Siilitie
Päiväkoti By Marta Torras. Figueres (Girona) |
It was a magnificent, sunny day and the children were
playing outside. Two one-storey buildings circled a garden space with several zones. One
was prepared for children between 10 months and 3 years old and the other
one, for the children between 3 and 6 years old. The garden, rich in resources and material, presented large trees, hills,
ramps with various slides and stairs, structures to climb, to be swung,
to tumble, tables and wooden banks, tricycles, sandbed, shovels…
The zone of the younger children, open to the rest of the garden, invited
to explore other spaces and to contact with other children and adults.
A quiet and pleasant environment was sensed. A group of the older children developed an activity on the picnic tables
and others were sliding down the slides, or they swung… The adults
observed them play, or they spoke with some child. A teacher who spoke Spanish showed us the buildings’ inside. For me, it was impossible to follow her all the time since we often stopped
to take some photos or to observe some corner or situation. For instance, a teacher entered from the garden with a small girl. She
sat down in a low chair and, talking, she removed the girl’s nappy
and waited while the girl sat down on the chamberpot and peed. They both
observed and touched the nappy before the teacher put it back again on
the girl again. The tone of their conversation seemed very natural and
friendly. There was no hurry, and that is something to envy. The materials used to play and to learn created a full and stable atmosphere
of proposals. They were sofas in several rooms, while the zones shared by children
and adults were filled with computers and xeroxing machines, but were
still integrated within this homely furniture, clean and full of plants.
Natural corners, tables with mathematical plays, proposals or stories,
symbolic zones of play such as a living room were mixed together…
Including a small room with a marriage bed, another smaller bed with handrails
and a washroom beside those. All was done at children-s height, so that
he/she felt invited to play. We listened to a small boy who played the piano and sung together with
other teachers’ and a group of children who sat down in chairs.
The children wore slippers or were barefoot, as they wanted. During the second song the teachers greeted the children naming them
and, one by one, they left to eat. At the same time another group expected
their food sitting down before some tables with a small tablecloth in
their middle and, on top of it, a plant, while a teacher read them a story.
Upon saying good-bye we found two tables with a teacher and five children
each one, eating all together in outside Although this was one of the last centers we visited, we kept finding surprises and commenting the details, which showed us a comfortable, warm life inside the schools, full of interactions and relations, varied and positive, as well as the respect towards the needs and rhythms of the children. |
Trip To Finland with the magazine
Infancia from the Teachers’ Association Rosa Sensat. April/May 2002 © http://www.elsafareig.org/ |