Children is their own teacher by 张悦晨

Context:

annieyuechen — 2020-10-13 23:07:02 UTC

Documenter name: Yuechen Zhang
Date: 6/10 ---- 16/10
Sarah is the child that I observed during my placement. She is 3.5 years old and living in Australia with her family. Through the conversation with her family, her mom said Sarah is interested in hand-on activity and music activity.
Sarah is a quick learner and she can easily transfer her knowledge from one place to another. As, she already knows how to write from letter A to letter Z and she is able to fluently count from 0 to 10. During the sessions, Sarah can well use her language skills to confidently shares her opinion and thoughts with others.

Question

annieyuechen — 2020-10-14 03:52:21 UTC

How does hands on activity support children’s learning and development?

Rational

annieyuechen — 2020-10-14 03:53:23 UTC

Ordinary moment:
1. summary:
In the first ordinary moment, I had planned the colouring activity for Sarah. During this moment, Sarah showed unconfident to answer my question that every time she answered she will look at her mom. When I was asking the question to her, she was a bit shy to answer my question.

2: summary

This time, I was teaching Sarah how to make bubbles by using shampoo. Through this ordinary moment, Sarah had become more confident to share her opinion and thoughts to me. Also, she had used her way to modify the experience by adding the colour inside the bubbling water.

3: summary

The third session, I was teaching Sarah how to make a musical instrument. During the session, we discussed the sound we heard and I had encouraged Sarah to describe the differences between two sounds. Then, we listened to one song and used the musical instrument to follow the beat of the song.

Summary:
During those moments, Sarah used her fine motor skill and communication skill well. She could use verbal language to confidently show her ideas and opinion to others. In the moments, I had support Sarah's learning by listening to her ideas and giving her time to think about my questions. After the learning experience, Sarah had become more confident to share her thoughts to me rather than just following the instruction. She was using her way to engage with the play as she added her ideas into the learning experience to explore the learning in her own way.

Artefacts:

annieyuechen — 2020-10-15 01:37:25 UTC

Artefacts:

annieyuechen — 2020-10-15 01:40:18 UTC

Analysis:

annieyuechen — 2020-10-15 01:41:07 UTC

From the three observations, Sarah can freely express her opinion and engage learning by using fine motor skills. Also, she is able to input her ideas inside the activity in order to modify it. Referring to Loris Malaguzz (Nolan and Raban 2015) children are active and independent learners. Children are using their own way to learn and engage with the activity. Through the observation, I think Sarah is an independent learner as she can use her own way to explore the activity and modify the activity by adding her ideas inside the play.

During Sarah’s learning process, Sarah is not only engaging with the learning activities, she is also interacting with the people inside the place. Referring to Lev Vygotsky (Mcleod 2000) claims children learn from interaction with others. When children are making a connection with others, they will observe what others do and transfer the information they observed to their own knowledge. In the ordinary moment, Sarah has observed the way I use to engage with the activity, then she transfers this information to her own knowledge, after that she has used her own way to modify the experience. This shows Sarah is able to transfer the knowledge from one context to another. This is linking to the Early Years Learning Framework (Lorina 2015) 4.4 Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.
Sarah can interact with others in verbal ways to express her ideas and thoughts. According to Diane (2014), listening can help us to open up our senses and become sensitive to other’s ideas. During the listening process, we are not only using our ears to listen, but we have also become sensitive to the sound we listened and respond to the information we listened to. Through the three ordinary moments, I can see Sarah is an effective listener. She can listen to other’s opinion and respond back with her ideas. While she is listening, she considered the question I asked and think of the way to answer back.

Plan

annieyuechen — 2020-10-15 01:41:34 UTC

According to my own philosophy, teachers should let children engage with the activity in their own way. Referring to Piaget(Nolan & Bridie 2015) states children have control in their own learning. Children can decide what and how they want to learn. The hands-on activity is related to my question and philosophy. It is an open-ended activity that teachers can let children engage with the activity in their own way. Through the hands-on activity, children can build up their self- confident through the activity. As children are using their own ways to engage the play, they learn the knowledge through their own observation and engagement. Therefore, when they find out new things or new ways to engage the play, it can help them to build up self-achievement in order to improve their own self-confidence.
When I am planning the hands-on activity for children, I need to ensure the material is safe for children to use. As babies may engage with the play through sensory, I need to be careful when I am choosing the material. To invite all children into the activity, I must make sure the activity is set up in the open environment and children have enough space to engage with the activity and I need to ensure there is enough material for children to use. Moreover, I will respect children's ideas and opinions by offering them choices to choose what kinds of activity they want to do. Children have the right to decided their own learning patterns.
What's next:
* Base on the ordinary moment 1, I can modify this activity by setting up the activity in the natural environment for example park and ask children to observe the surrounding environment and draw. This can help children to build up a connection with the natural environment through watching, listening and feeling.
* Base on the second ordinary moment, I can extend this experience by inputting more natural resources. This can help children to develop their grasp skill and fine motor skills.
* For the third ordinary moment, I can take children for the excursion to find out what kind of sound we can hear and discuss where does the sound come from. Through this activity, children may notice different kinds of sound. Also, children can improve their listening skills and language skills.

Reference:

annieyuechen — 2020-10-16 11:09:38 UTC

Lorina, 2015, EYLF Learning Outcomes - Aussie Childcare Network, Online, Aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au. viewed 16 October 2020, <https://aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au/articles/childcare-programming/eylf-learning-outcomes>
Diane, K, 2014. The Pedagogy of Listening: Inspiration from the Reggio Emilia Approach, Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research, viewed on 16 October 2020, .

Mcleod, S 2000, Vygotsky | Simply Psychology, Simplypsychology.org, viewed 16 October 2020, .

Nolan, A. & Bridie Raban-Bisby, 2015, Theories into practice: understanding and rethinking our work with young children and the EYLF, Teaching Solutions, Albert Park, Australia.

What caught my attention?

annieyuechen — 2020-10-16 13:04:40 UTC

During the placement, I focused on hands-on activity that benefits children's learning and it could support children's learning. Through the learning activity, I had noticed that hands-on activity offered children's opportunities to use their hands to freely explore learning. As children were learning from sensory, the hands-on activity allowed children to feel the different types of texture in order to learn through touching.

Moreover, it was interesting to see how do children develop their skills during their learning
process and how do children use their language to describe the material they
feel. The hands-on activity allowed children to learn from real experience such
as making bubbles, music instrument which can create more fun in children's
learning.