Outdoor play

Outdoor play is crucial to children's development. It's summer here in the southern hemisphere.  I like to let children spend as much time as they like outside: getting children out for the fresh air; and letting them get their hands dirty and feet wet. Outdoor play is beneficial to children not just for good health and well-being...

Play in the outdoors could be active or quiet. Whereas some children jump, climb, run and chase, the others may choose to look, listen, touch and smell, that is using their senses.  Young children learn when they are physically involved.

Will they miss out on "inside activities" such as reading and painting? No way. The teacher may simply bring the "inside activities" out, such as set up the painting easels outside, and throw a few cushions on a picnic rugs with storybooks, puzzles, construction blocks, etc. My colleagues even relocated the dramatic play furniture outside, as the interest in playing cafe is emerging.

To be outside means to be fit. Outside play helps children develop better motor skills and coordination, and they become more confident in their physical abilities. Also, they learn to assess risks and develop the confidence to take reasonable risks. As they learn about themselves, their strengths and capabilities, they learn about the nature too.

The natural world is an essential part of life. Nature offers rich opportunities for exploring and making discoveries. With better understanding of the natural world, the children will grow up as responsible citizens who care for their environment.

Yes, its important to let children play outside. And rain or shine? click this link about a kindergarten who provides raincoats to children to take full advantage of its outdoor programme.

Literacy in the Early Years - Teachers' Role

Regarding the role of teachers in supporting early literacy, I pay tribute to Margaret Carr's concept of learning dispositions, which mean that learners are being able, ready and willing to learn. So, in the context of literacy, it is about getting the young learner ready and willing to write, as well as knowing how to write.

Look at this scenario:
We baked at the kindergarten, Nina, who is gluten intolerant, was keen to confirm that she would be allowed to eat the cake we made. Despite the reassurance that we had checked all the ingredients, Nina insisted to call her Mum, just to be sure. As we said only the teachers were allowed to use the phone, she wrote down her question for the teacher to read to her Mum. Nina asked me to spell out the words, and she referred to the alphabet chart when writing. What an amazing writer! Not only does she has literacy skills and knowledge, she was also able to recognize the occasion to apply her skills; and she was willing to do it even the task involved lots of effort.

 To support literacy in the early years, I believe, teachers need to maintain a dual focus on the literacy skills and the learning dispositions. I have introduced McLachlan's work on teaching literacy skills to young children in an earlier post from my children's songs, rhymes and game blog , now I'm going to focus on dispositions in this post.

When a child has learned a literacy skill, for example, how to identify ABCs, he is able to do something he couldn't do before. But he may not be spontaneously make use of that ability when a relevant situation arises, if he doesn't realize its relevance. Try to ask a child who knows the alphabet to read out the letters of words from a book, he may say he doesn't know how.  It is not much about being able, he is not ready to make use of the ability he possesses. Also, he may still need a degree of support and encouragement, which involves his desire to try when there is a certain degree of difficulty. It's about being willing.

To support a disposition to write, the teacher needs to model purposeful literacy.  At kindergarten, teachers who jot down notes about children's voice/ ideas and learning episodes are providing role models for emergent writers. Children observe when teachers write. The teachers are modeling an interest in writing, in particular, when they are keen to talk about and share what they have noted down, they are modeling a passion for expressing and recording ideas, feelings and thoughts in print/ written language.

Guy Claxton writes in 2009, in a forward to the book entitled Learning Power Heroes from the Building Learning Power programme in England, that teachers are learning heroes. He suggests that children learn in the way their parents, carers and teachers learn. So, if they are around people who love to write,  they will pick up the habits and rules of writing, as well as develop a passion for writing. This is especially true with teachers, as they are important people/ heroes to young learners in the kindergarten.

In short, early childhood teachers must support young children to develop not only literacy skills but also positive dispositions to use the skill willingly when the situation is relevant.

Programme Planning - Part 2

Programme planning should usually begin from observations of children's interests, strengths, needs and behaviours. Last week, I talked about how New Zealand teachers referred to the national curriculum, Te Whaarik in planning for an interest in plants and planting during a change of season from spring to summer. The whole team, in particular the older teachers, felt excited about this planning, as we watched the learning unfolded. Unlike what the team usually did before, this time we simply implemented a couple of activities to prompt and "provoke" further investigation on the topic of interest, meaning the teachers were learning alongside with the children; together we found challenges, set questions and found solutions.

