings and to feelings of other people, respect. Materials: Worksheet Presentation: The teacher asks the child when he experiences certain emotions. He can put down the answers on a sheet of paper, illustrate them or draw a mind map. Extension: For children who can write: worksheet, letter of relief, help, that children express their feelings constructively. Comments: The activity can be performed just orally as discussion with one or more children. We can ask children in two ways (depends on what we start the first sentence with) therefore we prepare two worksheets. Attachment: F Worksheet – My feelings G Worksheet – When I… H Worksheet – Letter of relief 66 Activity: RULES IN THE KINDERGARTEN (1-6 years) Age: From 1 to 6 years Value: Responsibility, respect, friendship Direct aim: Rules help us maintain our daily routine, they help with living in a group, they contribute to the feeling of safety. Indirect aim: Preparation for life in society; complying with the rules leads to a harmonious life. Materials: A poster which we make in the group and the children illustrate it. Rules are written on a poster in advance. Presentation: We sit in a circle with the children. We talk about why we have rules. I choose one of the rules in our group; e.g. how to call a teacher, how to wait for someone while they are talking to somebody else. Presentation of the rule (either both of the teachers or a teacher and a child who knows how to follow the rule): The child comes to the teacher and puts his hand on the teacher’s shoulder or gently takes the teacher’s hand. The child waits until the teacher is free to pay attention to him. The teacher says: “Thank you for waiting. How can I help you?” Extension: We present the rules with role play: first the teacher in the circle presents the correct behavior and then the children practice it by playing roles in front of the whole group. We make rules for each room in our kindergarten: changing room, bathroom, gym, playground etc. Comments: During the year we observe and see if we need to introduce any new rules. We adjust the rules regarding the group age and structure. We present maximally 2 new rules a day. If children break a rule, we do not punish them but rather talk to them and repeat the rule. 67 Activity: GOOD MANNERS (2-6 years) Age: 2–6 years Value: Courtesy, respect, friendship, responsibility Direct aim: We show/tell children how they should behave in different situations. Indirect aim: Children will learn to behave properly according to the room in which they are situated. Presentation: Case study: how to behave in a library. The kindergarten teacher says to the children who sit in semicircle: »I am going to tell you how you should behave in the library. Tomorrow we will go to the library to borrow some books therefore I wish that we know how to behave there.« “When we come to the library, we speak in a soft voice.” “Everybody can choose one book from the shelf”. “You take the book to your seat, sit down and take a look at it. You do not speak.” “While you have a look at your books, I will go to a librarian and take the books that we ordered.” “When I call you in a soft voice, you will put your books on their place and then come to me.” We go out together (by pairs). We can discuss also some other questions: how to examine books, that we should not run in the library and that we need a library card. Extension: I tell children each time clearly and in advance what kind of behavior is expected from them with regard to the specifics of a place. Possible themes for presentation and discussion: How to behave behind the table How to behave while we go for a walk How to behave in a museum/theatre How to behave on a bus/train How to behave in a shop/on the market We go together to the library, for a walk, by bus, to a museum and practice good manners. Books on this theme you can read with children. Comments: On the spot we repeat the most important rules once again. E.g.: “In the library we speak in a soft voice and walk slowly.” 68 Activity: CALMING DOWN BEFORE LUNCH (1 year) Age: When cchildren sit and eat with other members of the family. Value: Respect, gratitude, courtesy Direct aim: Relaxing and calming down children during lunch. Development off gratitude for the food that we eat. Enable a quiet lunch to us and to the others. Indirect aim:: Learn good manners. Presentation: The kindergarten teacher invites a child to wish bon appetit. The child stands up. He says “Bon appetit.” The child sits down. Extension: We can sing something. Comments: Lunch should always be served in the same room. We eat and do not read or watch TV… We always saay bon appetit. We can have some rules: During lunch we do not speak in a loud voice. We eat slowly and chew our food properly. We do not disturb our neighbor during lunch. If we do not know the food we still try it. We do not drrink soup from the plate. We use knife, fork and spoon. Children can put the food on the plate by themselves. During lunch we use words like: here you are, please, thank you, I am sorry. Before meal we can sing something. 