COORDINATOR: YOUROU KALLIOPI – ENGLISH TEACHER

1) In the framework of the implementation of the Erasmus program and of my 1^st  Action «Dancing in English,» on 5/6/2018 the infants met the English teacher, the Children of 4^th  class and came in contact with the English lesson. They watched a video of the song «Make a Circle,» and the children of 4^th  class put them in a circle, collaborated harmoniously and taught them to sing and dance the song.

2) On the same day, 5/6/2018, a visit of the infants  to 6^th  and 2^nd  class  took place in order to come into experiential contact with the area and familiarize themselves with the teaching methods of the English course. The children taught the infants  an  English Action song for a family of animals and went out to the yard to dance it all together. So, a dancing company was created who enjoyed themselves while learning English. Infants  left  very excited  about elementary school and Foreign Language lesson.

First Action: «We Dance and  Learn  English with 4^th  Class «

On June 5th, 2018 the children of the Kindergarten met for the first time the teacher who will teach them English at Elementary School, Mrs. Yourou  Kalliopi, when they will attend the 1^st  grade. The meeting was made after an invitation they received from herself, through the kindergarten teacher  Dimitriadou Maria, written in English!

The Kindergarten teacher read in English and translated the content of the invitation to the infants, spoke to them about the foreign language they heard and explained that they would learn this language in the Primary School. On the scheduled day and time, they all went to the English  Classroom of our school during the English lesson of 4^th  class.. The pupils and the teacher  welcomed  the children of Kindergarten and their  teacher, they met each other in a cordial atmosphere and together they watched a video of the Action Song «Make a Circle». The children of 4^th  class  helped the infants form a circle all together, and they learned to sing and dance step by step the particular song, with music playing a catalytic role in the whole process of relaxation and acquaintance!

 2nd Action: » Dancing and Learning English with the 6th Class»

On the same day (5/6/2018), a visit of the infants to the 6th class was held  to bring the infants into contact with the Headmistress Mrs Lafara, the place, the children and the teachers plus to experience  the teaching of  English at the elementary school.

Mrs. Yourou, together with the children of the 6th grade opened up a big hug of welcome and love to the infants  and their teacher by  dancing and singing  for the them  an  English Action song about a family of animals. Then they all went out to the yard and they danced again the same song this time as a big company. A dancing company who was incredibly entertained while learning the English verse of the song! Infants left very happy and excited giving an appointment in September!

Ρesponsible teacher: Mrs. Marianthi  Oikonomou 

1st action: Getting acquainted with the lesson of Physical Education

On Tuesday,12^th  June  2018, the Physical Education Teacher, Mrs. Marianthi  Oikonomou, invited the infants during the Physical Education lesson with the 2^nd  grade to get in touch with one of the new lessons to be taught during the new school year .

They were separated into couples (a 2^nd grade child and a toddler) and played balloon cooperation games. The children had to move around the school yard, holding the balloon with several points in their body (head with a head, hand by hand, right foot with left foot, back to back …), following a specific route. A key prerequisite for success was their close cooperation to prevent the balloon from falling down. Then they exchanged passages with their pair using each other and a different body member according to the instructions (forehead, palm, knee, etc.).

2nd action: Infants participation in the final sports and cultural events of the school

The first contact of infants with the lesson of the education and the gymnast was incredibly entertaining and the infants expressed the desire to play the same game again. The gymnast therefore suggested and the infants accepted to repeat it with 2^nd  grade children, two days later, on 14 June 2018, in the context of sports and cultural events at the end of the school year of our school.

The events were attended for the first time with the whole school by the infants and their parents. The game they showed excited the audience and they were applauded.

1st action: Visit of infants in 2nd grade and presentation of their diet program – Breakfast and lunch with 2^nd class

On May 22, 2018, the infants visited the A1 class of our school, where they presented with their Kindergarten, Mrs. Dimitriadou Maria, part of the educational program they carried out in the school year 2017-18 on the issue the value of proper nutrition in children?s health. At the end of the event, infants received a suggestion from the 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Lioliou Olympia, to re-present the same program the next day, May 23, 2018 to the students of 2^nd class.

After the presentation of the toddler’s program at the school’s events venue, a breakfast meal was held in the 2nd classroom with the participation of the Director Mrs. Lafara Anastasia and the teacher Mrs. Tsantzou Eleni. The infants discussed with the teachers and the Director about the type and quality of the foods that included in their breakfast and of course, through the relaxed atmosphere created by the infants, they came close to the new environment and the teachers.

It was a very interesting, fun and very tender contact between infants and teachers who prepared and offered breakfast.

