In a daycare center in Odense in Denmark, the benefits of their WizeFloor are twofold. Here, fifth grade students from a nearby school in Paarup have learned to develop digital app games for children in daycare, so the younger children can learn about right and left, colours and animals through play and movement.
To develop an app is mainly reserved for people with a background in information technology – or at least just for adults. But this is not the case at the school, where pupils from the fifth grade have successfully developed an app for the daycare children’s WizeFloor.
BOTH OLDER AND YOUNGER CHILDREN ARE GETTING PREPARED FOR A DIGITAL WORLD
The leader of the daycare institutions in Odense (western district), Svend Besser Degn, believes it is a good solution to replace the toy bricks with a screen for a while.
“In the daycare we are focusing on how to prepare the children as best as possible for the society and digitization is vital in this regard,” he says. “They get an understanding that they can use technology for more than just playing – they can actually work with it.”
This new initiative contributes to developing both the daycare children and school children’s digital language.
SCHOOLCHILDREN VISITED THE DAYCARE TO SET THE LEARNING LEVEL
The purpose of the app is to teach the younger children about right and left, colours and animals through movement, games and play. As part of the process, fifth grade students have therefore visited the daycare in order to assess how much the small children actually understand.
“It must be customized to their age. We are used to something a bit more difficult”, the student Maja Lundsgaarde says.
WE WILL REPEAT THE SUCCESS – AND AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
The initiative has been well received, and shouts of excitement from the daycare children while playing prove that the students from the school, Paarup Skole, are on the right track. This makes the student Ida Kruse Haagensen happy.
“I am really proud. It’s great to see the children so happy while playing the game. I am pleased that it is useful for them and that they can learn a lot from the games we have made. They can also use this when starting at school and kindergarten.”
Both the daycare and the school consider the collaboration so successful that they are already planning to do it twice instead of once a year.
Read the news about the collaboration between the children on Danish national television TV2 here.
