How come spiders don’t stick to their own webs?

June 3, 2015, 8:43 pm

≫ Next: Celebrating the start of Matariki

Spiders have been a topic of interest that continues to engage the children at Mairtown (click here for a post I wrote a few weeks ago and to see how this line of enquiry began). I’ve mentioned before how I particularly enjoy working alongside children on topics that originate from their interests and in this particular case, it all began when Sadie brought in a spider that she found at her house. Sadie’s infectious enthusiasm naturally inspired other children’s interests, and this work has now been on going for several weeks now.

We have learnt all about spiders, especially New Zealand spiders. We have looked at their anatomy and as the children’s questions and thoughts have guided this work, we have now moved onto thinking about spider webs. As we began to look at webs, one idea challenged the children and a question kept coming up, again and again. All the children wanted to know, ‘How come spiders don’t stick to their own webs?’

‘Great ideas have legs. They take you somewhere. With them, you can raise questions that can’t be answered. These unanswerable questions should be a source of comfort. Puzzlements invite the most precious of human abilities to take wing. I speak of imagination, the neglected stepchild of education’ (Eisner, The Satisfactions of Teaching)

Well, I thought this was a great question to work on further, so that is exactly how we have spent the last two weeks. As a teacher I love to encourage children ‘how to think’ rather than teaching them ‘what to think’. I feel that by fostering thinking skills in children, we open the world for them. Children, who can think creatively and divergently are the world’s future problem solvers, they will learn to deal with unexpected situations that arise and, as research suggests, are more likely to be persistent, innovative adults who are prepared to take calculated risks. These children will grow up to be the people who can see lots of possible answers and many solutions to a single question.

So with that in mind, when the question ‘Why don’t spiders get stuck in their own webs?’ kept arising, I entrusted the children to think divergently. I replied ‘Let’s use our imaginations and play around with some ideas. I don’t know the answer but I think it will be fun for us to think about it’.

‘Real learning is achieved through the investigative process. Children have to be encouraged to search for the answers themselves. It is up to the teachers to provide the tools and resources necessary for the children to conduct these inquiries and make meaningful discoveries. One well-formed question will do more to inspire than any number of answers. In every facet of our educational pursuits, it becomes crucial to begin an open dialogue with our students, to encourage healthy debate and to have them form their own conclusions.’(W. Stanton)

As we played around with these ideas and thought processes the children came up with many interesting theories.

‘The potential of the child is stunted when the endpoint of their learning is formulated in advance (Carlina Rinaldi)

Whereas I often use drawing as an alternative and additional means of communication for children, to assist in deepening their thinking, with this particular question I invited the children to use a different medium as well - wire. Wire is such an interesting material to work with, it’s responsive but can also be quite tricky to manipulate, personally however, I believe it is really worth the challenge. Working with wire certainly seemed to enable the children to consider the structure of a spiders web in more detail - its size and the intricate patterns within - as they considered their question.

Here are some of the children’s interesting theories to date, along with the beautiful webs they have created - I think many spiders would be proud to have made such detailed structures J

Taika: It’s because the flies, they are smaller than spiders, so they get stuck and the big spiders don’t… hmm (after thinking some more)…oh I know, it's cause the flies fly so fast. They go faster than the spiders so as they fly fast, they fly into the web and get stuck, then the spider, it can just walk across to wrap it up ready to eat.

Peter: The spiders can crawl into their webs easily, but the web, I think it is sticky for the flies, but it’s not sticky for the spiders as they have really thin legs to help them crawl across the web to get to the food.

Tyler: They don’t get stuck as it’s their own web cause they made it, when they made it they made it with special stuff which will stop them getting stuck.

Madison: So they make the web sticky for the flies to get stuck in it and spiders, they try not to get stuck because they don't have feet that stick, their feet are not sticking feet.

Sienna: I think it’s the legs, yes. Spiders have long legs, that must stop them getting stuck.

Emma: Because they make the webs and they don't fly so they don't have wings, it's the wings that get stuck in the web.

Sadie: Cause they live in there, I don't see spiders on them (webs) but I do see flies. Spiders are very careful, they walk carefully. And flies do get stuck as they are not careful and just fly in.

‘As a small group of children explores the question that most engages them, ask them to share their discoveries…the process of telling the story of their work challenges children to consolidate their understanding. As they hear the comments and questions of folks who haven’t been part of their work, children encounter new ways to think about their work, new questions to explore, and new strategies to try’ (Pelo, 2007)

I particularly love how the children have chosen to re-visit these webs over time. They are adding more details as they think about (and notice in our environment at kindergarten) other objects that get stuck in webs; we have seen leaves, a feather and even a piece of ribbon! Many children, as you will notice from the photographs, have gone a step further now, and are adding drawn spiders to their created webs along with some delicious prey ready for them to eat.

I can't help but wonder where next our work on spiders will take us.

Ngā Mihi,
Christine

↧

Celebrating the start of Matariki

June 11, 2015, 1:52 am

≫ Next: Rangatiratanga at Mairtown Kindergarten

≪ Previous: How come spiders don’t stick to their own webs?

At Mairtown Kindergarten we celebrate Matariki (Māori new year) with three significant events. Each year we start our traditions with our delicious Matariki breakfast. Our Matariki breakfast is greatly anticipated and a real highlight, it is wonderful to see our tamariki who have previously experienced our breakfast share their experiences with our new tamariki. Fortunately for us Donna has been back this term, as she has exceptional skills in the kitchen and always prepares a beautiful selection of kai to share with our whānau and tamariki.

Matariki symbolises the coming of the Maori New Year. Matariki has two meanings, both of which refer to the cluster of stars. Mata Riki means Tiny Eyes, and Mata Ariki means Eyes of God. Matariki appears in the eastern sky sometime around the shortest day of the year, and is thought to determine how successful the harvest crop will be in the coming season. The brighter the stars, the more productive the crop will be.

There has been the usual build up to the breakfast with the tamariki helping to choose and create our magnificent menu. It certainly was an awesome way to start the day with healthy kai including, eggs, sausages, baked beans, selection of cereals, muesli, yogurt, fruit salad, toast, all served with milo, coffee or tea.

Matariki celebrates the diversity of life. It’s a celebration of culture, language, spirit and people.

After enjoying breakfast I asked our tamariki what was their favourite part of breakfast. Here are some of the children’s reflections;

Tyler: My favourite was the toast and butter and jam.

Grace: Yummy rice bubbles.

Ahmad: I love eggs.

Toby: I had sausages and yogurt.

Emma: I love rice bubbles and yogurt.

Sadie: I had a sausage and some toast and I buttered my toast by myself and I had some eggs.

During Matariki, we celebrate our unique place in the world. We give respect to the whenua on which we live, and admiration to our mother earth, Papatūānuku.

We would love to say a huge thank you to Donna for all her amazing cooking skills and to everyone who attended and enjoyed the delicious breakfast with us. Thank you all for making it another enjoyable kindergarten community event. Before the end of term we will be continuing to celebrate Matariki with our annual Harvest day and at the end of the month we will hold our annual Hāngi and Lantern Parade.

Mā te wā, Susie

↧

Rangatiratanga at Mairtown Kindergarten

June 21, 2015, 4:58 pm

≫ Next: Matariki Harvest Day

≪ Previous: Celebrating the start of Matariki

Over the past six months our team at Mairtown have been a part of a research cluster group; focussing on leadership within Early Childhood Education. As part of this focus we had to come up with a research question as a team, ours was;

“How is our teaching team leading the way in assessment practices that contribute to our tamariki Māori (and all our children) being able to recognise their learning potential as rangatira/leaders?”

These photos represent our older boys displaying their rangatira traits by role modelling how to appropriately end waiata with pukana and whetero. This passion was passed on to our younger children who now display the same energy and mana.

This question sparked lots of thinking and ended up taking us all on a very fulfilling journey. At first we thought about how this question would look with in our context at Mairtown Kindergarten. In terms of our assessment we often recognise children’s leadership qualities. We know that we have fantastic tamariki who display a wide range of leadership skills, including helping their peers and teachers, role modelling positive ways of being or showing empathy. However we wanted to consider how were we to know that children recognised these skills and traits within themselves. We also wanted to know how we as teachers help create an environment where these skills and traits were authentically recognised and celebrated.

-Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example-

Braeden actively shares his skills and knowledge with his peers about how to get across the monkey bars. He demonstrates this over and over again to encourage and nurture his peers learning and development.

Although they are just dolls, Austin and Bella display the up most respect and care towards them. Their empathy and manaakitanga that they show when playing with the dolls is also reflected in their interactions with each other and their peers.

After much reflection amongst the team, and an empowering kōrero with Roimata Macfarlane, our Pou Whakarewa Tikanga Māori (Professional Practice Advisor Māori) from the Northland Kindergarten Association, we started to have a clearer idea of the direction we wanted to head in.

Our initial plan was to talk to the children about the concept of leadership, with the idea that this would transition into more discussion about the Te Ao Māori concept of Rangatiratanga (leadership). We started by asking the children, “What is a leader?” and “What kind of behaviours do leaders have?”

“It’s like some person be leaders and stuff. Some leaders come to the back to help other people.” (Peter)

"A person who is a leader is a helper. They help other people with heaps of stuff. They help show them how to make lego and how to do swinging and how to be friendly." (Taika)

“When people follow the other people. They hold others hands.” (Matteo)

“A leader is the helper and say toru, wha at mat time. They do not whistle and when someone gets hurts they say ‘Are you o.k.?’ They are kind.” (Emma)

“For helping people when they fall down and saying ‘are you all right’ and ‘do you want to play with me?’ They are good at showing others how to be good. By tidying up and showing others how to do this. I show people how to do flips” (Charlie)

“Waiting for your turns and not pushing in. Well they are kind and gentle.” (Sienna)

“Not shouting, not hitting. Be gentle.” (Jack)

“Leaders is about having no hitting. They be funny to make people happy. In my family my Dad is the leader.” (Franchi)

“They follow the people. No pushing. I’m the leader of my Mummy and Dad. When I was camping with my Mum and Dad I found the way to the beach and showed them.” (Sadie)

“A leader just knows how to make a circle. They be leaders at kindy and at the Nature Programme.” (Max)

“They properly have good behaviours aye. Just being good is good.” (Nyla)

“Ummm, they are nice and care for people.” (Mercia)

“They have good behaviours. They help people. Them get good behaviours by learning them and then use the behaviours to help people. I know Roman, he is a leader because he is on the Nature Programme. It makes you a leader because you do leader stuff on the Nature Programme. You just do normal stuff but are a leader at it. I’m a leader because I help people when they are getting sad and ask them to play with me.” (Tyler)

“Ummm, it’s a got to share person. My Mummy is a leader, my Daddy is a leader and my Nana Sue is a leader.”(Lali)

“On the Nature Programme there are leaders, they talk very nicely, like Sharlotte, because she has been there before, longer than me.” (Reese)

From our discussions and feedback from children we realised that they already had many clear ideas about what leadership can be. We wanted to extend their thinking about how they view themselves as leaders by including the voices of their whānau. We sent home a reflection form with all of our children, which said,

“Dear Parents/Whānau,

In term two we are going to be focusing on the different qualities of leadership with the children.

The Māori kupu (word) for leadership is Rangatira (a leader) or Rangatiratanga (leadership). In early childhood there are many different ways to be a leader. For instance caring for others, being helpful, self-regulation (being able to recognise and control emotions) or role modelling are just some ways that children display leadership qualities.

We would love you to share with us some of your child’s leadership qualities at home. Please use this form provided to document an aspect of leadership that you recognise in your child’s character.

Although we have given a couple of examples, leadership can be viewed in many ways. We look forward to hearing more about your child’s leadership’s strengths at home.

This information’s will be going in your child’s portfolio. Please have them back to us at the beginning of term two.

Thank you for your time.

Ngā mihi nui,

Christine, Kim, Zair and Susie”

-Ko te kai a te rangatira he korero- The food of leaders is communication

Initially we thought that when these family reflections were returned that we would just place them in their portfolios as a form of assessment to support the ranagtira learning journey. However every time a family would bring one in the words that they shared would light up our hearts.

Some of the reflections were,

“Grace shows leaderships qualities at home by: Caring for her baby sister, she looks out for her daily and tells us when she needs something; she is often watching over her and getting her toys, clothes, nappies etc. She shows concern for her sister if she is distressed and likes showing her to other people and is very proud of her.”

“He loves to help – with anything and everything. If something is being done, Tanner likes to be there helping. This ranges from helping with building, tiding the shed, moving cows, mowing lawns, gardening, preparing meals, helping to carry things (e.g. groceries), feeding animals –anything!”

“It’s good for me as a parent to recognise that these are leadership qualities emerging, thank you for this opportunity to grow and learn with our children.”

We can't express enough as teachers how much we value this kind of family involvement. This meant a change of plan and instead of just going in their portfolios they would also be displayed on the wall for all to see. We had such a huge response that we ran out of wall space and had to start a book that sat in the same area. Children and their whānau would read each other’s reflections and children would point out to others their own reflections saying things like, “Look that’s me being the helper” or “You know that’s me looking after my baby sister. My Mum says I’m good at that!”

Having this documentation in the children's play space created many opportunities for them to revisit and reflect on the leadership qualities that they display. It shows how the important people in their lives value who they are which is incredibly empowering for them. We reflected as a team about how the children display similar leaderships traits at kindergarten and through our assessment processes we made these connections visible. For example Jazmine's whanau acknowledged her caring nature and how she was always looking out for her brother and helping him out. This was a 'way of being' (Te Whatu Pokeka) that Jazmine displayed at kindergarten and was documented accordingly, linking it to her rangatiratanga reflection. We also shared some of the family reflections at whanau times. The children were invited to sit up the front as we read their families words. The children would just be bursting with pride and you could tell that this was a very empowering and meaningful experience for them.

“When documentation is incorporated into the classroom it can be a valuable teaching tool. The reflection that a child is encouraged to participate in when viewing documentation can teach the child to be more aware of his/her own learning.” (Deibert)

This was a moment when we realised that our tamariki where realising their learning potential as rangatira/leaders through our assessment practices. Having their family’s reflections on display at their eye level was powerful and created lots of reflection and discussion amongst the children.

This then lead into our other initiative that we decided to implement to support our research question. The creation and implementation of a Rangitiratanga stamp. Roimata kindly asked her nephew, who is an artist, if he would be happy to draw a picture that represented rangatiratanga for Mairtown Kindergarten. When we received the picture we had it made into a large stamp.

The stamp is used to recognise wonderful displays of rangatiratanga qualities amongst our children. If the teachers see anyone displaying these qualities then they are awarded the rangatiratanga stamp in front of the whole group at a gathering. The teachers acknowledge and explain to the rest of the group exactly what the child receiving the stamp has done, then they are presented with the large stamp and walk round showing it to all their peers. The other children give them a round of applause and often shout out things like, “Great work, I'm so proud of you.”

“I have always admired people who I perceived as having excellent leadership skills. At one time, I thought that these skills came naturally, but I’ve learned that we all have the potential to develop leadership skills. We need to be encouraged, role modeled, and nurtured to develop these skills and it should begin in childhood.” (psu.edu.com, 2012)

We also document every time a child receives a stamp to go in their portfolio. This page is often shared amongst peers and discussion arises from there about how they are being good leaders at kindergarten.

Recognising and celebrating the fantastic actions of our tamariki is empowering and an authentic way to help them recognise their learning potential. This celebration is enabling them to view themselves as valued contributors within our learning community.

It is a beautiful process and the response and flow on effect of this recognition has been hugely beneficial for our kindergarten. We often hear children talking about the rangatiratanga stamp saying, “Im going to do so much tidying up so I might get the stamp.” Or “That rangatira stamp is choice, I have had one because I made so many good choices and helped my friends.”

We have noticed the positive on-going effects on children who are celebrated for their great rangatira behaviours, for example one of our boys Max got a rangatiratanga stamp for helping a friend who was hurt, by giving him a hug and getting him help. Now every time he sees someone hurt themselves, he rushes over and gives them a hug and asks if they are alright. He has proudly shown his portfolio entry about this to others and re-tells the reason why he received his stamp. He just radiates with pride.

Franchi and Madison take turns at being rangatira, making sure they both take on the role of spinner of the barrel. They have learnt that by the act of giving they are creating joy for each other, which is reflected in their faces in these photos.

Our team continues to be led and inspired by this learning journey; it has been really successful in terms of cementing a strong centre culture of leadership. These skills and traits that we are celebrating and acknowledging are enormously important for lifelong learning. Our tamariki now recognise that being a leader doesn’t just mean to ‘be first’ or to ‘be in front’. They recognise that leadership is also about being helpful, caring, empathetic and making good choices.

We are excited about influencing strong and caring rangatira of the future.

Te piko o te māhuri, tērā te tupu o te rākau

The way in which the young sapling is nurtured (bent) determines how the tree will grow

Noho ora mai rā,

Zair

↧

Matariki Harvest Day

June 29, 2015, 3:34 pm

≫ Next: Hāngī and Matariki Celebration

≪ Previous: Rangatiratanga at Mairtown Kindergarten

Matariki Māori New Year is a special time of year that we all look forward to and is a greatly anticipated event. As part of our celebrations we recently held Mairtown’s annual Harvest day. This is such a lovely day of sharing any abundance produce, preserves, pickles or home baking with others.

For Māori in years gone by Matariki symbolises the time for planting and harvesting. The Matariki star constellation marked a time for starting all things new, this was a particularly important period for new crops to be planted and the preserving of old crops to be finished. The timing of Matariki fell at the end of a harvest and food stores were full. Meat, fruits, herbs and vegetables had been gathered and preserved and the migration of certain fish ensured a great period of feasts. Matariki was seen as a time to share with each other, for family and friends to come together and share in the gifts that the land and sea had provided for them. (Tai Tokerau Tourism)

Ngā kai o Matariki nāna i ao ake ki runga

Matariki scoops up the food

We are so fortunate to live in Northland where there are plenty of citrus trees, and other produce. That’s the great thing about Harvest day, it is an opportunity to share abundance with others and exchange for something else. The focus of Mairtown’s Harvest Day is about sharing our abundance, random acts of kindness and nurturing the body and soul of our community.

Our parents and whānau were invited to bring an item to share from their garden or pantry. On Tuesday morning it was exciting to see our children bring in their offerings and place them on the exchange table. The gifts included citrus, avocados, tamarillos, persimmons, apples, kumara, pumpkin, eggs, home baking, pickles, jams, herbs and vegetables.

At the end of session our tamariki were invited to choose something from the harvest table to take home. It was lovely to see our tamariki so excited and full of anticipation as some had been looking at the offerings throughout the day and had clearly made a decision of what they wanted to take home and for others the choice was a little tricky.

Thank you to all our whānau for your offerings that made our annual Harvest day so enjoyable and successful.

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive

Nāku, nā

Susie

↧

Hāngī and Matariki Celebration

June 30, 2015, 7:41 pm

≫ Next: Congratulations Kim

≪ Previous: Matariki Harvest Day

Matariki is a special date in the New Zealand calendar. In Whangarei this last weekend there was a wonderful festival to celebrate this special time. At Mairtown we began our Matariki celebrations a few weeks ago with a whānau breakfast, followed a couple of weeks later with our harvest day and on Friday of last week our fabulous evening hāngī.

