ABOUT OUR SCHOOL
Yakacık Balkanlar Private Primary School is a modern education institution which educates pre-schoolers (aged 3-5) and primary school students (aged 6-14). In our school we teach students two foreign languages, English and German. In our school, the lessons start at 9 a.m and ends at 4.00 pm. Our school's education system is based on learning through experience. This system is supported by social activities, educational school trips and the projects which are prepared by the students. All these studies in which we aim to develop our system are led by the teachers who have great knowledge about their field and are chosen elaborately.
Our school is centerally located on the Anatolian Part of İstanbul. Each public transportation system is available to get to our school building. Our school is also in 15 minutes distance to Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. There is a variety of shopping malls in our schools vicinity. As Balkanlar Private Primary School we are a big family and we will be glad to welcome you as our guests.
Yakacık Balkanlar College has deserved to get this certificate with the Project called “Young Thinkers” by cooperating with Southwater Academy in the United Kingdom. Philosophy for Children’ ( P4C) is being carried out actively in our school.
COMENIUS DEPARTMENT
• Neyyire BATU (School Principal)
• Suna KAYAR (Kindergarten Principal)
• Yeşim SARI (Head of Foreign Languages Department)
• Seçil YORULMAZ (Consultant)
• Merve ULUSU ( English Teacher)
• Özge ÖZGÜLENÇ ( English Teacher)
• Çiğdem UZUNKAYA ( English Teacher)
• İrem KARAMAN ( English Teacher)
• Mehtap SAY ( English Teacher)
• Sevcan TEMEL ( English Teacher)
• Ayçagül AKAR (German Teacher)
• Celal ÖZLÜ (Information Technology Studies Teacher)
• İpek Müşerref ÖZDEMİR (Kindergarten Teacher)
• Zeynep TAT (Kindergarten Teacher)
• Peruze ÖZER(Kindergarten Teacher)
• Sümeyya KILIÇ (Kindergarten Teacher)
Our Comenius Projects
• The name of the Project: ‘”Philosopher Kids” ( Philosophy for Children – P4C)
• The name of the Project: “ Let’s Recreate”
EUROPEAN UNION COMENIUS PROJECT
YAKACIK BALKANLAR PRIVATE NURSERY SCHOOL
The name of the Project: ‘”Philosopher Kids” ( Philosophy for Children – P4C)
The Partners of the Project:
THE MAIN IDEA OF THE PROJECT
The aim of this Project is to support the children's thinking abilities about the important subjects for them. Also, this project aims at teaching children to think about the causes and effects of the situation they are in.Philosophy for children basically aims to teach children thinking, brainstorming and mind-opening activities.
Our main purpose is to teach how to think instead of what to think. Besides, children can think philosophically and we demonstrate it by making it funny for all children in all ages.Children can improve their thinking skills in early childhood, they will think more flexible and effective in the future. Children can learn to explore new ideas by reading poems and stories which are funny for them. According to this aim, we are going to teach the philosophers of the future how to think creatively by using the intercultural communication systems.
WHY DO WE DO THIS PROJECT?
In the research of the philosophy for children, the effectiveness of this program shows us that this is supported by the critical thinking skills, maths, development of language skills, and creativity. The philosophical experiences of children, mostly depends on vices like telling the truth, being nice to other people, being fair.
THE VISION OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHILDREN PROJECT IS SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE OF
THE ASPECTS BELOW:
*The children will be aware of their own problems
*The children will explore new ideas by thinking significant topics
*The improving of the thinking skills
*They create new ideas by thinking about situations with the different point of views.
JUNIOR PHILOSOPHERS -APPLICATION STAGE
• The presentation of the Stimulant: In the training field of the philosophical activities, the educator presents a stimulant. The aim is to draw attention of the children. This stimulant can be a story, a memory, a picture or a photograph. However, reading a story can be more beneficial, but only if the story is short. The focusing on and analyzing of the main point can be difficult for the community if the story is long and if it includes a lot of pictures. To sum up, children can communicate better if the seating plan is in a circle.
