Superheros Dress-up day

On the last day of the term, we had superheros dress-up day. The focus is to acknowledge children's recent interests in superheros, like Transformers, ninjia, Spiderman and Ben 10. It's a way to get families involved, as at these young age, parents had to organize the outfits. We also want to communicate to parents that pretend play embodies many learning opportunities, especially for engaging boys.

Personally, I have a goal to use the dress-up event to extend children's imagination. So, I created a superhero character, Super Smiley Girl for myself. My super power was to put a smile on people's face. Therefore, I wore a cape full of stickers, and I simply ripped stickers off my cape to share with everyone. I put butterfly wings on my leggings because I was supposed to run fast. I also used a smiley face as my insignia. I explained my outfit and superpower to children, in order to encourage them to create superheros from their own imagination and creativity rather than from the movies or TV series.

Although most children came in with costumes brought from the shop, I was glad that children showed interests in my outfit and started to ask questions. I applies Desalyn De-Souza and Jacqueline Radell's ideas to guide children to make their own superheros. I declared that my super power was to make people happy; and I asked the children what supeheros usually do. I demonstrated to them how a superhero may look like and asked their suggestions for a unique superhero. We googled images to look at different insignias, and we talked about colors, shapes, letters and symbols of a potentially super insignia.

At the end of the kindy day, some children had developed their own supehero persona, and they asked me to help them make their own outfits. Well, that's what we will do after the school holiday, I promised them. I will collect fabrics, get my sewing machine ready, and buy some face paint as well. May the force be with us!

Nursery rhymes, songs and games

 It's nearly end of the term, both children and teachers are tired. It's early spring and the weather is cold and windy in the morning and hot in the afternoon, and the children are sometimes not properly dressed, either coming in with too much or not enough clothes. Also, many children are turning five during the term break, so a lot of birthday celebrations at kindy, and children are always excited and somewhat restless. They found it hard to sit still and pay attention during reading at mat-time. In respond to their emotional and physical needs, the teachers decide to play games with them instead of reading at mat-times.

Songs and games at group times have lots of advantages. The children all enjoy and participate in the singing game, especially as the activity is interactive which allow them to move and talk. In terms of social development, children learn to work together as a group, to take turns, to listen to and talk with each other. They join in singing the songs or rhymes, which provides opportunities to enhance verbal language skills, as Claire McLachlan rightly points out that children nursery rhymes are beneficial to clear pronunciation and articulation. While contemporary children songs reflect the current context, the traditional nursery rhymes still have an important place in the early years.

The most popular singing game at the moment is called "there was a princess long ago". We made props and let children act out the story, which incorporate an element of drama. The song captures children's imagination and extends their fantasy play. The best of all is both boys and girls are involved in a cooperative way to play out roles of the prince and princess. Of course, the roles are a bit stereotype with the princess being rescued by the prince. Anyway, the song tie in well with the superhero play developing at the kindy . It promotes the idea that superheros are kind, caring and helpful. So a big yes to "there was a princess long ago"!

Use of camera in early childhood

My kindergarten used to put out two cameras in a basket and let the children help themselves. The cameras did not last long and both were broken in less then six months. Subsequently, the head teacher lost faith and no more camera for children. I believe that young children are competent learners and problem solvers. So, I let them use my camera often.

My camera is still in good order. I guess it's because they need to ask me first before they can lay their hand on my camera. It gives me an opportunity to remind them about how to look after the camera. The children learn fast, they understand that the privilege to use the camera is conditional on using the shoulder/ wrist's strap in case the camera drops; they know they need to return the camera back to my safe hands after they have finished. If they are beginners, I will go through the basics of which button to press to shoot a photo; how to check the screen to confirm whether their fingers are in the way; and which button to press to view the images taken and so on. Also, I will supervise for a while before I let them move out of my sight.