69 Activity: GRATITUDE - Is life generous with me? (4 years) Age: From 4 years onwards Value: Gratitude, happiness Direct aim: Developing the feeling of gratitude for things that we have. Indirect aim: Differentiation between important and unimportant things. Materials: Photos/cards of different objects. Presentation: The kindergarten teacher offers cards to the child. The child divides the cards in two groups: those that he finds unimportant and those that are extremely important to him. Among cards picked out as very important the child chooses those which represent the things he has in his life. When he finishes the teacher speaks with the child – why is it useful to develop the feeling of gratitude for things that we have? Extension: We can encourage the child to put down (if he can write) or draw in a special notebook three to five things for which he is grateful. He can put down/draw people, things, events, things that did not happen… The child should choose three people and do something nice for each of them. Comments: We can help the child to find out that we are happy if we are grateful. If we can see what we have and whom we have, we are happy. By being aware of what he has, the child recognizes what makes him happy. Things that he does not have become less important. 70 Activity: THE RESPECTFUL CHILD (4-5 years) Age: 4–5 Value: Respect Direct aim: To help kids increase the sensitivity of children to respect themselves and others. Indirect aim: To raise people who will be respectful to themselves and others. Materials: The respect chart, crayons Presentation: The attitude chart is prepared and shown on the class notice board. The teacher tells a story about respect. The teacher encourages children to talk about the main idea of the story and explains the importance of respect. He adds that we should not respect only people, but all creatures with whom we share the universe (animals, their rights to live etc.). Comments: As the kids are so young, it is important that all the children are motivated for full participation. 71 Activity: MY RESPONSIBILITIES AT HOME (4-5 years) Age: 4–5 Value: Responsibility Direct aim: To help children learn responsibility, to recognize their tasks to improve their lives at home. Indirect aim: To raise people who are responsible in all areas of life. Materials: Pictures Presentation: The teacher asks the parents of the children to take pictures of the tasks the children carry out at home and send these pictures to school. The pictures are exhibited on the class notice board. The children observe their friends’ pictures and they are encouraged to take the tasks as an example. The teacher congratulates the children and awards them. 72 Activity: CLAP THE RIGHT THING (4-5 years) Age: 4–5 Value: Responsibility Direct aim: To make the children gain responsibility. Indirect aim: To grow up individuals who are aware of their responsibilities. Materials: Toys and classroom materials. Presentation: The teacher first asks the question: “What are our responsibilities?” After he gets answers, he tells the class that they will play the game: Clap the right things. The game is played. The kids sit in semi-circle. The teacher explains: “If the action I am doing is right, please clap. If it is wrong, please cough!” Then he mimes eating seeds and throwing them on the ground, combing his hair, throwing his clothes on the ground, washing his hands, brushing his teeth, leaving the toys scattered in the room. Children clap or cough for each miming. After this activity, the teacher says that they are going to start another game. That is, the children will tell the right actions instead of the wrong ones. He guides the children in telling the right actions. 73 Activity: THE ‘COURAGE’ GAME (4-5 years) Age: 4–5 Value: Self-confidence Direct aim: To help children feel good as a result of developing good feeling about themselves. To be glad that they are themselves and make sure they are at peace with themselves. Indirect aim: To grow up individuals who have self-confidence. Materials: A box, a pen and a paper. Presentation: The teacher gathers the children in a circle on the playground. He says that they will play a game named ‘Courage game’. The teacher asks them what courage means. He does not categorize the students’ responses as right or wrong. The teacher exemplifies the behavior that shows courage and makes pre-work for the kids to understand the game. Extension: Courage game played in the class. 74 Activity: BEING TOLERANT TO DIFFERENCES (4-5 years) Age: 4–5 Value: Tolerance Direct aim: To be able to show tolerance towards differences in the society. Indirect aim: To make children more tolerant towards people who are different. Materials: Face paint Presentation: The children’s faces are painted with face paint in different skin colors representing different races (African, red skins etc.). Children remain painted during the day. Just before going home, they sit in semi-circle and chat. The teacher shows the pictures of children of different countries and their homelands. If there are students that laugh at each other, the teacher asks why he/she is laughing and that what he/she is doing is wrong. The teacher adds that we ourselves might have come to the world like that. Extension: It is underlined that Africans are black, German people are fair, Japanese are slant-eyed and every child from different countries has different physical characteristics. Comments: Teacher warns that we should not mock the different characteristics of different people. 