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Victorian Early Years Learning and Developmental Framework (VEYLDF), 2016, Early Years Learning and Development Outcomes, Department of Education and Training

M. Hoffnung, R. J. Hoffnung, K. L. Seifert, A. Hine, L. Ward, C. Pause, K. Swabey, K. Yates, and R. B. Smith, 2016, Lifespan development, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, QLD.

Rinaldi. C, 2001, The Pedagogy of Listening- The Listening Perspective from Reggio Emilia, Innovations in early education: the international reggio exchange, The Merrill - palmer institute, Wayne state university, vol. 8. no. 4, viewed 31 October 2017

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I was thinking while the children were playing what if I can add Lego blocks to solve the problem of balance, but then their motive will only maybe be shapes and height rather than acquiring skills to measure and test the position of blocks place determines how children will act. So let’s add pillows and rocks into the play. What will the children do? How will they respond? Will they try to balance the blocks on the rocks and pillows? What type on conversations will they have?  Will conversations be deeper and more influential? They have given me the idea to learn about balance and what makes things balance. Children can also lest themselves on what they balance on. The children have a natural effect on other children and they all influence each other, I wonder what sort of impact they will have on educators as well as themselves when rocks and pillows are involved in their learning development.

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The learning that is taking place with these children are their physical, emotional, cognitive and social development. They are working on their problem solving skills as well as communication.

Outcome 4: Learning (VEYLDF, 2016, p19)

Children are confident and involved learners

children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity

Children are developing a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, and investigating

Children transfer and adapted what they have learnt from one context to another

Children resource their own learning through connecting with educator, children, place and  Blocks

Outcome 5: Communication (VEYLDF, 2016, p22)

Children are effective communicators

Children interact with sounds, verbal and non-verbally behaviour with the purpose of building blocks

Children use information and communication to access their surroundings, information, and investigate ideas and represented their thinking.

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When Lucas Knocked the building down... 

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When Lucas Knocked the building down... 

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The way the group of children created their own method of building as they were exploring allowed me to question how each of them influenced each other and how my participation might have sparked ideas. I saw that all the children were thinking deeply about what their next move will be and which block belongs where, but even thought they had this strategy, some were placing blocks on the edges where it will be accurate to say by the educator that is was going fall. Maybe the children were doing this on purpose as they seemed to like the excitement for seeing how high they can go before the blocks fall down. Some children seemed to be switched on when it came to this idea, such as Chloe, when she told Charles not to place his block on the door she had made, because maybe she saw that is was going to fall over by the way he was going to place it on top. Or maybe she wanted to the blocks to be placed in her certain way.

Even though I was focused on how these children can influence Charles I was also observing their behavior and what type of skills they were bringing into this project. These children have been attending the service longer than Charles which is why they have the confidence to explore their surroundings and get involved with things that they find interesting. In this service from my previous placement in the nursery we sang a song to children so they can learn the meaning of building. “Build it up, build it high, build it up, up into the sky” when I heard Justin sing the song, it reminded the children and they all began to sing, this is where they taught Charles the song. Lev Vygotsky (1896- 1934) was a sociocultural theorist who believed, socialising is a vital element in development and learning. Vygotsky said that if we deliver support and assistants to children it will help them learn faster. He said that“…children construct knowledge yet show they need our guidance at times to be successful.” (Hoffnung et al. 2016, p53) once we have an opportunity ready for them the results are endless.

This week we have been talking about feeling and how children can express themselves in a moment of happiness and sadness. We were learning how to let others know how they have made us feel, so when Lucas knocked down the children’s tower block, Sara told Lucas he made her feel sad why his actions. She used her prior-knowledge to express how had happened in this situation.

During this experience my involvement was very questionable. I was happy that I was able to start this experience, but I’m not sure if I should have sat aside and just observed how these children communicate with each other, but my belief when a child speaks to you, we must try to make them wonder and question as much as they can. I would like to think I was guiding the children learning and using key words like “Balance, steady, careful, ect” and they were repeating what I would say. Holistic approach

This practice I used to allow myself to think and recognise the connections to the children’s mind, body and spirts. What was motivating them, how did I read their body language. These questions I answered through pedagogical listening. Listening and pay really close attention to small and big details, such as what were the children talking about, what materials they were using, the children’s physical, personal, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing as well as cognitive aspects of learning. How were they learning off each other? How was I responding to children? These are all questionable aspects of the documentation and learning from each action for future practice.

The children accomplished the task in their own unique way. My role was to be tangled into the children’s learning but stand back just a little to see what they will do and say. As an educator we must encourage and challenge children’s own creativity as their thought processes, strategies are being tested for future learning possibilities.

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Pedagogical Documentation
s4528952

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Children's have created a base to be "Steady"

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Children's have created a base to be "Steady"

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Standing on top on the blocks to build some more...

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Standing on top on the blocks to build some more...

