A Typical Day at the Asilo - PART 1

Although, just like at Danz, when working with children, each day is different, we try to stay with our schedule in order to keep things moving and get the kids in a healthy routine.

My alarm goes off, it’s 9:30am, I jump into the shower; throw on some jeans and a plain t-shirt, grab a brioche, and I’m out the door by 9:55am. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the Asilo is only a short five-minute, or less, walk away. When I arrive its usually around 10am or a little earlier. I ring the pager and the front gate opens for me.

Right away I head into my classroom, where I work along side another teacher. Usually in the morning when I arrive, the kids are already working on some kind of project. Today, the kids were creating their “Prima e Dopo” artworks. “Prima e Dopo” literally just means “before and after/later”, in other words, they were supposed to create a picture that showed how they looked when they were little and how they look now. Many of the kids created houses, rooms, and their families, simply with marks and paper. Other’s tore color paper and pasted shapes of their homes and families, which they later drew on details, like faces and hands. 

Personally I found this project as a great opportunity for the kids to draw with freedom, creativity, yet it also made them think. Often kids their age (5/6 years old) don’t acknowledge that they used to be little, I think it was a very smart way for the kids to learn more about the process of life, growing, and to reflect how they’ve changed.

A student working on the art project. (Asilo Website)

After we’ve worked for a while, we usually head outside for a recess break in the garden. There the kids can ride little bikes, discover animals and bugs in the garden, play pretend in their little houses, and much more. This is where I learned a lot of Italian childhood games that I never knew before. We played games like “Strega, Tocca, Colore” which is  a game where the person who is ‘it’ is the “strega” (witch). Whoever is the witch says “Strega, tocca, colore… “ANY COLOR”, and the rest of the kids have to go touch the color that the witch said, during this time the witch can try to tag the kids who haven’t touched the color yet. 

This game was the perfect time for me to slide in a little “color” lesson in English. I had the kids play the game with English colors so they could learn, in this case I was always the witch and would call the colors first in English, waited a bit, and then said it in Italian for those who didn’t catch on right away. It was great practice and a lot of fun for the kids; they really wanted to learn so that they wouldn’t get tagged!

*post continued on the next entry*