Let children use the camera addresses adult-child power imbalances in documentation of children's learning. The children are allowed to have a say and their voice is heard/visible. Yesterday, a child asked me for the camera to take a photo of his Lego construction.  As I was documenting another child's learning, I could not lend him the camera and I offered to take the photos instead. So, the boy asked me to capture only the part made by him, and he wanted me to avoid the adjoining part built by another child. I notice that children always have a sense of purpose in using the camera to document their learning.

Similarly, photography initiated by children provides rich insights into how children experienced art. Rosemary Richards of Massey University has done a research called "young visual ethnographers: Children's use of digital photography to record, share and extend their art experiences". She found out that photos taken by children reveal their perspectives; and that children looking at photos together with an adult heightens consciousness of the art experiences. So many times during the day, the children invite their teacher to enjoy their art,  "come to see my painting, do you like it?" Use of camera by children enhances the joint experience.

Specifically, photographs promote interpersonal and interpersonal dialogues. The child has some images to refer to when revisiting, evaluating, analyzing, and simply talking about his art experiences to a teacher or a friend. Even though the child looks at the photos on his own, he is looking at the artwork with fresh eyes , as Rosemary says, he is "having a sense of audience". He is taking up the role of an audience as well as the artist. The experience helps the child to develop metacognitive skills to think, to critique, and to improve.

digital photography with young children

Recently, a few children asked me to take photographs of their drawing and construction. I just gave them the camera and let them explore and experiment with it. It's good that digital camera doesn't have the cost implication, and children are allowed to take as many photos as they like.

Moreover, the children are free to make the decision as to what angle, which focus, or what perspective they want to document. This is particularly relevant with construction. Previously when I took photos for the children, I usually shot from the bird eye's view, showing the structure as a whole. But the children often requested me to capture particular parts of the construction with special meaning or of interest to them. Now I learn to let them take control of the camera and literally take responsibility for the documentation/assessment process.

In New Zealand, we value self-assessment by children. Through recording and sharing their artwork or construction, children are contributing to their own assessment. They are developing a sense of what counts as good work, which is the growing curve of a confident and competent learner.

I find time and freedom are the best support to emerging photographers. A little girl has taken plenty of photos of her block construction, while she was standing, bending down on her knees, from a distance and shooting up close. Eventually, she discovered her feet!  Apart from that, she was quite focused on her construction. Interestingly, another little girl, who has taken 39 photographs today, moved quickly from her drawing to other children and people around kindergarten. She seemed to be more interested in people than objects. She really enjoyed using the camera, as she walked around instructing her friends to pose for her. Or, was she enjoying the 'power' of controlling the camera and telling people what to do?

The way that children use camera is intriguing. I thought I might need to do some more reading about it, so I have been doing some research online. I'll share them soon.

The Art Exhibition

Last week was chaotic as everyone at kindergarten were rushing to finish the preparation of the exhibition. Children were excited too, because they had been fully involved. We had asked them to brainstorm a name for the exhibition. They came up with plenty of good ideas, and we eventually chose the name "It's Just Art" for its simplicity. And then, we printed proper invites for parents and friends in the community. We scheduled two viewing sessions, one in the afternoon for children and their families, the other in the evening for adults only.

The major task, however, was displaying the artworks.
Some teachers wrote biography for the young artists; some documented the child voice in relation to the particular artwork or the creative process. I decided to collate a folder to talk about the artists, their works and their inspirations. On top of that, I printed labels with names of artists and titles of the artworks. We wanted to present the artworks nicely to show our respect for the young artists.

For the same reason of respect, I debated with myself how much accessories or ornaments should I use in the display. Visually, it would be nice to decorate around the artwork, but the decoration should not be too overpowering or overwhelming, as the main focus is the artwork created by the children. Eventually, I decided to separate the clay artworks of children into three groups. For the clay figures and animals, I placed scented tea light candles, crystal, flowers among them on a nice velvety tablecloth, appealing to the senses of sight, smell and touch. The second group of clay slab carving were framed. And the clay Maori indigenous waka (canoes) were displayed inside a glass cabinet, decorated with native flowers, pohutukawa, native plant, i.e. flax and some pebbles.