• THE IDENTIFICATION OF IMPORTANT SUBJECTS:
After telling the story to the kids, the kids identify the highlights of the story according to their point of views, and start asking questions related with the story. For example, a story about a kid who is lying to a friend can make the kids think: Why do people lie? This focuses on the aim of the generalization that takes part beyond the story. The educator's general aim has to be encouraging kids to ask their questions, instead of asking himself.
The teacher shouldn't judge the student's questions, and also more importantly shouldn't label any of the questions as right or wrong. If it is needed, the teacher can ask questions in regard of directing them.
Kids who encounter such an occasion at first sight can have difficulties of asking questions. The teacher has to be patient and the teacher should do question-answer activities while reading the stories. The wh-questions (who/when/what/where) asked by the teacher in the first round can be a helpful drill, and then the students can be encouraged to do so. As the philosophical activities start to take place more often, the children can start to ask more meaningful questions.
• INTERROGATIVE GROUP:
During the philosophical practices for the children, the children think about the questions, they interact with each other and they search for the answers of their qustions, and they discuss about the answers. In the interrogation group, the children produce their own hypothesis, such an example: “Mothers know the best, do the best”. Then, they discuss the pro and cons, they qustion their friends’ ideas, and they finally come to state a result, and they watch all the stated brainstorming process written above.
The interrogation group also has an advantage of gaining some social assets. The children here learn to share their ideas, participate in their ideas, listen to their friends patiently. The children set up their own ideas.
• EVALUATION
The aim in the philosophical activities of children isn’t to find accurate answers. However, the main aim is to make children get better when asking qustions and answering them. And also, supporting them on the social skills and cognitive development. At the end of the discussion, the members of the group should evaluate themselves by asking these questions:
• Did we listen to each other?
• Did all of us speak?
• Did we think today?
• Are we interested in what we thought?
• How did we treat to each other today?
• Did we ask any question?
• CONSOLIDATION ACTIVITIES
The consolidation activities include activities such as painting, playing games, discussing with the family members and sharing their ideas with their friends.
• THE STEPS OF EVALUATION
1- The content, method and time
2- Interrogating the person himself and the group he is in
3- The thinking abilities: creativity, critical point of view, logic, the interest to daily events, freedom, the ability to state the point of view clearly.
4- The manners: being helpful, empathy, pairwork, self esteem, personal manners.
• THE IMPORTMANT ASPECTS OF EVALUATION
a) The children’s own evaluation of themselves (by writing, speaking, drawing etc.)
b) The person who does the job evaluates himself
c) The evaluation of the person who does the job by the participants
d) Vice versa
• MATERIALS OF EVALUATION
1- Written/ drawn/ daily feedback
2- Video scenes/ adapting/ analysis
3- Group discussion
4- Interrogation
5- Different point of views
6- Creative homework
THE AIMS OF THE PROJECT
• It improves the social skills such as listening, speaking, playing which are based on reading and writing.
• To encourage the kids to show their feelings
• To improve the knowledge of words
• To improve the self esteem of the kid and the learning abilities
• To improve the decission making skills
• To gain the ability to understand the world around them
THE DUTY SHARING
All the partners will be directly involved in the Project. There will be two kinds of activities: In the first group, we will work together with the partner; in the second phase we will share the activities that we seperately held on our own schools. As the coordinator country, Turkey, will give information about the Project period and sending e-mails. The meetings will be held which we discuss the project’s process. Each country will hold the meetings. Only the teachers visit the other countries. Each partner school will prepare Project corner or room to share the materials.
The materials about the Project will be shared vith the internet site of our school. In this website we will continue to share the activities. You can also send and share your activities from our website.
COMMUNICATION AND COOPERATION
The partner schools can use the online internet/telephone or fax. The partners can visit each other, and they can prepare surveys and brochurs.
As stated above the website is being prepared by the coordinator, by that way the teachers can share the knowledge. In the website, you can share new games, and give information about the new methods. If necessary you can contact online.
