Lets play in the sandpit

Date: 23RD April 2010

Resources: Sand, spades, diggers, leaves, iceblock sticks.

Activity: Sandpit area.

Children: F (4), L (3), C (4), E (3), M (2)



STOP

After morning tea, I went outside to help supervise with the other teacher at the early childhood centre. I stood near the sandpit while keeping an eye on the other children playing on the monkey bars. F (4), L (3), C (4), E (3), M (2) were busy playing with the diggers and the spades in the sandpit. F (4) says “lets make houses”, “no” replies M (2), F replies” yes you not the boss”. M (2) starts to cry so I climbed over to the sandpit and plonked myself down with them. I got the children involved by asking “okay what can we make today?” F (4) replies” I wana make a house”, “noooooo” screams M (2), “its okay M, you can make what you want to make okay”. She nods her head. E (3) wanted to make a big mountain by piling sand into a big mound, C (4) wanted to make roads, so he scooped the sand aside to make his “road” flat. F (4) who wanted to make houses used the bucket to scoop his sand in and turned it over. His sandcastle was his house. He made several next to each other. M (2) and I went to look for leaves and twigs that M (2) wanted to put onto the sandcastle houses. The other children that were playing on the monkey bars became interested and 4 more children came to join in at the sandpit area. They started helping by adding more “houses”. L (3) decided to go and get some blocks in the centre to represent “people”. M (2) went inside with another child and asked the teacher inside the centre if there were any iceblocks sticks they could use to make pretend “trees”. Soon the sandpit area had become a little “town” as interpreted by the children.

THINK

This activity saw how the children used their creativity and imagination to create objects and sand into a town as interpreted by them. The children I saw were sharing tools, communicating on what they wanted to do apart from the beginning between M (2) and F (4). By looking at this situation, I dealt with it by getting down to the child’s level and explaining to M (2) she can choose what she wanted to do, not necessarily what F (4) was making. M (2) was happy and started participating in the activity. I also explained to her that if she wanted to help F (4) make his “house” at a later time then she can ask F (4) if she can. By stepping in and diffusing the situation before it escalates, we used problem solving skills and the children learnt to listen to each others ideas and interests and to respect each other. This is shown as having a sense of belonging (Ministry of Education, 1996). This activity can be turned into something huge with the children adding more “houses” or another “town” and more children can participate too.

CHANGE

Ask the children to bring things from home that will be used for their “town” for example to bring in popsicle sticks or fabric they can use to decorate their “houses”. The centre does not have that many crafts resources for the children to use. It will be nice if there were some for the children to use as it can be frustrating for the children and me if we are trying to look for popsicle sticks and there is none available or pipe cleaners. Introduce blocks and "people" that are specifically for the sandpit so the children are not going inside the centre and getting them. It creates a mess when taken back inside. Set up more resources for the children to expand their learning by placing other tools or equipment in the sandpit area and for exploration (Ministry of Education, 1996).

Froggie

Reflection Journal: Relationships.

Date: 9th April 2010

Resources: Frog, books,

Activity: Exploration of froggie

Children: M (4), NT (4), N (3) T (4) and J (3)

STOP

A frog was introduced to the early childhood centre as part of “animal week”. The frog had its own case and furnishings. The teacher’s will catch the flies in the net and place the flies into the case. A group of boys M (4), NT(4), N (3), T (4) and J (3) were very interested in the frog and kept on hanging around the case, fascinated by the frog’s long tongue that kept flicking out to catch the flies and their long legs. N (3) says “ewe”, M (4) says “yuck”. I stopped next to them and crouched down so that I was at eye level with the children and asked them “do you know if a frog hatches from an egg or do you think that froggie here was born like that?” T (4) says “dunno”, J (3) shrugs his shoulders in response. NT (4) turns to me and says “hey, where does a frog come from teacher?” I told the group of boys “let me find a book first then we can look at it together”. I went to the centre manager and asked her if I can go to the library to find a book on frogs. Back at the centre, M (4), N (3), NT (4), T (4), J (3) and I sat down at the book corner. Together we looked at book‘s on frogs that had to do with lifecycle of frogs, the different body parts and their purpose. Here the children learnt about the lifecycle of the frog and that animals do not necessarily hatch out of an egg as most children think they do. M (4), N (3), NT (4), T (4) and J (3) learnt that frogs are born as tadpoles. This started up topics on how different animals are born. T (4) says to me “miss where do we come from?” I said to T (4) “you came from your mummy’s tummy?” T (4) replied “wow”.


