Play, it is most often thought of as a break, or reward for doing your work. But for young children it is the work. Play is the vehicle in which children learn. This was a huge topic covered in class and I believe one of the most important to myself. In the future when I have children, I plan to home school my children, and during the early years I'm sure play will be a large part of how my children will learn. In class we discussed how play does teach children and the value of both free unstructured play as well as intentional play, that is play experiences that come from well thought out meaningful classrooms and activity choices that educators make from careful observations. So, though play at times may seem as though it is just a fun activity, the children are learning, especially with intentional teaching.
Play is one of the main rights of the child, according to the United Nations rights of the child. Play is so important to the well being of each child, and I cannot think of a better way in which to teach our youngest people. It is hard sometimes to think of certain activities as play, when I've laid out an activity for the children to measure and prepare goop on their own, it is an intentionally planned activity, however to the child, it is still play, they are learning yes, but the children are exploring and playing on their own terms.
I myself get caught up in the misconceptions held by many about play. It is thought by many, I believe, that play is an unstructured activity where the children go free with their imaginations, and while there is always room for that, the activities that an educator finds or creates for her students based on their interests and needs is still play.
One of the books we've talked about in class that delves into this intentional play is "The Intentional Teacher" by Ann S Epstein. She talks in her book about the roles of adult guided interactions and child guided interactions. In both, the teacher must be intentional and focused on the child's learning, but in one, the teacher will proceed along her goals, and in the other, along the child's goals. On the fourth page of the book Ann defined just what it means to be an intentional teacher, and it really helps me to understand the difference between play that is meaningful, and play that is unstructured:
" To be “intentional” is to act purposefully, with a goal in mind and a plan for accomplishing it. Intentional acts originate from careful thought and are accompanied by consideration of their potential effects. Thus an “intentional” teacher aims at clearly defined learning objectives for children, employs instructional strategies likely to help children achieve the objectives, and continually assesses progress and adjusts the strategies based on that assessment."
I myself lean more towards child guided exercises, or at least teacher guided exercises that are planned through a child's interest ie. giving materials to make instruments when the children are interested in music, or giving fake snow when the children are sad the early snow has melted.
Another document that discusses the role of play is the ELECT document. A planned curriculum is one of the 6 principles of the elect. In the elect they state that "Play is a means to early learning that capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and exuberance." They go on to discuss how in fact children are learning through their play "Play engages children’s attention when it offers a challenge that is within the child’s capacity to master. Early childhood settings that value children’s play create a ‘‘climate of delight” that honours childhood (ETFO, 1999). Effective settings take advantage of play and embed opportunities for learning in the physical environment and play activities."
Play could be the single most important thing we let children do. Play in the elect document goes hand in hand with planned curriculum, as you could not have meaningful engaging play, without planning some meaningful engaging activities. Children will of course find a way to learn no matter what as they are natural learners, but the job of the educator is to help them on that journey.
Saturday, 2 November 2013
when you focus on process versus product
when you're ladybugs are not the same.
A subject we touched on in class is process versus product. We all read an article called "identical ladybugs by Christine Mclean" and it delved into the nature of children's crafts, you know the ones with "the eyes go here, the tail goes here" and "oh no Sue you cannot paint that cow blue!!!".
This article really spoke to me, as I had just a mere week before switched the art shelf in my room over to a more open ended art shelf. let me paint a picture for you of how it used to look, a three layered shelf, with rows and rows of closed Tupperware containers each labelled according to what fun material was inside, and several little bins of crayons and some safety scissors. This shelf was not allowed to be touched by the children and the teacher would bring out one preplanned craft a day.
When my centre decided to make the switch to emergent curriculum, I knew that was the first thing that had to go! I put all of those Tupperware containers in our cot closet, and I filled containers and baskets with many of the materials as well as some new ones. I gave the children markers and crayons and glue all of which they could take off the shelf and use. at first there was a learning curve, and of course many of the children just delved right into this new found freedom of expression! layers of pom poms and stacks of foam stickers piled on top of each other, some of us were worried that the children were being "wasteful" and worried that they were not making anything. Then I reminded myself it is the process that counts, not what it looks like. and to remind myself to stop asking them, "oh what did you make?" because it doesn't have to *be* anything.
What really struck me was the reasoning in the article behind choosing process versus product. Christine was talking about how children who are forced into making all identical ladybugs, are not learning how to do art, or even about ladybugs, what they are learning is that its not OK to be different, its not OK to have your own unique ideas, and worst of all, many of them then think they are not good at art because their lady bug does not look the same as the teachers lady bug.
