About Us
The Port Elliot Kindergarten is a purpose-built building with a spacious, bright interior and a large verandah space for all-weather outdoor playing. We provide a responsive learning environment for preschool children, enriched and supported by close family and community liaison, and caring staff.
Kindergarten Meaning
The word kindergarten comes from German language.
Kinder means children and garten means garden.
Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) started the first kindergarten, Garden of Children, in 1840 and the word kindergarten was invented by Froebel, symbolizing his vision for early childhood education:
“Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.”
Froebel was an educator who believed in self-activity and hands-on learning for children. He also had a love for nature, science and mathematics. Kindergarten was a place where children could develop and flourish freely through self- directed play under the guidance, not direction, of the teacher.
Froebel’s kindergarten was filled with objects for children to play with. He developed a set of gifts and occupations. These were designed to help children recognize and appreciate patterns in nature and introduce them to basic concepts of science, geometry and architecture. The occupations provided material such as clay, sand, paper and string to build skills such as sculpting, lacing, weaving and folding, and to stimulate imagination, creativity and ingenuity.
The word kindergarten also translates into garden for children. A piece of land was an important part of the kindergarten, which was a place where children could interact with nature as well as play, plant, nurture, explore, observe and discover.
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