Reference List

Blog entry references

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Dockett, S., Farmer, S., & Death, E. (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood setting (4^th ed). Melbourne, Australia: Thomson Learning.

Holt, B-G. (1993). Science with young children: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Washington, U.S.A: NAEYC.

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

Santrock, J. W. (2008). Lifespan development: International student edition (11^th ed.). Boston, Ma., United States of America: McGraw Hill.

Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2004). Developing new technologies for young children. Great Britain. USA: Trentham Books.

Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, No.19 Autumn 1999.

Library Week

Library Week

 6^th September to 7^th October 2010

We had library week for a month approached by the librarian from our community library centre. This was a good opportunity for our children in my centre to explore with all kinds of books and languages. Every week we took our children to library where they had special programme like singing songs in different culture, learning new words for greetings, reading and sharing stories by the librarian and listening to music or story by playing in radio or CD where our children enjoyed so much. On our way to library they met different people in our community, they come  across with their friends and relatives houses, saw animals like dogs, birds and cats, many kinds of transport which they talked about a lot  and of course the letter boxes which the children decided to write letter for their friends and drop them to one letter box every week which was a very good and interesting idea and experience for the children and us to get in touch with our community (people) around us. 

During our visit we discussed about the people in our community who provides the great help towards the setting for example, library is the great help for the early childhood setting where they invite and approach our children to learn and “build opportunities for social interaction with adults and other children and respects the achievements and aspirations of the child’s family and community” (Ministry of Education 1996, p.54).

Many children shared their learning while they were visiting to library and they were eager to visit every week because they used to explore the outside environment as well as exploring good time in library with books and fascinated by the librarian’s programme. According to Vygotsky, children’s cognition develops through the use of language and communication; interaction in social context is the driving forces for language development (Santrock). Piaget views that cognitive structure must exist in the individual before the development of language. “Language can be a part of all forms and types of play” (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2008, p.86). Children’s action experiences are basic for the development of language skill; they need to experience the world by acting on it and to build up their cognitive structure before they can learn language (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2008).

“The programme should provide opportunities for interactions with community groups and services, both by children visiting outside the home or centre and by people from the wider world being welcomed” (Ministry of Education 1996, p.55).  Children develop an understanding of their wider world by people and discovering different experience, events from home, centre and community. Engaging the community as apart of our collaborative approach to planning children’s learning and development provides a diverse context for learning (Arthur et al,  2008).

I think the library week was very interesting and it provides children with social interaction. Children explore the physical environment while visiting to library. I really appreciate our people in the community who provides a good help for our children, centre, family and whanau.

Use of Technology

Use of Technology

 Date: 05/10/10

Technology provides us to solve problem and make our work easier. The use of technology in my center with children promotes the development of creativity and imagination among our children. During free activity time children were playing with computer keyboards and telephone in family corner. As I was involve with them then child R asked me if she can play an office girl like our supervisor in the office. First I laughed and then I said “Oh that’s a great idea.” Child R and S both helped each other to bring whatever they found around and it was amazing that Child R and S did everything that they wanted. I helped them to move the big chair on her request. “Children experience an environment where they learn strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.88). Other children joined her and they came along asking for their turn to be an office person. 

As I was admiring the curiosity and the art of communication among children I noticed that they are sharing and taking initiative to express imagination like a real life happening. Child R asked N “there’s a call for you”. Child N came to pick up the phone and talked for a while which was unclear what she was talking about. Child M came along asking for camera in the office from child R and she said “make sure you bring it back as soon as possible” Child M asked if he can take child R’s picture from that camera. 

 Here comes another call for Y and she received call from India by her uncle who is coming to NZ very soon. Child R is very busy with computer typing something and she said “Go away B, don’t disturb me I’m working in the office, soon teacher N will come and check my record, can you hear that?” Suddenly she moved away and child B and P jumped up to take her place as an office girls. It was good to see Child P and B playing together and communicating patiently using technology. Te Whaariki states that “children develop experience with some of the technology and resources for mathematics, reading and writing” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.78).

The use of technology and ICT in early childhood is fun and enjoyable to use but at the same time have clear and educational purpose (Siraj-Blatchford, 2004). That is children learn maths skills like counting and recognizing letters on the computer keyboard. According to Smorti (1999) the use of technology will develop children’s creativity, literacy and numeracy skills and they explore and discover knowledge and skills associated with expressive media. “While playing with the toy the children can observe regularities in its behavior, and propose explanations, interpretations and creative responses” (Siraj-Blatchford 2004, p.50). Children’s exploration provides a sense of social interaction with adults and their peers by communicative and emotional skills. Children develop social, physical and cognitive skills by interacting with a responsive environment (Santrock, 2008). 

From my observation children express their minds verbally naturally and imitate other children and adult in their fantasy play. They are very creative to communicate naturally therefore, educator’s role is to scaffold and encourage the children to follow their play and be a role model for them and to explore more about use of technology in early childhood setting.

