Programme Planning in partnership with Parents

In New Zealand, the Early Childhood Curriculum Document highlights the strong partnership with families. My kindergarten has always had a strong commitment to work closely with the parents. We regularly communicate about individual children's learning through learning stories and group's learning through wall display and blogging. 

When parents are aware of the current interests or learning experiences at kindy, they are able to give us feedback and ideas to further enhance learning happening at kindy. We believe in teachers and parents working together to extend the learning opportunities for children. When home and centre are in sync, the teachers are able to develop better plans to build complexity into children's learning experience.

All along the team knows we have been doing okay with planning for the dominant group. But we're not so sure about small groups. It seems all our energy are invested in planning and documentation for the dominant group, whereas the interests of the small groups are insufficiently supported. Just like currently a large number of children are making weapons and the play theme is about the superhero; and the learning experiences and outcomes are acknowledged, documented and communicated with parents. But superhero play does not appeal to everyone, and a few children are simply not interested in it. For example, while most children make weapons with ice pop sticks, a couple of children spent long periods of time to create 3D objects in intricate designs.

From Ann Pelo's workshop, we learn that Ann has supported and documented the interest of a group of five girls in learning cartwheel over a year. It was amazing and inspiring. The team thinks we should challenge ourself to devote time and efforts to extend the interests of small groups. Most important of all, we want to have parents'  input, so we decided to start a folder to document the experiences and interests of small groups. The folder will be updated weekly and displayed near the entrance where parents could have a quick look when dropping off or picking up their child. 

On the cover of the folder, we write: this folder encompasses how we at kindy are learning together. It's a collection of events, moments and thinking that is shaping our current quests with our learning community.