Kei Tua o te Pae

Child's name: Jorjia 2.2yrs

Date: September

Teacher: Caroline

 
Examples or cues
A Learning Story

Belonging

Mana whenua
Taking an Interest

I was sitting down by the reels, writing in the infants’ daily books. Jorjia came over. Jorjia: “See my turtle.”

Caroline: “You’ve got a turtle,” as she carefully laid “the turtle” in my hands.

Jorjia: “Look, my turtle.”

Caroline: “What shall we do with your turtle?” Jorjia: “Put it here,” pointing to the plank.

I placed it down carefully.

Jor…

In this domain of Contribution/Mana Tangata, the emphasis is on the recognition of (and action towards) children’s rights and responsibilities, together with early perceptions of and responses to diversity, inclusion, and fairness. Assessments give value to and record actions that are associated with children’s increasing confidence to stand up for themselves and for others when they perceive that justice is threatened. Creating an environment that is characterised by mutual respect supports chi…

Child’s name: Stevie

Learning storiesAt one point this afternoon Stevie was very upset. I asked “What’s wrong Stevie – why are you sad?” He told me he was sad because someone told him he couldn’t play on the pirate ship. I took his hand and said, “That’s very upsetting – and they told me I’m not allowed either – because girls aren’t allowed!”

Victoria piped into the conversation “Me too!” “Wow, how did it make you feel when they said that, Victoria?” I asked. “Sad,” she said. “Well that ship n…

Thursday, 31 March

Tēnā koutou e ngā kai-whakaako ki te kura. Kei konei waku whakaaro e pā ana ki te ripoata mō Taylor. He mokopuna nōku.

To the staff

In regard to

I am Taylor’s koro. I have just read his profile book, which I enjoyed very much. It provides an invaluable window of his life at kindy. The observation notes and comments helped me a great deal in understanding the steps he has achieved.

This is what I got out of it:

1. Feeling shyStaff will continue to implement name games at…

On Monday afternoon the children were playing outside in the playground. Hadi arrived at the family centre and was happy to see his friends. He gave Shukrullah and Maryam a ride in the wagon.

Suddenly Mahdia came outside. She came over to them and showed them her arm. They began talking together in their common home language, Dari.

She showed them her plasters on her hand and inside her elbow. Their faces changed. They wanted to see closely and as she talked their faces became full of concern.…

Jak uses pictures as a reference point against which to assess his construction for himself: he is able to make his own judgment about the quality of his block building. The ambitious design also provides its own evaluation: the roof, delicately balanced to come to a point, doesn’t collapse. This is an example of self-assessment. It is also an example of the teacher writing down an occasion when she says “I’m not sure”, modelling for Jak that being uncertain is part of the process of learning (a…

Observing and listening in to literacy practices includes enjoying stories, either told or read by others, in a range of styles. It also includes noticing cultural conventions, such as making a shopping list, or local conventions, such as writing down valued learning episodes.

In the exemplar “Tiari wants to draw”, her mother reports:

"Whenever I sit down to work at the table Tiari always wants to be included. She sees me and my husband working at the computer. Tiari can turn on the compu…

Child: Daniel (14 months)

Teacher: Shaz

Date: 1 August

A learning storyDaniel was sitting on my knee while I read the story about a pudgy pig that visits lots of different animals on his way to find his favourite pigsty with all his little pig friends.

Daniel pointed to the animals, squealing with excitement and bouncing up and down on my knee. He loved lifting the flaps to discover a different animal each time, saying “eyes” emphasising the “s” on the end. He often turned to me with a big g…

Child: Hamish

Teacher: Julie

Date: 18 September

The corgi sewing project started today! After we had pinned the pattern (Hamish’s fantastic drawing) to the fabric and cut it out Hamish said, “I can sew by myself – I don’t even need any help!”

“Great, Hamish – there you go – you know what to do!!”Hamish did just that – total concentration – fully bent to the task. “I’ve done five stitches,” and he had – very neat and right where they should be – I was impressed. I stayed sitting by him talkin…

This story began one day when Vanessa told me that her family were going to get a puppy. A conversation with her mum revealed that Vanessa was “breaking her neck” to get the puppy. She just loves animals.

