Entry Five
For this planned provocation it was inspired by the children’s
interest in gardening. I decided to take a group of children to our backyard to
check on our vegetable garden and explore the nature in the garden. The
children have always loved visiting the centres garden so one day I took a
group of children with me and check on the garden to see what vegetables we
need to plant for the winter season. As we got to the vegetable garden, one
child noticed a yellow and black insect on one of the cabbage. I took a closer
look and it was a “Caterpillar”, there were three caterpillars on the cabbage.
Children were very interested in the caterpillar that they wanted to keep some.
The children have taken a strong interest towards the caterpillars and how they
want to see the caterpillar turn into a butterfly, I decided to take two
caterpillars inside the centre for the children to watch and experience the
life cycle of the butterfly. This is how
our inquiry-based learning started, the children shared a common interest and
wanted to explore and find out more about the life cycle of the butterfly
(Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett, & Farmer, 2015).
I set up a table with
papers, colouring pencils, magnifying glasses, and a small plant with the two
caterpillars on it. I made sure that children understand the importance of
looking after the creatures in our environment. My role as a teacher was to
listen and ask open-ended questions to the children about what they know and
what they don’t know. As MacNaughton & Williams (2009) stated, “When
teachers use listening as a teaching strategy, then try to understand what the
children are saying, and through doing so’ try to better understand them”. (p.
116).
As I watched children observing the
two caterpillars munching on a leaf, they were very involved into how they eat
so they used the magnifying glasses so they could get a closer look at the
details of the caterpillar and the way they move around the leaf.
I planned on introducing the technology to this learning
experience, by giving children iPads to watch videos based on “The life cycle
of a Butterfly”. Children took a turn on the iPad watching the caterpillar
story but then more children noticed what was happening and therefore the table
was crowded with children trying to watch the iPad. So, I decided to put the
video on the Apple TV for everyone to watch. This allowed me to give children
the opportunity to connect with the wider natural environment (Ministry of
Education, 2017, p. 35). This also allowed me to support children’s learning by
letting them observe and identify the
characteristics of the life cycle of a butterfly as well as listening
to what they are saying and the comments they make.
As the video goes on about the caterpillar changing its size and
shape, I heard children mentioning the word “Pupa”, “Cocoon” and “larva”, I
found it very interesting that some children knew the words to the butterfly life
cycle, so I asked the teachers if they have already learnt about the life cycle
of butterfly and they said that it was only in the book called “The Hungry
Caterpillar” and watching videos on YouTube about butterflies. Therefore, this
will be the first time that children will get to watch real-life experiment on
the life cycle of a butterfly. After watching the video, children started
asking questions about “What food does the caterpillar eat?” or “How do we keep
the caterpillar from falling down the leaf?”. I decided as a centre, we
gathered more information about what caterpillars eat and not eat, and how we
can keep them on the leaf without falling and so on. In doing this I was
facilitating the children’s learning by giving them what they required to learn
and reach a successful outcome. “Facilitating is a process of making children’s
learning easier” (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009).
This provocation
helped the children deepened their understanding of the environment and
developing confidence in working alongside others to explore the nature and
making sense of their social world. Ministry
of Education believes that children problem solving together with their peers,
they develop the understanding of how things work (Ministry of Education,
1996). This experiment will be an ongoing learning process for the
children in the centre.
References
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S. & Farmer,S. (2012). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (5th ed). Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning.
MacNaughton, G. & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices for theory and practise (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson Education Austarlia.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education (2017). Te Whāriki He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Mātauranga House.
Adeleine, I really enjoyed reading your entry about the provocation surrounding the children's interest in gardening, and how the experience was open ended and you let it flow in whatever way the children led it. Their interest turned to the caterpillar and you fostered this interest by creating a space for children to learn about and explore the life cycle of a butterfly.
ReplyDeleteIt was great that you took the opportunity to talk about kaitiakitanga and respecting the living things in our natural world.
You then extended on their interest by allowing them to interact with the ipads to watch a video about the caterpillars. This was a great way to introduce digital technology into the experience to extend on their learning. You then put the video up on the t.v so that all of the children could be included. This was fantastic as it showed that you valued the importance of the community of learners.
Next you talked about the children asking questions and you finding the answers. I think it would have been really valuable to have a discussion with the children about what they thought the answers might be before you found the answers, as this would have allowed them the opportunity to problem solve, have a group discussion nd use their imagination before you researched the answers together. Remember that an important aspect of the experience was to extend the children’s learning by developing their dispositions to become life-long learners, not just to find out about caterpillars.
Their interest in caterpillars has the potential to create learning opportunities throughout the curriculum areas. Another way to incorporate digital technology into their learning may be allowing the children to take photos of the caterpillars and document the changes that they see. Perhaps they could even work alongside a teacher to make a little book about the life cycle of a caterpillar that they could keep as a resource in their room.
Thank you :))
DeleteI like how you are showing the children the garden, helping them understand where fruits and vegetables grow. The children are getting involved and learning how to take of the garden. I like how you are noticing the children interest and by bringing the caterpillars inside you are you creating an environment for them to explore. Gain knowledge about the cycle of the caterpillar.
ReplyDeleteYou provided the children with a range of resources, giving them lots of options. I like how you emphasised the importance of looking after the creatures in our garden, this is showing the children that he is alive, and we need to respect him. You are trying to listen and understand the children growing interest, finding ways to better support their learning. I love looking at your beautiful pictures with the children and the caterpillar on the swap plant. I can see the children are respecting him by only using their eyes to look. the children are taking advantage of the environment and the resources providing using the magnifying glass to examine the caterpillar in more detail. This was a clever idea projecting the cycle of the caterpillar on a bigger screen so that everyone could see. You are noticing the children using language to express themselves using pervious knowledge such as Pupa, Cocoon. I can see you are supporting the children’s curiosity.
The children are showing a growing interest in caterpillars, another way to incorporate technique maybe could be to give children the camera to take their own pictures of the butterfly and caterpillar. Keeping a calendar and with the children noting how long the cycle takes. If this interest is ongoing maybe taking a few children to butterfly creek, where they are able to see different types of butterflies. This experience could even turn into learning about creatures in our garden such as lady bugs, spiders, worms etc. the children could make their own caterpillar book documenting their own journey.
Thank you Sanjana :)
DeleteKia Ora Addie,
ReplyDeleteI liked your detail insight to children development and how environment is a huge part of their development. Good to see, taking charge in enrolling children from the same culture as you and also recognizing the importance of speaking the same language to interact with children. I agree that environment plays a huge part in the growth of children. Children start to think and interact according to the context they are living in. You are making some good connections to the theories that supports this idea immensely. I would have like to see some reflective responsive teaching and real-life experiences that enriches your ideas for advancing children development. It was lovely to see how you have thoroughly extend on children interest for caterpillar. The meaningful set up facilitated their learning with magnifying glass and collaboration with others around the table. Also, I could see how the activity itself become a teaching place for inviting others to join in. After watching the video, children were provoked to ask questions related to their interest in caterpillar. Another way, could have been for extending children independent thinking and see how this interest unfold with surprise was to hand over them technology device such as camera or iPad. This could have set up a great platform for children to develop their meta cognition skills with others. I also take a note that I cannot see entry three and four.
Great work Addie, well done (Tino Pai).
Rose Kundal
Thank you Rose :)
Delete