What happened during the third and fourth months at the Ørestad Montessori Vuggeste? Where did those little hands bring me? Those small, laborious hands with faces, smiles and giggles led to create a new and colourful Montessori environment where we welcomed 6 small children. For these 12 little hands, the wonderful Blue Room became a journey of discovery through games, colors and musical sounds.
Thanks to the help of my fellow educators and to the older children, who within a few days, got to know the younger children and made them feel protected, safe and at home.
The beauty of working with just 12 children, aged between 10 months and 2 and a half years, made this possible. But now you’re wondering how did orientation to the nursery school happen?
Orientation took place slowly, day by day, before leaving the child alone at the nursery school.
It’s important that the parents and their children go to the nursery school together for one month before the child is left alone.
During this period, the parents get to know the educators and talk about their child’s daily habits and routines, after which the child, together with their parents, begin to familiarize themselves with the place and with the other children. After this first interview and initial contact, parents agreed on the day to start orientation and fill in the registration form.
Orientation day is a very important moment in the life of the child, but also of the parents who will soon have to separate.
This means that everything must be done calmly, quietly and with the needs of the child being taken into consideration.
The first week of orientation happened over the course of five days, in which the child was left for a minimum of one, to a maximum of 4 hours in the care of the educators.
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On the first day, the child, was accompanied by one of the parents, arriving at the nursery at 8:30 and spent an hour inside the nursery where he/she began to interact with the educators and the other children and familiarize themselves with the spaces, games and with the school’s daily routine punctuated by precise times and rhythms. On the second day, the child arrived at the nursery at 8:00 and was entrusted to the care of an educator spent an hour and a half with him/her, focusing the first half an hour on acclimatizing the child to the space, first by his/herself and then with the other children. In that hour the child was encouraged to actively participate in the daily life of the nursery.
On the third day, the child arrived at 8:00 and spent two hours inside the school where he/she became an active participant in the Montessori work activities together with the other children. On the fourth and fifth days the child spent 3 to 4 hours at the school.
On the second week, the child stayed at the nursery from 4 to 6 hours until reaching complete orientation, which is 8 hours.
Once orientation was completed, the child became fully part of the class and immediately became participant in the active life of the school, marked by precise rhythms and schedules, such as welcoming and greeting, which are very important; Montessory Games and Sounds; the morning and afternoon excursion to a nearby park, lunch, nap, snack and free, creative games, where young people were able to express and discover their aptitudes and full potential.
Finally, in order to make our little ones feel comfortable and at home inside the nursery school, we organized an artistic-sensory workshop, where younger and older children made hand-prints and foot-prints with finger colors on a sheet of white paper and then glued small pieces of coloured tissue paper on to their “hand-print” tree, depicting the current season – autumn.
In addition, each newcomer, was photographed and inserted into the caterpillar-shaped album containing their photos with their dates of birth.
