ESC: Volunteering in "Tuhkatriinu" kindergarten

Our kindergarten is located in Kohtla- Järve. Kohtla-Järve is a city and municipality in north-eastern Estonia. In the kindergarten we have our own training curriculum and carry out a variety of activities, which became annual traditions: day of health, theatre performances, friends' day, etc. These activities provide an opportunity for children's and parents' active participation. The kindergarten has a music room, a gym, a speech therapist's office, medical office. Eleven teams work in the kindergarten. Two groups of service toddlers, ten groups attended by children between the ages of three to seven, including two specialized groups, groups of language immersion. We have a large and beautiful area which offers great opportunities for versatile training of children. For us it is important to create a friendly environment for each child and a creative atmosphere in the group. This is a prerequisite for successful learning. We have attentive caregivers, who care about the psychological comfort of each child. Creative elements are present in each class, in addition to this, we discreetly teach children to write stories, find unexpected comparisons, create performances. Children are involved in creating and conducting theatrical events for parents. We also try to cooperate and consult with parents, share the life of a child in the kindergarten. The kindergarten took part in eTwinning projects and participates in many local projects. A lot of our projects are connected with environmental sustainability, outdoor activities, multicultural communication and educational methods. We have a dedicated team who help the children to develop environmental awareness and take care of the nature and the world around us. Environmental sustainability is one of the priorities in our activities. The main task here is supporting development of kindness, humanity, taking care of nature, people, yourself, understanding of beauty, feeling of responsibility for your behavior and actions. We arrange a lot of activities outdoors. We always remember that children’s cruel or wrong behavior is often connected with lack of knowledge or understanding. That’s why we use learning by doing and project-based learning in order to provide children with necessary knowledge, skills, attitude and experience. Every year in the beginning of May we have a week of outdoor education and each teacher shares their achievements, materials, ideas.