When you look at what they could learn through the process of art, the possibilities are endless. In the last week alone, I had children learn about colour mixing with the paints, some of my younger students learned how a sticker works, and my older students started a week long project with glue and other polymers! The children in my class this week also learned that its OK to explore and make mistakes, its OK to find new ideas and to problem solve how they will fix any thing that comes their way.
Now, people really need to think about what kind of children we want to be adults in the world in a few short years. The world is different then it was 20 years ago, in the past you finished school, you went to college, you got a job. There was no room for creativity, or self expression. Many of those jobs are gone now, for many different reasons, and the Jobs available today are increasingly looking for people who are free thinkers, creative and non-conformers. Many of the jobs today are computer and technology based, my fiancée is a programmer, and he tells me all of the time about the creativity and problem solving he needs to make these applications. Now if we create a generation of people who need to be told what to do, how to do it, and not to change anything, how will they find well paying meaningful jobs, in a world that relies on the creative. The last paragraph of the article really summed it up quite nicely "So, the next time you are confronted with a horde of identical ladybugs, ask yourself... what was gained by this activity....and what was lost"
This article really spoke to me, as I had just a mere week before switched the art shelf in my room over to a more open ended art shelf. let me paint a picture for you of how it used to look, a three layered shelf, with rows and rows of closed Tupperware containers each labelled according to what fun material was inside, and several little bins of crayons and some safety scissors. This shelf was not allowed to be touched by the children and the teacher would bring out one preplanned craft a day.
When my centre decided to make the switch to emergent curriculum, I knew that was the first thing that had to go! I put all of those Tupperware containers in our cot closet, and I filled containers and baskets with many of the materials as well as some new ones. I gave the children markers and crayons and glue all of which they could take off the shelf and use. at first there was a learning curve, and of course many of the children just delved right into this new found freedom of expression! layers of pom poms and stacks of foam stickers piled on top of each other, some of us were worried that the children were being "wasteful" and worried that they were not making anything. Then I reminded myself it is the process that counts, not what it looks like. and to remind myself to stop asking them, "oh what did you make?" because it doesn't have to *be* anything.
What really struck me was the reasoning in the article behind choosing process versus product. Christine was talking about how children who are forced into making all identical ladybugs, are not learning how to do art, or even about ladybugs, what they are learning is that its not OK to be different, its not OK to have your own unique ideas, and worst of all, many of them then think they are not good at art because their lady bug does not look the same as the teachers lady bug.
When you look at what they could learn through the process of art, the possibilities are endless. In the last week alone, I had children learn about colour mixing with the paints, some of my younger students learned how a sticker works, and my older students started a week long project with glue and other polymers! The children in my class this week also learned that its OK to explore and make mistakes, its OK to find new ideas and to problem solve how they will fix any thing that comes their way.
Now, people really need to think about what kind of children we want to be adults in the world in a few short years. The world is different then it was 20 years ago, in the past you finished school, you went to college, you got a job. There was no room for creativity, or self expression. Many of those jobs are gone now, for many different reasons, and the Jobs available today are increasingly looking for people who are free thinkers, creative and non-conformers. Many of the jobs today are computer and technology based, my fiancée is a programmer, and he tells me all of the time about the creativity and problem solving he needs to make these applications. Now if we create a generation of people who need to be told what to do, how to do it, and not to change anything, how will they find well paying meaningful jobs, in a world that relies on the creative. The last paragraph of the article really summed it up quite nicely "So, the next time you are confronted with a horde of identical ladybugs, ask yourself... what was gained by this activity....and what was lost"
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Monday, 28 October 2013
Throughout your life!
As a lifelong learner, I was interested in taking a course offered by my college titled "redefining early learning and care in 0-3 year olds" it has been quite the journey! I started this blog in fact to illustrate the summation of my learning in this course. The name of this blog is "learning is what happens..." My intent with the name is to capture the fluidity that is learning with myself as well as the 0-3 year olds in my care. Each blog post will be a new example of what I have learned so far in this course and hopefully complete the sentence "learning is what happens...". I hope to continue this blog after the course for learning is after all, a life long journey. I will also have some posts about different activities and helpful information, all pertaining to the early learning and care of 0-3 year olds.
I look forward to this journey of learning, and hope you'll follow along with me on this adventure!
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