Stage of pre-primary education

The young child learns by imitating; he responds to what happens in his environment through a spontaneous imitative impulse. For this reason, at school the teacher becomes a model for the children in her behavior: her gestures, her language, her attitudes and the activities she carries out.

We carry out meaningful and coherent activities with the children, worthy of being imitated. We do artistic and manual work with them, as well as household and garden chores (painting, modeling, washing, sweeping, cooking, kneading, sowing, watering plants, etc. ….) that develop the child’s will, manual skills, initiative, patience, perseverance and autonomy.

Feelings and values play a very important role in our existence. We want to cultivate in children positive emotional qualities such as self-esteem, cooperation, respect for others and for nature, admiration, reverence, compassion, trust or the ability to experience beauty and goodness. In the course of life these feelings are transformed, building the basis of the capacity for judgment.

Each day unfolds in a rhythm, alternating large moments of expansion and shorter moments of concentration.

For Waldorf education, each day of the week has its own specific character (bread kneading day, watercolor painting day…); therefore, the school day is organized in such a way that the same sequence of activities is repeated on each day. This provides the child with a feeling of order and confidence, which helps him/her to situate him/herself in time and acquire autonomy.

Each season of the year, in turn, has a peculiar nuance, reflecting what happens in nature, and the activities that are specific to it, related to the prior preparation of the seasonal festivities that we celebrate periodically with the children (harvest, autumn, Christmas, winter, Easter …). Each holiday has its own special quality and particularities (decorations, crafts that are made for it, food that is prepared, songs that accompany it …), which helps the child to situate himself temporarily in the course of the year.

A moment of expansion would be free play, which occurs both in the garden and inside the classroom. This is our most valued and main subject, the game is a great room for social experiences among equals, which will provide the child with resources to be able to face tomorrow in a free and independent way.

Moments of concentration are the artistic activities, the “corros”, the listening to storytelling…

The circles provide music, dance and poetry every day. It is a space where we sing the songs of the time, recite poems, tongue twisters, do finger games and body movements. So day by day and through repetition we manage to learn through play

“Apprehend” becomes “comprehend“.

In play the inner active qualities of the imitated live, thus forming the basis for a later knowledge of the world. It is the most important activity that the child performs at school; through play the child understands nature and its cultural environment in an imitative way.

For the young child playing is something very serious, it is his job; it means to perceive with all the senses, to put the whole body in movement, to be active. Through play, the child is able to master body movement, balance, a delicate touch and a strong impulse; he develops creativity and imagination, which will be the basis of his intellectual capacity. By playing he will also learn to relate to other children and will gradually develop a self-conscious experience of himself.

Free play develops the child’s creative thinking and allows him/her to discover the world and the laws of nature. We try to preserve the happiness of the child when making discoveries in the playful activity, when handling and experimenting with objects, and also the state of astonishment prior to knowledge, since that astonishment will be the germ of the energies of future knowledge.

The child’s sensory organism is in the process of formation at this stage, so we offer the child quality toys, made by parents and teachers, with natural materials, which facilitate the development of their senses; often made in the presence of the children, who learn to value and care for them after having lived the whole process of elaboration.

The toys are always simple, to allow the children’s inner activity and the unfolding of their creative fantasy: rag dolls, colorful fabrics, wool or wooden animals, baskets of various sizes… we also use objects from nature as toys: pine cones, shells, logs, bark…

For artistic activities we use non-toxic materials made with beeswax and natural pigments. For the handicrafts we use cotton fabrics, silk, wool, wood and natural elements.

We use materials that offer a real experience and stimulation of the child in all its planes. That is why they always come from nature, are made of wood; little elaborate toys provide warmth, nobility and at the same time stimulate their imagination. Coloring waxes are made with beeswax, we use natural pigments for our watercolours,
beeswax for modelling, felt and pure sheep’s wool to make different crafts, cotton fabrics…

The day concludes with a fairy tale told by the teacher and aiming at reaching the deepest part of the child. Through the repetition of the story we offer food for the soul and freedom for each child to recreate the story in his interior the way he needs and at the same time we encourage him to expand his vocabulary as well as his memory, both necessary for the acquisition of new knowledge in the future stages of hi life.

The evaluation is done through the development of a deep observation of the child in a holistic way and with a very close contact with the families. We share with them information through various interviews and tutorials that contextualize our observation of the child so that we all work as a team, the family and the school together, we manage to accompany the child in his process of healthy growth and learning.