Mud, glorious mud!

"Childhood for me was basically a backyard, a spade and a bucket of mud with someone to look after you." Dirk Bogarde.

Today we celebrated the second annual Nature Action Collaborative for Children - International Mud Day.  And WOW what a day...  

Our mud pit is a part of our everyday play and is frequented by the children as you will have noticed from previous posts.  What I love about International Mud Day is the conversations that it initiates.  When the posters were placed around our service a week ago advertising the event, many parents, Certificate III and Diploma of Children's Services students began reflecting on the types of play they experienced as a child - building forts, making mud pies, using imagination and creativity daily in play.  When having these conversations, links were quickly made to the types of play children have today - over scheduled, structured, computer based, predictable.  It's amazing to see that "light bulb moment" when parents and students realise what they truly LOVED and remember most about their childhood - that they are not allowing their children to experience.

So following is an example of what the children experienced and my interpretation of their learning in our program today.  

The invitation to play was set and the children eagerly began play in the mud pit in a small group - working on a treasure hunt project and individually - making wombat stew. 
 

My favorite image of the day "help I'm stuck" the group worked together creating and hypothesising how they could get Josh out of the mud (without his gumboots remaining in the slosh)

Our Mud Pie cooking invitation - this was the 'oven' the children created a few weeks ago.

Pre-mathematical and science principles - sinking and floating patty pans

 Collaboration - lifting the heavy pot onto the stove

Collaboration - mud stew

 Josh shared his family culture explaining to the children how to make pasta "Nonna mixes it all like this in the bowl and you pat it flat then you mix it some more for yummy pasta"

Collaboration - digging each other out of the mud bog

Science and connection to nature - discovering worms and snails and creating a new home in the garden for them

 Mud paint on the fence Perspex - what better than a muddy hand print to finish the painting?

"Come and buy at my shop" Isabella encouraged children to purchase her mud cup cakes, mud medicine and mud chicken nuggets.

The group easily experienced all 5 learning outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework today. 
While many children enjoyed and frequented the mud play, a few did choose to watch from the edge or play away from the mess, indoors or in our outdoor home corner.

Prepare for international mud day

Our mud pit has always been popular with the children, but last week was the busiest I have seen it since we celebrated International Mud Day last June.  

Bella got the ball rolling - continuing play from the previous week, pretending to be stuck in the mud.   Shortly after play began a quick slip and Bella was on her bottom in a puddle of mud.  "I'm Peppa Pig taking a mud bath", she roared with laughter and began rubbing large handfuls of mud into her clothes.  Several children came over to watch and Bella asked them to get some more water for her bath.

Children asked to make mud pies, so scoops, containers, pots, pans and an oven made from a plank of wood and two buckets were added.

I noticed that some children were watching, turning down invitations to join the play so seating was added. 

"There's a rhino in our sandpit"

This was one of those joyous conversations with 3 year olds that make you love what you do.  

While we were outside investigating I heard Adoh calling from the sand pit "Hey, Hey Dani come ear (sic), Hey Dani, come ear (sic) and look at this, WOW it's amazing, look, look there is a rhino in our sandpit"  As any educator would do, I raced to the sandpit, along with 4 or 5 other children eager to discover this rhinoceros.  

When we got there Adoh was looking very dramatic, hands on hips, head slumped. "Oh Dani you took too long it has disappeared.  All that is here is the rhino's footprints" Adoh points to shovel marks in the sandpit.

Eager to keep this spark of imagination going I asked how the rhino came to be in our sandpit " It bashed it's way through the cage and came running to play with us"  Adoh confidently announced.  One of the other children said "but they are HUGENESS (sic) they couldn't just fit in here they would squash us flat"  Elliot chimed in " Nah, they don't squash us cause I magicked (sic) it away." I asked "Wow Elliot where did you send the rhino with your magic?"  "It's in the shed, careful he might play with all of our toys and break them", Elliot enthusiastically replied.  Another child very rationally said "Rhinos are to big for the shed, they need lots of grass and they don't play with toys, they make biiiig noises and biiiig poopies" Elliot quickly responded "not magicked (sic) rhinos, they are magic so they like to play with our toys"  Adoh quickly interjected "Elliot you couldn't have magicked (sic) it into the shed because it went CHCHCHCAAAARGING through the fence, see the big hole" Adoh pointed to fictional hole.  Elliot - "oh yeah, then I magicked (sic) the fence so that the kids couldn't escape and then magicked the rhino back to the zoo" Adoh returned hands to hips "phew Elliot, lucky you could magic it cause it was a hairy, scary rhino"