The day came when the puppy arrived. Vanessa was bursting with the news when she came to kindergarten and with great delight told all the teachers. And so the beautiful pictures of Trent began with this one.



Day after day Vanessa drew or painted pictures of Trent. The pictures became more…

Today Tuveina asked me if he could put the iSight® camera into the mouse house. I got it out of the bag and helped him plug it into the computer. Keanu was at the other computer with the other iSight® camera ready to see into the mouse house. Tuveina put the iSight® camera into the house to see what the mice were doing. He said, “Keanu, can you see what the mice are doing? They are sleeping.”

Keanu asked over the iSight® camera if Tuveina could wake the mouse up and see if it wanted to go on th…

The first relevant image is about continuity.

Ka tō te marama e tiaho nei
Ka hī ake ko te rā
Kei tua o te pae

When the translucent rays
of the moon disappear,
a new day dawns with the rising
of the sun beyond the horizon.

In an ever-changing world, we know that horizons of young children will expand and change in ways that cannot be foreseen. Children will travel beyond the current horizon, and early childhood education is part of that. It continues the shaping of a vision for children – that…

Today, Aminiasi came to me and said, “I want to make a kite.”

“You can,” I replied.

“I can’t,” Aminiasi replied.

“You can,” I replied.

“I can’t,” said Aminiasi.

“Shall we look at some books and see how to make a kite?” I asked.

“Yes,” Aminiasi agreed.

We read the story “The Wind Blew”. We talked about the shape of the kite and what kites need to help them fly.

Aminiasi then chose his materials and set about creating his kite, working independently. The pictures below tell the story about…

This is a story about Micah and his grandfather, told by his mum.

On Saturday mornings, Micah likes to come into our bed. It’s the only day we are able to lie in and have a cuddle with Micah because I leave for work at 6 a.m. during the week.

One Saturday, a few weeks ago, Micah was absorbed in telling me the story about Tama and the God of the forest, Tāne (the legend the children were acting for the centre’s Christmas performance). He said, “Do you know that you have to ask the God of the fo…

A central feature of effective pedagogy and learning is involving the learner in the meaning making and goal setting that are part of the assessment process.

In a review of the research literature on assessment, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998) conclude that any strategy to improve learning through formative assessment should include a commitment to involving students in the processes of self-assessment and peer assessment.
Guy Claxton (1995) suggests that assessment should:

reflect those oc…

Alison James and Alan Prout (1997), writing about constructing and reconstructing childhood, comment that:

"it is now much more common to find acknowledgement that childhood should be regarded as a part of society and culture rather than a precursor to it; and that children should be seen as already social actors, not beings in the process of becoming such."

page ix

If we want to recognise and respond to the learning that is taking place, we will seek multiple perspectives, one of w…

Child's name: Louie

Date: 21 September

Teacher: Nic

Learning story

Louie lay on his tummy on the floor. The door to the outside had just been opened. As soon as he spotted this, he was off! The floor was scattered with many toys as children had just been playing inside, but this did not bother Louie as he had made his way to the outside world, using his arms to pull himself along as he slid on his tummy. He pushed each toy away as he came to it and finally made it to the door. The door…

Learning communities are also constructed by writing down or recording some of the work of the community. A learning community is a place of collective participation. One of the ways the participants are connected together as a “community” engaged in learning is through the community’s practice being made public or documented. If the practice is made public (to even a limited audience) or documented, then it is available and visible, not only for the teachers but also for the children, families,…

Group learning storyOctoberAfter reading the story about Hinemoa and Tūtānekai, we talked about the carvings in the whare of Tūtānekai and what each part of the wharenui was called in te reo Māori. We talked about how they could have been made.

Grayson said, “Special carvers made them with hammers and knives.” The other children agreed.

Azia asked if she could make a whare. I said, “Sure. What do you think you could use to make it?”

Grayson said, “You could use the ice block sticks like I did…

In documented assessments, teachers consider children’s culture, skills, inclinations, and intentions in relation to participation in learning and educational settings. Participation may be described differently in different settings. In any early childhood setting, children will have opportunities to explore and participate in a variety of ways.

Strategies and dispositions develop best in the context of whanaungatanga or reciprocal and responsive relationships with people, places, and things i…