"Giving Voices to Kindergarten Children"

 in 2nd Kindergarten Agiou Mina, Chios Greece

Full of joy, excited and happy to finally get to know the project participants not only virtually, but to be able to get in touch directly, we all set out to meet us on Monday, October 18, 2021, to our Chios to get to know your first mobility in the Erasmus project Change Your Mind 4.0.

First we will know the partner institution, Mrs. Sevie Paida showed us the kindergarten and told the story of how the kindergarten came into being. She explained the daily routine to us, the family backgrounds from which the children visit the facility, and she showed us the various functional areas in which the children learn to play in the facility every day and together.

Then we played games with the children so that the children could get to know the teachers in other countries. We also sang, danced and talked about the different countries. Then Mrs. Paida showed us a corner in which they complete a special training program.

It consists of two chairs a chair and a mouth glued on and a chair on which an ear is placed. And with the help of these objects, if the children get into a conflict, they can share their feelings, their negotiation strategy and their outcome in resolving the conflict.

Also visible in the corner that children were asked about their feelings every day.

On the following day we presented and played the games from the individual countries on emotions with the children. We were also able to get to know Maria, the English teacher, who visits the facility every week to get to know the English language with the children. Together we sang a song about how nice and easy it is to share things. We have planted a tree of peace together, symbolizing a strong, peaceful Europe.

In a further training we got to know the scientific background of conflict research. We looked at film sequences from the USA where it was important how educators behave when children get into conflict. Together we worked out parallels to democracy, pedagogy and conflict resolution in group work.

After visiting different cultural sites and also being invited to a press conference by the island's political representatives. On Thursday afternoon we evaluated the experiences of the project week together and discussed further project dates and set them in writing.

It was a very informative and stimulating mobility. Each partner organization was suddenly able to choose suitable methods and techniques for emotional intelligence, for solution strategies in conflict situations and to implement the appropriate ones in practice. In the next virtual training session, we would like to present what the partnerships have tried, what is being worked on and what has proven to be effective and positive for them.

Then came the time to say goodbye. We would like to say thank you to the partners from Greece.