At the end of the event, the schoolteacher of 2^nd class, Mrs. Lioliou Olympia, invited the infants on June 5, 2018 in the courtyard of the school to celebrate together the World Environment Day.

2nd action: «Together A Day In The Air, Infants And 2^nd Class»

On the occasion of the World Environment Day on June 5^th , 2018, the infants and the children of the 2nd grade met again, this time in the school yard, with the aim of acquainting infants with the outdoors of the school. Children and teachers with the Director Mrs. Anastasia Lafara, planted, watered and treated flowers in the school garden. Each class sang their own songs, danced and felt warmth and intimacy.

3nd action: Breakfast action: «Having a breakfast Together, Infants And 2^nd Class»

We also invite infants in our class to take a breakfast all together, and get to know each other better. The climate was very friendly and warm and the children felt very nice and comfortable.

Resbosible teachers:Mrs. Lafara Anastasia ( School Director ) & Mr. Kolovos Georgios

During May and June 2018, the Special Education Teacher and Head of the School’s Integration Department, Mr. Kolovos Georgios, in cooperation with the Director Mrs. Lafara Anastasia, had several visits to kindergarten at regular intervals to investigate and detect the difficulties of infants.

They first met with the children, chatted with them, played and participated in kindergarten activities with the full help of the kindergarten teachers, who played a catalytic role in the issue of mutual acceptance and familiarity.

Within the above framework, Mr. Kolovos, in cooperation with both the Director and the kindergarten teachers, helped to identify the difficulties of some infants in understanding, accepting, responding to teaching, self-esteem, and expressing their  feelings (Gresham, 1991. Wolf & Bowers, 1999).

Joint activities were then carried out  to facilitate the expression of these difficulties and acceptance by both children themselves and by parents and educators (Miedel & Reynolds, 2000; Temple, Reynolds, & Miedel, 2000; Eiserman , Weber & McCoun, 1995; Park, Turnbull & Turnbull, 2002).

They were given instructions to deal with them in the kindergarten, at home and of course in the primary school, in order to continue and strengthen the effort for the next six years of study of these children, within a framework of mutual understanding and mutual support of all those involved in this process and mainly the children with positive results (Powell-Smith, Shinn, Stoner & Good, 2000; Thurston & Dasta, 1999).

2nd ACTION: «Expressing feelings by painting»

(EVALUATION OF A 1^st PHASE INTERVENTION FOR A REGULAR TRANSITION )

Responsible teacher: Tsantzou Helen

The teacher, Mrs. Tsantzou Helen, following the actions of acquaintance and familiarization of the infants with the new environment of the Primary School  implemented by the members of the pedagogical team participating in the Erasmus + program, proceeded to a next level.

With the help of the children of the 4^th grade and in cooperation with the Director Mrs. Lafara Anastasia, Dimitriadou Maria and Nikolaou Polyxeni, in a friendly and loving climate that was cultivated among other things through the participation of the infants in the exhibition of paintings of the school, she asked the infants to paint. They were asked to «talk» about how they feel about changing school and coming to elementary school, to talk, as Vygotsky says, about their own personal story (Brooks, 2009). To give with their paintings a message, to communicate their code, their contact (Goodnow, 1977). To draw emotions, experiences, but also to solve the possible problems and all these naturally incorporated in the context of their transition to the new school environment, the elementary school (Rudolph & Arheim, 1974).

The children of 4^th Class on the other hand took part in the whole process of expressing the feelings of infants with paintings, creating a friendly and emotional atmosphere. Through well-organized and targeted facilitating questions and discussions with infants with immediacy, spontaneity of age, and responsibility as a product of prior preparation, they helped infants relax and express their feelings through painting.

The questions that were used were:

– What are you painting?

– How do you feel about changing school?

– What makes you nervous?

– What makes you happy?

– What would you like your class to have?

– would you like to have a Mr or a Mrs as a teacher? How would you like him or her to be?

At the end of the activity, when the teacher Mrs.  Tsantzou asked the infants to give her their drawing as a memento, they all gladly accepted to do so.

When the infants returned to kindergarten, the working groups of the 4^th grade pupils filled out the replies – statements given by the infants during the activity on a worksheet.

Then, the children’s paintings were evaluated on the basis of the study by Evi Crotti & Alberto Magni » How to Interpret Children’s Drawings – The Children’s Secret Language «. Evi Crotti, a psychologist and educator, and Alberto Magni, a physician with psychosomatic, forensic and psychotherapy, argue that «The needs of a young child, which may not be expressed in words, clearly leave their traces on paper: designs, colours, smudges … «.

