pefkites@gmail.com+30 698 4960821
Early childhood (2-5 years old) – Forest School "Pefkites"
There are 2 classes for this age, one on Tuesdays and Thursdays
on a weekly basis and one every second Sunday (5 mornings
every season until Summer). Our educational program in the
Forest which is metaphorically our “school” and our third teacher
(the first is ourselves, the second is the pedagogue) is under the
auspices of the Ministry of Education. So the Early Childhood
“class” meets every time in the same part of the forest with the
aim of creating familiarity and feelings of hospitality and comfort
in our young students. This is where Forest Pedagogy comes to
fully fulfill its role, aiming to create those experiences that shape
us during the first five years of our lives, without remembering it
growing up. Aiming for the free child!
Echoes of a Day
A small group of children under a plane tree with transparent yellow leaves make its own fairy tale, while the others perched on the bushes of neighboring bushes change associations and roles of social and fantastic play like clouds of autumnal sky. Fishing in the brook waiting for rain to gorge, with threads and yarn.
We followed the paths that the forest animals had opened, heard the chirping of the robin, and listened to the quiet and gentle song of the pine tree from the blizzard of the small field. We sang while returning our beloved and held hands:
Step by step, one – two!
Who passed by here?
Step by step a couple!
I alone can find it.
A halt stops, our hare goes on.
The hedgehog pinches, his foot pierces.
Step by step, one – two!
Who passed by here?
Step by step a couple!
I alone can find it.
Certainly this is a bird, the little crow.
Thick wild boar, dig a hole here.
A line is woven, the weasel rides.
Two lines on the snow, we all do circles.
Step by step, one – two!
Who passed by here?
Step by step a couple!
I alone can find it.
In the cold and snow, it progresses and does not freeze,
Two guys, would it be ….?
Surely the wolf will be!
The fox’s footsteps at every step of us, the roaring of the deer to welcome the coming cold season, though it still seems distant.
Back to the kindergarten, the Permaculture sustainability vegetable garden and the composting corner, the wooden boat, the sawdust of recycled materials that match the wood, the wooden slide that follows the downhill, hammocks rocking the sweet little kids sunshine of a soft sun, masquerades, kneading bread under the olive shade with the mustache we made by piercing our vines. Childish laughter, childish voices. Music toys, wooden animals and clay whistles to attract birds under the birdfeeder nest, our ‘messy maths’, the art of land and ephemeral (how fitting for their childhood!), a puppet theater, bilingual fairy tales and myths
PEDAGOGY OF THE FOREST
Τhe most comprehensive pedagogical approach to a full kinesthetic development with the heart, mind and hands. For children leading their lives.
STORYTELLING
Everything can be told a story: from the stick we share eachother sitting in our circle around the fire, to the blast of wind between the pinetree and the big rock at the edge of the clif. Spontaneous stories, but also ancient myths.
MUSIC
Percussion and wind instruments. But also objects that can produce music. Choreographic scores in space, sound movement coordination, free and directed improvisation (phonetic, kinetic, rhythmic, melodic) and kinetic perception exercises.