During Matariki, we celebrate our unique place in the world. We give respect to the whenua on which we live, and admiration to our mother earth, Papatūānuku.

Throughout Matariki, we learn about those who came before us. Our history, our family, our bones.

Matariki signals growth. It's a time of change. It's a time to prepare, and a time of action. During Matariki, we acknowledge what we have and what we have to give.

Matariki celebrates the diversity of life. It's a celebration of culture, language, spirit and people.

Matariki is our Aotearoa Pacific New Year.

(Māori Language Commission)

The preparation for the hāngī began with lots of our families kindly donating their time and hard work to help make sure we were ready for the evening. It is lovely welcoming so many parents and family friends into Kindergarten, watching relationships grow between children and adults and noticing how many of the adults within our community share their skills and stories with our attending children – something so special and a really wonderful experience for all involved – something which I truly believes demonstrates the whanaungatanga and whakawhanaungatanga which is evident everyday at Mairtown.

Relationships are a source of learning, empowerment, and identity for all of us…reflected in the concept of whanaungatanga. Whanaungatanga can be described as a value, which reinforces the commitment whānau members have to each other. This commitment is expressed through a process of caring, sharing, respecting, helping, assisting, relieving, reciprocating, balancing, nurturing, and guardianship. Whakawhanaungatanga is about building a collaborative learning community and establishing an environment of trust and reciprocity (Hirini, 1997 & ECE Educate [MoE]).

By 5pm the hāngī had been cooking for over 6 hours and we welcomed our families back. Coming to kindergarten in the evening, especially in the dark, is such an exciting time for the children. The hāngī was lifted and served after a whakataukī for kai, marshmallows were toasted on the fire and the highlight of the evening for many occurred as our finale – the hikoi and lantern parade.

Our hāngī and Matariki celebration is a really great reminder for me as a teacher just how special our kindergarten community is. It is a time when I witness community working together, sharing together, making connections and lots of caring happening for one other.

To try to put the evening into words is certainly difficult, so for those who could not attend, or for those that did and would like to re-visit the evening I have put together a little video of the whole day – please enjoy.

The waiata in the video is by Rahera Davies and here are the words translated:

Matariki

E Ara e

(Rise)

Te Mātahi o te tau

(First month of the Māori year)

Te kohinga whetū

(The collection of stars)

I te uma o Ranginui

(In the chest of Ranginui)

E pīataata mai ana

(Shining bright)

Whakaataata i te rangi

(Reflecting in the sky)

E tohu ana

(Indicating)

I te tau hou Māori e

(The Māori new year)

Ko Tupuanuku

Ko Tupuarangi

Waitī, Waitā

Waipuna a rangi

Ururangi e

Matariki

E Ara e

(Rise)

[A big thank you to Roimata Macfarlane, our Pou Whakarewa Tikanga Māori (Professional Practice Advisor Māori Northland Kindergarten Association) for finding and translating this music for me, and to our many helpers who prepared food on Friday, assisted in lifting the hāngī and tidying up – you are all wonderful].

I mentioned earlier how Matariki is a time for reflection, so on Monday this week I thought I would give the children an opportunity to reflect on the hāngī; to communicate their experiences and thoughts to one another. Here are a few of the special words and pictures they chose to share with me:

Sharlotte: 'Here I am walking down the street with my lantern, that was my best bit, see I am walking around here'.

Emma: 'My favourite part was when Christine did the ukulele - and not at night, but when we practiced at group time. I liked practising the song, in this picture I'm singing 'this little light of mine' and then I'm singing my own hāngī song and we're outside under the clouds'.

Grace: 'I loved my sister being at the hāngī and the moon was there, not the sun, My sister played with me at the hāngī. This is me and my sister Naomi'.

Nyla: 'I enjoyed eating. Here is my round bowl and my kebab sticks of fruit and this is my daddy and Tanner - he's upside down cause he does that. Nanna and Pa and my Nan came to the hāngī as I invited them'.

Peter: 'This is the lantern parade and we walked down and around the street. There are lots of people walking, 12 maybe'.

He aha te mea nui o te ao?

He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!

What is the most important thing in the world?

It is people! It is people! It is people!

Have a wonderful winter break. We will see everyone again in two weeks time,

Ka kite anō,

Christine

↧

Congratulations Kim

July 17, 2015, 7:47 pm

≫ Next: Book of the Week: Fostering our Story Telling Culture

≪ Previous: Hāngī and Matariki Celebration

This coming week on Monday 20th July we begin a new term, and welcome Kim Townsend back to us as head teacher after her secondment to the Northland Kindergarten Association's (NKA) professional practice management team.

We are delighted to have Kim back, I know everyone has missed her, and certainly there will be some excited children on Monday.

Before the new term begins however, I thought I should celebrate some other good news with our community and whānau. Last night (Friday 17^th July) the NKA held their annual appreciation evening and Kim was awarded a Kauri Scholarship to attend an 8 day outward bound course focusing on leadership – well done Kim J

For those who would like to know more click here for a link to the outward bound website. The course Kim is choosing to do is called a Navigator course and is based on learning through experience, adventure, challenge and plenty of physical activity in the outdoors.

The outward bound website states,

'Our courses are designed to be mentally, emotionally, and physically challenging for the average participant. Activities occur in all weather conditions and can include off-track tramping, camping outside (sometimes alone), whitewater and surf kayaking, running, sailing, swimming, rock climbing and high-ropes.’

Kim, moments after receiving her Kauri Scholarship

Kim is an amazing, visionary and inspirational teacher and we are all so proud of her! Well done Kim we know you will be fantastic and that you will use this experience to enhance your practice further through this leadership opportunity.

Ngā Mihi nui,

Christine

↧

Book of the Week: Fostering our Story Telling Culture

July 29, 2015, 2:02 am

≫ Next: Mairtown's visit from ERO (The Education Review Office)

≪ Previous: Congratulations Kim

Last term we introduced a ‘Story Telling Table’ after Kim had seen a similar set up in another kindergarten. Our table had the same story displayed on it for a week or so, along with small beautiful props that supported the dialogue of the book. Some of the favourites enjoyed by many children were classics like ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and ‘The Owl and the Pussycat.”

Jack re-tells his version of 'The Owl and the Pussycat - “The turkey and the cat and the owl and the pig all went in the green boat. They went in the water and had fun. They danced in the moon, in the moon and went back in the boat.”

Because they were out for a lengthy time we found that some children would revisit the ‘Story Telling Table’ over and over again. This lead to them building on their knowledge and confidence in re-telling the stories to themselves, as well as their peers and teachers.

On a few occasions the stories were read at group times, along with the props. This increased the participation of this experience immensely. Upon reflecting on this and thinking about how we could enhance this delightful experience for the children we decided to connect our group time and the ’Story Telling Table’, by incorporating it into our daily routine. We have now re-named the table ' Book of the Week’. The book on display is read at group time everyday.

"Reading stories provides the perfect oral language support – they provide both stimulation and motivation. While sharing a book encompasses much more than simply reading it." (Konza, 2012)

Pippa tells Lali her version of 'The Tiger who came to Tea', “He drunk all of the cups and Mum said ‘OH NO, it’s all a mess and no food is here’. And then we had to go to the café.”

Our first book was ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. So many children were elated; they knew this story as it was a book they often read at home. Making connections like this made the experience so much more meaningful and powerful for their learning and development. These children were leaders at the ‘Story Telling Table’ as they re-told the story over and over to their friends and teachers. They also were the children who would help tell the story confidently at group time. Over the week the children who were not so familiar with the book soon demonstrated their learning, as they began to competently join in the experience with joy and enthusiasm.

"The humble act of reading a book to a young child has repeatedly been found to have remarkable power." (Rodriguez, Tamis-LeMonda, M. E. Spellmann et al., 2009)

Our second week has been met with the story of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. Once again this was very popular. Children who knew the story took the lead and guided their peers as to what was to happen. Some children spent nearly the whole of Monday morning at the experience, happily sharing the space with other children who wanted to come and go.

Te Whariki (1996) recognises that story telling plays an important role in terms of children developing skills and knowledge. The curriculum shares that children should experience an environment where they have a familiarity with stories and symbols from their own and others cultures. In doing this children develop an expectation that words and books can amuse, delight, comfort, illuminate, inform, and excite. When children are engaged in story-telling and reading books they learn that both the text and the illustrations carry the story, that print can be useful, that books can provide information, and that stories can allow one to enter new worlds.

Story telling is a wonderful skill that we love to foster at Mairtown Kindergarten. We really want to support the notion that our kindergarten has a story telling ‘culture’. We feel that the addition of our ‘Book of the Week’ table already has, and will continue to enhance and extend our children’s learning and development in so many ways. One learning area that we see it greatly supporting is our children’s oral language development. The familiarity of the stories allow for the child to play around with their ideas, especially the descriptive language that they use to express this.

“Storytelling provides an influential and effective platform for promoting children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development. Stories can be integrated into mat times, in the sandpit, at the carpentry or play dough table, alongside the literacy area … anywhere, any time in fact - thereby increasingly modelling and creating a storytelling culture.” (Davis, 2014)

In addition when the children are engaged in this experience with other children they delve into the world of peer tutoring, where one child shares their knowledge with another and extends on each others learning and development. Again the descriptions of the story are a great space for lots of learning amongst small groups.

The book of the week table creates a lot of social interaction and allows for children involved to practice the notions of being both a listener and a story teller. Listening in particular is a great skill to learn. It helps children gain an understanding that by actively 'tuning-in' they are able to participate in more meaningful ways with their peers and teachers.

One of the most delightful outcomes that we have noted since introducing the ‘Story Telling Table’ and ‘Book of the Week’ is the confidence that the children are displaying. They radiate with pride as they realise that their story telling skills are bringing joy and capturing the interest of others. This is often displayed in the longevity that they spend at this experience and the frequency that they revisit.

“Books and storytelling give children the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to use complex symbol systems that make up our society. This includes the written word, visual images and oral communications. Reading, writing, listening, and talking form the basis of children's literacy learning. Children need lots of language together with a wide variety of experiences. Sharing books and reading is a vital activity for children's development. Children who experience and enjoy reading books with others develop a positive attitude towards books.” (education.govt.nz)

We look forward to watching our children’s interest and confidence grow within the contexts of re-telling stories and enjoying having books read repeatedly. So much learning, thinking and reflecting happens when children have the time and space to revisit experiences. We believe that by being able to revisit stories over and over we are creating rich and meaningful opportunities for our children to extend on their literary knowledge and verbal language.

"The humble act of reading a book to a young child has repeatedly been found to have remarkable power." (Rodriguez, Tamis-LeMonda, M. E. Spellmann et al., 2009)

Hei konā mai,

Zair

↧

Mairtown's visit from ERO (The Education Review Office)

August 7, 2015, 9:43 pm

≫ Next: Joy of Dancing

≪ Previous: Book of the Week: Fostering our Story Telling Culture

This week on Wednesday Mairtown was visited by reviewers Deena and Helen from the Education Review Office (ERO). Our review was part of the planned Northland Kindergarten Association’s (NKA) ‘Cluster Review’. Deena and Helen have worked alongside NKA for the past three months; Mairtown’s review was the last of their ten visits to kindergartens in our area.

As mentioned above the team have been planning for this visit since May. Our work began with gathering and submitting documentation for a self-audit checklist and writing a ‘self-report’ which covered ERO’s questions and resulting reflection of the kindergarten’s programme, policies and procedures, leadership, visioning, engagement with community and on-going mahi (work).

The Education Review Office (ERO) independently reviews and reports on the quality of education in schools and early childhood services. The focus of ERO’s reviews in early childhood services is on the capacity of the service to promote positive learning outcomes, with the purpose of contributing to improved wellbeing and learning for all children (ERO, 2013).

Wednesday’s visit by the review officers was very much about observing our programme in action. Deena and Helen spent the morning on the floor observing children’s engagement in the programme, the team’s pedagogy styles, reading documentation and speaking with our many participants of the day including children, parents, the Mairtown team and management; as you can imagine it was a busy day full of participation and expectation!

Deena’s and Helen’s arrival at Mairtown was acknowledged with Mihi Whakatau (a speech of greetings). This traditional Māori welcome was a formal way of showing our respect for visitors by acknowledging their mana and tapu (dignity and sacredness). It is a sign of hospitality and respect to mihi on important occasions.

Our mihi whakatau was led by Roimata (NKA’s Pou Whakahaere Tikanga Māori advisor) and supported by our management, team, tamariki and most importantly (and hugely acknowledged and appreciated) many of our parents and whānau. This heartfelt welcome cemented the beginning of what emerged to be at absolutely wonderfully affirming day.

Whilst we are now waiting to receive ERO’s confirmed report of their review of our kindergarten, our visit from Deena and Helen finished with a feedback meeting where the ERO officers reflected on their ‘initial findings’ with the team. Minutes from this meeting were noted by our Professional Practice Manager Bronwyn Coulton and with ERO’s permission we would like to share with you just some of the highlights of their feedback.

What a pleasure it has been visiting today, arriving here is like walking into a treasure box. Thank you for your manaaki (care) and making us feel so welcome.

Your programme and teaching is guided by providing positive outcomes for children. There is a strong focus on teacher presence. The teachers work is deliberate and focussed. Dialogue with children is rich in descriptive language. Children have a sense of being valued in what they are thinking. Children's working theories are affirmed. Children are engaged in complex, sustained play.

Assessment is a strong feature of teachers practice.

The curriculum provides highly effective promotion and outcomes for Māori children. This is evidenced in children’s engagement, success and partnerships with whānau.

There is a strong commitment to whanaungatanga. Relationships with parents and families are evident. Whānau are involved in children’s play and their voices are evident in assessment and planning documentation.

The team’s highly effective teaching strategies, careful consideration and knowledge of developing children’s social competence fosters children leadership skills. This is truly inclusive.

Mairtown has a highly effective model of informed leadership across the team.

The kindergarten has a clear sense of vision and direction, this is evidenced in practice and clearly identified in the positive outcomes for children.

We are absolutely delighted with the feedback and positive affirmation’s that have been observed and recorded of the mahi and energy of our kindergarten. We want to acknowledge our wonderful tamariki who welcomed our visitors into their space with such care and purposeful attention, we felt so proud of them all! And finally we want to also say a huge thank you to those parents who were able to attend the mihi whakatau, take time to speak with the ERO officers or offered written support in our initial documentation. Mairtown Kindergarten is a true reflection of community education that is successful because of the care, productive relationships, collaboration and education that we all work together to achieve.

Ehara taku toa

He toa taki tahi

He toa taki tini

My achievements are not because of me alone

but because we worked as a team

Me te mihi nui
Kim

↧

Joy of Dancing

August 13, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: 'Bum Sliding' on the Nature Programme

≪ Previous: Mairtown's visit from ERO (The Education Review Office)

Since last term, dancing has been of particular interest to our children, an interest that has extended enthusiastically into this term. Moving to music is something most children seem to be drawn to, especially if the music happens to be a song titled ‘Let it go’ from the movie Frozen!

Te Whāriki states “Children experience an environment where they discover different ways to be creative and expressive. There is an expectation that music and dance can amuse, delight, illuminate, inform and excite.”(Ministry of Education, 1996, p.80).

Listening to music and dancing is a creative experience which involves our expression of feelings. It is great to see some children grow in confidence while dancing with others. We have noticed that in some cases children often do not have the words to expressive themselves and dancing seems to provide a positive platform to assist children in releasing these emotions. It’s a pleasure watching all the children being so facially expressive as well as using their arms and body to show their appreciation of the beauty of music and dance.

“Dance is expressive and creative. It not only arouses our emotional consciousness but also improves the intellectual faculties as our mind learns, receives impressions, selects, manipulates and solves dance problems”. (Hinkley, 1980)

When our children request a certain song or style of music to dance it never takes long before others hear and come to join in. It’s always such a social occasion where both girls and boys share their joy of dancing. For some of our children it provides an opportunity to share their dance moves from their own culture or from their dance classes, such as ballet. When children dance together it can help them feel part of the group, as well as reinforce their sense of belonging.

“Music and movement are both important in the lives of children. Experiences have been shown to affect the development of the whole child. Early experiences have even been shown to affect abilities in later years.” (Jill M. Davis, 2010)

The song ‘Let it go’ is definitely a clear favourite to dance to, however other types of music also draw children in to dance. It seems to me that children naturally love music and the patterns, rhythm and differences in sounds. When the music changes from slow to fast, they quickly change their dance to suit, whether it is classical, pop, or hip hop.

“Dance is story telling through movement. Over time, children build their skills and deepen their understanding of rhythm and song and how it relates to the visual art of dance. Regardless of skill or experience, dance gives children a freedom to move in a way that reflects their uniqueness.” (Benefit of Dance, 2012).

Dancing has so much to offer especially for young children where research states that early years dance experience will help children develop body control, co-ordination, balance and spatial awareness, as well as a range of gross motor movements and fine motor movements. (Mandy Fouracre, 2012)

Here are some of our children’s thoughts about dancing:

Sadie: “I like the music and I like to dance to ‘Let it go’.

Toby: “I like doing the hippo dance, like this (jumping). I love doing the dolphin splashing dance like this.”

Danielia: “I like the scarfs. I like dancing at home with my mummy.”

Ruby: “Dancing makes me happy. I like dancing to the Elsa song.”

Sharlotte: “It makes me happy too, I like dancing to the window open song.”

Ben: “I watch foxy dance, I do the foxy dance and Freddie dances sometimes. I’m excited.”

Milla: “I love doing move dance. I dance at home with my family. It makes me happy. I love the eye of the tiger song.”

Dance is a way for children to communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings in a non-verbal manner. Mandy Fouracre, 2012

Ngā mihi, Susie

↧

'Bum Sliding' on the Nature Programme

February 4, 2015, 2:39 am

≫ Next: More than Jumping

≪ Previous: Joy of Dancing

Last Friday (30th January) I facilitated the first of our Nature Programme excursions into Mair Park for 2015. Our nature program is now into it's fourth year and its continued success is due to the on-going commitment of our teaching team, dedicated parents and the generous support of community funding organisations like COG's. COG's support our programme with a grant to cover our Education Coordinators role.

As it is a new year, this meant that Sarah and I were also welcoming in five new tamariki to the programme. This is an exciting time for most of our children; being part of the ‘Nature Programme explorers’ is a highly anticipated happening in our children’s kindergarten experience.

As the focus of our Nature Programme is to be child-led, we empower our ‘leaders’ (children who already have experience and knowledge) to be the informed decision makers on each of our Friday’s in the bush. This often means that our new tamariki are very quickly initiated into some of the existing groups favourite places. At present a top spot to play with abandon is Punga Hill or more affectionately named the Mud Slide for ‘bum sliding’.

“The first time I went bum sliding I was like what the? And then I tried and I went whee! And then I had a hundred turns” – Sharlotte

Whilst we have frequented Punga Hill for the past three years of our programme, it’s potential as an inspirational learning environment, that pushes the children’s physical limits, truly unfolded last year after a period of on-going heavy rain.

Punga Hill’s rolling slope transformed into a slick, slippery, sticky wet surface full of challenge and fun!

