Practice preschool

The second week of my practice I went in a Kindergarten, the age of the children of my group was normally 5 years.


In Denmark, pedagogues think it's really important for the children to take fresh aire (they don't care if it's really cold or rainy). Children learn a lot by playing freely in the nature, it's really good for the physical developpement of their body, they use a lot of imagination to invent new games and strategies.
I think it also explains in one way why danish children are more independant, autonome and responsible, teachers give them much more freedom!

Impressive playground

Today, during my practice I went out side at the break, I was totally shocked (in a good way) by the playground!
It's so different compared to my country...

The space
Firstly, the playgroud is huge(compared to Belgium).
There is a lot of grass, trees... the childeren have a lot of space where they can run and play, but of course they are some invisible limites.
They have a lot of "games" : swings, bridges, tunnels, climbing walls... in Belgium the playgrounds look like a prison: there are high walls, a big gate, 120 kids more or less in the same space without any grass because it brings mud!


The freedom
There is a teacher watching them, but he let the children play (some children are climbing in the trees, others are playing with branches,some of them take their shoes off while they are in the sand, they don't have to wear there jacket even if it's not that warm...)In Belgium, there are so many rules, the teacher who watchs the children has to remind the rules a lot of times.

I was realy suprised that they could go out of the school without problem, there is no gate, you can just come in or out as you wish !In Belgium there is a huge gate, that the children can't even open and the teachers are controling who comes in and out.

I think that the children are much more able to exert and then be more concentrated later in class.

Drama and theatre

Thuesday 6 of April

We went to Aabenraa to the other campus of University College South Denmark.
We started with icebreaking exercises.
For instence: the teacher says 3 colors, you choose one in your head, then all the people who took the same color, change from place.
It looks a bit stupid but it's a nice way of changing people from place and make them meet other people by sitting near to them.

We also did some improvization games.
One of them was to pass an imaginary box, which was very haevy...it was a good exercise because most of the people were not use to do such exercises, but this one was simple and funny!

What I want to remember about this, is that before working with a new group of people, or to start something new, it's very important to feel good in the group. It's important to have contact with the people by doing simple things (that makes you laugh, interact and that's able to be done by everybody)
What I could also add is that we often changed the seize of the groups (groups of 2,3,6 people, sometimes alone)thats is very benefic (and less annoying).

After a very little moment you already feel more confident and ready to work (in a better mood and spirit).