Students from the Jacob Jaeger Municipal School of Early Childhood Education, in Pinhal Alto, in Nova Petrópolis, have participated in a different experience in the classroom, through the “Caixa da Natureza” project. Since the beginning of the 2023 school year, 18 children between the ages of 3 and 4 have gathered items that show the natural beauties of Nova Petrópolis to send to students at Escola Recreio, located in Alto dos Pinheiros, in São Paulo.
As a reward, New Petropolitan students will also receive a box with items that symbolize the city of São Paulo.
The pedagogical coordinator of the Jacob Jaeger School, Catiane Hansen, says that the exchange project between the two institutions came about after early childhood education teachers followed some publications on the Facebook page “Being a child is natural”.
Through this platform, they were able to see how much this exchange of information can be beneficial for children and also help in publicizing the municipality to other populations, in addition to stimulating the “unfettered” of early childhood education and playing outdoors – as suggested by several institutions that deal with early childhood care, such as Associação Nova Escola and Rede Brasileira Urban95.
In the “Nature Box”, as it is being called by teachers and students, items are placed that talk about the natural beauties of Nova Petrópolis. There are maple leaves, earth found in the city, photographs of walks taken to show places where children play, stones collected on these walks, and other pieces that form a large portfolio.
In the classroom and during outings, which include the presence of the students’ families, teachers Caroline Kuhn, Stefanie Silveira and Carin Josiane Mallmann encourage the little ones to talk about what they want to send to their new friends. Through drawings, stories that the children tell and the educators transcribe, and with the contribution of the parents, the Caixa da Natureza is taking shape.
“The acceptance of the families was fundamental for the progress of the project. They participate, help the children with homework and also send items for us to assemble the box. It has been a very special experience”, says Professor Caroline.
Next steps
According to the pedagogical coordinator Catiane, the goal is to complete the organization of the box by the end of April and send it to the school in São Paulo.
With this, the project will enter a new phase, which should start, in fact, in the second half of this year, with the expansion of the proposal for nursery, maternal and pre-school classes at Jacob Jaeger. “Teachers from other classes already ask to participate, so it will be great to expand to other classes and provide this to students”, says Catiane.