75 Activity: RESPONSIBILIT TY CHAR ART (4-5 years) Age: 4–5 Value: Responsibility Direct aim: To be able to recognize the task one can do alone. Indirect aim:: To help them gain the attitude of fulfilling the responsibilities, suitable for their age and level of development. Materials: Worksheet, crayons. Presentation: The teacher prepares the responsibility charts and sends them to the parents. He requests that they observe their children for a week and fill in the chart in a suitable way. During the week the teacher asks the children whether they’ve done their taasks. The charts are brought to class after the process is over. The child with most smiling faces in the charts is awarded by the teacher and selected as the most responsible child of the week. Extension: Concept maps are prepared about responsibility. Comments: The responsibility chart should be painted in a correct way. 76 Activity: WE ARE HANDING OUT CHOCOLATE (5 years) Age: 5 Value: Frugality Direct aim: To be able to understand the value of what we have and to use it appropriately. Indirect aim: To be able to grasp the importance of being a frugal person. Material: Story book, chocolate Presentation: The teacher reads the story ‘Be a frugal child’. He talks about what can be done to be frugal. He brings a packet of chocolates into the class. Every child gets 5 chocolates. The teacher asks children to put them into their cupboards. He tells that they should eat one per day with patience and it will be enough for the whole week. The teacher observes who still has some chocolate at the end of the week. The child with the most chocolates is awarded by the teacher. Extension: This activity can be carried out by using puppets. Comments: In this activity, children are required to keep their chocolate and not eat it at once. 77 78 Activity: SWEEPING AND D WASHING (18 months hs) Age: 18 months and older Value: Cooperation, help, respect, independence, taking care of the environment. Direct aim: Learn about responsibility, how to take care of oneself and enviironment, social skills, knowing the needs of others. Indirect aim:: Grace and courtesy, developingg concentration, education for peace. Materials: Broom, dustpan, whisk broom, debris (whenever it appears). Presentation: SWEEPING I invite the child to come with me. Together we bring the broom. With my right hand I hold the upper part of the handle, with my left hand I I hold a bit lower. I sweep the debris into a pile with long strokes. I put away the broom. I bring the dustpan and the whisk broom. I snap the whisk broom off the dustpan withh my right hand. I put the dustpan next to the debris. Using the whisk broom I sweep the debris onto the dustpan. I put the whisk broom perpendicularly on the dustpan. I dispose the debris in the trash. I attach the whisk broom back on the dustpan and put them away. WASHING THE TABLE I invite the child to come with me. We put on our aprons. I bring the material to the table and put it on the floor next to the table. I put a towel on the floor next to the table. I place all the materials from the container on the towel in the following order: pitcher, bowl, brush, sponge, dry cloth, bucket and name them as I put them on the towel. I put thhe container under the table. With both hands I lift the pitcher and bring some water. I put the spout directly over the center of the bowl; I lean the pitcher and ppour the water into the bowl. I put the pitcher back on the towel. I take the brrush into my right hand and dip it into the water, lift it and wait a bit. With my left hand I hold the soap. I rub the soap with the brush 3 times upside down. 79 I put the soapp back on the base. I hold the brush with my both hands: the right hand is on the handle and the left one is on the right one. I start brushing in the left upper corner andd move down, making circular movements. I lift the brush and put it on the upper rim aand continue brushing from top to bottom. If necessary, I reapply the soap on the brush until I finish in the right bottoom corner. I put the brush on the base. I take the sponge in both hands and dip it into the water. I lift the sponge a bit and wring it with both hands. I start wiping the table in the left upper corner. I wipe with both hands, slowwly, from top to bottom. If needed, I can turn the sponge or rinse it iin the water and continue wipingg until I finish in the right bottom corner. I rinse the sponge, wring it and put it on the base. With both hands I lift the bowl with water and pour the water in the bucket. I take the bucket to the bathroom and pour the water into the toilet. I put the empty bucket on the towel. I put the towel glove on my right hand and wiipe the table with it: from left to right, top to bottom. Then I wipe the bowl and the bucket. If the towel glove is wet, I put it on the hanger to dry. I bring a new one. I take the container from under the table and put all the materials in it. I put away the towel last; if it is wet, I change it. I take the material back on its place on the shelf. Extension: In a similar manner we can wash the floor, the materials etc. Comments: It is easier for a child if we tape a small square on the floor so that he knows where to sweep the debris into a pile. 80 Activity: COLLECTING TOYS (3-5 years) Age: 3–5 years Value: Responsibility Direct aim: To be able to pick up one’s own toys and materials Indirect aim: To be able to do one’s own tasks and responsibilities Materials: Toys Presentation: The teacher asks children about the toys, why they are scattered, what happens when we do not pick them up, how we can pick them up, what happens when we pick them up and so on. Extension: The teacher gives homework to children and ensures the participation of the parents. Comments: Dramatization activity is applied. (A story about responsible behavior) 81 Activity: SETTING THE TABLE (18 months) Age: 18 months and older Value: Responsibility, taking care of others, help, courtesy, friendship. Direct aim: To learn the sense of responsibility, taking care of oneself and others, developing positive self-image, social skills, being aware of needs of others. Indirect aim:: Grace and courtesy, developingg concentration, education for peace. Material: Seetting, plates, spoons, glasses andd napkins. Presentation: First we put the settings on the table. We put them one by one. We put the plates on the settings, one on each setting; one by one. Then we place the napkins on the table; one by one. Then the glasses, one by one. We put the sppoons next to the plates. Then we sit together at the table and say thanks. Extension: We pay special attention to holidays and birthdays: on those days we can decorate the table with something special. 