A huge thank-you to Nadia and Ayden for sharing Peaches the pig with us, for taking the time and having the patience to travel with her by car to kindergarten. We do appreciate it! "Partnerships involve establishing a sense of community, where both children and families know that they belong and make a valuable contribution" (Stonehouse, A).
Our tamariki and whanau were excited to see a piglet at kindergarten and enjoy the opportunity to observe, to share ideas and to collectively and collaboratively bring together ideas and conversations around Peaches. We sometimes forget that new experiences happen every day for children and many had never seen a pig before. Children hold images and stories of pigs in their knowledge banks. Big pigs, little pigs, pigs from stories or images of pigs but this is not the same as a real live pig.
While Peaches the pig visited we sat together and observed her. We watched, we talked, we noticed, we asked questions, we loved Peaches! Beetz et al. (2012) states that "the incorporation of animals within the education context affects the entire social atmosphere, supporting improved social interactions between children and the creation of a community of learners".
As we watched the children said:
"She's drinking she's milk" said Mathilda
"A little pig she was walking and I watching her" said Aoife
"She's digging for worms" said Caden
"Whys shes getting dirt on her nose?" asked Olivia.
"She got ears" said Jacob
"And she's got bodies" said Sophia
"And legs and mouth" said Jericho
"Do piglets jump?" asked Lachlan
"How do they jump?" said Manaia
As the children noticed and talked, they made connections between knowledge from home, knowledge gathered from their peers and from their own observations and statements.
After Peaches visited the children took the opportunity to sit together and talk more about Peaches and to also put onto paper their ideas, memories and knowledge of the little pig.
"Studies of children's prior knowledge (Dilkes, 1998; Wellman &Gellman, 1992;1998) provide evidence that children bring applicable and effective knowledge to new learning situations and that revisiting knowledge is an essential component of the knowledge-building process" (Hedges, 2004).
When we revisited our pig pictures and memories the children said
"He played and played. He was pink" Jaia
"He taked his tail and wrapped his tail up" Sophia
"Peaches the pig likes some bottles. The pig can do digging and the pig can do jumping. the pig said oink oink oink oink like that" Aoife
"She ran, she sniffeded the floor. We fed her with her bottle" Kendall-Lee
"Oh yeah that little piggy, we let her outside yesterday. it was over here and she tried to get her bottle" Jericho
"From a socio-cultural perspective, the contribution of the authentic social and cultural contexts in which children participate, and the role of experiential learning events, become prominent in considering how children's learning can be enhanced" (Hedges, 2004).
Sadly for us the inevitable has happened....Peaches has grown too big for the trips to kindergarten and her liking for nibbling on little toes had disaster written all over it. Till next time Peaches xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment