Boys in early childhood - The everlasting love for Transformers

The boys at kindergarten have been making Transformers with the Mobilo blocks. They took the initiatives and asked the teachers to bring out Mobilo on the day when we put them away. The flexibilty and varied combination of the blocks enabled the Transformers they made are able to 'transform', such as twist and turn, bend and stretch. The boys also incorporated Transformers into their pretend play, as they chased each other, they claimed that they were Transformers, which they thought have given them the license to 'scare' their friends! It's amusing to see them wearing sandpit spades on their arms, pretending to be the armor of the Transformers autobots.

However, the boys sometimes crossed the boundaries and displayed aggression. a couple of 'victims' were not able to deal with the situation and cried in shock, while some children went to the teachers for help.  I have been thinking how to extend their interests in Transformers?

One teacher brought in Transformers figurines and hung them down the ceiling for children to observe and draw. It worked for a day or so, but the temptation to pull the figurines down was too great that we decided to pack the Transformers away. Anyway, the interest to draw was not big, probably these boys are active and kinesthetic learners, so they interacted with 'the Transformers' in a physical way.

I talked with my teenage son who still keeps his Transformers in a safe place. He simply said, 'who doesn't like robots? Everyone likes robots!' I suggested that  fairies to girls was just like robots to boys, and my son agreed. Well, then it's fantasy play in the domain of boys?

Back to extending the boys' play relating to Transformers, what should/can I do next? The teachers in my kindergarten think of buying more Mobilo blocks. I am thinking about recording their knowledge and ideas about Transformers and then documenting and displaying them on the wall. This is a way to show that teachers value the interests of children. Through the documentation process, children are learning to express themselves, extending their verbal language to describe and explain. Also, the teachers will be demonstrating how to make ideas visible in writing and pictures.

Maggie Haggerty shared her observations of how a young child "interweave, talking, writing and reading" during his drawing of superheroes. Really inspiring!

What else could you think of?

The learning environment

'what does this say?' a child asked while studying a plaque made to commemorate
an ex teacher who passed away. I read out the words and she happily walked off. Another child pointed at the alphabets she was able to recognize and read them out. Interestingly, the plaque is providing opportunities for literacy learning. As a teacher of young children, I am always aware of the significance of print in the environment. We put labels everywhere at kindergarten, such as the kitchen, toilet, puzzle corner and so on. We positioned posters at the child's level to enable them to read/look at them or just ask questions.

a well planned environment definitely promote learning. Think about putting some flowers on the drawing tables to prompt children to observe and draw them. If you are frustrated by the stereotype five-petals flower drawn by children, try to look closely at the flowers and talk about the colors and shapes of the petal, stem and leaves. At the block corner, photographs of towers, bridges, and other architecture will certainly help. These photographs give children some reference and extra ideas, enriching their repertoire. I have seen a child who is used to build roads tried out a bridge.

Really think about the environment, use your imagination and plan ahead.

Literacy in the early years - Reading to young children

A child in my kindy always asks me to read to her. She spends most of her day  reading with me. Her favorite book keeps changing. After she has enough of a particular book for several days, she would pick another one. I am not sure whether she really enjoys reading or craves for a special time with a teacher. I have been thinking should I encourage her to do some other things apart from reading? Eventually, I decide to follow her lead and let her determine when she is ready for venturing into other activities.

 I read to this little girl in various ways to enrich her learning experience. Sometimes, I dramatize my voice to bring in the element of drama. For musical development, I know that it is important to learn about talking voice and singing voice. Similarly, I think children will be benefited from learning how to change their voice to present a story effectively. It promote the development of verbal language. It's also an excellent opportunity to play with our imagination. We laugh at our silliness; hold our breath at the excitement and marvel at the fantasy...

Sometimes, I encourage the girl to participate in reading along. Young children have wonderful memory. I pause during my reading from time to time to let her fill in the words. She helps me 'reading' from memory, which also gives her a strong sense of achievement. We also discuss the plot; make prediction about what'll happen next; comment on how we feel about the story line and characters and so on.

Reading is actually an interactive experience, which involves more than literacy development. In short, it is reading with a child rather than reading to a child. Considering the benefits of reading, I do not mind reading the same book with a child for a hundred times. What do you think?

You may also want to borrow some ideas from Anita of the University of Victoria, New Zealand. Click the link here. Read more...if your are interested in a bicultural context.

clay with young children

I had clay today and I sat down with children to support them. As my kindy puts out play dough often, children know quite well how to create with play dough, but the skills with play dough cannot be transferable to working with clay. So, I decided to work closely with children to share my knowledge, passion and skills.

At times, children need to have the opportunities to explore freely. At other times, children benefit from 'teaching'. While some children just dived into clay right away, others felt uncomfortable and did not like the mess on their fingers and hands. I demonstrated the fun of creating with clay, showing them how to pound, knead, carve...simply getting my hands dirty. I reminded them that I can always wash my hands when I do not want to do any more. Actually, when I started sculpturing with clay, the children realized the potential and possibilities of clay, such as making animals with legs strong enough to stand. It's easy to make three dimensional objects, as clay is firm in texture and the shape can hold together.