82 Activity: CARDS OF OPPOSITES S – what is right and wha hat is wrong, honesty, responsibility (3 3 years) Age: 3 years and more Value: Responsibility, grace, courtesy, what is right and what is wrong, taking care of the environment, obedience, love, justice, tolerance Direct aim: To teach the child how to behave in an exemplary manner, how to take care of oneself and of the environment. Indirect aim:: The child realizes that there are certain rules we need to obey in society and in private life. Material: Cards of opposites, rug or table. Presentation: The child and I look through the cards I have in the basket. I show him one of the cards and ask him whaat he/she sees. If he/she cannot describe the picture, I help: I can see two boys peeling a banana. One of the boys throws the peel on the floor. An older lady comes by. She steps on the peel aand falls. The teacher: “Do you think this boy behave responsibly when he threw the peel on the floor?” The child says. “No.” “What could he do differently?” “Let’s look at this card. What did the boy on this card do?” “He threw the peel in the dustbin.” I invite the child to look at the rest of the cards and find a suitable card thhat shows how to behave in different situations in life. Extension: We can talk to the child about different ways of behaving and acting; e.g. when we are out on a walk, when something happens in our group and the situation seems appropriate to be discussed in a way, presented above. We encourage the parents to talk to their children aat home about what is right and what is wrong. 83 Comments: Every day something happens in the kindergarten that can lead to the discussion about what is right and what is wrong. Also, the children themselves have a well-developed sense of what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes it suffices only to remind them and not to explain everything. 84 Activity: HOW TO SHARE, HOW TO WAIT (3-6 years) Age: 3–6 years Value: Responsibility, gratitude, cooperation, respect, independence, helping others. Direct aim: To show the children how to wait for their turn. Indirect aim:: Cooperation, education for peace. Presentation: The teacher presents the activity when the appropriate situation arises; e.g when the teacher sees thhat a child has been waiting for some time for his turn on the swing. The teacher comes to the child waiting and asks: “Do you want to go on the swing? You need to tell that to the child on the swing.” The teacher says to the child on the swing: “We have a rule in our kindergarten: when someone wants to go on the swing, he counts to 20.” “While I am counting to 20, you can swing then it is his turn. Then we can count to 20 and it can be your turn again.” The teacher and the child who is waiting count to 20, the children switch and then the teacher counts with the other child. The teacher says to the children that they can now count and switch by themselves. Comments: We present to the children two ways of sharing: How to share one’s chocolate with the whole group. How to wait for your turn. If there is the general rule about counting to 20 and switching, the childrenn will have no problem with sharing. 85 Activity: HOW TO CARRY A CHAIR (3 years) Age: 3 years and more Value: Taking care of the environment in the kindergarten, on the playground, at home. Direct aim: Coordination of movement, concentration; to learn the sequence of a certain activity, balance, eye-hand coordination. Indirect aim:: Carry the chair successfully, safely and quietly from one place to the other. Materials: A child-sized chair which is not tooo heavy so that the child can ccarry it successfully and safely. Presentation: I step behind the chair; the chair is at the table. With one hand I hold the chair at the rest, with the other at the seat. I lift the chair to my waist and carry it quietly to the other side of the room. I put the chair silently on the floor: first the back legs, then the front. Extension: The children can carry a table, a plate, the big continent puzzle, a rug etc. Comments: The teacher shows to the children how to carry objects and the children practice it. 86 Activity: TIDYNG UP (1-6 years) Age: 1–6 years Value: Taking care of the environment, sense of others. Direct aim: The child takes part in tidying the room. The child learns the cycle: I take, I work, I put away. Indirect aim:: Building work habits; building the community; we impart the seense of order to children. Material: Color pencils, paper, sequence cards. Presentation: The children have open access to the toys and materials (the furniture is adj djusted to them) and every material/toy has its own place (we can put a pphoto on the shelf or cupboard sso the children know its