An "In-House" Kindergarten in Landau

 Lunch-Yum, yum, yummy!
Let's start our conversation today about lunch. The Germans call it dinner (and so do farmers from Indiana, but I digress).  At this school, as it was explained to me, and at all in-house German schools have REAL plates, bowls, glasses, silverware and cloth napkins.  Nothing is disposable or at least it is kept to a minimum.  The German people are very aware of environmental issues (this was the same with my experience in Italy as well) and keep their carbon footprint to a minimum.   

The children eat at tables of six and the tables are set by the staff and the meals are healthy, fresh and nothing is processed.  We had a two course meal today.  The first was a Caprese Salad, which was beautiful and delicious! The second was an appatizing Wurst Salad (sausage salad), and baked Karfoffle (potatoes).  BTW Karfoffle is one of my all-time favorite German words. Yeah, sure the sausage salad looks like baloney cut into noodles, but it had peppers and other vegetables in it and was really light tasting.  The children ages 3-5 sat at their tables for 30 minutes discussing their day or singing songs, or impressing me with their English.  One boy knew one word and it was "Hi!" Not bad! So, essentially I know only 5 more German words than he knows English, but I'm working on it.  Anyway, after dinner, they cleaned up their own areas, scraped their plates and were ready for their next activity.

The school I visited today was an "in-house" school with a religious affiliation.   It had the same general idea as the kindergarten on the university campus in Speyer.  The children can choose where they go from rooms that focus on certain themes or skills.  The themes of the rooms were the gym, the library, the kunst (art) room, the speil (play) room, the construction room, outside (this is considered a room option) and for the older children the academic room.  

Morning Check-in
A few differences with this school is that it groups the children by age. In the morning each child signs in by moving their magnet to the "in" space.  They can see the rooms that will be open for that day and which teachers will be in each room (the teachers put a magnet with their face in the room they will be responsible for that day.  Then the children check in with their group's room to begin the day.  For instance the three year olds meet in the play room, the four year olds meet in the art room and the five year olds meet in the construction room.  
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Breakfast
They stay in these rooms from 8 - 10am.  During that time breakfast is being offered and if a child chooses, they can come into the lobby and eat.  When they are done, they return to their room. If they are not hungry, they do not have to go.  Again, they are treated as beings in control of themselves, if they do not want to eat, no one forces them.  I am returning to this school next Thursday and I will report more on this later.

Making a Choice
If you remember, the other kindergarten I discussed allowed the children to choose which room to go to by moving their magnet when they arrive in the morning.  Well, after breakfast the children at this school make their choice.  The teachers put laminated pictures (drawn by the children) that represent each room onto the floor.  Then they ask the children to line up on their choice.  This happens at three different intervals during the school day.

What if they always make the SAME choice?
This is the question I keep asking.  The point of view at this school is that the children are there for three years (or more if they attend the 1-2 year olds) and they will eventually go to all rooms, try all the activities, and meet all the skill requirements- But at THEIR own pace, and with THEIR interests at mind.  If a child chooses a room for four months, the opinion is, they are curious and need to feed that curiosity.  Hmmmmm, do you think that maybe this is fostering a love of learning and problem-solving which could be useful later in life?  Could be.  

Religious Pedagogy
This school had a general time that they did religious pedagogy. Today they did some amazing storytelling using cloth to set the stage and enhance the learning. 

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Going Outside
When the children choose to go outside, they are prepared.  They have a shelf full of boots and they have special light weight trousers that they put on to keep them dry, clean and warm. Kind of like the Gordan's fisherman. I did not see the children in the choice outside area today, but I'll be back.  I did see them in the other outside area where they ride bikes and play on structures, which resembled recess in the US, but was for 45 minutes.  However, these special trousers were not a requirement.
The photos of the trousers are from waterproofworld.co.uk and  www.lidl.de

Construction Room
Let's focus on this construction room for a minute, shall we?   Again, those are real tools and real nails, saws etc. and they are meant for children age 3-5 to create and make things. I am guessing here, but I think the tubes are for a massive marble run. What an innovative space!  Really, the imagination goes wild in a place like this.