The early years are hugely influential for growing children, and positive influences at the kindergarten stage can make a significant difference to a child’s development.
On the Kindergarten Support project volunteers are placed in kindergartens and nursery schools throughout Chios. You can expect to assist local teachers and staff with their daily routine, caring for children between 3 - 6 years old. Volunteers should not expect to teach and your main role is to assist local teachers and placement staff, which may mean playing a supporting or observational role. Please note, language barriers may also restrict your ability to do hands-on work.
Classroom activities include helping the local teachers and staff with arts and crafts, mealtimes, cleaning, administration work, classroom preparation and re-arrangements as well as supervising during break time. Volunteers need to take initiative, improvise, be flexible and willing to get involved in a variety of different tasks as needed.
As volunteers work with the support of IVHQ’s local team and placement staff, you do not need to have prior kindergarten teaching experience, however you are required to have some experience helping to care for children.
Volunteers who apply for the Kindergarten Support project over school holiday periods will support summer activity projects run by our local team in Greece. These are often run outdoors and encourage learning through games rather than in a classroom. Volunteers can be creative in designing activities which fit the topics being covered at the time. In addition to running games and activities, you may also be given other tasks such as painting in schools, helping with beach litter cleanups and participating in cultural events.
The school holidays for 2021/2022 are:
- 7th June 2021 - 12th September 2021
- 6th December 2021 - 23rd January 2022