Learn while Having Fun -Conceptualization Itineraries in Kindergarten- Children Experiences with C-maps in an Italian School

The activities were organized by a group of teachers to promote the creation of scientific thinking and acquire progressive competence through observation, manipulation, discovery and reflection. Experiences stimulate and motivate children to learn, promoting curiosity towards reality. Curiosity is related with the pleasure of learning and discovering. It is a cognitive curiosity that is originated and nourished starting from the children’s current knowledge. Children are positively motivated to learn with a metacognitive approach, situating experiences in Vygotskij’s proximal development area (known as potential development area), which is a emergent area of personality in strong expansion during childhood. The concept maps built by the children are situated in these learning contexts. They are a real metacognitive structure that stimulates reflection and organization of experiences, making meanings and knowledge emerge in a personal way.