The banter between Adoh and Elliot continued for a few moments before Adoh went running inside to the other educator appearing to be almost in tears "Lisa, Lisa I don't want the rhino to come back"  Lisa looked puzzled but played along "How did we get a rhino at kinder?"  Adoh discussed the whole story with Lisa in depth expressing to Lisa verbally and through dramatised facial expressions and body language just how frightened he was to return outside in case the rhino came back.  Elliot had joined Adoh inside and reminded him that the rhino was "magicked back at the zoo". Elliot told Adoh that he cast a special spell so it could never escape again.

As you can see from the above story the children are very creative, expressive, confident communicators with active imaginations.  Although Adoh had the initial concept and a sense of agency* he was happy for others to share their ideas and knowledge, adapting and evolving the play, scaffolding on his thoughts.  Adoh has a high level of understanding the link between verbal and non verbal communication and is using both forms to tell his story to educators.

The children are also demonstrating their ability and eagerness to be confident and involved learners, resourcing their own learning and engaging in various learning relationships, they are testing their problem solving skills, supporting each other emotionally and creatively.

*Agency - Victorian Early Years Learning & Development Framework - "being able to make choices and decisions, to influence events and to have an impact on one's world" p51.

Making Tracks

Sometimes amazing learning opportunities occur when you least expect it to happen.  It is only the second week of the year with our new group of 3 year old children.  For many of them it is the first time they have been away from their parents, let alone in a play situation with 19 other children, in an environment they are unsure of.


 It began with a child (A) using a truck roller on the edge of the sandpit.  He then stood back to admire the path he had made.  This drew the attention of another child (B) who had been watching the roller out of the corner of his eye.  I could see B really wanted to use the roller and was waiting patiently for his turn, I approached B and initiated a conversation which lead to the two of us looking for other equipment they could use as a roller.

 We returned with a cardboard tube.  I could see B was using all of his resilience skills to accept the new prop. He made several comments about it not being the same and being to big, so we went exploring again.  This time joined by several other children.





Finding smaller plastic items that were still covered in the previous evenings dew, we returned to the sandpit and began our rolling. 
As the children applied the items various patterns then appeared lightly in the sand.  This was pointed out to the children who became quite excited and then began using several others types of rollers to make more tracks.

One of the children voiced his frustrations when his tracks disappeared as he walked over them.




I reflected on how I could support this experience further, and enhance their learning without taking over. With the intention of making the sand a little more stable so the tracks would become more visible, I added a watering can, full of water, to the sandpit.  The children began rolling over the wet sand and excitedly looked back at the marks made "That's like a train's track" said C,   "No, more like a road, see this is the line in the middle"  said B,  as he noticed that two rollers had been used together, leaving a very unique impression in the sand.

The children used the watering can to add even more water to the sandpit and see what various tracks they could create.

 When all the watering cans were being used child D decided to take his roller to the water source, to wash the sand off and bring back drips of water.

Throughout this learning opportunity I  discussed simple mathematical concepts with the children, such as - counting, depth and volume as further opportunities arose.  The children in turn explored these concepts, pushing their rollers deeper into the sand, measuring the length and width of tracks with their hands or feet.

A small group then experimented with the rollers on the grass areas and footpaths but returned to the sand stating the tracks were easier to see.

Music Wall

I was inspired after reading several posts from Jenny from (http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/ideas-for-music-play-outdoors.html) discussing music and sharing beautiful images of music walls that were so simple yet so creative and inviting.


