PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITIES FOR KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN THAT AIM AT ENHANCING THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF GREEK.

Since the school year 2011-2012, the KESPEMs have been organizing activities for kindergarten children that aim at enhancing their knowledge of the Greek language. In the current school year (2012-2013), there are three sections of the classes where such activities take place in the KESPEM of Komotini, two in the KESPEM of Xanthi, and one in the KESPEM of Echinos. Each section has 10 to 13 children. In total, 101 children take part in these classes. The activities, with their creative features that are meaningful for children, help them in the acquisition of Greek language, and use of the children’s mother tongue as a support language. The classes are taught either by teachers who are members of the Minority and graduates from a Greek university, or by teachers who are members of the Majority, in cooperation with a teacher who speaks the mother tongue of the children. The teachers, while conducting these classes, also go through a continuous training process, with frequent training sessions, and they are in an even more frequent contact with the coordinators of the KESPEM classes.

In the school year 2013-2014 pedagogical activities for kindergarten children were organized at the central KESPEMs of Komotini and Xanthi and at the peripherals of Selero, Ehinos, Iasmos and Sapes. 155 kids were taking part in the activities.

The educational activities for kindergarten kids continue through the school year 2014-2015. The sections started at the beginning of October at the KESPEM of Komotini, Xanthi, Selero, Ehinos and Sapes. The number of registered kids was 122 (February 2015).

During the extension of the Project, in the school year 2015-2016, the activities of the kindergarten kids started on October at the KESPEM of Evlalo and on November at the central KESPEM of Xanthi and Komotini and at the peripheral KESPEM of Selero. 91 kids have been registered to the classes (December 2015)

Within the framework of these activities, the children …

...learn to share...

...learn to cooperate…

…and to produce works collectively.

They study and examine books ...

… and often imagine what comes next in the stories that they read, and show what they imagine in their drawings.

Through many and various books for children that they study, but also through games often around their names, the kids get acquainted with the Greek alphabet.

The children seem to enjoy their participation, and, as the year moves on, they learn to work as a team, and also to communicate, in an increasing frequency, in the Greek language.

Similar pedagogical activities for small children are also conducted at primary schools of villages where there are no KESPEMs.