To a certain extent, it's like the emergent curriculum and the project approach, as we used the children's voices and responses to plan for additional learning experiences to throw further light on the topic of interest. We were guided by Te whaariki which specifies that the starting point of learning is the learner and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that the child brings. However, we did more than let children learn through own exploration and reflection.  The teaching strategies employed by us acknowledged some of Te whaariki's guiding principles and strands: Empowerment, Family and Community, Relationships, Belonging, Communication and Exploration. As such, we interwove children interests and teachers' aspirations in programme planning.

As a result, the interests in plants and planting evolved into a complex projects over a term. On the wall, we documented the learning experiences, children's voices and how they led to further investigations. The documentation was frequently updated and meant for parents and children, illustrated with lots of photos. We took advantage of the drop off and pick up times to have meaningful conversation with parents by referring to the wall display. We encouraged children to look at the photos and reflected on their learning, and we listened always and thought about what to do next. It's about empowering children and involving parents.

To acknowledge the critical role of reciprocal and responsive relationships for children with people, places and things in their learning, we brought a florist in to work with us, after we saw some children picked flowers from the garden and put them in yoghurt pots. We organised a working bee with parents coming in to build a vege patch, as a child commented that he grew his own strawberries.  A proud achievement was "publishing" a book with the children about how to plant the seed. We showed the children step by step photos of their planting activity, and then asked them to recall and talk about what had happened. We typed up their words and published them in a photo book via  www.snapfish.co.nz. It costed us $50, not cheap but parents were really impressed. It promoted verbal language and literacy.

Though Te Whariki has been criticised for setting out big visions and principles but not specifying teaching strategies to support the teacher, but I think it provides sufficient guidance for teachers to exercise their professional knowledge in programme planning. Also, New Zealand requires nearly 100% qualified and registered teachers in a centre, so teachers are knowledgeable and professionally confident to bridge the gap between the curriculum document and teaching practice. Note that the Australian curriculum document does indicates teaching strategies for the best practice, such as using intentional teaching and adopting a holistic approach. Probably, they have learnt from the criticism of the New Zealand's curriculum?

Programme Planning - guided by the EYLF

New to Australia, so after reading the latest Australian NQS PLP newsletter regarding programme planning, I am itched to share a planning story to illustrate how my colleagues in New Zealand notice, recognise, respond to children's interests in our planning. Click this link if your are interested in how Kiwi teachers plan within their curriculum framework. 

One late Spring and early Summer, children of my kindy kept bringing in flowers and seasonal fruits, like strawberry and cherry, from home for show and tell. My team had a few discussions about how to recognise children's obvious interest in flowers? the season? gardening? or was it about something else? Yes, usually the teachers would dig deeper instead of  just labeling an interest.

We decided to go back to the children to find out more information. At mat-time, we had a conference with the children, asking what they know about fruits and flowers. While the children talked, a teacher recorded the ideas on the whiteboard and another teacher prompted for more details. Probably the children noted that their opinions were valued, many ideas were expressed, ranging from flowers are beautiful, fruits are delicious and juicy, helping Mum and Dad in the garden to grow strawberries and so on. Based on the children's voice, the teacher pulled out the curriculum document, Te whaariki and picked out some principles, learning outcomes and goals to work on. 

NQS PLP  newsletter - Quality Area 1 reminds educators very specifically that a learning framework needs to guide all aspects of pedagogical decision-making and everyday work. That means thinking about belonging, being and becoming, the Principles, the Practices and the Learning Outcomes in the EYLF.

Eventually, we agreed to work on the strands of Communication, Belonging, and Exploration. As New Zealand's curriculum takes a socio-cultural approach, so we planned about what to teach and how to teach with reference to the Curriculum, with our aspiration that the children will become a confident and competent learner, communicator and develop a strong sense of belonging.

The children’s ideas are an important source of curriculum but only one of many possible sources that reflect the complex ecology of their lives.’ (Jones, Evans and Stritzel, p. 5)  - NQS ELP newsletter

Rather than setting out a list of learning activities for a specified period of time, the teacher decided on just a couple of initial learning experiences to 'provoke' children to develop their interest and knowledge. 

NQS PLP - Planning the program is more than completing documentation that is displayed on a wall (or in a journal) outlining what will happen this week/ fortnight.

