14th PROJECT 2021/22
Frlinček from the Rainbow land of Ordo, travelled around in a rainbow bubble and suddenly landed unexpectedly at Trnovo Kindergarten. He was on a special mission. In his land, everything use to be in order, people were laughing and everyone was happy until something unusual happened. A mischievous elf sneaked into the land and spread magic dust all over the town clock, causing it to stop and turning everything upside down. Frlinček wondered: “What happened to my Rainbow land?” Determined to solve the mystery and help restore order, magic, vigour, and friendship to his homeland, he set off on a quest on a rainbow. As he landed at the kindergarten, many surprized faces stared at him. The children were very happy to meet him and showed him warm hospitality.
At first, Frilinček visited the children and spent time with them to get to know each other better, sharing information about his home and family and comparing his land with ours. Diverse and emotionally immersive games and activities with Frlinček guided the children towards creating “kindergarten in the colours of a rainbow”, where he almost felt at home. The exploration broadened the children’s imaginations, strengthened their vocabulary and introduced new ideas and concepts.
One cold morning, the children were shocked when they arrived at the kindergarten. The whole place was a mess. Slippers and toys were hanging everywhere, and tables and chairs were upside down. The children and Frlinček wondered who could have caused this mess and deliberated on how to re-establish the order they were used to. They explored how a space affects harmony in our lives, why order is necessary, what purpose it serves, how we feel when everything is in order and how to achieve it.
In a creative and innovative way that was also understandable to the children, they explored the purpose and identifying space as part of quality of life throughout the first phase, encompassing building space, personal space, communication, energy, the world of fairy tale, imaginary worlds and more. Each group approached their diverse tasks and challenges in their own way to achieve the overall goal. Numerous suggestions, ideas, new strategies, knowledge and experiences, plans and sketches led to creative ideas about how to restore order both in kindergarten and in Rainbow land. Their strong commitment to help Frlinček solve the issue guided them to the second phase, which involved exploring the world’s cuisines, eating habits and cultures, table manners and variety of spices that provide the needed energy, as the people in Rainbow land claimed. Discovery and inquiry based activities allowed the children to gain new information and insights, realizing how diverse their knowledge about healthy food was. The knowledge gained during the first and second phase was used by the children when diving into the exploration within the third and final phase. Learning about and exploring time and traveling through time led the children to discover that a circle of friends was what Frlinček needed to restore order in his Rainbow land. Being devoted friends, the children created a special, spectacular clock – a wheel of time/life/friendship that would run the time in Rainbow land. That would restore order in Ordo land and return everything to how it was before the mischievous elf broke the clock and stopped time.
All the adventures, accompanied by different challenges, were presented at the Open kitchen/market at the end of the school year, to which we invited the parents as well. The event concluded with a circle of friendship that allowed Frlinček to return home. We were happy that the spectacular wheel of time, created throughout the story and play, helped Frlinček and his friends in Rainbow Land start time again and restore order, along with wellbeing and good relationships among the inhabitants.
Research areas: DAILY ROUTINE – in relation to other curricular areas such as science, society, movement, language, mathematics, social curriculum and fundamental human activities
The daily routine is an area through which children grow up and develop. It is a part of our everyday life and an important part of implemented curriculum, intertwining like a thread through various activities and life in kindergarten. The annual motivation and challenge for conducting action research and exploration of daily routine in all its diversity were maintained by our pedagogical puppet. The puppet and its interesting story, supported by research questions, led us throughout different phases on the path of discovering new materials, setting research questions and searching for new challenges, working methods and more. The exploration and discovery of the daily routine were done through an open structure of activities, work, and play, providing wellbeing for everyone, a feeling of security, concentration, belonging and calmness; a feeling that everything is all right. Frlinček and his story allowed us to implement new activities that helped us better understand ourselves and the world around us, as well as to organise and fulfil our plans, gain different insights and experiences, and contribute to principles such as belonging, being part of, and coexisting in the creation of our world all through active participation and creativity. We found that time, place and tidiness had an important impact on our harmony and wellbeing.
The story of Frlinček also took place in kindergartens in France and Greece at the same time.
