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.

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.