One of the things that we are asked quite regularly at Bream Bay Kindergarten is 'where do you get your ideas for teaching from?' This is usually closely followed up by suggestions that 'Pinterest' must be it.
While Pinterest can be visually inspiring, for us it's so much more than that.
At the forefront of our choices for teaching and learning is understanding we've gained through study of how children learn and develop. As you can imagine this topic is huge and includes such things as developmental stages, brain development and hierarchy of children's needs for optimal learning.
We consider parental aspirations, and the interests and needs of the individual child. Curriculum areas such as language and culture, literacy, mathematics, science, the arts, physical literacy, transition to school and social and emotional competency are important factors too, as we work to orchestrate a full repertoire of play based experiences that cater to a variety of needs for a diverse range of children. And of course the quality of teacher interactions, knowledge and strategies comes in to play as well.
As teachers we really need to keep our knowledge up to date in order to maintain a high quality programme that provides optimal learning opportunities for children. One of the ways we do this is through Professional Learning.
Professional Learning for inspiration.
Last term I was fortunate to be able to spend the day at Mairtown Kindergarten, where I observed teacher practice, engaged in professional discussion and viewed a multitude of new ideas.
The Mairtown teaching team are made up of highly dedicated and professional teachers with a passion for delivering a programme for children that provokes thinking and develops their working theories.
The Mairtown teaching team are made up of highly dedicated and professional teachers with a passion for delivering a programme for children that provokes thinking and develops their working theories.
From left to right the Mairtown kindergarten team are Susie Butler, Christine Alford, Sarah Nathan (administrative support), Kate Newson, Ann Bawden (ECE student) and Zair Taylor (Head teacher)
One of things I was particularly interested in learning more about is the concept of 'Inquiry Learning' to extend children's thinking. The work undertaken by the Mairtown kindergarten teaching team in this regard is exceptional and I enjoyed looking at new perspectives that challenged my thinking and provoked new understanding.
Consequently I came away feeling refreshed and inspired to try new things with our tamariki at Bream Bay kindergarten.
There's nothing quite like diving in to give something new a try! This is what transpired when I got back to our centre...
There's nothing quite like diving in to give something new a try! This is what transpired when I got back to our centre...
Extending children's thinking
through
Inquiry Learning
Inquiry Learning
A bird of paradise flower provided the perfect opportunity to spark children's interest.
"Look closely, what do you notice?" I asked
"It looks nice to me" said Braxton.
"The orange stuff" said Scott.
"The red is by the orange" said Zoey.
"It has some orange sticking up" said Violet.
"It has a red thing" said Ella Breeze.
"I see...it's very hard to think about it, I don't know how" exclaimed Braxton.
Braxton is right of course, thinking deeply about something can be very challenging!
However as Christine Alford at Mairtown Kindergarten states "by fostering thinking skills in children, we open the world for them. Children who can think creatively and divergently are the world's future problem solvers, they will learn to deal with unexpected situations that arise and as research suggests, are more likely to be persistent, innovative adults who are prepared to take calculated risks." (2015)
So we push on..."What do you notice, what else do you see?" I ask to keep conversation flowing.
"I notice that long thing" said Jericho picking up on the word 'notice'.
"I see the point" said Braxton touching the tip of the flower head.
"I can see black things" said Charlie, "Hey I notice that purple thing sticking up" he said.
"I can see the black on the green stuff" said Jericho.
"I can see black stuff on the purple" said Zoey.
"I can see orange stuff by the yellow" said Violet.
When I could see conversation slowing down I posed another question...
"What do you think is inside the flower?"
"Sand" said Violet.
Zoey said "I don't know."
"Maybe white" said Jericho.
"I think it will be sand" said Braxton, "I want to see inside, whatevers in there."
We set about opening the flower to see what was inside...
"It's really hard to open" said Braxton. "Hey I see yellow."
"It looks like it's orange" said Charlie.
"I've never looked inside a real plant before" said Braxton. "Gosh that doesn't look nice to me it looks like goo."
"It looks like slime" said Violet.
"Oh yeah it's a little bit sticky" said Jericho.
"It's a bit too sticky" said Braxton, "it will stick like a magnetic."
"It's like glue" said Jericho.
"It feels like slime" said Gia Bella.
"It smells stinky" said Violet.
"It smells like a flower" said Zoey.
"It smells yucky, it smells like a bug" said Aoife.
"It has some pink on it" noticed Violet.
"I've never seen pink on it before" said Braxton.
"It wouldn't be so easy to put back together" reflected Braxton.
"Hey look, look at that, it's white stuff! What is that white stuff?" asked Braxton
"I think it's just part of the flower."
"I found some white stuff" said Scott, "bean."
"Wow, that's an interesting story, what Scotty found was amazing. He found a bean!" said Braxton.
"Look what's in here. I found orange stuff, it has slime in it" said Manaia."
"This looks like sand but it just sticks" said Violet.
"It's floss" said Gideon, "they put it into a special machine and they make bread."
"It has pinky thing" noticed Gideon. "This magnifying glass can look things even bigger."
"Look what I found" said Gideon, "it's purple floss frost, but it's a different kind of floss. It can't make bread, it makes flour. This kind of floss makes flour."
Wow, what wonderful observations and comments by the children. You can really hear children's working theories about flowers unfolding within their conversations.
The following day, I tried to think of ways to ignite conversation about the flowers again to try and keep learning alive. Nothing I asked seemed to generate much interest.
Frustrating!
However when I asked the question...
Do flowers have feelings?
This really got things going...
"No" said Zoey.
"They can drink water" said Lucas.
"Yes" nodded Jai and Stella.
"I don't know" shrugged Kendall Lee.
"Yeah" said Jericho.
"No" said Allani.
There were conflicting points of view...
Jericho said "The orange, black, green and purple...it makes you better again. You put it in the garden and it grows bigger."
Lucas agrees shaking his head 'Yes'. "I think feelings are supposed to suck up the water" said Lucas.
"Flowers go in water" said Kendall Lee.
"They drink water too" said Lucas.
"Can a flower be sad?" I asked.
"Yes" said Stella.
"With mud, mud can make a flower sad" said Kendall Lee.
"No with water" said Stella, "when all of the petals are down."
"And when they have mud, that makes them sad" said Zoey.
"When they don't get water ever they die" said Lucas.
"Everyday they die" said Allani.
"Can a flower be sad?" I asked.
"No" said Violet, "I don't think so".
"Can a flower be happy?" I asked.
"Yes" said Violet. "If the sun is out."
"It helps it grow too" said Lucas.
"And if the rain comes out that makes them happy and grow" said Zoey.
"The rain helps them grow and makes them happy" said Lucas.
[Flowers are sad] "When there's no sun out" said Zoey.
"And no rain out" said Stella.
"Can a flower be angry?" I asked.
"No" said Allani, "cause flowers always be happy. Cause you have to plant them in dirt, then the sun comes out then the rain after and the moon, that's when they're happy. Flowers have to be happy."
"Yeah" said Manaia joining the conversation, "flowers are happy when they have water."
"Raindrops make a flower get happy" said Stella.
"Putting water in it so it can be so happy" said Jai. "The rain makes the water so the flower can be happy."
"The rain helps it grow, it gets big it's a happy flower" said Lucas.
"You know sometimes the sun dries up all the water and the flower gets sad" said Manaia.
"You know they have something to eat. Dirt. You put the dirt on them and they eat it up. I know cause I've seen them!" said Lucas.
"The dirt is for the flower to plant. A happy flower having water" said Allani.
"With the rain going down on the flower it makes it grow and it feels happy" said Zoey.
"I think flowers can feel happy and sad" said Braxton, "because the rain stops and the suns not there and that makes them feel sad. I don't know what makes a flower happy again."
"When they sad, they don't have a home" said Maygan, "it wants a home."
"Flowers have to have 100 million flowers to be home and that's what makes them happy. I have a 100 million flowers at my home and they are happy at my home."
"The flower is sad if it has no petals" said Gia Bella.
"It can come to my house. I can make all flowers happy for you cause I'm magic. Cause they'll have lots of friends at my home" said Maygan.
"It's a sad flower cause of the bees" said Laurell, "it needs the ground cause that's it's home."
Invitation to draw ideas
I really enjoyed hearing Mairtown Kindergarten teachers thoughts on Inquiry Based learning. Christine sums it up quite nicely...
"Giving children the power to think of solutions, questions, and problems for themselves is important. The answers are so readily available now through google and the internet, that what children need now is the skill, creativity and ability to be researchers to find out for themselves. When we give children the answer, all opportunity for learning stops." (Christine Alford, 2016 Mairtown Kindergarten)
The biggest thank you and appreciation to the teachers at Mairtown Kindergarten for their generosity of time, sharing of knowledge, and capacity to care. Their combined effort and commitment to uplifting the quality of education within the early childhood sector is amazing.
And that's it people...one of the ways we come up with new and exciting learning opportunities for children within our care!
Kind regards,
Tania