THINK

This was very interesting not only for the children but for myself. It was good seeing the children take an interest in nature. They were full of questions as to Why? How? By asking these questions the children are being curious that they want to learn more by reading and talking about it (Ministry of Education, 1996). The children are learning to explore not only froggie itself but using technology like the computer to have a visual aid. Having support and trust from the centre and staff, to allow me to go to the library to look up books and use their computers was helpful. Because the children were interested I can in introduce other animals into the equation. Set up at the colouring in corner, paper, magazines where the children can cut and glue different pictures of animals they like and make into a collage they can hang up on the wall. Make animals masks out of paper plates and paint for the children to take home or displayed at the centre.

CHANGE: What would I do differently?

I would Google information on how a frog is born compared to a horse and the children can see the comparison between the two. To ask the early childhood teachers to display books around the frog case on frogs for children to use and look through. To have the children to look at books about other animals, the children are familiar with and how they are born. To have puzzles available at the puzzles corner that illustrates the life cycle of an insect, for example a puzzle on the lifecycle of a butterfly or frog or having colouring pages that children are able to colour in. Ask to arrange a trip to the library for the kids to find books on frogs or other animals or insects that interest them.

Play dough and Dress up fun

Reflection Journal: Cultural.

Date: 26th March 2010

Resources: Play dough, cookie cutters, lava-lava, newspaper

Activity: Play dough and dress up

Children: K (4), H (4), L (3) R (4) and S (4)

STOP

I arrived at the early childhood centre this morning and I noticed K (4), H (4), L (3) and R (4) were busy at the play dough table. They were making “scones”, “cakes”, out of cookie cutters. They had taken a lava-lava each and wrapped it around themselves to represent an apron; their hats were made out of newspaper that the girls had worked earlier on with the other teacher in the early childhood centre before I arrived. They looked like “chefs” and were proud of their uniform. I think they looked smart. Another girl S (4) stood back and was an onlooker. She wanted to participate but was shy. I gently coaxed her to come and play. Knowing that the child and I had a common ground, in that we were both Samoans, I was able to communicate to her in our language and was able to get S (4) to sit at the play dough table. I communicated with K (4), H (4), L (3) and R (4) to include S (4) in the cooking and to share the equipment. H (4) went and got a lava-lava from the dress up corner and said to S (4) “you have to wear this, cause we are cooking, you don’t want to get dirty” S (4) took the lava-lava and held onto it, H (4) said “no you have to put it on, or you can’t play, here I’ll put it on for you”. K (4) called out “I’ll make your hat”. Soon S (4) had a lava-lava apron around her waist, H (4) says “see you’re one of us now”, K (4) comes and puts on S (4) hat on, “do you like your hat?” S (4) smiles shyly and nods her head. They started “cooking” again while S (4) gradually started participating once she was comfortable with the rest of the girls. S (4) would communicate to the other girls by gestures, pointing to what she needed and nodding or shaking her head. The other 4 girls understood what she was saying by listening and asking questions if they did not know what she wanted.


THINK

What I learnt from this experience is that every child is different and that we have to respect each child’s own individual strengths, to support the child in areas they might not feel confident about. The child had difficulty understanding what the children were saying so language was a barrier with her, here I was able to relate to S (4) because she felt comfortable with me and I was culturally sensitive to her needs, for example language was the key element to break her silence and was able to talk to me very quietly but to me that was progress. To be sensitive to other people’s culture and language where English is a second language so they know that their first language is valued (Ministry of Education, 1996)

CHANGE

Include S (4) in more group activities and play so she will feel confident and comfortable with the children for example role play in the dress up. Organise a cooking session to involve S (4) with the other children and cooking is what S (4) is interested in. Giving the children a choice on whether to make cookies or scones and by doing this S (4) is contributing to the group discussion and know she has a place (Ministry of Education, 1996). I would like to have time with her to ask questions about herself and her interests on what she likes to do so she can “open” up more. I would also like to speak to the parents and find out more information about S (4). I would like to see the early childhood centre to have a variety of cooking utensils, for example to have a play oven in the corner for the children to make the cooking experience more realistic for them. Another change will be to have more room set up for the play dough area so there is space for the children to be included in the activity and to have more than 2 play dough’s available for the children because not every child will want to make “cookies”. This will stop the fighting over the play dough.