The children came up with various imaginative ideas, and I coached the children along their creative process. After we had worked together for a while, when I was happy with what they have learnt and the children have developed some confidence and competence, I left and gave the children opportunities to explore further. My goal was to shift the balance of power back to the children and let them determine where to go next. I believe the strategies of 'hands-on' and 'hands-off' are both valid.

Lisa Terreni, a practicing artist and an ECE lecturer, observes that some children who do not usually draw or paint prefer creating with clay instead. She believes that children need to be offered an array of visual art opportunities so they are able to choose their preferred medium to express and communicate their ideas. I totally agree with her. She shared her experiences and knowledge on http://www.educate.ece.govt.nz/learning/exploringPractice/Literacy/UsingClayToDevelopLearning.aspx. Check it out.

winter celebration

This week, we celebrate winter solstice. It coincides with the Matariki, the New Year celebration of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. A parent kindly came in and helped us making pumpkin soup, a popular winter warmer. A teacher contributed the pumpkin from home. While the adults skinned and sliced the pumpkin, the children seeded and diced the pumpkin. And then, children picked some herbs from the kindy garden for making herb bread to go with the soup.

For the Maori people, Matariki is the time to express gratefulness about the land we live on. So, we thanked the Mother Earth for gifting/giving us the food; and we also said thanks to the parent helper and all children who helped cooking. Lastly, we thanked the teachers who did the dishes. With the coming together of family, children and teachers, we had a truly delicious celebration.

It's good that children learn about the local culture and seasonal celebration, especially to learn to feel grateful about the gifts from nature, which we usually take for granted.

A note about cutting pumpkin, better talk about the safety use of knives first. As pumpkin is hard to cut, children tend to try harder and might not be careful enough with the sharp blade. Softening the pumpkin in the microwave did work. Good luck!
 

inspiration from the local artists

The head teacher of my kindy suggested researching on our local artists and then working on a similar style or technique with children. I looked through the internet and picked Carol Smith from west Auckland. Her work is mostly abstract painting of landscape, capturing the mood of various times of the day and expressing her feelings. She specializes in layering acrylic paint on canvas, which I think is quite suitable for young children to achieve.

My approach was to introduce the idea of painting from observation. I believe in a child-centred approach for art, so I let children study a few painting of Carol, featuring the blue sky in different tones. I let them involved in mixing different tones of blue with white paint and black paint. I drew their attention to the color as well as the direction of the strokes. Young children tend to move their brush up and down, like a painter painting a house. So, I pointed out how Carol used horizontal lines in her work. Finally, I put out brushes of different thickness. Naturally, children experimented with all of them. Through hands-on involvement, they learnt to vary the thickness of the lines, achieving a variety of effects.

The painting they completed looks very interesting. I call it seven shades of blue, naming after the seven different tones we had created and mixed together. Hopefully, through this painting experience, the children develop the ability to use color with growing confidence. I noticed that they are also developing a sense of movement and direction of lines, as a couple of children kept reminding others to move the brush from side to side, not up and down.

A bonus of this painting experience is supporting social competence, as I used a big canvas and children had to work cooperatively, trying to work alongside each other without getting in each other's way. A worthy art experience!

Gun play

Lately, there have been some concerns about gun play at my kindy. We have a big group of boys starting kindy, and they have been dominating the playground, running with guns. In the beginning, they used their fingers as guns to shoot, and then some started to create guns using construction materials, like lego, mobile and even wood from the carpentry table. It seemed all the boys are attracted by the play, as they joined in almost instantly when 'threatened' / 'invited' at gun point. However, some got upset when the play became rough with physical contact. It did not go down well with the girls as well. From time to time, the teacher needed to intervene to clarify who wanted to be in the game and who did not.

At my kindy, the teachers agree that gun play is part of superhero play and should not be banned. It's good that we see eye to eye. We are aware that boys enjoy running in big space, outside, so they are naturally attracted to gun play. We also acknowledge that guns and weapons are a feature of some children's home experiences, such as a couple of Dads are policemen and a few families live on the farm or are frequently involved in hunting trips. Combined with information learnt from the media, our children are also acting out the good and bad theme with gun shooting.

While we acknowledge the importance of gun play in children's play repertoire, we need to make sure no one feels threatened. It's about communicating, listening and talking to each other. We encouraged the children to stand up for themselves and say 'no' to the gun player, and we remind the gun players to stop when being asked to. The learning involves social skills and will bring about the development of empathy.

Meanwhile, we are thinking about issuing gun licenses to children, which will be revoked when the child does not listen or show too much aggression. We probably will allotted an area for gun play, so who does not want to get involved could avoid the area and whoever feels too overwhelmed might exit...

I'm researching on gun play, and I have come across an interesting article by Diane Rich. You may also want to have a read...Bang, bang! Gun play and why children need it. Also, about gun license, see file:///Users/teacher/Documents/Kindy%20kids%20get%20gun%20licences%20%7C%20Stuff.co.nz.webarchive