However in the height of summer, the bush’s natural state is to be mostly dry in the undergrowth. When the children requested we cross the bridge and head to Punga Hill for ‘bum sliding’, I was quietly hesitant about the disappointment they were about to withstand. However after a quick trial (and a bit of problem solving), it was quickly established that ‘water’ needed to be added to the mud slide and that Wyatt’s mum and aunty (our manuhiri for the day) would be designated to the role of ‘water carriers’ (and attain the identity as being ‘the most fun mum’s!).

Children are competent, confident and capable learners, able to make choices and decisions

Successful mud sliding down Punga Hill requires a combination of physical strength, co-ordination and an attitude of fearlessness (or the confidence to overcome that feeling of a knot in your belly). We believe that children need to see or engage in play that encourages exploration, taking risks, adventure and that this empowers them to push their personal limits in a safe environment. This ability to meet challenges is perfectly captured in Reese’s reflection of her first time ‘bum sliding’

“I feeled a bit scared and then I thought it was quite fun……it was so, so fun! I loved the bit when I was super muddy!”

When they have the opportunities to explore risk and try and try again in an environment that is both safe and challenging, young children can engage in motor practice play that leads to advanced physical abilities, mobility, agility, dexterity, and as a result, confidence, independence and learning – Kernan, 2007

"I had lots of mud everywhere, it was cool" - Hezekiah

Of course, bum sliding is not just beneficial for children, participating alongside our children builds powerful childhood memories. One of characteristics of our Nature Programme that I just love is the generous support and willingness of our parent helpers to be so engaged and involved in the children’s learning experiences.

Research indicates that they way adults interact with children plays a very important role in children’s learning and development. When adults are responsive, guiding, and nurturing, children take more initiative and are more likely to be actively involved and persistent in their work – Highscope, 2015

We don’t stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing – George Bernard Shaw

“It was so fun when I sat on my mum! I liked the bit when I jumped over the bumps, it’s fun and then sore when you land!” - Wyatt

“When my mummy went bum sliding her bum was so muddy it was like muddy as!

It’s good when mummy goes bum sliding, she learns that it’s fun and real muddy” – Sharlotte

“When my dad comes on the Nature Programme I’m gonna take him on the mud slide, he’ll go so far like Tyler’s dad and so fast! I’m gonna sit on him” - Hezekiah

Have a really great weekend everyone. Take a risk and try something new that makes you feel both excited and a little bit scared at the same time – the learning from these precious opportunities is great!

Until next time

Kim

↧

More than Jumping

February 10, 2015, 4:03 pm

≫ Next: Drawing with Scissors: A look into the work of Henri Matisse.

≪ Previous: 'Bum Sliding' on the Nature Programme

Recently at kindergarten our children have had a really keen interest in jumping, which has actually continued on from the end of last year and into this term. It is wonderful to observe how confident and capable all our children are and if there are any who feel worried or concerned, with that knot in their tummy, there is always a friend nearby to encourage and offer assistance.

What has impressed me throughout this experience is how our children are fully engaged in their learning while jumping. Right from the moment when I was setting up the obstacle/challenge course, so many of our children asked or reminded me to ‘please get your camera, so you can take photos of me flying’.

It’s such a pleasure to see the children take a keen interest and develop the ability to take control and ownership of their learning, through checking with me to see if I was ready to capture their jumping action.

Te Whāriki states that each child learns in his or her own way and the curriculum builds on a child’s current needs, strengths and interests by allowing children choices and by encouraging them to take responsibility for their learning.

“Young children are developing their awareness of themselves as learners by planning, checking, questioning, and reflecting on activities and tasks.” Ministry of Education, 1996.

It was really interesting to note that when the children completed their jump they would check the camera to see if I had accurately captured the different aspects of their jumping, for example take-off, flight and landing. Learning to jump requires many skills, confidence and an adventurous attitude. Today however my focus is more than jumping, it’s about children being interested, engaged, having choices and taking responsibility of their learning.

Take-off

Flight

Landing

“Children become even more curious, interested and confident when they think about the meaning of what they have done… Children’s learning is enhanced.” (JECEI)

While checking the camera the children would often question and reflect whether they were happy with the photo before heading back to the end of the queue to jump again. By capturing this learning experience it highlights how many of our children are developing the ability to plan, monitor and assess their activities, this is evident through them developing awareness of themselves as ‘a learner’.

“The fastest way to empower students is to make their work matter in the real world. By creating an environment where their effort will impact other people, you can help students recognize the tremendous power they can have, even while they are still students.” Kim Hayes, 2012

Here are some of the children’s comments and reflections:

Wyatt: “Did you get my take-off? Am I flying? Did you get my landing? Look she got me flying.”

Reese: “Did you catch my flying?”

Peter: “I’m waiting for you cause I’m going to do a high one today.”

Nyla: “I want you to count together with me, 3, 2, 1 jump.”

Toby: “Did you get my jumping into the air, it’s fun.”

Mila: “That’s a big jump, can I see it?”

Matteo: “Did you see? I jumped so high. Did you get again? I look like an aeroplane.”

Nash: “I want to do the coolest jump, Susie point the camera high.”

Tyler: “3, 2, 1, go take a click. I’m a flying bird, can you show me?”

Max: “Watch this, I want you to take a picture of me.”

I believe it is important for children no matter of their age to develop and grow independent learning traits as it can foster self-reliancecuriosity, self-motivation, self-examination, accountability, critical thinking, comprehension with little or no instruction, persistence and responsibility.

Having choices allows children to feel that they have control or ownership over their own learning. This, in turn, helps them develop a sense of responsibility and self-motivation. When students feel a sense of ownership, they want to engage in academic tasks and persist in learning. Barbara McCombs, PhD, University of Denver

Ngā mihi nui

Susie

↧

Drawing with Scissors: A look into the work of Henri Matisse.

February 16, 2015, 9:57 pm

≫ Next: The wonders of water play: increasing sustainability awareness

≪ Previous: More than Jumping

Over the last couple of weeks I have introduced many of our children at Mairtown to the artist Henri Matisse. Matisse loved colour and shape, and when you look, really look into his work, you can see so many interesting shapes.

Before I begin writing too much about what we have been doing at Mairtown, have a quick look at this picture below and think about what you see.

Do you notice the bright bursts of colour and the interesting, wiggly shapes that appear to dance and float on the page? This is one of the many pieces of art by Matisse and is titled ‘The Codomas’ (1947). When Matisse made this bold and abstract picture he was remembering the circus and his travels (when I look at this picture I can see trapeze and I wonder if the black squares are the watching crowd?)

Matisse began his art career as a painter but as he got older, due to health reasons he changed his style and he began to cut paper into shapes, arranging them to create large, very beautiful collages. Matisse called this way of making art ‘Drawing with scissors’. It was after hearing this term that I thought the children at Mairtown may like to look into his work, and discover a little more a little Matisse and of course try their own creations.

We began our work a couple of weeks ago with just a couple of Matisse’s cut-out pictures for reference. This last week however I collected a book ‘The cut-outs’from the library, and things have really taken off as we were able to really get close to, and examine a larger selection of his work in a more detail.

As we looked at some of these cut-outs by Matisse, initially I invited the children to look deep into his work, to notice Matisse’s use of bright, bold colours, wild lines and playful shapes. Wishing to motivate the children’s creative thinking I asked them some questions such as ‘What do you see?’ ‘What do you imagine?’ and then in groups we shared some of the titles Matisse gave to his cut-out pictures (for instance ‘The clown’) encouraging some interesting and at times humorous dialogue as we looked for clues as to what he may have been wishing to represent.

Children’s interest in making art is increased if adults encourage them to talk about art and artists- who artists are and how they make things (Schwartz & Taylor, 1981)

Art, as we tend to think, is about pen and paper, or paint and pastels etc., so when the children first began their own representations of cut-outs some were keen to draw – this alone presented itself as a challenge, a new way of thinking, a bit of a risk!

Emma told the group as she worked on her first cut out: ‘I find it strange that we don’t use pens cause I want to do eyes but instead I did the eyes with paper. It made me a little bit nervous, but it looks so so beautiful.’ Then later, as she became more familiar with this method of creating art she cheerfully told children who were just beginning their work into Matisse, ‘We don’t use pens, we cut the shapes out and we can’t colour, we use paper, it’s hard work, it’s making me tired, but I like it!’

It was interesting for me as their teacher to see just how quickly all our children overcame these challenges and how they worked hard to persist and persevere. Many children were experts with scissors already, whilst some of the children were just beginning their learning on how to use this tool. Whatever stage they were at, the children were motivated and their success in their work often stemmed from fantastic team work (with older children assisting younger) strengthening relationships and making me once again very aware of the culture of caring that is so evident here at Mairtown [Zair wrote a lovely post about this several weeks ago - see here]. Creating these cut-outs has certainly captured the children’s creativity and imaginations, as well as enhancing their curiosity, and fostering their love of learning.

Collage is a wonderful medium for young children. It offers endless opportunities for self-expression, allows children to feel successful at any age, and is also great developing fine motor skills (Bruehl, 2011, p.144).

At the beginning when children were new to the experience I talked about selecting just a couple of colours (so they wouldn’t feel too overwhelmed), and we did lots of talking about shapes they may like.

One of the problems with collage of course, is that the more we worked, the more left over scraps of paper we had! We soon turned this around however, and the children began using these scraps, adding them to their work, noticing the interesting outlines, for instance pieces of paper that looked like heads, elephants, and dragon stripes!

I have just loved working with the children on this topic. One aspect that I have really enjoyed is listening to the titles the children have given their own work (they were all keen to do this after knowing Matisse names each of his pieces!) and how many have created some wonderful stories about their work to go alongside their titles.