First, it's making fruit kebab. Children were asked to bring a piece of fruit from home, and then cut them up, put them in one bowl for everyone to thread onto a skewer. The teacher took advantage of the teaching opportunity to slow down the process, talking about the aroma, colour and texture of the fruits; a bit of vocabulary like pip, stone, and core...At the same time, the teachers kept their ears open and listened actively for the next step in planning the programme. Conversations included  the difference between mandarins and oranges; they noticed that fruits 'usually' have seeds in a variety shape and size, but what about banana? Afterwards, the teachers documented the activity and summarised the topics raised for the next step for learning, leading to still life drawing of fruits including mandarins,  researching on computer about fruits, displaying non-fiction books about fruits and fruit trees. As parents were involved in sending fruits from home, at pick up time, the teachers further included them in the fruits investigation by asking them to talk about the fruit kebab at home.  One parent was surprised her girl actually ate kiwi fruit as she did not like it. Another parent said her boy did not eat fruits and only drink juice, leading to fruit juice making at kindy, when we also studied fruits vs vegetables, as the boy's special juice had carrot in it! What a nice to way to appreciate the diversity of eating habits.

Second major activity was growing seeds, sunflower seeds. Before the activity started, we talked and discussed first, while all the materials, like soil and seeds were kept away. The children were so used to conference that they felt free to express their views, ask questions and listen to each other. These competent communicators contributed what they knew about planting, so they said: we needed dirt/soil, rain (water) and the sun (moon as well as plants grew at night). 'Seeds from the Warehouse (a popular shopping place in NZ), of course,' said a child. Afterwards, the teachers arranged a series of learning activities to tease out their ideas, such as planting seeds on cotton wools without soil, collecting seeds at lunchtime from grape, avocado, and apple in their lunch box,  and trying to grow them. 

NQS PLP -In addition to experiences that help children progress toward the broad goal or learning intent, educators plan for:
ƒmaterials are displayed in inviting and accessible ways for children to choose and extend their interests... there is a balance between active and quiet experiences... specific resources to follow up individual children’s interests are available... experiences that build on children’s interests... 

Also, when the teacher gave instruction about putting soil on top of a seed, a child reasoned that 'so birds can't see it and eat it.' As the voice of the child is most valued in programme planning, the teacher provoked the child to think what else did the bird eat; what about a smart bird did find the seed and eat it, leading to the next lots of investigation on computer; the scarecrow project, and the bird feed project. The initial planting and the follow-up activities were documented and displayed on the wall, highlighting the child's voice and teachers' interpretation and reflection, which informed the parents about what and how learning happened here, as well as why the teachers plan in such way. The outcome was wonderful, and well informed parents also contributed by suggesting that once the seeds grew into seedlings, they needed to be replanted in the garden as the pottle of soil could no longer sustain the growth; seedlings needed space and so on. 

NQS PLP - According to the Guide to the National Quality Standard, ‘Planning involves observing, gathering and interpreting information about children to inform the preparation of environments and experiences that engage them and are meaningful for them. It also involves reflecting on and documenting children’s experiences and learning’ (p. 22).

Enough writing for the day. I'll unpack this planning story in more details next week.

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      Want more planning stories, click this link, it is fun to read.
    
    
  
  

Computer gaming for young children

Lately, I came across Carol Marks' article discussing about teachers' attitudes towards gaming on computer. Personally, I consider computer and other digital devices as the learning tool rather than for entertainment. So, I usually say 'no' when my kindy children asked to play game on computer. I think most early teachers are doing the same. Similarly, Jo Colbert acknowledges the possible benefits of gaming, but she is not keen to be involved  in gaming in early childhood context. Carol Marks also noticed that ECE teachers only allow those games which they think are appropriate for learning, but not games with no obvious literacy or numeracy learning, such as car racing games.

However, learning is embedded in a social context. From Marks' observations, She discovered that children are actually learning in everyday computer gaming, as they develop leadership when sharing their knowledge and skills in gaming with the less competent peers. In addition, gaming enhances social development as the children learn to take turns and build relationships. So, have we, as early childhood teachers been taking gaming seriously?

When Anne Grey talks cybersafety, she points out that using ICT devices has become a normal part of young children's daily experiences. On the same note, gaming on computer at home has also become a common form of entertainment of young children.  Once, a child asked me to let him use the kindy laptop for gaming. I said the laptop was supposed to be for researching and 'learning' (how narrow my view of learning!) I tried to discouraged him and said I did not have games on my laptop, but he confidently instructed me to go to Safari and type in 'www.Lego.com'. How knowledgeable he is!

