Once a week, groups of 6-to-11 or 3-to-5-year-old children attend our afternoon workshop from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.

On Wednesday mornings we discuss what we're going to do in PANAL, what experiments or research are pending or how we'll do our work; in the afternoons, we even call each other on the phone to see what we're going to do. When we get to PANAL, we play until all the kids have come in; then we gather in a circle and Marta explains us some experiment or new research.

This year, we have discussed the cultural life of ancient civilizations with elementary school children, and they made their own cut-and-paste Greek vase. We have run basic experiments on electricity, and the children travelled their way through a CD recording of sounds from the Gobi desert, the moons of Jupiter, an earthquake in Japan, the songs of natives in the jungles of Africa... We have also organized excursions to nearby rivers and the surrounding country.

With our preschool children, we have listened to stories about animal conservation in the North Pole, we have learnt how to build a tower with the "brown stair" that was 2 or 3 times taller than the average child. We have also run basic experiments, like proving the need of oxygen for the combustion of things, or looking at a seastar through an eyeglass.

Then we all raise our hand; Marta always chooses the best seated and well-behaved among us to work first. At 5:50, we all gather in a circle to see the works of the children and for a Geography contest. At 6:00, we all go to the yard and wait for our parents to pick us up.

Text in bold:
Iván Gónzález y Andrés Gómez (9 years-old)

Objectives:

• To bring in the children amazement and interest in knowledge
• Development of sensory-motor dexterities
• Building of a creative imagination
• Motivate children towards learning and research
• Teach the kids to love their work
• To help children get better concentration skills
• Self-confidence

Location:
"Jardín de Tía Usa"
Calle Félix María Ruiz
Santiago
Dominican Republic

Staff:
Lic. Marta Vicente de Sánchez
Director of PANAL
In charge of children between 6 and 11 years old.

Lic. Ana Isabel de la Cruz
In charge of children between 3 and 5 years old.

For more information:
Please call: 241-5328
or page: 1-200-1112, unit 488-1709.
or send us e-mail to: info@cemsd.com.do