Our kindergarteners (children from three to six) are divided into age-groups of not more than 25 and not less than 10 children. Our goal at kindergarten level is develop a sense of identity, independence and skills.

•  At the kindergarten level a sense of identity is achieved when children feel at ease and secure and able to face new social situations with ease.
•  At the kindergarten level independence is achieved when children begin to trust in themselves and others, and take pleasure in doing things for themselves, knowing how and when to ask for help.
•  At the kindergarten level being skilled implies learning how to reflect on ones own experiences through exploration, observation and comparison and describe them so that they can be shared understood by others.
•  Our aim, therefore, is to develop children who are independent, able to fend for themselves and curious. We want them to become aware of their own potential and how to achieve it – a well-adjusted people in a well-adjusted environment. At the kindergarten along with content we offer children the tools they need in order to learn for themselves.

In our kindergarten we define our program on the basis of what the children are interested in. There are different ways to find out what these interests are. One of these is called ‘circle time’.

In our kindergarten the teachers listen to the children as they speak freely and take note of what they are interested in so that can devise activities based on those interests, always keeping in mind the goals that the school has set for itself. This requires a certain flexibility on the part of the teachers.

By offering motor, verbal, logical, musical, scientific, social, spatial and artistic experiences, in our kindergarten teachers enable children to acquire the skills set out by the ministry of education: a critical sense and the ability to interpret reality in a creative way.

In kindergarten programming according to ‘areas of interest’ involves what is referred to as the ‘theory of multiple intelligences’. At kindergarten level language, music, art, science, body movement and sharing are all part of our daily activities.
This year we have modified our kindergarten program in line with new norms set down for nursery schools by the Ministry of Public Education no. 6, of July 31, 2007.

At the kindergarten level, the French- Italian- and English-speaking teachers alternate between the three different classes (3-year-olds, 4-year-olds and 5 year-olds) throughout the week.
At the kindergarten level the teachers speak in their mother-tongue languages so that the children experience them as live and pertinent to their everyday activities.
In our kindergarten teachers speak in their mother-tongue languages:

•  During free play,
•  During organized games,
•  When reading stories,
•  When singing and reciting,
•  While putting away toys,
•  At snacktime and lunch,
•  At nap time.

The teachers in our kindergarten make a conscious effort to…

•  Transmit their own cultures and customs to the children in a natural, spontaneous way.
•  They share their own traditions and those of children in the class coming from other cultures.

•  Me and the other.
  Big questions, moral considerations, living together.
•  Body and movement.
  Identity, independence, health.
•  Language, creativity, expression. 
  Movement, art, music, multi-media,
•  Speaking and words. 
  Communication, language, culture.
•  The world around us 
  Order, measure, space, time, nature.

In kindergarten the school day is divided between routine and free time in specific areas set up for these purposes and structured time with the teacher.

In kindergarten structured time is conducted by the teacher and varies according to what the children show interest in.
In kindergarten structured activities center around socialization in large groups, learning to respect the rules for getting along in groups and introducing children to new materials and experiences. La Maisonnette considers free play time indispensable to a child’s development. In kindergarten physical, emotional and intellectual skill develop naturally during free play. This is why we plan regular intervals in which the children are free to do as they like.

In kindergarten after lunch children who wish to may take a nap. There is always a teacher with them who helps them relax by softly singing and reciting nursery rhymes. In kindergarten the teachers use their mother-tongue languages throughout these activities so that the children become accustomed to considering them natural. In kindergarten we organize the school day according to a schedule, paying great attention to free time and structured time.

In our kindergarten we organize folders for all the parents at the end of the year containing all the work, drawings and photographs done by the children over the year at kindergarten level.

In our kindergarten we offer the following laboratories as part of our educational program at the kindergarten level: art, music, theatre, expression and scientific managed by top professionals in the various fields.

At kindergarten level, we insist upon having specialists in each of the fields and this shows the importance we place on permanent formation and pure creativity, understood as the development of critical thinking.

At kindergarten level the children participate in out-of-school activities regularly throughout the year. They include corresponding with children in French and English schools, going to the theatre, libraries, museums, archeological sites and trips to places in Italy and abroad.

In the last year of kindergarten La Maisonnette introduces children to reading and writing through a series of projects, for example by providing the children with ‘mail boxes’ so that they can write to each other during the day without the help of teachers.
The second step in kindergarten is to write to children in other schools with the help of the teachers. Pre-math exercises are geared to the interests of the children.
In kindergarten this meta-learning process introduces children to, and gets them interested in, what they will be learning in first grade at kindergarten level.