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Moving onto the carpet with Charles, I was wondering if other children will possibly join us if I took out the building blocks. I pulled them out, turned to Charles and said “How high can you build?” he smiled at me and began to pick up blocked and stack them on top of each other. As I was observing him, he was placing the blocks on top of each other trying to match their sizes. This is when three little children approached us and said “What you making?” I replied “We are trying to see how many blocks we need to build a big tower, would you like to join us?” I turned to Charles and said “Look Charles your friends are going to help you out.” Charles looked up to the three girls as they began bringing blocks from the shelf to the carpet where we sat. Two more children saw the girls collecting the blocks and stated to follow what they were doing, bringing the blocks to the area Charles and myself sat. “What are we going to build now?” I asked the children “A house!” said Sara. “What does a house look like?” I asked them “We need a door” said Carter.

At this moment there was Sara, Chloe, May, Justin, Carter and Charles working together trying to figure out where each block belongs. The blocks had the children’s full attention, I noticed they all payed close attention to choosing which block they wanted to use to try make the house tower steady and high. Justin began to sing a song "Build it up, build it high, build it up, up into the sky..." other children joined Justin with singing the building song and after they had repeated it three times Charles began to sing along. The tower began to wobble “careful” May kept repeating while the other children were stacking up the blocks. It reached up to 1 meter and children got so excited they were laughing and jumping around while observing the tower and screaming “it’s tall!” Charles was observing the children as he was slowing joining in and smiling, he picked up one long block to place on top of the door Chloe had made, Chloe noticed Charles and said “No Charles, don’t put it there, put it hear.” Charles stopped and looked at where she was pointing, picked his block up and placed it where Chloe said to put it.

Lucas had been playing with his toy cars when I noticed that the children’s loud voices caught his attention. He got up and approached the tower and pushed it down. At this moment on the children that were involved in the building process became really upset. “NO Lucas, No!” said Chloe. “That wasn’t nice Lucas, I think you need to apologise to your friends.” Lucas didn’t say anything at first till Sara turned towards him and said “you wrecked it, you made me feel sad.” This was surprising as we were learning about emotions all week, so I asked “Did Lucas upset anyone else?” they all said “yes” this is what helped Lucas to apologize. I thanked him for saying sorry, then Charles happened to say “It’s okay, build again.” Lucas began to pick up blocks and said "This is Star Wars tunnel..."

The children started to build again and it fell over. “What can we do to make it steady?” I asked them the children began to make a squared shape they were putting them together like an unmarked puzzle and they were following each other’s leads. This amazing experience allowed me to question myself as well as the children’s motives and learning that had happened today.

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The service I have been placed in to complete my practice was located in Melbourne’s north-east part of Banyule council, which is the homeland of the Wurundjeri wiliam people and belongs to the Woiworung language group and Kulin Nation.

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How canan educator and a group of children influence one child that excludes themselves despite the reason, to participate in working collaboratively to problem solve?

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Allocated in a Pre-Kinder room at Good Start early learning in Heidelberg, my experience had expanded while working with children aged 3 to 4 years. Within this week I had an opportunity to adapted to the children’s daily routines and be a part of their environment. Working in a multicultural diversity I noticed that every child is bring in their own ideas into the center to influence others even those that don’t speak English, this happens through their play. Most of these 25 children attend this service full time, Monday to Friday 7am till 6pm, they know their way around and how things are run in their room. My first few days, observing how children go about their day was interesting as they have control over their own play and have one group time a day. The days past, I noticed one child excluding himself from other children in the center and tends to play on his own. . After morning tea around 10:15am children were commencing their own free play, I noticed Charles playing by at the table with the puzzles, I joined him and started to ask him questions about the picture when he completed the puzzle. He wouldn’t answer till I asked him what he saw in the picture that’s when he responded to me in Chinese and English. At the beginning I felt that this was going to be difficult to communicate with him but as our conversation continued and I allowed him to speak, I felt like he just needed a little attention and be listened too. I would agree with what he is saying and praised him about completing the puzzle. After the experience I discovered that Charles has started long day care 4 months ago and attends this service four days a week, and he also deals with separation stress when mother drops him off. It may perhaps also be his language barrier that might make him feel like he needs to exclude himself as he cannot communicate with children with English as their first language. After this moment Charles had followed me around and wanted me to play with him all day. I took this opportunity to help him collaborate with other children so I can discover how and if children can influence one child to participate in a group project. I began the play experience on the carpet where the children have their group time and pulled out some building blocks from the shelf. At this point my observation was that these children follow when the educator involves themselves in their play. I asked Charles how high he can build the blocks and other children eventually came alone and joined us, this was when the children join forces to accomplish this exciting experience on inclusion and problem solving skills. This was an exciting turn for me as this event allowed me to wonder and question how children can lead their own learning path, processes and strategies based on an idea given by the educator, and other children which enable their knowledge building.

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By Rima Moussa