Children are naturally curious and enthusiastic about their environment. We take advantage of this curiosity and give them an opportunity to have hands-on experience with basic, but fascinating experiments

Most of the experiments used have come from the Phanomenta Museum in Flensburg. Other experiments come from current magazines or from the children who bring ideas which they have tried at home.

One of the favourite experiments is a volacano.  First oil is poured in a beaker, next water is poured.  Since oil and water don't mix, they separate and the water, although poured second, works it way to the bottom of the beaker.  This separation is in itself fascinating to watch.  Next some ink is placed in the mixture, the ink only dissolves in the water and works it way as a mass slowly down through the oil.  The water is then coloured by the ink.  The last part of the experiement is to place a magnesium effervescent tablet in the beaker.  The tablet dissolves in the water and explodes iin the oil producing a fascinating volacanic effect.

Papilio® in Kindergarten

‘I‘m Heulibold, my mom forgot to wave!  ‘I feel like Freudibold, I cuddled with my mom all weekend, and I feel fine today.’  These are some of the comments that are heard from the children when asked how they are.  Rosella (our resident kobold or pixie) sits with us and listens to what we have to say.

Heulibold, Zornibold, Bibberbold and Freudibold are all pixies (kobolde) who Paula met in her grandparents’ attic.  They are part of the Papilio® programme. 

Papilio® is a developmentally focused intervention programme for preventing early-onset behavioural disorders (like aggressive behaviour and social withdrawal) and enhancing social-emotional competence in preschoolers.  There are three intervention levels - child-focused, teacher-focused and parent-focused.

Paula and the pixies in the box is one of the child-focused interventions.  It is an interactive story where Paula, a kindergarten girl meets four pixies who each represent one of the basic emotions (anger, sadness, fear and happiness).  With the help of the interactive story and songs, the children learn how to identify basic emotions that are described by the pixies, and how to control and communicate those feelings to others.

Toys-go-on-holiday day is another method, where the toys are put away for an entire day and the children are encouraged to use their creativity more and think of interactive activities and games where they play together and initiate new relationships and roles.

Papilio® is new in the Kindergarten with one colleague being trained.  The programme, which has been developed by the Beta Institute, is organised throughout Germany with very high success rates.