St. Peter’s International School’s Kindergarten is an active learning place where children build on a life purpose, learning about themselves and how to act and react. It is a privileged space of discovery and learning, in which children are the main actors and serve as a basis for their integral development. Pedagogical tools are used to guide the child towards a balanced social development both physically, and intellectually. This development is achieved by encouraging learning-oriented experiences that embrace all areas of development (cognitive, linguistic, emotional, affective and social, psychomotor, artistic and creative).
Furthermore, bilingual teaching is combined with the belief that learning a foreign language in the early stages of life is healthy and possible at the neurological level, since the brain still has the ideal flexibility to carry out new types of learning in a productive way. Curious and open to new experiences, the child becomes fluent in a short time, acquires fluency with languages in general, builds a differentiated linguistic repertoire and still achieves the possibility of experiencing cultural diversity.
The relationship between the family and the school is privileged at this stage, as the participation of parents in their children’s school education is both a right and a responsibility, as it is valuable. Parents are, in all their essence, the greatest and most valuable resource that educators have to ensure a coherent educational approach and a high level of quality in the student’s holistic development. The role of the educator is to guide throughout the learning process, stimulating the pleasure of discovery, knowledge and curiosity, allowing children to experience dynamic and active experiences, shared in diverse environments.
In this way, the child’s development in Pre-School Education is particularly favoured by a responsible, dynamic and continuous partnership between the family and the school.
“Every child is an Artist. The problem is how to remain an Artist once he or she grows up.”
Pablo Picasso
The various forms of expression are means of communication that appeal to an aesthetic awareness and contact using different materials and techniques.
The mastery of different forms of artistic expression, such as visual arts; drama; music and dance, allow the child to grow up in a peaceful environment, where situations and learning experiences are diversified, making it easier for him/her to become aware of his/her body and its potential to be creative.
Through the “Learning through Art” project, expression and communication is developed through multiple languages as means of interconnection, information, aesthetic awareness and an understanding of the world. The main objective is the discovery of “knowing more by doing”, through verbal and non-verbal language. It focuses on drama, music, and visual expression which in turn will allow the child to discover him or herself and others and be aware of their surroundings.
All Kindergarten activities enable children to explore and integrate various areas in terms of social skills, as self-expressions and knowledge of the world, bearing in mind that there is always a combination of concepts of which we cannot be oblivious to.
This way, the visual and drama/musical expression surfaces as a means of communication and representation of daily experiences, fostering the appearance of oral and written language, while using literacy as a means of interpreting and treating of information. Learning mathematical concepts is also a means of expression. Children are free to experiment by using processes of exploration and experimentation and manipulating materials. They are given the possibility to formulate hypotheses, develop powers of observation and classification, test, look for sequences, reflect, serialize, register, create and apply knowledge acquired previously
Art is a form of communication and expression, but not only that, it is also a playful way for children to develop and learn about the world. Through their artwork the children live out adventures, feelings and ambitions. They create characters and stories, unmask their fears and anxieties, thus balancing out their emotional health.