Better Planning to Extend Children's Interests

Yesterday we had a planning meeting, in which the team as a whole agreed that we could have done better to extend children's interest. The major thing we picked up was the lack of opportunity to revisit learning experiences. We tend to follow the children current interest and accordingly provide resources and plan for the environment to support the dominating interest at the moment. When we noted that majority of the children are doing superhero play, we organize dress-up; make props; bring in comics books; provide blank ComicLife template for children to create their story; purchase Lego Knights, Mobilo for construction and so on. Initially, the children were kept busy, and we did witness the developing of construction and drawing skills.

Lately, however, the children seem to regress back to boisterous play.  Is that because we have not addressed the underlying ideas that they are exploring, such as the good vs the bad; the power/ control issue; the emotion of fear and so on. We recall that Ann Pelo talked about what's most worthwhile to work on is the ideas behind the play. Perhaps, we should slow down and encourage children to revisit their previous learning experiences, and then they will be able to consolidate their learning.

So, today I used iMovie to collate photos and short videos that I have taken, and I plan to show it to the children on the next kindy day. When reviewing the movie, I noted that a small core group of children are really driving the superhero play. The children shown are wearing their favorite hero's costume; sawing wood and hammering to make swords; climbing up high and then making a leap of faith; designing complicated Transformers; acting out battle scenes with Lego Knights and so on. The movie makes the learning involved visible, such as extending imagination; developing physical strengths, enhancing creativity; and promoting verbal communication skills.

I also add a few photos here and there of real heroes in the community, such as policeman and firemen; parent helpers; and a girl who helped watering the kindy garden. My intention is to prompt the children to think what are the significant qualities of a hero; and what heroes do.

Hope the children will enjoy the movie! I certainly do.

Birthday Celebration

The first week back from the holidays had been extremely busy with several children turning five and going to school. We have a tradition of hosting a birthday mat-time to farewell the children. The families of the birthday children are invited to the mat-time too. The routine includes looking at their learning story portfolios and art folders; reading out a birthday card signed by everyone, children and teachers; blowing candles on a play dough birthday cake; and playing a party game.

The idea of reading the portfolio is to involve the child to revisit and reflect his learning journey, which hopefully helps the child to get ready for the next step of his growth and development. I love to draw the children's attention to their first photo, pointing out that they have grown up physically. As I'm a petite adult, whenever I comment that they have grown taller with long legs and long arms, the child tends to agree and proudly suggests that he is nearly as tall as I am.

When browsing their learning stories portfolio, I will let children choose a few stories of special importance to them to read out loud. It's a moment for the child to assess his learning and achievement. I feel good when the child picks out projects in which he has invested lots of time and energy.  But when the child says his favorite moment is the christmas party or the trip to the museum, I will start questioning whether the teachers have done enough to support the child's learning. I know I'm a bit silly. Who doesn't love Christmas with Santa giving out presents?

For the birthday cake and card, the teacher usually involve the birthday child in making and decorating them. It is a nice moment of one on one, and the child will also learn the little poem to be glued on the birthday card. Later during the mat-time, some confident children choose to read out (from memory sometimes) the poem, or everyone will help reading out the poem together. The birthday child and his family really enjoy the opportunity to show off their 'literacy skills'.

Since the kindy community has become diverse in ethnicity recently. We worry that families of other cultures may feel uncomfortable with the way we celebrate, so we wrote up a note to parents with children turning five, explaining what we are doing at kindy and that it is up to them whether they want to involve their child in the celebration. So far, no parents opt out. It proves that we are worrying too much. It worths the trouble though, as we respect parents as part of our programme.

Professional development with Ann Pelo

During the term break, the whole team attended a professional development workshop organized by Reggio Emilia Aotearoa New Zealand. It was a presentation by Ann Pelo from America on the language of art.

What impressed me the most is how Ann defined art. She described art as an experience with emotional engagement, which involves thinking, feeling and expressing. Specifically, she suggested that art is a verb rather an a noun. So, we should be 'doing' art, instead of 'creating art', the focus of which is the product, an object. What an inspiring way to say the process is more important than the product.

