The fifth week of Summer School was given over to Romania, and the room changed along with the theme: the PlusKids setting filled up with the colours and symbols of the country, so that the children walked straight into the subject first thing in the morning.
We stuck to the principle that guides us all summer: the children learn things and put them into practice at once, in an enjoyable way. A theme about your own country can easily slide into a list of dates and names, and at seven or nine years old such a list does not survive until the evening. That is why every idea came paired with an activity: something to recognise, to match, to build or to pass on to the others.
The setting is not an ornamental detail. When the space you work in looks like the topic you are studying, attention settles by itself and the children come back to the subject without being called. It is one of the things we have noticed year after year at Summer School, and one we prepare well in advance.
It was a week in which we looked at Romania through a child's eyes: with curiosity, with pride and with an appetite for play.
About the PlusKids Summer School: https://pluskids.ro/en/summer-school