A quick visit to Resource Rescue and I returned to the service with metal cans, lids, rope and drum sticks. I showed the children the images of music wall and we discussed where the best position in our yard would be to construct one.


We then set about hammering holes in the tins and threading the rope through and securing the tins to the fence.  The children noticed a frying pan in one of the photos so we gathered up ours from the sandpit and a metal jug along with bells.

It was a very popular play station throughout the year.  When the wind blew the tins would rattle and often re-engage the children.

This was a very simple, and inexpensive way to extend on the children's musical interests and creativity.

Creating a rock wall

Building a rock wall takes a great deal of patience, concentration, spacial awareness, mathematics and trial & error.

Child R (4yrs) was overheard expressing a concern to his peers about the amount of sand that was running into the pond through a gap in the rocks that surround the sandpit.

The educator was called away to support another area of play and when she returned roughly 10minutes later child R was observed in the dry creek bed collecting rocks and carrying them back to the gap.  Child R then began sorting        and classifying the rocks into size and shape before laying a row down.

When the first row had been laid, child R collected more rocks and returned to lay another row on top.  Again he sorted the rocks, however this row was proving a little more difficult as rocks needed to balance on top of each other.  The wall fell several times, but child R persevered, calling out for peers to get smaller rocks or bigger rocks from the dry creek bed.

 Once completed, child R showed an enormous amount of pride in his work, explaining to the educator how some of the rocks kept falling "but I just kept trying like a jigsaw".  He then asked if the wall could stay up so he could show his mum when she collected him.


This was one of my favourite experiences to observe last year.  Completely child initiated and carried out.  Child R demonstrated many skills through this project including an appreciation and respect for his environment, classification skills, mathematical concepts and wonderful
                                                                                    communication skills.

Identity and belonging

Identity and feeling like we belong are such an important aspect of our personal development.  Research shows that children who have trouble understanding their identity and forming secure attachments have difficulty thriving academically.

Maslow discussed this principle at length and documented it in his hierarchy of needs.  Knowing who we are and where we belong is fundamental to life-long learning and success both personally and professionally.  Early Years Educators have been feverishly learning about how we can support children within our services understand who they are and how they belong, to ensure the best outcomes for the child and meet legislative requirements.

I was blessed to be able to observe two of the 4 year old boys in our ELC, as they attempted to uncover what makes you belong to a family.

It began through a simple conversation at the easel.  J and R were discussing what they were painting.  J decided to paint his family, "Good idea" replied R and began painting his.  Both children kept checking in on the others painting, comparing similarities and differences in their artwork.  "Why do you have two girls in your family?" J asked R.  "UMMMM, that's my mum and my sister" R replied walking around to look at J's picture.  "Ummmm, your missing a sister on yours" R proclaimed.  "No, I don't have a sister, doesn't matter girls are silly anyway" J said.  R paused for a minute "who is them?" "That's my big brother and my little brother" said J.  Again R paused for a while, "Hey wouldn't it be cool if we were brothers!" he said  (These two have been very close friends all year) After a few excited laughs and 'high 5s' R looked at J "It wont work, your skin is a different colour to mine" he said "We can't be brothers, cause they have to be the same"

'Was this an intentional teaching moment??? Should I step in and discuss how families are different and unique, pointing out posters around the room and looking at our family photo albums with the children?  I could, I could, my mind was going crazy with all of the ways I could extend their knowledge, broaden their thinking and concepts.  Instead I stood back and waited to see what the two boys would do.'.......

"Just because our skin is different..... you know we are still friends" J said, and held R's hand.  Just then the two noticed they had brown flecks of paint on both their hands from their artwork. "Hey they look like freckles...... we both have paint freckles........brothers have freckles"  With that J pulled R closer to the easel. The two began mumbling to each other and both stood back from the easel at the same time holding a paint brush and began painting their arms.




Curious, I asked what they were doing.  "Just making sure we can be brothers" J said casually.  "yeah we have to look the same to trick our mums" R replied laughing

This one single child initiated experience sparked a great deal of discussion about families and how we look, amongst the group for the next few days, allowing plenty of opportunity for intentional teaching moments.