Dreams Corner, Inclusive Education Center Beclean, Bistrița-Năsăud

Pre-School students realized that something is missing in their classroom. The missing thing was a space where there will be toys and educational materials. All involved decided that it is time to take action to make this dream a reality.

We started to organize our work and took our responsibilities very seriously and we also asked others to support us. We received support and encouragement from others and everyone who learned about our project said that ”playing, toys and games are an important tool in early childhood education helping students develop intellectual, creative, logic, communication, emotional and physical competencies

We decided to build a ”Dreams corner” because we believed in our mission to make this dream a reality. We made a plan, a list of toys and games, we looked for sponsor and started our journey.

Change Story facilitated by CÎRLEJAN ANICA.

List the problems identified by the pupils:

Children's wish to play inside the classroom when they have some time off, when the weather is not nice and participate to therapy sessions using movement and games
Lack of toys and games they could use inside the classroom
Lack of a designated space for such activities

Explain the problem and why it was chosen.

The classroom is a space where the students spend most of their time. The classroom is clean and welcoming but is missing games and toys.

The lack of toys and games makes us sad and upset. We realized that a first step would be to learn that games/toys are useful and offer an opportunity for students to discover and learn how things work, but also how to communicate with others, play new roles, learn to be honest, respect the rules, work in teams, develop fair play spirit and become more collaborative. There so we started to reach for help and we found people who were interest to help and together we decided that WE CAN TOO.

What people are most affected by this problem? What bothers them?

The students, some parents and the teacher

List all the solutions that you thought of

Find sponsors to help us with this problem
Find some space in the classroom we could designate for games
Get to know each other
Learn to work as a team
Spend the time in an useful an pleasant way with our classmates and with students from other schools.
Engage in fun and educational activities

Which of these solutions was chosen to implement and why?

We decided to build in our classroom a space where we could dream:

- we organized an exhibition with our favorite toy

- we marked the space inside the classroom for our activity

- we organized games and competitions opened to all students

Briefly describe the process of implementing your solution/solutions.

We decided to divide the work among ourselves, each one of us felt inspired by our motto I CAN:

- Superman and Spiderman - our superheroes were in charge of the space. They moved out the tables and shelves we never used to create space.

- Snow white - the hard working princess together with the cleaning lady cleaned out the space.

- Two strong dwarfs from our story together with other classmates made our dream classroom a reality

What are the results or the impact of your project?

After we organized the space we invited other school mates to see what we accomplished. They were very excited to see our work but were also wondering how we were able to build such a wonderful space.

We had courage on our side especially after we shared with them our experiences and feedback. We are superheroes and Superheroes CAN!

How many people benefited from your solution?

10 - 20 people

What did the people who benefited from the solution say? Write 2 quotes or opinions.

One of the mothers who comes to school everyday with her son said " playing is crucial for the development of children and through games they develop basic skills and competencies"

Another teacher said " When you play you use all the senses (visual, touching, hearing, tasting) and for this reasons playing is the first stage of learning and creativity activity" Congratulations!

What difficulties did you encounter while implementing the project and how did you overcome them?

Lack of sponsors but in the end all went well

How long did it take to implement the solution?

15 - 30 days

What did you do to promote the project in your school or in the community? With whom did the pupils talk to about the project? What answers did they receive?

We asked for directors permission to look for sponsors. We were also helped by school staff and older classmates. We felt supported.

Approximately, with how many people did you talk to about the project?

10 people

Briefly, how do you plan on sustaining the project in the future?

We realized we can too, we are now brave and even if we are young we had decided to not think about our problems. There there is hope - The Dreams Corner is now a reality and is available for all students who can all enjoy educational activities through play and positive atmosphere.

Kid Laughing "Wisdom and my love are like playing”( Lucian Blaga)