Our Scholastic Activities

Graphic-pictorial Activities

Graphic and iconic representation is a field of typically human expression. It is a basic and essential need, as a pleasant, gratifying, liberating activity and a highly expressive language in its own right. The child approaches that kind of language through scribble, a primordial graphic signing that is the basis of all his figurative activities. He or she pours into that signage the characters of his personality and the degree of perceptual and representative maturation, as well as the degree of coordination of motor skills. Drawing with pencils and pastel colors is among the techniques offered during the school day, followed by collage, which can be made with basic materials such as newspapers and glue, which is crafted by the students through, frottage, tearing and painting. There is a rhythm-like infantile taste, which expresses itself via repetition of elements, bold colors, balance between lines and spaces that certainly do not mirror the adult proportions of spatial symmetries. It is important, therefore, that children know colors as soon as possible because they imply knowledge of things, forms, space, body, sky, sea and the world around them.

 

Manipulative-visual Activities

The art teacher will present the work tools and through manipulation will teach the first rudimentary gestures to model, sculpt and shape sand, clay, papier-mâché, and salt dough. This expressive activity can become a means for the child to express hidden impulses as it gives the possibility of pressing, holding, crushing or destroying the work done. Also, suitably guided, small hands will create objects from recycled plastic bottles, egg cartons, milk containers, cans, plates, glasses, paper napkins and much more. Kids will have a great time learning how to recycle respecting nature and the environment.

 

Activities of Personal Expression

Propaedeutic of dance and personal expression is not only a physical activity, but also a cultural and social activity. In the educational process it defines itself as a language of communication and understanding that motivates children to express their emotions in an intercultural vision.
It helps to develop rhythmic movement, coordination, expressiveness, memory, creativity within the child’s space domain.

 

Psychomotor Activities

When children are between 2 and 5 years old, the self-image is being formed, following the constant interaction between the child, the world of objects and the world of others. Children learn through physical interaction and therefore psychomotor education, centered on play and movement, is an indispensable part of education as a whole. Our teaching staff will therefore propose activities and games to school team building, balance and strategy activities in varying degrees to develop co-ordination and respect for turns and rules.

 

Theatrical Activities

The dramatization and the theatrical experiences play an important role in the school’s educational pathway, because they show the processes of identifying and controlling emotions. These are complex operations with obvious implications of playful, symbolic and psychological order. Games, disguises, puppet theater, narratives, inventing stories: each of these activities, with their own modes of expression, contributes to the promotion of children’s learning. The teacher, with the role of mediator between the child and reality, does not teach to recite, but puts in place a series of motivating situations that push the young minds to express themselves.
The game of disguise, for example, has a special function as a symbolic game. It is a game during which the self-image is playing out and maybe finds ways to improve oneself. It represents that one no longer has to reappear and find oneself again. It is the ability for children to play with their own image and identity, grasping the reality of the elements that make every object, every single character: they acquire the essence of their environment and dress to the occasion.
For example, all the child will need is a dad’s jacket, a coat, a cone, or a crown of paper on his head to characterize, and in fact become, through this transitional object (Winnicott) this or that character which the object characterizes. This transformation starts up with a play-narrative-representation-invention of stories that take place between those characters and spans the broad perimeters of fantasy: It can be argued that in the context of the game of personification the children’s’ reality and university appear and disappears as it is being created: The figures and characters that can be related to real or virtual daily situations, or the fantastic figures that primarily reflect the experiences of dynamic changing world. A game during which what counts is not the appearance, as it seems to others, but its being. The jacket, cape, hat, etc. are the essence of the role-character that you want to evoke. Fantasy, inventiveness and creativity will be allowed to roam freely to express themselves in the forms and ways that best fit the child while the teacher, with professional expertise guides in identifying and engaging in various animation techniques, stimulating its students to participate in all phases of the educational pathway.

 

Sound & Musical Activities

Starting from narrative and acting, children are gradually brought to know and use sounds, with voices being a prime example. The sound stimuli that children perceive outside school are different and sometimes overlapping in such a way that they become confusing and incomprehensible. It is important to avoid that children are getting used to sounds without actually feeling it in order to prevent any form of passive reception: it is necessary for them to become acquainted with and recognize the sound rationally, to distinguish between sounds and noises, to project meaning in them, how they relate to their own lives and how they relate to others. The activity will be carried out in simple ways, such as:

• Listening to classical music to give the child a suggestive, engaging effect, causing associations and images in relation to his or her life experiences
•  Learning rhythmical songs and rhymes to develop and enrich the language as well
• Narratives, recordings and sonorization of fairy tales, but also playful representations of sounds, the discovery of sound games to recognize musical rules and finally the use of musical instruments to express moods, feelings and thoughts
• Listening to the silence and voices within in the silence
• Listening together to reinforce bonds and feelings of togetherness
• Listening to marches, dances and folk songs, which are rooted in the essence of the people and of their own land, but also of other countries, giving the child a multi-cultural education and a first approach to democratic coexistence.

In fact, playing and listening to music with other companions, social sentiment develops and with it, the child begins to sacrifice part of their egoism and aggression to live serenely with them.

 

Multimedia Activities

In the 21st century, it is the school’s responsibility to engage the approach with written speech at the same time as the other expressions of the semiological environment. Therefore, one cannot and should not overlook the more innovative learning methods of today, We learn not only to read, listen and observe, but listening and seeing, through the monitor of a computer, educational and interactive multimedia products has to be accommodated via  edutainment specific to younger users. The computer, according to some pedagogues, can be understood as a prosthesis of the mind and as such, it is a tool that can enhance teaching. As Bruner says, “the point is prosthetic technology, although it is essential for a culture. The point is the research method, the use of the mind that is central.”

 

Gardening

Gardening is the easiest way to establish a strong relationship with the natural environment through experiences that the school incorporates into curriculum. Observing seedling grow and develop stimulates curiosity and a need to know and discover that gives children extraordinary joy. It is essential to foster a child’s excitement in contact with water, earth and its many forms of life.

 

Foreign Languages

A comfortable relationship with foreign cultures and languages is perhaps the greatest asset in the 21st century. Piccole Orme places great importance and emphasis on that. Games, songs, listening to songs and DVDs in English with a native language teacher is part of our daily curriculum.