Conversations and sharing of artwork with children is important in that it extends thinking and reflection and shows that we value their ideas and their perspectives (Mulcahey, 2009, p.58)

Here are some stunning examples:

'The Christmas Tree'

'I cut out a vacuum cleaner and a kiwi. So there is a desert with kiwi's, and a mum kiwi, a baby kiwi, a dad on a bridge. The bridge goes to the kiwi's, they use the bridge. I will call it the desert...no, no, Mittens'

‘I want to make a unicorn. I am thinking hard about my unicorn and where it can live. I think my unicorn can live in a desert – oh and it will need water. So that’s where the unicorn can drink and have a bath. Well…the purple rainbow makes the unicorn purple and the blue rain makes the unicorn’s eyes blue and the sun makes the heat. And I need a palm tree cause it’s very hot and the unicorn, hmm, it will need some shade. I keep thinking of different names, oh I got it, ‘The Unicornetes’– yes that’s the title!’

‘Dinosaur by Franchi’

'Denny'

And to finish let me share some words (great words!) from Matisse:

‘Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play’

Ngā mihi nui,

Christine

↧

The wonders of water play: increasing sustainability awareness

February 25, 2015, 6:07 pm

≫ Next: Wheel-a-thon 3rd March 2015

≪ Previous: Drawing with Scissors: A look into the work of Henri Matisse.

Water is a very popular resource for our children and it is highly valuable when it comes to supporting children’s learning and development. ECE Lead recognise that “Water play is an enjoyable and soothing activity where children can play and learn alone or alongside others. Children can participate at any level with no expected end result or product. Water play helps children to - Develop hand-eye coordination and the manipulative skills of lifting, pouring and controlling - Explore the early mathematical and scientific concepts of heavy/light, float/sink, full/empty and shallow/deep and learn about measuring, estimating, and conservation of volume - Develop concentration and problem solving skills as they become absorbed in their experimentation - Develop social skills as they play alongside and communicate with others.”

Our children engage in water play on a daily basis. Whether it is containers filled with vibrant coloured water, a water trough set up with hoses and funnels, our wonderful river bed flowing or taps in the sand pit with pipes and spades; it is a resource that is utilised constantly. It often is a platform for supporting children in building relationships with one another, opening up opportunities to share lots of dialogue and learning about taking turns, sharing and negotiating. It allows for our children to explore mathematical and scientific concepts, testing and playing with ideas and just being at one with this lovely natural resource. Water play is often open ended and transportable therefore children are able to be creative and use their imagination to build on their play. Water celebrates exploration, with lots of children’s senses being utilised while engaged with the resources. It is wonderful on its own and also when it is mixed with other natural resources like sand, dirt, flowers, leaves or bark. Time spent playing with water is often filled with calmness, concentration and delight (unless it involves jumping and splashing in the river bed or muddy puddles, then it is full-noise fun!). The benefits of playing with water are rich and meaningful in terms of children learning about their world.

"Early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked with the development of imagination and the sense of wonder.” (Cobb 1977, Louv 1991).

With this in mind we are also aware that we need to make it clear to children that water needs to be conserved. Water is nature’s most precious resource, one that we all need to respect. As educators it is important that we create an environment where children have opportunities to develop a real awareness around this. Talking to the children about our role in conserving water and its importance, as well as explaining that sometimes they will only have a certain amount of water to use for the day are some of the methods that we use to help lower our water consumption at kindergarten. We believe that when children have a greater understanding and background knowledge as to why we need to be careful with how much water we use, then they can share this knowledge with others.

Next week we are having our annual ‘Wheels-a-thon’ fundraiser. The monies raised by this is event are going to go towards purchasing some hand operated water pumps which are attached to half wine barrels. These can be filled up with a certain amount of water for the day, meaning the children will have to work hard to obtain their share. This will be one way in which the children will have an opportunity to develop an awareness of how this resources is precious and to be careful around how it is utilized in their play to make it last.

We want our children to become our kaitiaki (guardians) for our future generation, who protect and honour our natural resources like water. The concept of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) gives a wonderful Māori world view on the importance of looking after our environment.

“The long-established Māori system of environmental management is holistic. It is a system that ensures harmony within the environment, providing a process of, as well as preventing intrusions that cause permanent imbalances and guards against environmental damage. Kaitiakitanga is a concept that has roots deeply embedded in the complex code of tikanga. Kaitiakitanga is a broad notion which includes the following ideas: guardianship, care, wise environmental management.” (Wikipedia)

I asked a group of children a few questions like; “Where do you think water comes from? How can we look after water? What do you like to do with water?”

“I think it comes from the tap and if we drink too much from the tap it will run out. I turn the taps off when I’m not using them. I just jump in puddles the rain makes in my drive way. I really like playing with the water in the sandpit, making it go in the pipes is fun” (Toby)

“Water comes from the rain clouds and there is a song about it. It’s about a spider that goes up the drain and then the rain comes in fast and washes the spider out. I save water at kindergarten, you have to stop the tap so you don’t waste the water. I love it when it rains and makes puddles and I jump in them so much.” (Miller)

“The water comes from the sky. It’s not good to leave the tap running because you waste the water. I like jumping in puddles on the grass here at kindergarten. When it rains, it mixes with the grass and makes a big muddy as puddle.” (Taika)

“Water comes from the rain I know because I thinked about it and I know because it was in my brain. I really like all the coloured water in the bowls. We make lots of food there, just pretend food we don’t eat. One day some tipped the water out and then there was no more and we could have no more which was sad.” (Matteo)

“If we don’t have any rain we won’t have any water. It’s important the rain you know, it makes all the water in the pipes and taps.” (Braeden)

“I like digging in the sandpit and making a hole that the water goes in. We fill it up and it make a pool. Sometimes the kids jump in the pools and they splash so big. I know that we need to make sure we turn off the taps in the sandpit so the water doesn’t run out. You know I know that water comes from the mountains into a big lake. It then goes through a big machine to get the sours out of it. Then we can use it and drink it.” (Peter)

“Teaching children about caring for the natural environment provides them with a range of opportunities for rich, hands-on learning experiences about nature and the environment, and provokes curiosity, creativity and critical thinking skills.”
(NCAC, 2009)

I look forward to the purchase of our new hand pumps and seeing how they support our children in developing even more of an awareness the importance of conserving this wonderful natural resource. Sustainability is an incredibly significant concept that we need to foster, role-model, nurture and teach.

“Water permeates life on Earth…Sustainable development of water resources refers to a holistic approach to development, conservation, and management of water resources…Sustainability is of paramount importance for the survival of living beings. The role of water in sustainability can be compared to role of the heart in human body.”
(http://www.benefits-ofrecycling.com/watermovementsustainability)

Till next time,

Zair

↧

Wheel-a-thon 3rd March 2015

March 11, 2015, 10:09 pm

≫ Next: The science behind the drawings

≪ Previous: The wonders of water play: increasing sustainability awareness

On Tuesday 3^rdMarch 2015 we were very fortunate to have beautiful weather for our annual Wheel-a-thon fundraiser at the Kensington park courts.

It was wonderful to see so many of the bikes or scooters had been decorated thoughtfully with balloons, tinsel, streamers, windmills, ribbons, plants and flowers. Many of the children also chose to decorate themselves wearing fantastic dress ups.

Community events like the Wheel-a-thon provide an excellent opportunity for whānau/families to engage with each other, meet new friends and socialise outside of kindergarten.

When I asked the children what they enjoyed most about the Wheel-a-thon, there was one popular response “Eating my ice block”. It certainly was a refreshing way to cool down after completing many laps of the courts. As well as receiving an ice block each child received a badge acknowledging their participation, one child commented “I love this badge so much I want to wear it tomorrow and the next day”.

A huge thank you to all the whānau who helped make this event such a success through offering support and help with many jobs including preparing the bread and onions, transporting the barbeque to the courts and back, cooking and selling the sausages, gaining sponsorship and making the time to come and have fun at the event.

On Friday 6^thMarch we were all delighted to see that we featured in the Northern Advocate newspaper. It was so exciting for the children to see themselves in the newspaper, and special thanks must go to Tyler’s Dad for taking such wonderful photograph’s again.

To view the article click here.

Christine has made a short slideshow movie using a collection of photographs from the wheel-a-thon and at whānau time the children watched it with so much joy as they recognised themselves and their friends riding their bikes and scooters.

Enjoy the slideshow below:

This year all monies fundraised will be used to assist our kindergarten in becoming more sustainable. Plans are now being processed to purchase some hand operated water pumps that are attached to a refillable half barrel for our outside environment.

Ngā mihi

Susie

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The science behind the drawings

March 18, 2015, 12:55 am

≫ Next: Transferring knowledge from 2D to 3D - The wonders of drawing and clay work combined

≪ Previous: Wheel-a-thon 3rd March 2015

Several weeks ago Sarah brought in some gorgeous sunflowers from her garden to share with the children at kindergarten. There is something about the sunflower that seems to totally capture the children’s interest; perhaps it is their open, almost face like heads, their colour or maybe their impressive size. Regardless of this, it is something we have noticed again and again when we use these flowers as a resource at kindergarten.

Sarah’s flowers were no exception and the children, eager to explore and learn more about this flower, did what comes very naturally to them at Mairtown; they began to draw. Observational drawing is something we use all the time, and the children are now very comfortable and familiar with this wonderful method of learning.

When students draw pictures of things they see, it enhances their observation of these things (Haydock)

Our very first drawings and initial conversations uncovered some early discoveries:

Isaac: I see a circle…then petals, I notice they have leaves.

Sienna: Yes, they are really big petals, and I notice they are a bit bigger than I’ve drawn. I’ve not drawn as big as them. Yes I notice the petals, I think they are a happy flower.

Isaac: Yep, they need a lot of sun and lots of rain, but more sun than rain.

Sienna: It takes a long time for sunflowers to come up in the sun. Look there are dots in the middle.