Within the above interpretive framework, the elements of a painting that show anxiety and insecurity (Crotti & Magni, 2004) are:

? Very intense and repeated erasure.

? Illustrations low on the page (Figures 1 and 3)

? Unusually small drawings (Fig. 1)

? Gentle colors

? Excessive shade (fig.3)

? Lack of symmetry in the drawings (Fig. 2)

Some of these elements were observed in three drawings:

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Elements that show feelings of security and self-confidence are:

? Colours in the center of the page or high on the page

? Certain clear lines

? Bright and vibrant colors

? Big-sized designs

? Smiling faces

? Illustration of large trees with outstretched branches and obvious roots

The majority of infants’ designs had enough of these elements.

What the children ‘paintings said’ were also confirmed by the infants themselves in their interview (See presentation: «EXPRESSING FEELINGS THROUGH PAINTING «)

The coding, analysis and exploration of open-ended and closed-type questions was done through holistic approaches to the context that co-ordinates the understanding of things. They have been processed using the method of speech analysis, which allows for in-depth investigation and interpretation in relation to the causes that led the subjects to express specific views or behaviors and not only in relation to the content of thoughts, opinions and their practices (Cohen, Manion, 1994. Iosifidis, 2003).

Initially, a critical review of the questions selected to strengthen the participants was attempted in the belief that the human factor can change his own life and trust the prospect that the environments can become developmental. Research is approached in the belief that the action of researchers is able to maximize self-awareness as a player in everyday life as a catalyst for positive change, thus gaining a dialectic distance from events (Bogdan & Bilken, 1982. Kincheloe, 2003 ). Thus, through the understanding that leads to the interpretation of behaviors and attitudes, it is possible to discover the possibilities for a change.

In addition, people choose their language or the repertoires they will use depending on what they want to achieve each time  and in relation to the specific conditions, eventually constructing a version of reality among many others (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) the reliability and validity of research is the result of statistical processing and careful analysis and interpretation (Mishler, 1996).

The material of the present study is 14 questionnaires distributed to adults, parents of infants, as well as notes from previous pilot discussions (Bell, 1997. Cohen, Manion, 1994. Filias, 2000)

Infants-questionnaires

The theoretical approach to the issues that were initially evaluated and re-evaluated as important and necessary to understand and interpret the phenomenon of transition from the kindergarten to elementary school, initially formed the axes of the interview that was to be structured, including as simple as possible and understandable questions that give answers about research goals (Bell, 1997). Of course, the free conversations that preceded with people of the nearby environment of the infants, wherever possible, helped (Cohen, Manion, 1994).

The collection of the material that took place in June 2018, followed by statistical data processing and statistical analysis (Filia, 2000), which led to the following results:

Conclusions of action

Evaluation of the Phase Intervention Program

Infants with their paintings «declared» in their majority optimistic and happy about coming to the Primary School. On the 8th of  June 2018, the action had almost completed the first phase of the intervention program for their smooth transition. The educational team that implemented it interpreted the results of the activity as an indicator of the achievement of its objectives.

ACTION 1: An acquaintance visit- A new elementary lesson: «The Flexible Zone»

On May 9th 2018, the first visit of the infants to the A2 class was held – the second in a row visit to the classroom – for the purpose of getting acquainted with the children of Primary School. The students of the A2 class with their teacher Mrs. Christidou Olga welcomed with great pleasure the children of Kindergarten and their kindergarten, Mrs. Dimitriadou Maria! After meeting and introducing themselves, the children of the Primary School presented the lessons included in the program and focused on the Flexible Zone Lesson.

Then Mrs. Christidou referred to the educational program that was carried out by the A2 class with the title «FINDING THE ALPHABET AND ALL THE TRUTH IN AESOP?S FAIRYTALES». The pupils of the class read and presented Aesop’s tales, sang, danced and painted them along with the infants.

The infants were enthusiastic about the idea of ??learning the alphabet through fairy tales and asked to take part in some way in the A2 class program. After discussion, it was decided to involve the infants with their own events in the final presentation of the program and two appointments were scheduled on May 30 and June 6 to make common rehearsals.

The first visit of the infants to the A2 class ended with free play in the courtyard of the school.

2nd ACTION: Presentation of A2 class training program

On Wednesday, June 13, 2018, at 6.30 pm, the students of the A2 class together with their teacher ended the school year with a summer celebration, in which they presented with the infants their educational program title » FINDING THE ALPHABET AND ALL THE TRUTH IN AESOP?S FAIRYTALES».

The pupils of the Elementary School and the infants animated the Aesop’s myths with a very humorous mood. They dramatized Aesop’s tales, danced and sang them, with great success in front of their parents and classmates.