A group of children are gathered outside in the outdoor area near the garden, squatting at the concrete fence with small plastic scoops, digging and scooping out dirt and tan bark.   Child S is curious about finding more bugs and has started to collect more to put into his small wheelbarrow.  He goes to different areas underneath small trees, overturns logs and rocks and starts to dig.

Child S says to Child H, Child Z and Child J “I’m going to get more first” while digging in the tanbark and dirt.  Child S “Look I found it”.  Child J “what the? Let’s go scare the dumb girls”.  Child H “Ange, Ange (assistant educator) come look we got a red back” educator looks inside wheelbarrow.  Child S “I can get more slaters ” child starts banging hard on the wheelbarrow “get up you stupid slatters” (meaning slater bugs Child S has found) runs towards others, Child S says to Child J and H “Where are the stupid girls lets go get em” while bashing wheelbarrow and yelling at the bugs. Child Z “Get away from me I’m not scared of slatter bugs you cant scare me you stupids.  The children are interested in finding bugs and are curious as to where to find them.  They are using their problem solving skills to see where else they can find more bugs, as well as turn taking with moving the wheelbarrow around the yard.

Observation 2

Child J, S, Z and ZF are playing outdoors in the sand pit area.  Each child helped dig up two big holes in the sandpit, one was where Child J used to build his volcano using a giant cone which he turned upside down.  All four children filled this up with water (which Child J filled up) from the plastic container close by.  Child J says “Good job Child S, we need more lava in our volcano, we needs more balls”.  The children used wet sand to roll into balls which they put into their volcano (the giant upside down cone filled with water and balls of sand which they saw as lava).  Child J “Hurry up Child Z and ZF, you girls are too slow, we need more lava, hurry or you can’t play anymore”.  Child Z and ZF start jumping off the logs into the hole filled with water.  Child J “You hurt me, stop jumping into to holes”.  Child S follows Child J’s prompt to turn off the hose.  Child J is clearly the dominant child, giving roles to different children, has given the harder roles to the girls of the group.  Seeing gender roles in this play.  Children are fully engaged in creative play making a volcano out of a large cone, water and sand to make sand balls.

Observation 3

Four children (Child A, L and C) are playing in the outdoor area at the kitchen sink that’s next to the sandpit. Child A fills their bucket full of water from the waterplay container near by and pours it into the unplugged sink, he crouches down and watches carefully as the water runs down the sink, into the pipe and out the back onto the sand pile “The waters are coming” he says.  Meanwhile Child T and L are digging in the sandpile under the pipe, watching the water fill up the hole they dug in the sand pile. Child C “We need more water” as he rushes off with two buckets fills them up and he pours his into the sink.  Child L “we need to build it higher and catch more water” as he squats down next to Child A and they both dig a deeper hole and use their hands to mould a higher wall of sand.  Children are hypothesising where the water will land and how much more sand will they need to make the sand wall higher to capture all the water.  They are using their cognitive, communication and negotiation skills to achieve their goal.  The children are very curious as to where the water goes once poured into the sink.

To summarise these three observations, demonstrate how children are curious and use their cognitive and problem-solving skills to achieve their desired outcome.  There were many different examples of  children using their problem solving skills for example using smaller scoops and squatting to dig deeper and using wheelbarrow to collect bugs and dirt for them to live in (ob 1), turning an upside down large cone to create a volcano (ob2), building a sand wall to collect the water after being poured down the sink (ob3).

Observation 1, the children in the group displayed that they are confident and involved learners by being able to connect with place and natural materials.  Using their senses to explore natural environments and questioning where the insects and bugs live in order to find more places to dig.  This lead me to question why just in this setting, can children’s current knowledge of bugs be extend in a different setting for example when we do bush kinder day.  Paulo Freire critical theory (Nolan & Raban, 2015) would argue how often do we critically reflect on practice and challenge curriculum?  Can we look at the function and purpose within a setting and reflect on that.  Are there different ways we can run the program that makes it more inclusive of all learners? The possible learning taking place could be inquiry and hypothesising, using critical thinking skills with other children as to where more bugs could be found and a quicker way to find them.  Turn taking and negotiating roles for pushing the wheelbarrow, digging and holding up the logs.

 Observation 2, these children were practising social and emotional skills when negotiating roles and rules of play.  Seeing different types of play for example exploratory, object and mastery play showed children’s cognitive skills at work.  Children displayed how connected they are and contribute to their world by setting up expectations and setting up the rules and rights of others during play (Australian Government Department of Education (AGDE), 2022).  The roles of gender were shown by children in the group with one male child delegating working roles to the female children and easier role to the other male child. Although the female child voiced her agency and realising, she has the power to shape her own identity within the play, Cannellla’s post structural theory looks at gender roles that can be discussed as changed from the old Western ways of society.  Could there be a way where the play can change that the girls could take lead roles and delegate roles to others, could this be a way of including more children into the play if the girls took over the lead role.

Observation 3, this group of children are very confident and involved learners, they were very curious in their play showing signs of confidence, creativity persistence and imagination as they watched the water they poured into the sink, travel through the pipe and watch it fall and be collected by the hole they dug at the end of the sink pipe to catch it.  They used the play to investigate, experiment, test and explore their ideas for example building and modifying their wall of sand around the hole they dug to catch the falling water (Australian Government Department of Education (AGDE), 2022).  Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory comes into practice where he suggests that children learn through interactions with others (Nolan & Raban, 2015).  Children in early childhood their significant interaction is with their family.  The importance of forming strong relationships with children’s families can help inform our practices as spoken by early childhood educator Carmel Richardson (workzkids, 2012).  Partnership with families helps provide a connection between a child’s home and other places of learning a child may attend (Department of Education and Training, 2016).   Could it be a possibility to have parents come a set up the space at the sink and be involved in creating the experience to help include other children, especially as some of the fathers of the group are tradesmen and builders, it might be a way of having parents involved as well as including other children when their parents are setting up the play spaces and being involved in the play.

·         Had conversations with children for the past two days about different herbs, plants and flowers they used in the potions area.  Which plants did they like the best and why?

·         Overall the play went well after I let them taste a few sour, sweet and salty products and the children smelt the essentials oils.  One child noticed that the eucalyptus oil they smelt wasn’t as nice as the real eucalyptus leaves they used a few days ago. The children were really good at sharing the different containers of lemon, limes, salt etc when other children came to the play setting.

·         What I could have done to improve the play was leave as soon as the children were comfortable tasting and smelling the different things in the containers and it was safe for me to leave the play.

·         Observations were used to capture the children’s learning as well as using the pedagogy of listening (Rinaldi, 2001) where listening produced a lot of questions.  How can the children beside the group be involved in the play, can the children already playing invite others by showing what they are tasting perhaps?

·         I took a step back and observed but had to listen as well really closely trying to make connections between the children and what they were sensing, and the play they were begging to form. Connections between the children and others around them, the connections between themselves and the environment.

·         The activity was hands on allowing the children to feel and smell some of the things on offer in the containers.

·         I had to make some modifications and remove the chocolate as one child is dairy and lactose intolerant.  I added another table to put the herbs/plants separate from the food tasting so the children would mix them.