Tallinna Suitsupääsupesa Lasteaed

Tallinn Suitsupääsupesa kindergarten is located at the capitol city of Estonia, Tallinn. It is attended by 130 children between the ages of 1,5 - 7 years. The children are divided into following groups based on their age. There are 7 groups for children. There are 21 employees. Group teachers and teacher assistants work with children in these kindergarten groups, musical activities take place under the guidance of a music teacher. The management comprises a director and a head teacher. Our mission: Suitsupääsupesa kindergarten is a pleasant and safe place of playing and development for every child. We pay attention to both mental and physical safety. We focus on "every child". We strive to provide the best education to children of other nationalities, gifted children and children with special need. Tallinn Suitsupääsupesa kindergarten has been nominated for different recognitions for several times. Several teachers have been nominated for recognition both in local and in state level. International cooperation is very important for the development of our institution. Therefore we have participated in several European educational cooperation projects: 1. Comenius project (coordinator) 2. Comenius project (partner) 3. Erasmus project (coordinator) 4. Erasmus project (coordinator). We have applied for Erasmus Individual mobility project for about teachers participating in international trainings about digital education. We follow these principles: one of the most important goal is to implement values education witch children.Children learn through playing. We can learn everywhere. All activities are integrated throughout different fields in education. We use two methodologies related to values education: "Kindergarten free of Bullying" and "Persona Dolls" methodology. Persona Dolls methodology came to our kindergarten with our first Comenius project in year 2011. Since then we use the methodology regularly. On the year 2015 we applied for Erasmus project about spreading the methodology to Europe and to conduct training materials for teachers. At this moment we work as a active Persona Dolls methodology training centre in Estonia. We have trained teachers from more than 50 kindergartens in Estonia. In last years we have supplied several smart devices, educational robots and ICT equipment. We wish to implement with children inclusive education, the new way of teaching/learning, we wish to improve children and teachers technology and digital skills. We wish to include all this new technology to everyday learning activities. Therefore it is necessary to offer for teachers practical trainings about using technology, applications and internet environments to create games for learning purpose. Our teachers have very high learning ability and good cooperation skills. Therefore we have written new Erasmus projects about digital education to ensure our teachers will have the necessary skills to use technology daily. We find it very important to find ways to teach in smaller groups, integrate technology, teach good values, children work in teams, to learn outside the classroom. Also for us is very important the cooperation with parents - we have several common activities together and we plan many activities outdoors and in the nature. Our team and management is very interested and motivated about international cooperation and we find that including a volunteer from Europe gives a very special extra value to our institution and its development. We are ready to share our experience, activities and skills and also to learn from the planned volunteering activity.