Isaac: And if they don’t have sun, they die in the middle’

After many days of observing, noticing, drawing and lots of discussion regarding what we know (and don’t know) about sunflowers the original flowers of course eventually died. This had by now become such an interest for the children, they were really having some wonderful discussions and at times quite passionate ones as they agreed and disagreed about what what they could see and notice and what this meant. Because of this I felt that it was really important for their learning to continue on this topic and we fortunately sourced some more sunflowers from a local grower.

Arriving with the freshly cut sunflowers

Although the pictures the children have created are each amazing and wonderful in their own ways, there is a lot more to this work than perhaps initially meets the eye - and that is the Science behind each of these drawings.

[This intricate drawing literally comes to life with the addition of some dye]

Students’ interest in science can be enhanced if they draw pictures as part of learning science. When they are drawing they are necessarily more involved than when they are just listening and/or looking…Art is an enjoyable mode of self-expression and communication, as well as a skill useful in science and other areas. Consider then, drawing to be just as essential as reading, writing and arithmetic (Haydock).

Certainly as one of the teachers involved in this topic I have found this to be very much the case. By working at the children’s pace, with their interests and natural curiosity about these flowers, by allowing the children to inquire and ask their own questions, and of course by encouraging the use of drawing, we have over the weeks discovered together many interesting scientific discoveries. Not all of these are necessarily accurate at first, but science is very much about asking questions, about hypothesising and developing new concepts and ideas.

[Examining the centre of the stalk]

I don’t feel we are at the end of our work together yet on these elegant flowers – there is still so much to explore and discover – only just this week have we begun new conversations on sunflower seeds and how they come from the flower, as well as noticing the sudden and unexpected appearance of caterpillars. As I write this blog however, I’d like to share just a small amount of discovery the children have done together, and I hope you too can see the progress they have made (over the weeks) from the very first conversations they shared, which were directed solely towards the shape and colour of the flower, to some wonderful new learning and scientific revelations.

Mia: I notice the white spikes on the edge of the stalk and it’s really bumpy. The inside (of the stalk) is white because trees have white blood.

Sienna:It’s a bit sharp like thorns on the outside; the inside- it feels like ice in the middle.

Looking more closely at the inside of the stalk the children discuss what they see.

Emma: It’s soft and squishy and a little bit sticky

Me: What is the white stuff inside the stalk?

Emma:I don’t know! Nobody can find out!

Tyler:It’s like a beanstalk so it makes it grow bigger.

Mia:The water comes into the flower so it can grow up. It goes through the whitey middle bit. It’s soft and squishy cause It’s wet so the water can be drinked out of it. The water comes from the wet rain. The water goes up to the flower.

Tyler:But it’s not raining in here and it’s wet and squishy.

Emma:Oh yes, I think that’s a very good idea, cause without water it might die and Tyler look at it, there is water in the vase. When they drop they are very dying. And they get heaps of energy from the sun and water like we do when we eat food.

Isaac:The flower doesn’t have to drink rain it can drink water from the tap but without sun and water it will die.

Emma:That’s because it gets dried up by the sun. The sun makes things dry, it makes everything dry up!

A few days later still we spot the caterpillars and discuss what they are and where they have come from.

Matteo:I think they’re worms.

Sienna:No, they’re caterpillars.

Matteo: No, as caterpillars are only yellow and black.

Sienna:No, cause I have a book at home that shows different colour caterpillars and some are green like this one.

Nyla:Yes, that’s right as I have green ones at my house.

Matteo:Hmm, ok, I didn’t know that, perhaps they are caterpillars.

Reese:I actually thought it was just a part of the leaf, but when Christine moved the leaf the caterpillar moved.

Sienna:That’s called camouflaged. I wonder how they got there?

We lead onto talking about where these caterpillars have come from.

Reese: I think they came up the kindergarten ramp in the middle of the night to eat all the leaves.

Isaac: I think they came inside the stalk and came out the head of the flower.

Taika: No that can’t happen cause there's no hole at the bottom of the stalk.

Reese: Yes it can cause maybe it climbed up the outside?

Emma: Maybe they are water caterpillars as the stalks are in water and they swim around trying to catch a stalk to climb?

Reese: Hey, oh yeah. I just remembered when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly it lays eggs and when it lays eggs they turn into caterpillars so maybe a butterfly came in and lay the eggs?

This idea is meet with enthusiastic agreement!

[A careful look at the large leaves and inside the head of the flower]

‘Scientists do not use words only but rely on diagrams…photographs, and other images to make discoveries, explain findings, and excite interest…scientists imagine new relations, test ideas, and elaborate knowledge through their visual representations’

(Ainsworth, Prain & Tytler, 2011)

By doing art, students can create and communicate new ideas. By seeing art, students can be inspired by new directions and new ideas (Haydock)

Ka kite ano,

Christine

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Transferring knowledge from 2D to 3D - The wonders of drawing and clay work combined

March 25, 2015, 7:29 pm

≫ Next: 'Awhi is good medicine'

≪ Previous: The science behind the drawings

A few of our children have been partaking in some lovely observational drawing of wild animals. After looking closely at books and toy animals there have been giraffes, zebras, lion cubs and tigers carefully marked out on paper. The animals have also had some realistic colours added to them, bringing the drawings to life.

The children utilised a lot of skills during the drawing of their animals, including making observations of what they could see and then putting pen to paper to represent this. They had good control over the marks that they made on the paper and thought carefully about how these marks could create a picture that would represent their chosen animals. Their wonderful pictures inspired others to give this experience a go, which in turn meant that they were having a positive influence on their peers learning and development, as well as their own.

Observational drawing invites children to look closely at things and to notice all the details. In turn it encourages children to make more intricate drawings than they do from memory alone, often leading to joyful discoveries. It is part of the process of ‘learning to see’.” (Kolbe, 2009)

To extend on this interest the children were invited to transform their beautiful pictures into 3D clay models. Once again there was lots of observations and discussions of ‘what they could see’ before they each began their creations.

“Clay work can be a language for exploring and communicating ideas. Like drawing, clay work enables children to make their ideas visible – but in three dimensions” (Koble, 2009)

Suggestions were made as to how the children could use the clay to make their animals. During the process of creating the animals I talked to the children about how they can use the clay to form different parts of the animals bodies; legs, torso, ears, tail, head etc. I also chose to role model some of these techniques. A technique the children found useful was when I showed them how the use of small sticks inside the clay is a great way to help hold the body parts upright and together; before long they had made some wonderful animals. Once they were dry I then invited the children to paint their clay work which they did with lots of concentration. Their work was then put on display and has been a source of inspiration for other children who have seen this wonderful work.

Clay is a malleable resource that can be easily manipulated into three dimensional forms.There are also lots of skills used and developed on when working with clay. An example of this would be the children's fine motor skills as they worked carefully to shape each body part and then put them together. It takes dexterity to mould clay whilst also allowing the children to represent their thoughts and ideas in 3D. They concentrated hard on what they were doing through-out the process of bringing their pieces of clay to life. Sometimes when they were rolling out the body parts, such as the legs, they would break, but the children all persisted with these difficulties and kept on working hard at their creations

This art process encouraged concentration and thinking carefully about what the children were each noticing about the animals. The marvellous creations are evidence of all the time and energy that was put into their work.

“Clay work can be a language for exploring and communicating ideas. Like drawing, clay work enables children to make their ideas visible – but in three dimensions”
(Koble, 2009)

By inviting the children to engage in this clay activity they were able to extend on their interests. Watching their ideas and drawings transform from paper into a 3D clay model created much delight for all.

Toby's Giraffe

"My Giraffe has such a long neck and so many spots. I saw that it has horns and a tail and fours legs as well. I think my giraffe is so cool and my Mum will think that too."

Roman's Zebra

"It's a stripy one aye, and it has four legs, 1, 2, 3, 4. I drawed it and made it have a tail and eyes and hair on its back like the one in the book."

Sharlotte's tiger

"My tiger is very stripy because I saw the stripes when I was looking at it. When I paint my clay tiger I'm going to put stripes on that too, just like my drawing."

Reese's lion cub

"I like it little. I looked closely and saw spots on its leg so I drawed them. And I saw spots on its tummy too because I looked under it and I could see spots."

Till next time,

Zair

↧

'Awhi is good medicine'

April 6, 2015, 3:20 pm

≫ Next: Our extended playscape

≪ Previous: Transferring knowledge from 2D to 3D - The wonders of drawing and clay work combined

We are currently enjoying the term break here at Mairtown and will return on the 20th April. I hope that you all had the opportunity to get out and make the most the Easter weekend's glorious weather and if you are lucky enough to be having an extended holiday with your tamariki, we wish you a refreshing and inspired break.

Recently on my visit's to other kindergarten's in NKA I had the pleasure in reading this little phase about hugs at Tikipunga. It's a beautiful reminder for us all...

Awhi is good medicine.

It transfers energy and gives the person hugged an emotional lift.

You need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs for maintenance and 12 for growth.

Scientists say that hugging is a form of communication because it can say things that you don't have words for.

The nicest thing about an awhi is that you usually can't give one without getting one back.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Pai tou ra

Kim

↧

Our extended playscape

April 21, 2015, 3:00 am

≫ Next: Room on the Broom provokes imagination and creativity

≪ Previous: 'Awhi is good medicine'

Nau mai haere mai. Welcome to term two at Mairtown Kindergarten.

In our absence over the term break, a year of visioning, planning and teamwork came to fruition when Cole from Stoneworks came in to re-develop our grass mound area.

Our vision was to add some extra natural features to our current mound to transform it into a more inviting and challenging space for children’s play and engagement. This would be created through the addition of volcanic boulders and a pole-climbing wall.

We are absolutely chuffed with Cole’s work and his ability to create an extension of our playscape that looks like it’s always been there!

Whilst the additional features are quite simple, as anticipated they have been a key focal point for children’s play and exploration over the past two days. This beautiful natural landscape has become another space for our tamariki to challenge them-selves, test out physical and motor skills and most importantly take new risks.

Taking risks allow children to learn at the very edge of their capabilities. Risk taking allows children to push themselves further and to extend their limits. Risk taking in play allows children to vary the familiar, to try out new ideas (Tovey, 2007)

A big thank you to our wonderful parent support group for fundraising the money to support our curriculum initiatives, and to our kindergarten community who recognise the importance of developing their children’s ‘can-do’ attitude by allowing them to explore and learn in an enabling environment.

Ka kite ano

Kim

(If you are interested in contacting Cole Jobe from Stoneworks his number is 027 2262 046)

↧

Room on the Broom provokes imagination and creativity

April 28, 2015, 8:07 pm

≫ Next: Nurturing a sense of wonder about spiders

≪ Previous: Our extended playscape

The book titled ‘Room on the Broom’ written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, would be one of our children’s most favourite and frequently requested. At the end of last term I was working with a group of children, and I thought I would share their learning with you.

Room on the Broom is truly a special story that seems to really capture children’s attention from the first page to the last; as well as foster their curiosity, excite their imaginations and spark a full spectrum of feelings from joyful, sadness, and even slightly scared. It is one of those books that children seem to absolutely love to listen to, and explore the story over again and again. It’s wonderful how some of the children fully immerse themselves into taking roles of the characters and complete the sentences from the book.

“Adults should read and tell stories, provide books, and use story times to allow children to exchange and extend ideas, reinforcing developing concepts of, and language for, shape, space, size and colour as well as imaginative responses.”

Te Whāriki p.73

One of our children explained how they had a DVD of Room on the Broom at home, so they brought it along to share with the other children who were interested to watch. It was fascinating to observe the children’s reactions as they watched the story come to life in animation on the big screen. Afterwards they were keen to share what they most enjoyed and remember about the story; Emma said “The best part of the story is the monster it says, ‘buzz off that’s my witch’ to the dragon and then the dragon gets a fright then let’s go of the witch, then flies far, far, far away.” Peter said “I love the dragon and he has fire coming out.” Kayla said “I like the witch flying on her broom stick. I’m not scared of the monster or dragon; I’m not scared of anything.”

While discussing with the children what their favourite parts of the story were, my attention was drawn to the children’s attention. I could clearly see they were enthralled with the ending of the book where it reads “Iggety, ziggety, zaggety, ZOOM! Then out rose… a truly magnificent broom”. This part of the story seemed to really captivate the children, which subsequently led them to design their own magical brooms sticks. I love how a story like Room on the Broom provokes imagination and creativity amongst our children.

“The imagination is energetically deployed and reaches its peak in children’s early years of life; however, it gradually declines as children grow older. But, imagination is precisely what is needed to keep us intellectually flexible and creative in modern societies.” Wright, 2010

Here are some examples of the children’s work;

Miller: “Mine is a superhero broom. The black bit is the thing that makes it go really fast. This is the wing so it can fly. I’m going to do dots; these are going to scare away the meanest dragon of all. This is the light so they can see at night time. I have giant seats and a roof so they don’t get wet. This is a rope so they can rescue people if they have to. Here is the superhero window. This red button is to make it go super fast.”

Mia: “That’s the witch, that’s the dog Zippy, that’s my cat Bingy and that’s my bird. This is nice and round so the bird doesn’t touch the roof. The bird is so tall on this perch. These fairy lights sparkle in the night, only at night. They don’t sparkle at the day time cause it will make the batteries ran flat. The roof is so they don’t get wet and they will always have a home. You’re not allowed to touch in there or you will get fire on your hands.”

Tyler: “This seat is for the witch, this one for the cat, this one for the dog, this one for the bird, and this one will be for the frog. That is for the petrol so it will go. These are magic flowers that magic the broom to go.”

Reese: “One seat for the bird and a shower for the frog. That’s a door for a special place to put stuff in. I’m making a bus broom, so it can fly and have wheels.”

Emma: “This is my broom stick, here is my purple chair and I have a light at the front and light at the back so I can see. I’m going to put on a roof on mine. My broom stick can be a boat, submarine or bus. This me on my chair, I’m going to have a pet mouse, this is going to be its chair. Now I need a blanket for the mouse. I’m going to draw a dog and this is its chair. I got a roof so nobody gets wet from the rain. This is my frog. This is my bowl of strawberries so I can eat them. I need a magic wand and heaps of little lights with a little house for the fairies. I’m drawing heaps of wings to help it fly.”

Taika: “That’s me and that’s Noah and Mummy and my Dad. It has a steering wheel to drive and it has lights.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Albert Einstein

Ngā mihi nui
Susie

↧

Nurturing a sense of wonder about spiders

May 5, 2015, 1:04 am

≫ Next: My place in the world...What is it like to be me?

≪ Previous: Room on the Broom provokes imagination and creativity

Last week, one of our children Sadie, brought a spider in from home, to share with her friends at kindergarten. It was quite a large spider that Sadie held in a plastic container and told me, ‘It was on my daddy’s jersey and it was creeping little like that (showing the actions with her hands) and it’s a wolf spider and there it was on the roof and then it climbed back in side. It climbed though the cat flap’.

This spider, combined with Sadie’s infectious interest, immediately drew a crowd of children, all wanting to see and to know more. Sadie told them, ‘He eats praying mantis’s and cockroaches – we need to find some food now’.

With this comment all the children went in search of some food, and almost immediately we came across a praying mantis. This caused a great deal of discussion. Sadie was keen to feed it to her spider, but many children thought this wasn’t the right thing to do. Sienna told me, ‘Don’t put it in there Christine, don’t do it!’

Although we entered into some lengthy discussions about food chains, in the end it was a unanimous decision not to feed the spider the praying mantis, which meant we went looking for another bug. Soon we found a small red amphipod under the carpentry shed and fed this to the spider.

For the next half an hour we all watched avidly – would the spider eat the bug or not? The spider certainly looked interested and tried to catch it between its legs but apart from that nothing much else was happening. As we watched we began to discuss whether or not the spider could smell or see the bug. Sadie thought for a long while whilst watching and told the group, ‘I think they look with their eyes’.

Unfortunately, whilst engaged in our morning whānau time, we returned to discover the spider had died. Sad as this was, it had its advantages, meaning we could now carefully examine it under the microscope, which in turn subsequently led to days and days of investigation, inquiry and discovery relating to spiders.

Inquiry based leaning is a tool that we use a great deal at Mairtown due to the continued success we notice this style of learning has at extending children’s interests, fostering problem-solving and in-depth creative thinking and of course allowing the children to pose their own questions and direct their investigating.

Inquiry-based Learning is a dynamic and emergent process that builds on students’ natural curiosity about the world in which they live. As its name suggests, Inquiry places students’ questions and ideas, rather than solely those of the teacher, at the centre of the learning experience. Students’ questions drive the learning process forward (University of Toronto)

As the children’s teacher, what I love about this style of teaching and learning is that it is deep, you can’t help but notice how absorbed and fascinated the children, when leading their own investigations, become. This is not learning that is one off, happening over just one day – this is in-depth, active, and involved. It’s concerned with the children noticing, questioning, negotiating their ideas, sharing their thoughts and being prepared to feel challenged at times when they may need to change their opinions or ideas in the light of a new discovery.

One can think about Inquiry-based Learning as a continuum that moves from closed to open. The more teacher-directed the learning, the more closed the inquiry. The more student-directedthe learning, the more open the inquiry (University of Toronto)

Here is some of our learning and what we thought about spiders at the very beginning:

Spiders are black

They eat worms, flies, cockroaches and praying mantises

They spin webs

They have two eyes and eight legs

For young children the most effective learning happens when they have repeated opportunities to use materials and resources to develop understandings of new concepts and ideas (EYLP, 2012)

Through our inquiries of spider hunting (we found some lovely specimens in the whare and shed!), examining these under the microscope and magnifying lens, observational drawing, watching some short online documentaries, the use of some wonderful books and plenty of opportunities to re-visit our spider investigations we discovered:

Spiders come in all shapes and colours and can be patterned.

Most spiders have eight eyes

Spiders have two parts to their body; one of these parts is called an abdomen

There is one species of spider that lives in and under water

Some spiders can bite (this led to lots of discussions, drawing and book searching about white tail spiders which most of the children were very familiar with)

The spinnerets are on the abdomen and this is how a spider spins its web

Spiders have lots of different names

There are jumping spiders

Spider’s webs come in different shapes and sizes and some spiders can spin a web that is like a tunnel

Misconceptions we became aware of:

The biggest misconception we discovered was that although many of us (including me) thought Sadie’s spider would eat the praying mantis, our research told us this is more likely to be the other way round (the praying mantis would eat the spider).

We also discovered (by using the microscope) just how very hairy spiders are - especially the legs. Many of the children transferred this new knowledge onto their drawings below.

This has been a wonderful journey. I know that as the teacher leading this work with the children and though their questions, their desire to learn about spider facts and their innate need to complete observational drawings of spiders from the many books I sourced from our local library – I have, with the children, had my curiosity fostered, nurtured and I too learnt alongside my ‘spider fans’ a lot of new facts about these very interesting creatures.

Here are some examples of the children’s observational drawings – all based on some of our interesting New Zealand spiders.

Peter's Tunnelweb spider (with the spiders web next to it)

Sadie's spider from home

Taika's spider

By fostering a culture of inquiry, teachers help students become more discerning observers and thinkers. Critical-thinking skills deepen and become habitual. Curiosity is cultivated and preserved – and for good reason. As David Orr (2004) cautions, “the sense of wonder  is fragile; once crushed, it rarely blossoms again” (Natural curiosity a resource for teachers, p. 24).  