place). Before the presentation we need to discuss the rules of our room. I take the material I want (e.g. color pencils and paper). I draw. I put the color pencils back in their place. I put away the drawing. I check the table and if it is dirty, I clean it.. Whenever we want to slowly finish the activities, we can first (5 minutes beffore the end) turn the lights off and back on (we talked to the children beforehand what this light signal means); then at the end we can sing the Let’s tidy up song. Extension: When we need to clean the entire room, the children can help with dusting, washing etc. The children can cooperate with their ideas, suggestions. We can make the sequence cards: we take photos of a child working and then put them on display. We can prepare cards with chores for the tiddying after lunch: helping with cleaning the tables, putting the beds in their places, sweeping, arranging the chairs etc. 87 88 Activity: RUBBISH SORTING (3 years) Age: 3 years and more Value: Respect, responsibility, taking care of the environment. Direct aim: The child learns how to sort the rubbish correctly. Indirect aim: Respect for the environment, conservation, learning about renewable sources. Materials: 5 dustbins (paper, biological waste, packaging, glass, residual waste), pictures with writing. Presentation: We present the activity as early in the year as possible; we repeat it if necessary also during the year and after activities where there is rubbish left. The dustbins are in the room together or in separate places, according to their purpose (e.g. the dustbin for biological waste near the place where we prepare the snack; the dustbin for paper next to paper etc.) “When we finish working or eating there is often rubbish left. We always put the rubbish in the dustbin.” “We have different dustbins for different rubbish. We need to take care where we put it. That is why we have pictures on the bins so that you can see where we put different rubbish.” The teacher takes for example, an empty plastic bottle and shows it to the children. “What do you think, where should we put this plastic bottle?” The children point to the dustbin. If they point to the right dustbin, the teacher puts the plastic bottle in it; if they do not show the right one the teacher shows them which one is right. “We put the plastic bottles and all the plastic packaging in the dustbin for packaging.” Then the teacher takes some scrap paper and offers it to a child. “Could you find the dustbin for this scrap paper?” The child takes the rubbish to the dustbin; if necessary, the teacher gives him some pointers. “We put all the scrap paper and cardboard in the dustbin for paper.” The teacher presents the rest of the dustbins either at that moment or at some other occasion. In the end, there is some rubbish left that we cannot put in any of the presented dustbins, e.g. waste fabric. The teacher explains to the children. “If we have some rubbish which we cannot put in any of these dustbins, we put it in this dustbin. This is the residual waste dustbin.” Extension: Talking to children about the Earth and preserving the nature; why we separate rubbish, what happens to the rubbish after the cleaning lady takes them etc. 89 Planning a visit to the assembly center and observing how they load and take away the rubbish. Reading literature about this topic. Using the rubbish for other purposes – recycling. We show to the children hhow we can use the rubbish to make something completely new (e.g. make butterflies and other animals from toilet paper rolls). Comments: When we put away broken glass we must use a dustpan and a broom. We never touch such glass with our bare hands. We talk about that with the children. When we are outside (for a walk, on a trip) we also sort the rubbish; if there are no dustbins, we put the rubbish in a bag and sort them when we return to the kindergarten. 90 91 92 Activity: CONSERVING WATER ((1-6 years) Age: 1–6 years Value: Taking care of the environment, conservation, environmental awareness. Direct aim: To use only as much water as I need; the child uses the tap. Indirect aim:: Conserving water. The child iis aware of the fact that drinkinng water is precious. Materials: Tap and sink. Presentation: I invite the child to come with me to the sink. I turn the tap on. I pour some water in the pitcher or wash my hands. Immediately and with a clear movement I turn the tap off. I say: “Stop!” Extension: If the child needs to bring some water in a ppitcher, we mark on the pitcher hhow much water they need. While washing their hands with soap they can turn off the tap and turn it on when they rinse their hands. Similar is the procedure with cleaning their teeth. Comments: We present at the beginning of the school year and observe for a while. We talk about this in the circle: where does water come from, the meaning of water for life, in some countries they do not have water in their houses and they need to bring it from wells far away etc. 93 Activity: HOW TO TREAT T FOOD D WITH RESPECCT (1-6 years) Age: 1–6 years Value: Respect for goods, responsibility. Direct aim: The child eats up as much as he takes. Indirect aim:: We are grateful for the food we receive and we do not throw it away. The child takes responsibility for his actions. Materials: Food, cutlery. Presentation: When a child comes to take food (breakfast, lunch etc.), we establish self-service: a child himself puts the spread on his bread, he takes as muuch soup or salad as he wants. We encourage him to take as much as he will eat. When he finishes, he can come back for more. If there is food left on the plate, e.g. a piece of bread, fruit, he can eat it later. Extension: We talk in the group about the people who prepared our food and how much effort they put in preparation of the food. We talk about the people who are hungry. We ourselves bake and cook in the kindergarrten from time to time. Comments: We slowly start teaching the children to estimate how much they eat; in the first months we leave them if they put too much food on their plate – they need to experrience the quantity. 