Food and Technology

Date: 21/09/10

Our centre approaches children on cooking and baking once a week in their curriculum.  This week I chose my activity with children as baking a banana loaf. This was the menu for morning tea and therefore children also chose to do some baking during our activity time. Child P and B helped me to gather ingredients in the kitchen under my supervision because they felt very excited to break the eggs and using electric mixer to mix the ingredients which they told me that their mum allows using it at home.  There were all mixed age children gathered on the table to take their turns while they were watching others. I facilitated with other equipment and recipe for ingredients. 

During the process children explore using spoons, mashing banana, measuring and pouring the ingredients, counting and breaking the eggs by taking turns and using equipment such as electric hand mixer and spoons to mix all the ingredients. I guide and helped them to hold the electric hand mixer.  Children followed the recipe for developing and understanding the process of baking. Te Whaariki states that, “Children develop confidence that they can participate and take risks without fear of harm” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.52). Therefore, “educators in early childhood are to scaffold children’s learning in this area we need to broaden our understanding of technology and continue to extend or knowledge and skills” (Smorti, 1999, p.5). 

While children were taking their turns to mix the ingredients I noticed that they are exploring the equipment and enjoying with their peers by having communication for example, child B said “watch every one I’m breaking the egg.” Child S said “Oh I know how to break the egg. Child P said “I will mix the egg with hand mixer, My turn please” According to Te Whaariki, “children experience an environment where there are equitable opportunities for learning, irrespective of gender, ability, age ethnicity, or background; they are affirmed as individuals and are encouraged to learn with and alongside others” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.64).

Once they finished mixing the ingredients then I let them to grease the loaf tin and pour the mixer.  Again it was time for taking turns where I found that all of the children on the table wanted to take their turn to pour the mixer in baking tin, so I allowed then to take turns slowly pouring the mixer in the tin. Te Whaariki sates that, “Children develop self-help and self-care skills for eating, drinking, food preparation” (Ministry of Education 1996, p.48). In this activity I have seen children know the rules of preparing food like, no licking and no touching the mixed ingredients while pouring. This has shown that our children inherit their parents from home which is very good on showing respect towards preparing any food. I have also seen that children were actively involved in the process of baking.

We left the banana loaf in the oven to bake for 45 minutes until it was done by morning tea and it was just “Yummy” because it was the children’s effort on baking. Technology often supports many activities and it is more important process of doing rather then the product (Smorti, 1999). Through this process of baking, I believe that children learn the concept of mathematics and experienced using the technology as a hand mixer.  This activity has support each other to work as a group which will build communication and problem solving, sharing and turn taking.

 

Science and Technology

Blog entry 1

date: 13/09/10

Children in my centre recently have interest on learning about parts of a human body. This interest came up while having discussion on healthy eating to healthy body. Children shared their own views about keeping their body healthy while they came up discussing on all body parts. Children were interested to learn more about body parts for example which parts of the body does what. This discussion continued till the next day and children were interested to draw their own body parts. After the discussion children gave all sorts of their own ideas where they can search for information about human body. Child ‘P’ said we can search on internet and child ‘B’ also said that ‘last night she went home and her mother show her pictures of human body on computer. This relate to Te Whariki, “children develop the ability to represent their discoveries, using creative and expressive media and technology associated with them” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.88).

 I thought that this is an interesting idea to explore children’s thinking in a variety of exercise during learning about the process of body parts. This also related to science which allow children to process new information through specific experiences by thinking through study about problems solving and develop and understanding about scientific knowledge which includes, observation, communication skills-sharing ideas(Ministry of Education, 2007).

 I have noticed that the process of science investigation on body parts has encouraged children to discover learning on human body by exploring seeking answers for themselves. According to Ministry of Education, “Science is a way of investigating, understanding, and explaining our natural physical world and the wider universe” (2007, p.28). After the discussion we allowed group of children to search about the body parts on computer during our activity time. This allows children to scroll down the mouse and watch on the screen what was happening. 

I have noticed that the children are having fun and become confident on scrolling down the mouse and asking for their turn. This also helps children to learn literacy skills while they searching and reading heading for another picture and children are able to type some letters by using keyboard.  From this children develop “familiarity with the properties and character of the materials and technology used in creative and expressive arts” (MoE, 1996, P.80). I found that children having fun with watching pictures and finding out more on body parts. After the search children wanted to go again and again on computer for searching their own body parts which made them interesting.

During this process for learning about the body parts we decided to take a group of children to library to look for some books on human body. The very next day we took elder group of five children to library and the children enjoyed finding books in the library and brought them back to the centre. I believe that science activities have supported children to social development in children by interaction with peers and outside community for example, sharing and discovering in computer and finding books at the library made the findings more exciting. 

The researchers have suggested that science education is vital for everyone because all the technological changes are difficult to manage. Dealing with technology requires a great deal of problem-solving and therefore, problem solving is the foundation of science (Holt, 1993, p.10).

From this observation and learning from children I believe that children explore their ideas and materials in different context which allows them to find variety of interesting skills while they explore with science and technology.