"I'm watching the birds"

I observed a usually energetic and exploratory child Daniel sitting on a chair outside, staring at the hills.  I approached and sat down next to him, "Are you taking a break Daniel?" I asked. "I'm watching the birds" he replied and soon after he excitedly pointed "woah, did you see that?" as a cockatoo flew over the playground. We sat for a few moments watching and hearing the noises of kookaburras, cockatoos, eastern rosella's and magpies.

Several other children came over to see what we were doing.  I noticed all of their necks craning as they followed the birds and asked if they would like to lay down on a blanket and pillows to watch the birds.

Detailed discussions began when the children started asking where the birds live, why they are different colours, how they fly and how they lay eggs.  I  added bird books to the area and we looked at the pictures and discussed some of the theories / science in the books.  The children enjoyed reading the indigenous dream time story 'How the birds got their colours"

Jacob showed a real interest in a scientific picture book about birds and discussed with me how the birds use their wings to fly before standing up and demonstrating

Throughout this experience Daniel, Jacob and Sam shared knowledge of their local community and the native animals that live in it, they hypothesised and strategised while gaining knowledge from books and stories.

"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.

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.