Blog Three- Movement and Dance

Blog Three- The use of Technology with Movement and Dance

Please see in below picture-This is our mat time and dance area

For my final blog I have decided to discuss and reflect on the use of the stereo in the pre-schoolers room at the centre I work at part time. In this instance, the use of digital technology, the stereo, was used as a tool to enhance the play that the children were engaging in which therefore enhanced their learning.

Easter is coming up this weekend,  in our centre and every year we celebrate these special events by decorating our room with pictures and banners, we set up small group activities on the tables and set up art activities that relate to Easter.

Last week as the children began arriving at the centre, they looked up at the Easter wall that we had finished decorating the night before and they began to become full of excitement. They ran straight over to a little table that had bunny masks, bunny ears and little baskets with Easter egg decorations in them and they started to use the props to get dressed up.

I am a supporter of Lev Vygotskys socio-cultural theory, whereby children learn best in a social context, in groups and being surrounded by other individuals. Vygotsky believed that by playing out different roles, children were able to realise that there were certain rules that came with the role and they needed to act according to those rules that were applied, therefore this type of play helped to develop a child’s self control (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2007).

As I watched the children (mainly girls in this group of 6) engage and interact with each other I was drawn in to the whole experience and the game that I could see them begin to play, this type of pretend play in small groups helps to build on important social skills, “Children develop some early concepts of the value of appreciating diversity and fairness” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 66). They organised different roles for each other, “I’m the mummy”, “I want to be the baby”, “You can be the daddy”, they said. I watched as the children very diplomatically and fairly assigned a character to each other and they happily agreed on each role.

The Easter wall and table where the children were playing is in the same area as our mat time area. I observed as the children ran over to it with baskets in hand to put on some music. They successfully turned it on and found the cd that they wanted to play and found the right song to match their game. The song they chose was “Little Rabbit Foo Foo”. They all began to skip in a circle and jump up and down “Children develop confidence with moving in space, moving to rhythm, and playing near and with others” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 86).

The use of music in enhancing the play and learning opportunities for children is important and highly valued within our centre, most days we have the stereo on with different centre approved children’s cd’s playing. When children listen to music and engage in dancing they are refining their physical and motor skills as well as balance, co-ordination, movement and rhythmic ability, “Children develop increasing control over their bodies, including development of loco-motor skills, non-loco-motor skills, manipulative skills, and increasing agility, co-ordination and balance” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 86). It is important as an early childhood educator to provide the correct environment for these experiences to take place and to encourage and praise children when they engage in this play (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009).  

This is a form of technology and links to The New Zealand Curriculum in the technology Strand as it is a big part of the culture of our centre and offers important tools for communication and exploration for the children (The New Zealand Curriculum, 2007).

In the future I would further extend the children’s interests by bringing in my laptop and introducing yet another piece of valuable to technology to their experience. I could You-tube different Easter bunny videos and songs to enhance the learning opportunities for the children.

References:

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Dockett, S., Farmer, S., & Death, E. (2008). Programming and                   planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.).  Victoria, South Australia: Thomson.

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. 

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. 

Blog One-Butterfly Creek

Blog One

The use of technology on our visit to Butterfly Creek

I currently work as a permanent part time teacher at a privately owned center in Howick. I work in the pre-school four year old's room where we are unfortunately lacking in current modern digital technology however I will be reflecting about digital technology in this blog. For my first blog I have decided to reflect on our visit to butterfly creek and the use of technology when documenting our visit.

Class excursions are extremely rare within our center due to lack of funding and spare resources however we worked incredibly hard at fundraising at the beginning of the year. We decided to spend our fundraising earnings to attend butterfly creek as we had been studying insects and bugs as one of our main focus topics. Throughout the trip there were hundreds of photos taken of the children, the insects and the animals. The other teachers and parents and I were all armed with digital cameras, we would document the children as they experienced each part of butterfly creek.

Often the children would ask to see the pictures, after showing the children I would suggest, encourage and allow all children to use the camera themselves to choose what they would like to document and record. I believe that it is important to show the children that we trust in their ability to take care of the centers and in this case, the teacher’s personal items. Some of the children were unsure of using the digital camera at first, however they soon changed their minds after I explained how to use it. I used the teaching strategies of explaining and role-modelling to encourage the children to have a go, “Good descriptions help children to expand their understandings of the world” (MacNaughton & Williams, 2010, p. 57). I showed these particular children how to hold the camera and use it correctly and after they had given it a go they became a lot more interested in recording the process and became very confident with the digital camera, “Children develop a perception of themselves as capable of acquiring new interests and abilities” (Ministry of education, 1996, p. 68). When children use technology they become curious, young inventors who often need to draw on problem solving, decision making and critical thinking skills in order to master it (Fleer & Jane, 2004) as well as social and interactive skills when using technology in peers or groups , “Using technology appropriately involves a process of searching for an answer to a problem associated with people” (Fleer & Jane, 2004, p. 159).

The photographs that were taken on our trip were printed out, cut out and laminated individually. We sat down with the children and we spread all of the photos out on the floor, there was a group of children who were particularly interested in the photographs. I asked the group of children how they wanted their photos displayed and what we should do with them. Due to the age of the children in our room they are able to help with the planning, documenting and decision making within our room (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2007). “We should put them on the wall”, one child suggested, the rest of the group agreed. The teachers and the children came to a collective agreement that we could display the photos on our wall in the shape of a butterfly, as a type of butterfly photo mosaic.

The photos that weren't printed out were still extremely important to the teachers and the children so we decided to display them on a digital photo frame on our bug and insect display table. The photo frame was left on for a majority of the day and the children were able to revisit the butterfly experience whenever they chose to. They loved to watch the photos appear on the screen and they would bring their parents and siblings to see the photos when they were dropped off at the center  Through writing this blog I was able to identify and notice the use of technology in much greater detail than I had previously experienced.

In this case technology improved the quality of our teaching as we were able use technology as a teaching tool to record the day while we worked alongside and with children to document the visit. This visit to butterfly creek was a valuable learning experience for me as I overcame my pre-conceived ideas that children need the assistance of an adult when using expensive technology. This change in thought pattern is important as a teacher’s beliefs and views on technology strongly influence how children learn and how they feel about technology (Fleer & Jane, 2011).

Reference List:

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Dockett, S., Farmer, S., & Death, E. (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.).  Victoria, South Australia: Thomson.   

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

Fleer, M. & Jane, B. (2004). Technology for Children: Research-based Approaches, Pearson, Frenchs Forest.

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.