Blog Two-Construction and Technology

Blog Two-Construction Technology

This is my second blog and i’m excited to share an experience with you about a child’s building activity that involved creative thinking, imagination, critical thinking and the use of non-digital technology. This type of constructive play is important as

We have been focusing on constructive play in our room as there has been a lot of interesting around building. Last week a child came up to me with a creation that he had made out of lego, “Look Bex, look what I’ve made” he excitedly said to me. The shape of the object looked particularly like a toy gun but I was unsure exactly what it was. “Wow that is awesome (R), what have you made?” I asked.  I came down to (R)’s level to get a better look. (R) had spent a great of time making this creation and I was intrigued to find out what it was. “It’s a lawn mower”, he replied and he explained in detail exactly how it worked. I documented his words and took a picture of the lawn mower which you can see in the above picture.

As an early childhood educator, I believe the most important skill to have is the ability to build strong, meaningful and trusting relationships with children and to ensure that you engage in one on one time with children whenever the opportunity arises. Spending individual time with children helps to build a sense of belonging and confidence within the child, “Children develop a feeling of belonging, and having a right to belong, in the early childhood setting” (Ministry of education, 1996, p. 58). By coming down to the child’s level and engaging in conversations with (R) it showed that I had time for him and was interested in him and his work, “Children develop awareness of their own special strengths, and confidence that these are recognised and valued” (Ministry of education, 1996, p. 68).

By using the teaching techniques of listening, questioning, encouragement and praise I was able to enhance the learning opportunity for (R) and provide a chance for critical thinking and recalling as he described and explained his creation (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). I documented (R)’s explanation and I will write a learning story for his portfolio, these were his exact words, “This is a big lawn mower, it has all the stuff I need to put on wheels, this is the front part from the grass it will pop out and I will put the white part here with a bag so the grass can collect in this and we can’t make our garden messy”. 

After I had taken a picture of the lawn mower we continued our conversation discussing who mows the lawns at his own house, how a lawn mower works and different types of lawn mowers e.g., push or petrol mower and the ride on lawn mower.

Through the use of blocks and engaging in constructive play children are able to have design and build their own machinery. The lawn mower seems like such basic old machinery, in comparison to the advanced digital technology that we are surrounded by today, however it is a useful piece of non-digital technology which has helped to make our lives so much easier “Technology is everything around us, construction, clothing, tools, computers, machines, medicines” (Fleer & Jane, 2011).

This experience is a relevant link to The New Zealand curriculum through the technological knowledge strand as (R) was generating technological ideas and an understanding of how things work and what they are used for (The New Zealand Curriculum, 2007). This experience was a great example of a child making sense of the world around them and the objects and things within their world and how they work.

To extend (R)’s interests further I am planning a ‘Lawn mower project’ and bringing in an old lawn mower that has stopped working, taking the lawn mower apart to see what the inside of the mower looks like and observe the different parts “Through tinkering, children can explore the design and construction of real inventions for the purpose of finding out how they work” (Fleer & Jane, 2011, p. 6).

References:

Fleer, M., & Jane, B. (2011). Design and Technology for children. French's Forest, Australia:           Pearson Australia.

MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices             in theory and practice (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forrest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Prentice                Hall.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, he whaariki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o                              Aotearoa : Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand:   Learning Media.