hands off or hands on

Shall we let children explore everything on their own, trying to figure it out independently, or shall we guide, model, advise and prompt?
It mainly depends on the developmental stage of the child and the task, I think.
Take folding a paper plane, for example. Let a child read a step by step booklet will be sufficient, if the child is older than or almost 5, probably it will be okay if he or she is also a visual learner. for younger children, it is not too interfering to do most steps for the child, and even just let the child involved in pressing the paper firmly together.
The most important issue is shifting the balance of power to the child eventually. When the child is more competent and skillful, let the child do a bit more and you as an adult do a bit less. Being observant and supportive will set up the child for success. Once the child is ready, let him fly...

rough and tumble play

The following scenario may inspire us to think about rough and tumble play:

A and B happily agreed to play fighting. After a bit of wrestling, A was tripped over and fell on the ground. A cried. I saw the look of guilt on B's face, and I said, 'sometimes we played fighting at home with our brothers or sisters, but  is it a good idea to play fighting at the kindergarten?' It was A, who responded first, and he tried to make sense of why the seemingly harmless activity had turned out the other way. A said, 'I played fighting at home on the couch, and when I fell, I fell on the couch, and then we laughed!' And he added, 'let's play fighting inside...'

The article Rough and Tumble Play 101 by Frances Carlson, which I read sometimes ago on www.ChildCareExchange.com  gives a definition of rough and tumble play as:
when children are willingly run, jump, tag, wrestle, chase and flee while they laugh. But children are aggressive when they show  behaviors, such as, fixate, frown, hit and push.

immigrant children: call me loyal

About a sense of belonging, I want to share this story: 

Last few weeks, everything was about Rugby World Cup, so at kindergarten we made flags for the All Blacks. A carefully copied the design of the All Blacks flag and made one. And then, he said with determination, 'I want to make one for Country B too! ' (where he originally came from) I said, 'of course, go ahead.' And he did. 

Today, we visited the Botanical Gardens, there was a rugby jersey competition. A few children showed interest and started designing and colouring in. At first, A was immensely focused on the activity sheet he was working on, but then he decided to join in and create a Rugby jersey for …Country B, of course!

He created some designs and wrote down 100 on the jersey, which is his favourite number. And then he asked me to draw the flag of Country B for him because he did not know how to do it properly. I honestly told him I could not recall how the flag looked like, and I could only remember some stripes and the star at the top corner. Immediately, A corrected me, ‘the star??? Do you mean the sun?’ Sorry, A, I was wrong, and you are right.

I’m so glad that A enjoys New Zealand as well as feel proud of the country he came from. He stands tall in both worlds.

The wonder and joy of painting

This is what I see, as a teacher:

I saw a child putting white stickers on a piece of white paper, so I asked her to have a good look at her art work, pointing out that the white stickers did not stand out against a white background. My comment did not bother her. She smiled and instantly came up with an idea. She decided to paint the stickers…the problem was solved. Good thinking!

While she painted, she sang, ‘sparkly green, sparkly green, sparkly, sparkly…colour, colour, colour, I always like to colour…’ She was singing her original song and smoothing paint over the white stickers with rhythmic, bold and broad strokes.

I noted that she was playing with colours. It was actually about the magic of transforming a blank sheet of paper and white stickers into a pleasing piece of work with colours. She seemed to be focusing primarily on the movements of the paint brush and the textural qualities of the paint itself.

Painting is an artistic learning experience. Through the sheer pleasure of painting, she is developing her creativity, colour awareness and manipulative motor skills.

Will a parent who picks up the art work at the end of the kindy session see the same competent child? How can we ensure the parent is aware of a beautiful story behind the random scribbles? Does the parent value the creative process as well as the product?

Let's keep up with learning stories to make learning visible to parents.

Botanical Gardens

My favourite moments of the Botanical Gardens trip:

• seeing the initiatives of our competent children- they sought out physical challenges, while the teachers' agenda was to support the learning in planting and to provoke further growth in the interest
• enjoying the company of parent helpers- the dads who lifted up children to see what's behind the window; the Mum who patiently explained to her son what an ant mountain is; and then patiently waited for his son passing on the knowledge to three groups of children walking by, I think she is proud though !
• being nicely looked after by a handsome boy, who, with a big smile, volunteered to put my coffee cup into the rubbish bin
• Big thankyou to Michelle- she did the site visit before the trip; it was so well organised, especially the loop road is the just right amount of stimulation for our children, not too long, not too tired. I really enjoyed it. Thumb up to Michelle!