• The Name of the Project: “ Let’s Recreate”
The name of the Project: “ Let’s Recreate”
EUROPEAN UNION COMENIUS PROJECT
YAKACIK BALKANLAR PRIVATE PRIMARY SCHOOL
The Partners of the Project:
The Main Idea of The Project
The main idea of our project is that the students in the project are going to recreate new things from the daily objects they use each day by using their creativity and imagination. While they are thinking about what they can recreate with the objects around them, they will improve their imagination and creativity. This programme both improves the students’ ability of expressing themselves and their creativity by using their own manual skills and also it makes us understand that everything is valuable because it encourages us to use the objects we have around us.
Do you want to improve your creativity by using daily objects to recreate new things? If you want, come and take part in our entertaining journey.
Why Do We Do This Project?
In today’s developing world students see lots of different technological objects around them and use them. As many technological equipments around us have already been created and designed for us, our job is just to use them when we need them. It is possible to show our secret abilities by taking part in practical studies to recreate new models by using these objects around us. So in the process of our project the students recreate new things by bringing the diffrent materials together and involving their creativity. The students will create new things that will improve their imagination and the ability of concentration.
Why Is “Let’s Create” Project So Important?
• This project strengthens the idea of the group work between the students both by encouraging them to use their imagination and the body skills.
• This project improves both imagination and the concentration of the students during the recreation process of the new objects.
• This project makes the students come across with new materials and it also teaches the students how to use their materials in an order and carefully.
• The group works that the students of the same age take part in are very important for their social lives. This project also teaches them how to help each other while they are enjoying producing of something.
The Process of “Let’s Create” Project
We want all students to use daily objects around them and put them together to recreate a new and different object. We can also call this project “Recreation Project”. The recreation period of the new object will take two hours. During this time the students will both use their imagination and enjoy themselves.
The objects that we throw away in our daily life can be the best materials for us to use in our project. The recreation works that are done by these waste objects will also encourage our students to reuse the things that they use in their daily lives. It will also makes the students be aware of the idea of recycling. You don’t need to use new objects for the project. You can use rolls of toilet paper, plastic bags, the tops of plastic bottles, the cartons of milk and the others. Working with the waste objects will make the students be aware of the pollution problems of the world and they can easily understand why recycling is so important.
The works that need more concentration and that are more detailed will be done by the students who are above 8 years old. The simplier works can be created by any age of the groups. As each age group has different skills and abilities, teachers try not to make students feel themselves inefficient by giving them detailed and complicated works.
The Materials That We Need to Use
Don’t think that recreation period is boring and just personal. It is a time when sometimes students act personally and they sometimes act in a group. They share their personal thought to recreate a new and different object.
During the recreation period we don’t use any prepared objects like painting books, models… etc. Instead, in our recreation room there must be lots of different objects in any colours and shapes.
The Aim of The Project
The first aim of our project is to improve the skills of art of our students and provide them to get lots of abilities that they can use in their lives. The most important one is to make students be aware of their abilities and powers.
The Duty Sharing In The Project
All the partners will be directly involved in the project.
The activities in the project will be seperated into two groups. In the first group there are activities that we will do together with our school partners. In the second group there will be activities that we will do with our students in our school and then we are going to share them with our school partners.
As the coordinating country Turkey will always inform its school partners. We will inform our school partners by sending e-mails. We will have meetings during the process of the project. We will put our last decisions into practice. Each country will be the hosting country. Our teachers will be responsible for the choice of the students.
Each school will prepare a project room or a project corner to establish the recreation works that they have prepared. The partners will inform each other about these works by sending e-mails. The documents about our project can be seen in our web page. In this web page you can see our activities in our school. Our web page will bring us together to see our activities all the time.
Communication and Cooperating In The Project
We will inform our project partners about the activities and the process of the project in our school by sending e-mails and if necessary we can use telephone and fax. The partners will visit each other to see the process of the activities at their schools. Questionnaires and surveys will be prepared about the results of the activities.
As it is pointed out above a web page will be prepared and the teachers will inform each other by using it. Each recreation step will be written in the web page and you will be informed about the methods of the work. If we need we will get in touch on the internet.
