Before the winter vacation children, parents and teachers made a team work for the Outdoor education calendar with the most characteristic outdoor cultural education sites of the county’s cultural heritage. It was a new opportunity for them to be next to us working together and the children were very happy and interested. The students’ parents photographed all the places where we had the outdoor activities and after that some of pictures were chosen for each month of the next year 2019 .The children were excited to decorate each frame with specific elements to every season. After a lot of work and fun we managed to have six calendars for each class of the kindergarten. Furthermore, each group will personalize their calendar according to the outdoor activities they will participate in 2019.

Christmas cards made by comics… recycling all the students and teachers from Don Minzoni primary school wish Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

5 years old students and teachers of Ottolenghi preprimary school created this outdoor corner in order to send everybody their best wishes for Merry Christmas and happy 2019!!!

5 years old pupils were very happy and proud to discover the postcards received from Piacenza !!

Their teacher translated them and they could admire the different places of the city : churches, statue, squares…

It was very interesting because they started to learn some words in English last year and they can remember it !!!

It will be useful for the next Skype session in January.

The postcards has been read in the classroom then in our Erasmus corner !!

On Thursday, December 6th 2018, 30 children from the big group “Piticot” performed a math activity outdoor where they made gatherings and decreases using natural materials like : pine cones, nuts, chestnuts. Their teachers made a numerical scale with the help of children. All the materials used in the mathematical activity turned into Christmas ornaments with which we decorated the pine from the yard of the kindergarten. The children were very happy because Santa Claus can see by far the pine decorated and so he will find our kindergarten easier to bring them gifts.

After the meeting we had with a local newspaper reporter at our school, an article has been published on ” LIBERTA’ “, our local daily newspaper, to talk about our outdoor activities and our wonderful Erasmus Project ” LEARNING OUTside the classroom IN the EUROPEan nature”.
We have built 4 birdhouses, with recycled material ( plastic bottles…) and natural materials ( leaves, sticks, topsoil…)
Besurica preprimary school also had joined the Project ” ORTO IN CONDOTTA”, in collaboration with SLOW FOOD, International organization that promotes natural food, traditional cooking and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem, participating in a competition organized by this Association. We were very happy to participate!

On 1^rst of December this year, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the major political event of 1918: the completion of the Romanian national state, made by the union of the Romanian provinces with Romania. On this occasion, 50 students from our kindergarten, (5-6 years old) had a joint activity with 30 students (7-8 years old) from “Nicolae Balcescu” Secondary School. As part of this activity, the children made the map of the country by collage, decorated popular costumes, and with their songs and dances they expressed the joy of being Romanian.

On the 27th of November we visited our woolhouse – cafeteria. It is founded by our local artist Maia Raudkivi who loves specially reusable and natural materials to work with. Main materials are clay, wool and wood. Children made woolen Elfs. Now we know where wool comes from and how it can be red or green. We wraped model to the wool and wash it with soap and warm water. We had to rub the wool very well and gently then it came tight enough. When they got dry we put them noses, mustaches and beards. It was very interesting day in our local woolhouse with the eco artist. Now we have a lot of woolen elves decorating our Christmas tree.

On November 23rd 2018, we had a wonderful day. A group of 29 children, 13 parents and 4 teachers went on a very interesting trip organized by our kindergarten, to the pottery school, “Lut Ars” from Piscu, a small village situated at 45 km from our town, Ploiesti.
Our hosts, Virgil Scripcariu sculptor, one of the most promising contemporary Romanian Sculptors, with exhibitions both in the country and abroad such as countrys like Great Britain, Belgium, Israel, Japan, and so on and his wife, Adriana Scripcariu, expert in art history, have prepared a special learning experience.
First of all, they made a brief introduction to pottery history, an ancient Romanian tradition. Second, they explained us how clay pots were made and how were used in Romanian kitchens many times ago. After that all the children each, received a clay pot which they painted using symbols of nature and they also experienced the technique of making clay pots at the potter’s wheel under the guidance of a potter worker.
The parents and the teachers painted alongside the children, and the final products/ results were almost spectacular. Our students were very pleased and proud about their new skills and also about the result of their efforts. All the pots that they painted will be exposed in the kindergarten at the corner dedicated to the National Day of Romania, celebrated on First of December!

With every chance we prefer to organize outdoor maths lessons in our yard. One day we created a path with a repeating pattern 2 pines 1 signal (pine needle signal that each child created and interpreted differently its own, for example: pine attention in front, attention animal’s nest etc.).
As the motifs strengthen children’s visual memory, we created this particular path to the pine tree of our garden and then we walked it. At the end the students were asked to put it on paper.

Another maths activity connected with our pine tree… we wrote the number 1 using pine needles.

We also organize matching, sorting or pairing activities with coloured paper crafts, or other type of motif with 3 turtle crafts and one plastic bottle cap. Kids really love these math lessons outside the classroom!