As the process is so important, have we as teachers been doing enough to show respect and support? I ponder. I think, sometimes, we might need to stay around and listen to children when they want to talk about their work. And what else can we do to prepare the environment? Perhaps make sure it is away from busy foot traffic, with lovely music in the background; keep it tidy regularly, and present the art resources neatly alongside plants, natural resources...

Furthermore, Ann believed that art should be more than visually pleasing, and it should also be intellectually provocative, showing the curiosity, confidence, rigor and passion of the artist.

I can relate Ann's ideas with many episodes of children doing art at my kindy. Just like the collage picture on the left. It illustrates a new way of seeing art as a combination of textures, colors, lines, and patterns through collage and drawing. The artist is curious and he plays about with artistry and ideas with confidence. He spent long periods of time to complete the work, thinking, reflecting and adding details, which demonstrated his passion. This is what art is about.


In particular, I like Ann's encouragement to teachers to develop skills and experiences together with children. While art teachers at school specialize in art, early childhood teachers may not have the necessary skills under their belt. But we can competently support children as long as we are committed to learn. Many years ago, I had written an article investigating various ways to support art in the early years. I'm glad that Ann also believes that art is more than the art techniques.

Be courageous next time when being confronted with a blank piece of paper!

what teamwork is about in early childhood?

At the end of the term, my head teacher gave me a box of candy, with a big 'thanks' on it. She thanked me for being a valuable member of the team, which made me think what team work is about...

Teamwork is about communication. Just like recently we decided to support children's emerging interest in superhero play. Every teacher in the team has a slightly different perspective on the learning outcomes. Some aim to support physical and active play; some see it as an opportunity to develop social and communication skills, some want to acknowledge interests coming from home and the wider community and so on. While my personal approach is to promote imagination and creativity in children, I decided to share my ideas and teaching strategies with other in the team, so that implementing the superhero play was a team effort. In the office, we have a pin board for communication among ourselves. So, I printed out some readings, highlighted my favorite sections and pinned them up.

 Since the beginning of this year, we have been using ICT to enhance communication among ourselves. we discovered google docs, which allows us to collaborate on ways to extend children's learning. Earlier in summer, when one teacher noticed children's curiosity in watching Monarch butterflies, she created a document to record what children talk about butterflies. Everyone in the team kept adding children's voices they heard. When we subsequently sat down at the planning meeting, we had a rich source of information about what underlying questions and concepts children were exploring. Now, we use google docs to share children's interests, parents' feedback, and suggestions and ideas. Of course, virtual conversation cannot be replaced by face to face discussion.

Teamwork is about acts of kindness, such as the head teacher giving out a box of candy to everyone in the team to show her gratefulness after a busy term. They are inexpensive mixed lollies, but it's the thought that counts. Also, we have a beverages list on the kitchen wall, detailing what we like, such Judy likes white tea without sugar, Karen likes plunger coffee one sugar no milk, Kim likes instant or plunger white coffee no sugar etc. When we make our own cup of tea, we will think about whether the rest of the team need a hot drink or not. People like to have social support and a feeling of personal worth at their work place.

Teamwork is about a shared vision. We understand that we are working together for the interests of the children, their family, and the kindergarten community as a whole. While the team needs to feel the same about certain fundamental issues, such as the philosophy of the kindergarten, it's very important that we can agree to disagree in other situations, because there are always several effective ways or solutions to most problems. Also, we need to respect and value each other for who they are and their contributions, so we will continue to grow and learn from each other.

Nevertheless, we all like to have a feeling of certainty about our beliefs and often gain affirmation through shared values and understanding. Team professional development is an effective means to achieve that. Rather than sending one or two teachers to a workshop, the whole team go. This can increase the overall performance of the team, just like what Jones Shoemaker describes as " synergy, in which the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts".

The team is going to attend a workshop by Ann Pelo during the first week of school holidays. I'll report back soon.