The afternoon session was a great success, attended by grandparents, parents, siblings and friends. They were awed by the efforts we put in to create an "art gallery" with a professional look. Most importantly, they were impressed by the quality of children's artworks. I believe they did see the artist in every child. I think the exhibition has communicated well to parents the value of art in the kindy programme.

The only regret was the evening session with embarrassing turnout, especially all the teachers had brought in refreshment and nice nibbles; and a parent who is a music teacher had volunteered to sing for the night to create the mood and atmosphere for the event. It made us realize how difficult it is for parents of young children to attend social events in the evening. Something to bear in mind when we plan for future events. I hope these information will help whoever planning an art show for children.

collaboration in art

I see learning as a collaborative process; it happens in a social setting. To children, just to be near another person is very important when learning. When a child learns, he learns as a whole, so the cognitive and social aspects are inseparable.

The best relationship at early childhood is among two or three children. Working with children with clay has given me some fabulous examples. The kindy only has three clay boards, so at most three children can work together. They talk and listen, thereby helping each other think and build on ideas. The small group size allows fruitful exchange and dialogue, as they do not need to compete for a turn to speak. Collaborative learning is less likely to appear when children are in the whole group of 40.

Amy announced that she would make a clay bird, Brianna offered the ideas of eggs and nests. So three girls at the clay table worked out how to flatten clay for creating the base for bird nests, then shaping and constructing the birds with a sharp beak, tail and eyes. I believe the children are learning together, sharing ideas, strategies and individual strengths rather than 'copying' what each other is doing.

I believe the kindergarten is a learning community. Children share the same goals. They comment on each other's work. When children are working towards the same goals and confronting the same problems, they form a bond, and they persevere until they achieve.

Also, learning is about the relationship with the teacher as well. The teacher staying with the children is a way to help them to face and solve a problem. For example, I just need to listen when the children are discussing about the technical problem to join clay pieces securely. I encourage them to experiment with every solution they come up with. They found that what they do are considered important and valuable by the teachers. Eventually, they solved their own problem. Children appreciate the opportunities to talk with, listen to and watch a teacher. This makes their interest grow. We have to make a call when to be present or to be absent, in order to capture the right moments to intervene.

Somethings to ponder: As teachers of young children, how can we facilitate children learning through interaction with other children? What's the role of teacher in con-constructing knowledge with children?

boys in early childhood

Today, kindy was a very dangerous place. Inside, boy zombies were terrorizing people; and outside a group of boys were setting up a booby trap. Nearly three quarters of the children at kindy are boys lately, the whole dynamics have been so different.

Boys tend to take risks. A bunch of boys decided to connect planks, wheels, bits and pieces of materials together to build a trap to get someone. I commented that it would dangerous, they claimed, "we don't care." When I said I cared about them, they respond boldly, "we won't die, we just need to go to the hospital, the doctor will fix us." It seemed they are bullet proof.

At the playground, boys are always seen jumping off at a height, and making some daring moves. They are not shy to show how strong they are. Similarly, the so called quiet and gentle ones want to be in control; that could be why they played zombies to scare the girls in the dramatic play.

Boys sometimes see small things as a challenge. While a child said he has built a tall tower, another boy next to him declared in a loud voice that he had built a taller tower. Eventually, the exchange has become a yelling match!

Boys draw and read. They love action stories, funny ones as well as books on dinosaurs and rockets. You may set up a vase of flowers to inspire the girls; but boys certainly love to observe robot or ninja toys for reference, when drawing.

Totally agree with what Jody Mace said about gender differences are the result of both nature and nurture. We need to acknowledge that boys have more physical energy and need more challenging environment and opportunities to learn.