By capitalising on previous knowledge and through the identification of phrasal errors children are prone to at this age, we intervene pedagogically and support them in fully developing their communication and language skills.

The child develops speaking and listening skills

• S/he Narrate daily experiences while adhering to the consecutive order of events and using adverbs of time and frequency
• Describes objects or events to the team
• Explains and argues about his/her views, choices and preferences
• Learn how to listen to her/his interlocutors without interrupting them, even if s/he disagrees
• Practice in using appropriate expressions in cases that require specific language
• Acquire phonetic knowledge of the language through distinguishing phonemes as parts that make up words
• Exercise memory through memorising parts, poems, riddles and tongue twisters.

The child develops reading skills in order to

• Adopt basic reading principles, such as reading a book from the beginning to the end, from left to right, appropriate voice colouring according to content, etc.
• Listen to and comprehend texts, intervening and making assumptions and comments on how the story will develop or end
• Combine information from various sources in which pictures and written discourse co-exist
• Borrow books from the school library which correspond to his/her interests and s/he learns how to identify the title, the writer, the illustrator, the publishing house, etc.
• Realise that the phonemes of the spoken language have corresponding letters, which s/he starts recognising little by little and is able to read certain words that reoccur

The child develops writing skills in order to:

• Learn how to write his/her name in capital and lowercase letters
• Create and form collectively, texts that are dictated to the Pre-school Teacher
• Learn how to hold a pencil in an effective way with the right posture
• Copy words that serve functional needs and correspond to the child’s interests

Developing our young students’ mathematical thinking is structured through interaction with the natural as well as the social environment. Using experiential learning methods, children acquire mathematical thinking and develop logical skills through individual and collective problem solving.

The child acquires and develops pre-mathematical skills in order to:

• Recognise numbers and their meaning and learns the numerical sequence through games and number songs
• Comprehend the meaning of geometrical shapes, by recognising them around their surroundings and realises their basic properties (e.g. cubes can stand on each other, while balls cannot)
• Experiment with countable (e.g. beads) and no-countable (e.g. water) measurement units
• Execute simple mathematical calculations, comparing and dividing quantities
• Understand the way of measuring through the direct comparison of objects according to one of their characteristics, as well as measuring their height and weight
• Familiarise him/herself with the sense of time and its measuring by clock and hourglass
• Realise that certain problems have more than one solution an can be approached in many different ways..

The child evolves and develops his/her personality

• Acquire self-esteem through undertaking roles and initiatives
• Realise her/his uniqueness through conversations and comparisons of interests, preferences and/or weaknesses and strengths
• Identify and learn to respect similarities and differences with other students
• Experiment without fearing mistakes, since these are used as a starting point for the child to trust its capabilities
• Learn how to do things independently
• Adhere to hygiene and nutrition rules

The child develops and advances social skills

• Makes friends through get-to-know games in the beginning of the year, group games, board games, free game time, etc.
• Develops the ability to cooperate in team projects, games and daily routines, such as abiding to rules, cooperating to use different materials in the classroom, wait for his/her turn, etc.
• Understands the value of teamwork through achieving a goal collectively in a group project
• Learns to accept losing at a game

At a time when a barrage of information facing the student often has a distractive effect in the ability of a child to concentrate, at our Kindergarten we manage to help children to gradually increase their ability to do so. We aim to increase their attention span through specific processes and graded activities. This is an important steppingstone for their future course in education along with every aspect of their adult life.

The pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten programmes cover specific knowledge areas aiming at

• Cultivating ethical values and social principles, so that the child understands the value of behaving properly in a team, with respect, responsibility, dignity, trust, honesty, solidarity
• Helping the child understand the need of adhering to limits that enable smooth teamwork, in order to obey rules while demonstrating self-discipline.
• Training the child to manage her/his positive and negative emotions and be able to maintain balance in her/his daily life

Observation and exploration are the two main tools through which our younger students familiarise themselves with nature and perceive the world. The children get to know themselves and their place in the environment and are trained to take care of it and respect it.

Through our Kindergarten programme children

• Widen their knowledge on plant and animal species, as well as their categorisation through educational visits and by utilising the appropriate educational materials, the school garden, cultivating their own plants, etc.
• Realise season succession and people’s activities connected to them (grape harvest in autumn, wheat harvest in summer)
• Observe and recognise weather changes, meteorological phenomena and the consequences they have on the environment
• Discover the elements that make up the natural environment
• Realise the negative consequences human activity has on the environment
• Participate in environmental initiatives, such as recycling and composting

In Ekpedeftiki Anagennisi’s Kindergarten the child realises his/her individuality within the wider context of the human environment. The child:

• Re-enacts customs and activities related to folklore and religious traditions (carols, egg-painting, making Christmas and Easter sweets)
• Is introduced to Greek mythology, the Cycladic civilisation, etc. in an experiential way
• Learns how to ‘read’ the map of Greece and the world map and acquaints her/himself with the geophysical characteristics and the special features of every place (eg. Products produced in each area)
• Is encouraged to explore his/her immediate environment (house, neighbourhood, village, city, etc.) and the elements comprising it
• Learns how a house is built (stages, materials, professions needed, etc.)
• Acquaints itself with the main road signs and the importance of adhering to the rules of road behaviour and safety
• Learns about the main conventional and renewable energy sources
• Gets a first look into the different professions through the getting in touch with professionals accomplished in their field

Kindergarten students are motivated to express themselves creatively through the attendance of art classes. This process has an educational as well as a developmental role, given the fact that it contributes to the balanced and healthy development of pre-school children while it cultivates and grows their emotional intelligence.

Through carrying our projects and crafts, the child:

• Familiarises her/himself with using different materials such as paintbrushes of various sizes, cardboard, markers, crayons, etc and is encouraged to experiment with original techniques (eg, mixing colours)
• Uses the scissors in a safe way in order to cut materials used in the crafting of creative constructions and collages
• Creates mobile objects
• Moulds materials such as clay, modelling clay and dough
• Gets to know different kinds of traditional, classical and contemporary art, as well as works of great artists
• Makes use of various natural (such as seashells, pebbles, leaves) or “disposed” (lids, paper rolls) materials in original crafts
• Practises fine motor by using different tools and materials