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| Pretty Nunu |
In this entry I would like to stress one of the important factors in nurturing children’s learning in my home centre, this is the importance of the involvement of the community. In this case I’m sharing some of my family experiences with the children as I have realised that some children only see us as teachers and don’t realise that we lead a normal life just like them! In facilitating this experience the use of technology was just vital.
Children’s interest in animals has been going on forever! It started or I shall say we started to notice it when the children started to talk about the nest on our tree earlier this year. As we have been learning about birds and animal in general, this took us to pets in our lives. So, lately I have been discussing with the children one of my young brother’s new pet! In the past the children have met ‘Nunu’ the beautiful Rainbow Lorikeet parrot but this time it was a bit of a strange pet!
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| Bashut |
I introduce “Bashut” to the children by showing them a picture of her from the net. As they stared at the screen, they came to realise that this sort of cats are called ‘Sphynx’ and they normally don’t have any fur on their body! The children’s response was amazing as they thought she was so “adorable”! I was to make a promise that Bashut will come to visit on Thursday.
As I arrived to the centre on Thursday, a group of children ran up to the gate to ask me where Bashut was! So I explained to the children that because Bashut is very shy, there is no way she could stay in the centre for the whole day therefore my brother Rami will come and introduce her to us at 11 o’clock! Closer to 11, we were getting a bit impatient so we decided to ring Rami at home and ask him to come sooner!
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| Using the phone to ring Rami |
Not long after the phone call Bashut arrived! We had a cool time with Bashut and we got to pat her too!
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| Rami is introducing Bashut to us |
Connecting with the outside world is highly emphisized by our Early Chilldhood Curriculum. Te Whāriki states that “The wider world of family and community is an integral part of the early childhood curriculum” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.14). As I mentioned above, I felt it was important for children to know that their teachers also have a family and some have pets just like the children. And what a great way of showing this by following children’s interest naturally and interconnect as a part of the daily program. Through this experience the children and I were working alongside each other. Scoll (2005) stresses the importance of working together as a community in exploring the wider world outside the classroom. This also means that child’s relationship with the physical environment is also fostered in order to build a community of learners (Mindes, 2006). Nevertheless, Mindes (2006) asserts that in order to foster children’s social and emotional development we as ECE teachers need to look beyond maths and literacy and start recognising the importance of social studies in the classroom.
I think this is excellent and cool!! I totally agree with how you said that children thinks of us as 'just teachers'. That's why I think that this is really excellent. It is so wonderful how you introduced one of your family member and your pet. You worked with them throughout the process which was great to see. It must have been really interesting for the children as they were learning so much in one day. They got to see a pet that was different, they got to meet your family member and they used the phone with you. I think all in all, it is great!
ReplyDeleteWow Rana I really loved reading this blog I think it’s awesome you used your own outside resources (such as your brothers cat); you really went that extra mile to provide the children with experiences which supported their interests. I can also relate to children showing interest in animals and pets I recently shared photos of my own pet cats with the children at my centre and their fascination with this was huge. I often forget that for some children having pets seems quite unique because they don’t have their own at home, therefore provide them these experiences can be significant learning event.
ReplyDeleteYou can see how attractive it was. The children were so focussed on your brother's new pets.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your brother to contribute to the centre. This also related to social studies.