Project: ‘WE ARE FLOWERS, WE ARE WATER, WE ARE SEASONS… WE ARE NATURE’
During the months of March – May 2017, several sessions of ” The Imagined Tale” were held at a nursery school in Piedmont, personally held by Cristina Fino, to show the school’s teachers the technique of creative storytelling with the DVDs from the Environment Experience Nature series.
The project, implemented for the Istituto Comprensivo di Cavaglià (Italy), aimed to stimulate observation, developing cooperative attitudes among the children.
EDUCATIONAL AIMS
The suggestions offered by the films stimulate observation, educate to beauty and respect, and develop cooperative attitudes among children. Through play, children learn the value of rules, respect for others and for themselves, inclusion and cooperation, in an activity that stimulates imagination and creativity through group work. Nature, with its colours, elements, seasons, flowers, fruits … favours deep relaxation and at the same time increases concentration skills, attention, creativity, emotional regulation and social relations skills, as shown by the numerous experiments to date of the
Experience Nature method, capable of transforming states of anxiety, tiredness, sadness, into relaxation and wonder.
FINAL REPORT of the PROJECT “THE IMAGINED TALE”
Last school year, we carried out this project with the children of a kindergarten section involving children of all three ages (3, 4 and 5), dividing them into two groups of about ten.
The objectives were:
- To immerse oneself in Nature, drawing maximum benefit from it.
- To create a relaxed atmosphere.
- To cooperate with companions.
- To stimulate attention and concentration.
- To stimulate imagination, creativity and ideation skills, leading to the creation of a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.
The experience was absolutely positive, the objectives were fully achieved. The use of the ‘talking stick’ encouraged listening and respect for the proposals of others. Each child was able to express themselves and make their own contribution to the story.
The slow and relaxing images enabled even the two most motorically unstable children to find calm and concentration.
The experience fostered socialisation, the sharing of opinions and ideas, the ability to adapt and consider the possibility of changing ideas by welcoming the other.
This project opens up many possibilities for work, has much potential for application, and is an excellent tool for such young children and for children with emotional, relational and motor instability difficulties. Another positive aspect is that the teacher is in a short time, able to use it on her own without the need for an expert.
Raffaella Castrale, kindergarten teacher
THE TALES
The Flower of Love (Countryside Environment)
Once upon a time… there was a forest called the ‘Forest of Light and Love’. There lived many little birds that sang sweet songs for all the animals and everyone was happy.
There is a fox called the Eater, who is very naughty, but the little birds with their singing make her happy.
In the forest live two brother wild boars, one is called Fiorino and the other Fioretto and they have two butterfly friends, who are called Bello and Dolce.
Together the friends set off and find themselves under a beautiful flowering tree, which is so beautiful that even grown men like it.
They circle around the tree and have a great time.
When the cherries ripen, because that is a cherry tree, they all eat them together, but Fiorino at one point becomes sad because his butterfly friend has beaten him up and he thinks he has no friends. But the other animals immediately say: “we are all friends!” and so they all go together towards the Foglia Bridge to cross the river quickly and return home to say goodbye to their mum and dad.
On the way they stop again at the Lago Bello, where the little dragon Fiamma, who likes to swim so much, lives. But Fiamma’s fire has gone out inside her and now she only spits water and plays tricks on her friends Fiorino, Fioretto, Bello and Dolce, who are having a great time. However, Dragon Dad arrives and the fire still spits out, but Dragon Fiamma puts it out with a spray and from that day on, the dragons spit water.
The friends set off again and find a beautiful lotus flower on the lake, which is called Love, because it gives so much love. It is a very powerful flower because it has a magic powder that spreads all around.
At sunset the friends return home, they cross a large meadow with tall grass and Fiorino, who is the eldest, takes them all home and he stays in the meadow to sleep under the stars.
Adventure of inseparable friends (Sea environment)
We are at the sea, at dawn with the seagulls. Pu, our seagull friend, flies above the clouds and sees yellow flowers.
Fiorino Fioretto sees the seagull, calls him and they become friends. Together they go to a meadow called BelSole and play hide and seek in the tall grass and there they meet the mole Fiorellino and the fox Bruna.
They all play together to catch butterflies and slowly they end up on the seashore, and on the seashore there is a tree where two little squirrels live who are in love: Nocciola and Nocciolone; they also have a three-year-old boy called Nocciolino.
They all go to the beach together and play sand castles, they play magic and then they play hide and seek under water and find a treasure in a chest and bring it to the shore near the rocks, so they play jumping from one to the other.
Nearby they see the Violet plant, which is magical and makes the two little birds Foglietta and Foglione fall in love. They invite all the animal friends to eat some beautiful, fragrant petals and then they play together again for a long time.