In early childhood centres, gaming is usually restricted to certain periods of time, or as a reward. Sometimes, a timer is used to facilitate turn-taking, in order to make sure it is fair to everyone, so everyone has a chance. When the time is up, the child has to move over... essentially the child is forced to abandon what he is working on. However, for art or other traditional 'learning activities", the teachers usually let the child continue with his project over a long period of time, even actively remind the child to revisit his work again on the next day.

Ponder this:
Do you play computer games? Do your children at home play computer games? Do you allow children in your early childhood centre play game?

Mat-times, group times, a waste of time?

In the recent newsletter of the Australian National Quality Standard Professional Learning Programme, Heather Barnes asked teachers of young children to reflect about whether group times are interesting and meaningful for children. Although group times are supposed to be the time for learning literacy, numeracy, music and movements, Heather quoted a child commenting that it was just a waste of time!

In New Zealand, we call that special time of the day as mat-time. To me, I believe in the value of having mat-times. From my teaching experience, I have not heard any teachers voicing doubts about mat-time.  Probably, due to the sociocultural framework of our Early Childhood Curriculum, Te Whaariki, we all share an understanding of the social nature of mat-times as an effective context for learning.

Of course, there are many other opportunities to promote literacy and numeracy; to learn about music and movements. However, mat-time is the only time for everyone to come together, teachers and children. And often, parents who come early to pick up also feel comfortable to join in. During the day, children have the freedom to choose what they want to explore and learn. Some may spend most of their time outside, whereas others may stay inside around areas of their interest for the whole session.  Mat-time could be one of the few occasions children see each other during the day. In Quality Teaching Early Foundations: Best Evidence Synthesis, New Zealand ECE educator, Sarah-Eve Farquhar noted that interactions with diverse peers facilitate children's cognitive and social outcomes. During mat-time, children work with, talk and listen to others, not just their own friends who they have been hanging out during their free play time. As children learn in a social context, mat-time provides opportunities for peer interaction and collaboration, which supports learning and maximises outcomes.

In addition, mat-time enhances a sense of belonging and acknowledges contribution. It is a shared experience co-constructed by everyone. In my kindy, the Muslim parents don't want her girl participate actively in any music activities. But they have no intention to take her out of the mat-time. They want her to be part of the big kindy group. I reassured her that she could just sit and watch when we were singing and dancing. She participated through watching, as part of a group, which is what she wants. It's about the sense of belonging. I don't think it is a waste of time for her to stay at mat-time.

Similarly, some boys did not want to participate in dancing, and they claimed that boys did not dance. While I pointed out that boys do dance, I let them step aside and watch. Will they be better off be excused from the mat-time? I am not sure. Some children participate actively while others passively.

Of course, as a teacher,  we need to take children's feedback about mat-time seriously. Why a child would say mat-time is a waste of time?  He was honest with his feelings but he did not communicate why he felt that way. There could be a lot of reasons. Teachers need to be better aware of children's physical and emotional well-being when organizing mat-time. Be flexible and willing to modify the mat-time activities. On a hot day, I usually advised the children to have a drink before coming to the mat. On an extremely busy day after a fire drill and firefighters' presentation, teachers need to take into account that children are too tired and unable to sit still and  would easily lost concentration. In that case, I would just have a short mat-time and incorporate more interactive components into my plan and involve children actively. I remembered a child used to say he wanted to go home rather than staying on the mat, when he spotted his mum coming through the door. I let him go ask his mum whether she wanted to join us on the mat. The child and his mum were happy to sit down with the group and we enjoyed the mat-time together.

It's about what lens we use to see the mat-time. In New Zealand, teachers tend to use a sociocultural lens, and we see the significance of social learning in a group. Alternatively, one may see the desire of individual children comes first. One may insist that children should have a choice, as mat-time activities are usually not initiated by children. However, teachers could possibly shift the balance of power to children by taking into account their interests when planning for mat-times.

As mat-time is an effective event to promote learning, I believe it is important that teachers focus on children's interests, rather than what the teacher wants to teach during mat-time. As the Australian early childhood educators say, play is learning. teachers should work harder to engage children, making mat-time fun, meaningful and relevant to children.  I will talk about some mat-time activities I have done before in another blog Children songs, rhymes and games. You are invited  to share ideas and contribute to this discussion about mat-time too.

