Some of the characteristics of pre-primary educational programmes are as follows:

• meeting the child's primary (biological) needs in collaboration with parents, and stimulation of all aspects of child's development;
• ensuring that the child gets the feeling of safety and acceptance;
• the impact on the child's personality in terms of strengthening the positive and realistic self-image by providing opportunities and possibilities for self-realization, enabling the acquisition of experience of differences and directing to the basic moral values and tradition to which the child belongs;
• stimulating the development of a sense of caring for the community in which the child lives, the country and environment;
• ensuring that every child spontaneously shows and develops their creative attributes, and express their needs, feelings, desires, perceptions, ideas, curiosity, initiatives, empathy;
• introducing the child to the basic social skills, acquiring of the basic knowledge and skills necessary for the child's further development and successful integration into the programme of the first grade of primary school;
• monitoring of the child's development enables noticing of the special needs of the child, coordinating actions with them, cooperating with parents who will, if necessary, turn to experts to prevent potential disorders.

Some of the immediate tasks of pre-primary education are as follows:

• developing individual potentials of each child and reaching the optimal level of readiness for new forms of learning;
• enabling the child to accept the obligations, into which he/she will fit, and future school obligations;
• stimulating spontaneous behaviour and expressing of needs;
• creating openness to receive oral and written messages;
• preventing difficulties in the initial reading and writing.

Pre-Primary Class Organization

The organization of the pre-primary programme suits the purpose and tasks of the pre-primary education, starting from the first contact of the educator with parents and children, through the organization of space, equipment, funds, distribution of the working time, to the monitoring and recording of the work that is used to carry out the programme implementation.

Space and equipment should comply with the hygiene requirements, and pedagogical and methodological standards, necessary for the implementation of the programme, such as: sufficient space area, appropriate furniture, equipment and supplies.

As for the furniture in the space where pre-primary education is conducted, it is necessary, among other things, to ensure cabinets and shelves for the necessary publications, materials, children's artwork, worksheets, data on children. Tables, chairs, cabinets and shelves, should be adapted to the age and needs of children. Space should be organized so as to enable playing in small groups. Toys and aids should be grouped according to the purpose and types of activities, and all of the materials at hand, so that children could use them independently.

Aids for programme implementation are provided by kindergarten and include the following:

• audio-visual aids: cd-radio, television and DVD, display panels, etc.;
• means of artistic expression, and speech and theatrical expression: picture books, spelling books, occasional prose texts and lyrics, encyclopedias, books with reproductions of the masters of fine art, Croatian and important world historical and cultural monuments, images of living communities;
• means of musical expression and creation: some musical instruments, rattles, percussion, drum, triangles, audio recordings of songs, musical fragments;
• aids for research: disposed and waste materials, microscopes, magnifiers, scales, meter, thermometer, barometer, magnets, etc.;
• various materials: cardboard and plastic boxes, empty packaging, cloth, clothing, etc.

The implementation of pre-primary educational programme is planned to take place from October to May during the school year, whereas the timing of the daily agenda depends on the daily schedule of the educators, other groups, and on premises free for pre-primary education.

The task of all educators and teachers is to use their views, advice and personal example to contribute to the quality of raising and educating the children.

Developmental Tasks of the Pre-Primary Educational Programme

Developmental tasks of the pre-primary educational programme are as follows: improving care and healthcare; and the development of the child's independence, safety, ability to socialize with other children, socio-emotional sensitivity, ability to self-control, positive self-image, curiosity and creative relation with the world, ability to meet the external world, and in particular, the development of the child's ability to communicate through speech, ability to develop visual-art communication, musical communication, etc.
The concretization of tasks in the educational activities with children in the pre-primary class is determined according to the needs of children and the expectations placed before them by the school, but also by the lifelong learning.

In the field of introducing the basic mathematical concepts, the following sections can be included: logical operations with concrete objects, sets, numbers, sizes, geometric shapes, weights and measures; and concepts: spatial relations (up-down, below-above, front-back, in-on, size relations, temporal relations, geometric bodies (cube, sphere, cylinder, pyramid). Children, along with worksheets, can be offered materials to be prepared according to their individual needs, i.e. progress.

Motor development in children is stimulated through three areas: general motor skills of the body (motor dexterity of hands, legs, eye-hand synchronization), auditory perception, visual perception (visual resolution: colour, size, shape, identifying similarities and differences, common characteristics, connecting layout and format; visuo-spatial orientation: spatial relations, eye-hand-foot coordination; visual memory: geometric shapes combining, identifying the sequence).

Speech development encompasses the following areas: mobility of speech organs, voice performance, imitation and initial formation of voices, pronunciation of voices, pronunciation of complex words, recognition and naming of voices, analysis and linking of voices, filling in and forming sentences, adopting concepts. The acquisition of graphomotor skills includes the following: systemically raising awareness of the connection between grapheme and phoneme, acquisition of internal representation of letter forms, and “pre-exercises” and exercises in the service of writing a message. Pre-exercises for reading and writing encompass the following: exercises for preparedness to read and write: recognizing characters, identifying and merging identical shapes on different surfaces, recognizing simple shapes and colouring, recognizing identical signs in different positions, colouring surfaces - finding hidden characters, the ability to sequence (straight and curved lines), drawing a line, continuing the sequence, analysis and linking of voices, analysis and linking of voices into words, the story according to the series of images.

Starting Points for the Pre-Primary Educational Programmes

The starting points for designing the pre-primary educational programme are the tasks and conditions - organizational and material context. The educator needs to make clear to every pre-primary pupil that he or she is welcome and will be accepted as an equal participant in the pre-primary community, with equal rights and obligations regarding the use of space and equipment that should be preserved. By teaching children that along with rights, they also have obligations, the pre-primary class prepares pupils for future school obligations.

The basic obligations of pre-primary pupils are as follows:

• towards themselves (care for the health and personal development, the adoption of hygiene and working habits, rules on the preservation of health);
• towards others (adopting good manners, helping the weak and the needy, tolerance, understanding and respect for diversity, cooperation, peaceful conflict resolution);
• towards the environment (developing feelings and insights that they are a part of nature that must be protected, that they have a home, the homeland and the country that are part of a larger human community).

After attending the pre-primary class, the child should be prepared for the inclusion in the school environment and the accepting of classroom obligations.

Possible Topics, Contents and Activities of the Implementation Programme

The implementation programme consists of narrow and broad topics, and even complex, layered units such as the following: First days in the pre-primary class (meeting, introduction, exploring the premises and equipment), Development of the child's self-awareness, The child's environment, The world we live in, Great human communities, Traffic and traffic culture, Experiencing and creating art, Specific classroom movement activities, Practical life working activities, Viewing, listening and interpreting of art creations for children, Various games (functional, symbolic, games of construction and engineering, games with rules), Various activities of expression and creation, Research and cognitive activities, Socializing and social leisure activities, etc.

References:

• Preschool Education Act (Official Gazette, Nos. 10/97 and 107/07)
• Act on Education in Languages and Scripts of National Minorities (Official Gazette, No. 51/2000)
• School Inspection Act (Official Gazette, Nos. 50/95 and 73/97)
• Croatian National Educational Standard for Preschool Education (Official Gazette, Nos. 63/08 and 90/10);
• Decision on Elements of the Standard of Social Care for Preschool Children (Official Gazette, No. 29/83),
• Programme Orientation of Education and Care of Preschool Children (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Culture, No. 7-8/91).