94 Activity: GARDEN AND PLANTS IN A KINDERGARTEN (1-6 years) Age: 1–6 years. Value: Taking care of the plants, taking care of the environment, cooperation, help, and responsibility. Direct aim: To learn about the plants and how we take care of them. Indirect aim: To learn to respect the plants, taking care of the plants, responsible treatment of the plants. Materials: Vegetable or flower garden on the kindergarten estate, pot plants in the kindergarten, all the needed equipment and tools. Presentation: Sowing: we prepare all the necessary tools (flower beds/pots, hoe, seeds and a watering can). We hoe the soil. We take some seeds in our hand and sprinkle them evenly on the soil. We cover the seeds with the hoe and water them. Planting: we prepare all the necessary tools (flower beds/pots, hoe, a plant, a watering can). We hoe the soil and make a hole in one place. We carefully take the plant and put it in the hole. We cover the roots of the plant with soil. We water the plant. Watering: we prepare all the necessary tools (flower beds/pots, a watering can). We check first to see if the plant needs watering: we feel the soil with our fingers and see if it is wet or dry. If it is dry, we water it. Bringing in the harvest: we prepare all the necessary tools (flower beds/pot plants, scissors, a basket or a container). We check to see if there are some fruits ripe enough for harvesting. We harvest the fruits, using the scissors if necessary, and put them in the basket. It would be best if we use them to prepare our snack or lunch together with children (making tea, carrots and strawberries for snacks etc.). Taking care of plants (raking the leaves): we prepare all the necessary tools (rake, broom, dustpan, and wheelbarrow). We find a place where there are leaves on the ground. We start raking or sweeping the leaves on a pile. We put the leaves on the dustpan and put it in the wheelbarrow. We empty the wheelbarrow in a certain place we prepared. Taking care of plants (trimming): we prepare all the necessary tools (scissors, wheelbarrow, broom and dustpan). We find a bush that needs trimming. We cut the long branches with the scissors. At the end we sweep the branches and put them in the wheelbarrow. Extension: Reading books about gardening, working in a farm etc. We can prepare the sequence cards for each work. We visit a farm and ask a farmer to show us what he does; the children can try if they want. We learn about the parts of the plant using special puzzles. 95 The teachers are a role model how to work with the plants in the kindergartten. Comments: The activities listed above can be also carrieed out inside. It would be also possible that each child owns his own pot plant and observes it from sowing/planting to harvesting. The child takes care of the plant and does all the necessary work himself. Besides a vegetable or a flower garden we can prepare also a herbal garden and use the herbs in the kitchen (e.g. for tea). 96 Activity: GROWING PLANTS (5-6 years) Age: 5–6 years Value: Responsibility Direct aim: To be able to develop the children’s feeling of responsibility. Indirect aim: To be able to know our tasks and responsibilities. Materials: Cotton, plastic plates, dried beans (beans, chickpeas and lentil) Presentation: The children sit around the table. The teacher gives each child a plate. With children, the teacher puts cotton on the plate and dried beans on the cotton. Then it is covered with cotton again. They pour water on it. Each child takes his/her plant to his/her house. The teacher tells that they should water them every day and put them in the sun. When germinating happens, they should bring the plants to the class. The child that has the best grown plant is awarded. Extension: The child that has the best grown plant is asked to put the plant in the pot. Comments: From time to time, the teacher asks the children questions about the germinating process like: “Are your plants growing? Are you watering them?” 97 Activity: TAKING CARE OF ANIMALS (11-6 years) Age: From 1 to 6 and older. Value: Cooperation, respect, taking care of others, responsibility. Direct aim: Taking care of animals. Indirect aim:: Taking care of another living creature; taking care of others; responsibility; help. Materials: Necessary tools for cleaning the fish tank/terrarium/cage etc. Necessary equipment to organize clean environment. Food, water, vitamins, minerals for animals. Presentation: I invite the child to join me; we will clean the fish tank/terrarium/etc. We prepare all the necessary tools. If it is possible, we remove the animals while we are cleaning; otherwise I tell the child to be careful and not disturb the animal too much. We clean the fish tank/terrarium/etc. We change the water/grass/soil. We return the animal into the fish tank/terrarium/etc. We put away the rubbish. We put away the tools. We observe the animal. Extension: We can have a list of children who are