Play is Learning

I've just relocated from Auckland, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia. To familiarise my self with the Australian early childhood curriculum, I researched on line and, interestingly, found that "play is learning" is clearly stipulated in the Australian National Quality Standard. All early childhood teachers believe in the value of play, but it seems parents are still not totally convinced.  For a long time, it has also been a common concern among many early childhood teachers in New Zealand.

In New Zealand, it is quite common for teachers to communicate through wall display the value of various types of pay. For instance, to dispel parents' worry that their child is just running or climbing up and down all day, my head teacher devoted the whole wall space listing out in bullet points what learning is happening in outdoors play. She also reinforced the value of play with photographs and child's voices to capture the thoughts and ideas in the child's perspective.

In addition, learning stories are often used to communicate to parents. We, teachers deliberately describe a play scenario as an "learning activity or learning experience".   Yes, we have to state the obvious, as parents are usually performance/ results oriented and may not be aware of the learning process. In the eyes of a trained teacher, a child who playfully mixed the paint from various paint pots were exploring the hues and transformation of colours, whereas parents sometimes just saw a mess. While I was impressed by the persistence of a child in hammering over ten nails into a piece of wood, the parents simply thought her child was just playing and did not make anything meaningful or useful.

I think, personally, it requires professional knowledge and confidence of the teacher to explain what learning is happening in play. When I was a beginner teacher, I was shy to talk with parents about the play and learn concept. Having worked in the field for nearly ten years, I am now more confident and fluent in describing the learning happening in a child's play. At pick up time, I always initiatie conversation with parents about what their child did during the day, and what I found interesting and meaningful in terms of learning and development. So, a parent eventually appreciated the learning happening during a simple drawing of a superhero, when I pointed out that her child paid attention to details when drawing flames for the motorbike of his superhero, which also showed great concentration the
child had.

It's a challenge for teachers to step forward to advocate for the importance of play in children's learning and development.

Valuing children's art

Ann Pelo advises early childhood teachers, "honour the courage and boldness of creating!"

Something to ponder: " It is no small thing to put a strong black line on a waiting piece of paper, or to make the first stroke of color across a canvas, to press a thumb into a smooth slab of clay or put the first crimp in a length of wire. It takes courage and daring and humility, and deserves our regard," as said by Ann Pelo.

I asked, "Your picture looks amazing, can I put it on the wall, so everyone can see it?" The child says, "No! I want to take it home. You can make a copy." So, I let her use the printer.

Organizing a supportive environment means a quiet space, a chair to sit on...

Superheroes and ICT

A couple of weeks ago, the superhero play at kindy has moved to an interesting direction. The children have gone beyond capes and masks. It's no longer about dressing up and running around. As the kindy has a culture of using the medium of art as the tool of exploration, we put out pens and paint, and also pictures and magazines of superheroes for children to represent their understanding of the superheroes.

When we looked up pictures of superheroes on the internet, the teachers noted that a few children have a lot of knowledge and interest in the ninjas of Lego's Ninjago. While the teachers are not familiar with this set of Lego toys or characters, so alongside with the children, the teachers have been actively researching on Ninjago on the computer. Through research, the teachers are able to draw the children's attention to the positive attributes of the Lego ninja. Instead of talking about fighting and battle, they discussed about what each character likes to do, what their weapons are and their means of transportation. The children filled each other up with the story plot, and their narrative is sophisticated and full of details. Thanks to Lego!

While we think we know something about the classic superheroes like Batman and Spiderman, we won't do any research about them when planning the learning experiences. Whereas we know nothing about the Lego ninja, so we are keen to read more about them from the internet. In the end, the children's learning is enriched with greater understanding of the lego ninjas. Their drawing is more complex; and the ninja heroes are depicted in action, and sometimes with their plane or motorbike at the background...

We love to see children moved beyond dressing up and chasing each other, and we let them play games on the computer as well. The more experienced children help the less experienced ones use the touch pad to scroll the screen; click and select and so on. A lot of peer tutoring is happening.

How amazing is ICT in supporting teaching and learning! I've been thinking if we did research about Spiderman and Batman, would the children's play be more complex? Recalling a child who used to dress up as a Spiderman and jump, crouch and climb around kindy, if I had used internet to research about Spiderman with the children, they might focus their attention on the languages of body movements and drama, which is a valuable means of communication in the early years.

However, for a much younger age group - infants, what does technological literacy mean? Check out what Anita of Victoria University, New Zealand has found out.

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.