Pre-school

Interest in learning is stimulated playfully in children from 3 to 6 years, while valuing the correct use of the spoken language and promoting creativity. “Pre-School Education is the first step of the basic education that is part of our life’s education. It complements family education, so it should be made in strict cooperation with families and foster training and the well-balanced development of the child, considering their full integration in society as an autonomous, free, and supportive being.” We are responsible for defining adequate strategies to educate children with quality and meet children’s needs. Because Pre-School Education encompasses ages from three to six years, we should always bear in mind the development of each age range. In this 3-year range (from 3 to 6 years), interest in learning is stimulated playfully, valuing the correct use of the spoken language, promoting creativity and problem-solving, and strengthening self-esteem and self-confidence as an essential factor for learning. Goals:

• Stimulate group work by developing cooperation, tolerance, and respect for others.
• Foster critical thinking by teaching how to behave, share, respect, listen to others.
• Teach new work methods that foster autonomy.
• Develop abilities/skills such as manipulating, experimenting, discovering, sorting, calculating, relating, classifying, comparing, inferring.
• Stimulate verbal communication using games, rhymes, tongue twisters, songs, stories, and free expression.
• Establish and strengthen engagement with adults and their peers, by fostering respect for others.
• Stimulate parental cooperation in daily activities by promoting the home/school exchange that is extremely important for the educational process.

The methodology applied follows the principles of João de Deus. Many mathematical activities suggested in Pre-School are explored through the manipulation of both structured and unstructured materials. Some of those materials are: Fröebel’s Gifts, Cuisenaire Bars, Abacus, Papy Calculators, Logic Blocks, Geoboards, and Tangrams.