daily/weekly responsible for the animals. The child can explore the animal’s characteristics. The children can give names to the animals. The child can observe the animal. We tell the children what the animals like and do not like. 98 Activity: WHICH ANIMAL AM I? (3-5 years) Age: 3–5 years Value: Love / Love of animals Direct aim: To be able to recognize and imitate the animals. Indirect aim: To be able to understand the importance of love for animals. To bring up individuals that love animals. Materials: Wool dyes, animal costumes, animal masks, animal pictures Presentation: The teacher studies the pictures of animals with the students. He asks each child to select the animal he loves most. One by one, each child imitates his favorite animal without telling the name of the animal and without voicing it. Other children try to guess which animal it is. After each child does its part, the faces of children are dyed. Children wear animal costumes and masks and they imitate animals in the class. Extension: The song of Ali Baba’s farm is taught to children. Attachments: The song ‘Ali Baba’s Farm’ THE SONG ‘ALİ BABA’S FARM’ Ali Ba‐ba, he has a little farm, On his farm he has some little lambs, "Baa, Baa"cry his little lambs, On the farm of Ali Ba‐ba. Ali Ba‐ba, he has a little farm, On his farm he has some little cows, "Moo, Moo"cry his little cows, On the farm of Ali Ba‐ba. Ali Ba‐ba, he has a little farm, On his farm he has some little pigs, "Oink, Oink"cry his little pigs, On the farm of Ali Ba‐ba. 99 Activity: HOW TO USE AS LITTLE PLASTIC AS POSSIBLE (3.5 years) Age: 3.5 years and more Value: Responsibility, respect, independence, cooperation, self-confidence. Direct aim: The child learns how to sew and makes his/her own bag and uses it instead of plastic bags. Indirect aim:: The child feels that he/she is important in preserving nature and that he/she can do a lot for it. The child gets some ideas how to do it and internalizes it. He/she suggests to his/her parents to use fabric bags and uses them himself/herself when he/she grows up. Material: Old fabric (torn, dirty or old clothes), chalk for drawing on the fabric, scissors, sewing needle, thread, sewing pattern for a bag. Presentation: We start with a story explaining that we pollute the environment in several ways: exhaust fumes, using too much water, too much plastic and otther packaging, wasteful using of electricity etc. Then we explain that it is necessary that each of us makes a little effort and does what he can to prevent this. We give some examples of how we can preserve the nature: we do not throw thrash on the ground, we recycle, we conserve electric energy, plastic packaging, water, we use fabric bags instead of plastic bags, and we do not buy the things we do not need etc. We explain that plastic packaging is very poisonous for the environment and we need to find an alternative for it. We give the possible ways of how to reduce the consumpttion of plastic (using recyclable bottles instead of plastic ones, we buy food that is not wrapped in too much plastic or we buy it at a local farmers’ market, drinking tap water, using fabric bags instead of plastic bags etc.). Then we start working. We first explain to the children the process and show them the final product. We stretch the old clothes and draw with a chalk a simple sewing pattern for a bag. Then we cut the fabric. We sew the pieces together; we cut the handles and sew them on the bag. At the end we can go to the storre together with the children, buy some fresh fruits and use our new bags. The bag is washable. Extension: We can color the bag with some paints or sew some patterns on it etc. Comments: We help the younger children with cutting the fabric and/or sewing if necessary. 100 Activity: RECYCLING SCRAP PAPER (3 years) Age: 3 years and more Value: Responsibility, respect, independence, cooperation, self-confidence. Direct aim: The child learns how we can recycle scrap paper and use it again. Indirect aim:: The child feels that he/she is also a part in preserving nature and that he/she can do a lot in preserving it. The child gets some ideas of how to do that and internallizes it. Material: Old newspapers or some other scrap paper, blender, water, plastic case, sieve on a wooden frame, wooden disc. Presentation: We start with a story that explains how we pollute the environment in severa ral ways: exhaust fumes, using too much water, too much plastic and otther packaging, wasteful using of electricity etc. Then we explain that it is necessary that each and every one of us makes a little effort and does what he can to prevent this. We give some examples of how we can preserve the nature: we do not throw thrash on the ground, we recycle, we conserve electric energy, plastic packaging, water, we use fabric bags instead of plastic bags, and we do not buy the things we do not need etc. We explain to the children what happens to the garbage in the big containers that the trucks take to the depot (they recycle them and use them again/they process them). Then we show them how we can recycle scrap paper. First we tear the newspaper in small pieces. We put it in the blender and pour some water over it. We mix it into a smooth mixture. Then we pour 6 glasses of water into the plasttic case and pour the paper mixture in it. We stir the new mixture. Then we take the sieve, take some of the mixture and strain it. We put thee wooden disc on top of it and press it firmly so that as much water as possible drains out. Then we take the paper from the sieve and dry it. When it is dry, we caan write on it, draw etc. For example, we can write how we will try to preserve nature. Extension: Children books with such contents. Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87w8kdhjFvU 101 Activity: TURNING OFF LIGHTS (4-6 years) Age: 4–6 years Value: Responsibility to the environment. Direct aim: Teaching children how to conserve energy. Indirect aim: Taking care of our planet. Materials: Globe. Presentation: We sit with the children in a circle. We put the globe in the center. I make an introduction: “Today we will talk about electricity. Why do we need electricity in our homes?” The children give examples. I continue: “The electricity is very present and very important in our lives. We get the electricity from electric power plants; then it travels on cables to our homes – to the sockets where we plug our appliances and other machines that need electricity. We will try to show how the electricity travels: let’s hold hands.” The teacher squeezes the right hand of his left neighbor and he carries the impulse on his left hand. The electricity travels through all the teachers back to the teacher. “Now let’s imagine in silence how the electricity travels to our home.” The teacher stands up and turns off the lights. “This causes that our fridge stops working, our television, our computer, we cannot even cook our food, there is darkness at night, the water in the bathroom is cold, and the washing machine stops washing … that would be really awful.” “Our lives very much depend on the electricity but we must say that the electricity also causes problems because producing it is also a factor in polluting the Earth so it is our job to conserve it. How can we do that?” The children say their suggestions. I invite them to focus on lighting, on the lights: Better use of daylight, Using energy-saving light bulbs, Turning off lights when we leave a room. We make an agreement: who will be responsible for the lights when we leave the room/wardrobe. It does not need to be only the teacher’s responsibility. We can play the game with electric impulses again. Extension: “We try to conserve electricity because we love our green planet. Whoever loves it can become its GREEN GUARD. The Green guards take care that only those lights that we need are turned on and that we turn them off if we do not need them anymore. Who wants to be a part of the Green guard in our group?” Those who volunteer are given some kind of a badge and applause. We can draw and talk about what the lives of our ancestors were like before electricity. 102 103 Activity: BEING FRUGAL (4-5 years) Age: 4–5 years Value: Being frugal Direct aim: To be able to recognize the importance of frugal using of the materials and energy. Indirect aim: To be able to learn to be frugal. Materials: Children bring electricity or water bills from their houses. Presentation: The teacher makes a conversation with students about energy saving. Using the bills, he talks about the harms of excessive water usage and unnecessary electricity consumption. He gives examples about the issue. The teacher gives the students papers with one side written instead of blank sheets and encourages them to use these. He can also talk about the harms of paper waste and of cutting trees for nothing. Extension: For the next lesson, the class may work with waste materials like toilet paper rolls, bottle caps and carton boxes and the children can discuss how these things can be recycled. Comments: The teacher may talk about unnecessary pencil sharpening, telling them that they shouldn’t tear the paper, break the toys, leave the taps open and that they should eat all the food on their plates. 104 105 A Pleasant – unpleasant B Pleasant – unpleasant feelings C Emotions – three-part cards D Emotions and events, pictures E Emotions and body F Worksheet: My feelings G Worksheet: When I… H Worksheet: Letter of relief 106 ATTACHMENT A: PLEASANT – UNPLEASANT Reading in the grass Playing with children 107 Playing in the sandpit A quarrel 108 A fall 109 Accepting a gift Precipice Quarrel of parents 110 A family trip Loneliness 111 Darkness In the swimming pool 112 PLEASANT UNPLEASANT 113 ATTACHMENT B: PLEASANT – UNPLEASANT FEELINGS Pleasant Unpleasant emotions emotions Love Fault Enthusiasm Sadness Gratitude Stubbornness Respect Hatred Joy Fear Curiosity Anger Satisfaction Impatience Trust Disappointment 114 Pride Jealousy 115 ATTACHMENT C: EMOTIONS – THREE PART CARDS 116 ANGER 117 JOY FEAR SADNESS ANGER 118 JOY 119 FEAR SADNESS 120 ATTACMENT D: EMOTIONS AND EVENTS, PICTURES 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 ATTACHMENT E: EMOTIONS – EVENTS AND WORDS EMOTION BODY EXPRESSION Anger Lips tensed Joy Smile Enthusiasm Squeaky voice Offence Pout Stage fright Stomach pains Trembling hands Hatred and legs Excitement Sweaty hands Feeling ashamed Red face 129 Fear Pounding heart Sadness Tears Happiness Jumping 130 ATTACHMENT F: WORKSHEET: MY FEELINGS My feelings I am happy when I get angry when I am sad when I get frightened when I feel lonely when 131 I feel calm when I hate it when I love it when I am stubborn when I am proud when 132 ATTACHMENT G: WORKSHEET: WHEN I… RECOGNIZING AND EXPRESSING FEELINGS When I am in a good mood, When I am angry, When I wonder if When it is my fault, When I am surprised, 133 134 ATTACHMENT H: WORKSHEET: LETTER OF RELIEF Le Letter of relief (We write it to a person at whom we are angry. 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