Kei Tua o te Pae

Te Whāriki also summarises learning outcomes “as dispositions – ‘habits of mind’ or ‘patterns of learning’” (page 44).

"Dispositions to learn develop when children are immersed in an environment that is characterised by well-being and trust, belonging and purposeful activity, contributing and collaborating, communicating and representing, and exploring and guided participation."

Te Whāriki, page 45

Relationships are a key factor in helping children to develop dispositions to learn.…

Green play dough dinosaursNeeve came to me early in the day and said that she would like to make another dinosaur from play dough. Out came the play dough and a firm base to put it on, and she was onto it.

Today she wanted to make a stegosaurus. She found the favourite dinosaur book, and she was right onto it. When the head kept drooping, she asked for sticks and began to strengthen it so that it was free-standing. I have not seen Neeve use tools to stabilise her work before, and I was impresse…

FebruaryTeacher: Robyn

I was staying close to Greer and encouraging her in her play. At the same time, I was overseeing the play of six or seven other children in the room. Greer was involved with the dolls, but her concentration was interrupted by her need to look around and check for my reassurance in the presence of a lot of children.

JulyTeacher: Kerri

I noticed Greer at the puzzle table, very involved in her puzzle. She had been playing with Zhanaira, but now she was choosing to be alone…

Learning story9 June Teacher: Sue

Several children were busy in the sandpit, making puddings. Ruby was very sure of exactly the ingredients she needed for her pie – “Bananas, apples, chocolate, ice cream” – but she indicated that she didn’t have them all. “Perhaps we could go shopping?” I suggested.

So we set off. First we went to the “fruit shop”. “Need two apples,” said Ruby. We found the “apples” and handed over the money. Ruby had a bucket with a little bit of sand, and each time she bough…

Date: 23 July

Teacher: Julie

A learning storyJohn watches two children and an adult play with hooks, chains, and lines.

When they move to work nearby, he begins joining the objects together.

He places them in a line. Some droop over the end of the table, so he brings a chair to attach the length to.

A hook comes free on the table; he looks, then reattaches it the other way around.

He has difficulty attaching the length to the chair and pushes it into a hole. He continues linking and hooks…

In its introduction on page 2, Book 3 states:

"Te Whāriki is a bicultural curriculum that incorporates Māori concepts. The principles of whakamana (empowerment), kotahitanga (holistic development), whānau tangata (family and community), ngā hononga (relationships), and the different areas of mana that shape the five strands provide a bicultural framework to underpin bicultural assessment."

That book sets out a number of principles for authentic bicultural assessment, and books 11–15…

Black and Wiliam emphasise the need in effective formative assessment to secure the responsible and thoughtful involvement of all learners. They highlight the importance of the nature of each teacher’s beliefs about learning. If the teacher assumes that knowledge is to be transmitted and understanding will develop later, “formative assessment is hardly necessary”:

If, however, teachers accept the wealth of evidence that this transmission model does not work, even by its own criteria, then the c…

Children bring interests to their early childhood settings, and they also develop an interest in a range of the tasks, activities, cultural artefacts, languages, and ways of doing and knowing that are features of their early childhood setting. This domain is important because it supports a developing disposition towards lifelong learning and a commitment to an educational setting beyond the home.

 

An OECD report by Jon Willms suggests that engagement with education, defined as participating a…

 

Tyler has shown huge interest in using the fax machine as a way to communicate with Mum and Dad while he is at the centre.

This picture seems to be upside down. OOPS. (I guess Dad still appreciated it.) 

The office has never been a child-free zone. Now, it is our COMMUNICATION CENTRE.

Tyler’s interest in the fax machine has introduced another aspect of communication technology and how it can be used in a learning environment.

Tyler’s faxes have:

increased his sense of security;
made link…

Well-being/Mana Atua develops in a safe and trustworthy environment where all children are valued and enabled to be involved. Enjoyment too is a feature of such an environment.7 Well-being requires integration of the emotional with the cognitive, the social, and the physical. Health includes the attunement of the body to the mind and the spirit. Mason Durie explains this in his model of te whare tapa whā as four domains – taha wairua, which relates to identity; taha hinengaro, which is about kno…

Lewis went to sleep early but only for a little while before he let us know that sleep wasn’t what he wanted just then. So up to play and we set up a blanket outside for him to enjoy the sights and sounds of the children around him. Some older ones came over straight away as Lewis is a favourite baby. They offered him toys and for a while he was interested but not offering his usual delighted interactions.

So we tried a sleep again but “No way” said Lewis. What about a bottle then and we settle…

20 May: I’d like Caroline to have a sense of independence – i.e., not always needing to be with me or her caregiver – time alone, or with other children and no caregiver close by would be good. Not sure how to develop her independence but I don’t want to have created a “clingy” baby either!! Jennifer.

Margaret and the other teachers at the centre had noticed that Caroline preferred to be held by adults and Jennifer agreed that this was not a new issue for Caroline. Jennifer and Margaret also di…

It was so good to have the camera handy to catch the magnificent effort of perseverance by Amy today!

The first thing that Amy said to me as I approached was, “I’m getting better and better.”

“What are you doing?” I inquire. “I’m learning to go over here.”

Amy climbs up on top to the platform to show me what she has been teaching herself to do.

Holding onto the ropes, which I have tied up a day or so earlier, Amy is using these to help her walk across the red ladder. This is not an easy thin…

Logan, knowing your interest in archaeology, I wanted to share a couple of my photos that I took in January at two archaeological sites near X’ian, in China.



The first one is really old, and what they are finding dates back to 151 BC, still thousands of years after dinosaurs though, and the second is of the second digging site of the famous terracotta warriors. Both of these are active sites, and won’t be completed for many years. It’s really exciting and interesting, but to my knowledge, th…

8 NovemberIt is so hard to believe for all of us that our beloved marae has been burnt down. The children are constantly talking about it. Many drive past it each day to come to kindergarten. The teaching team has engaged in much dialogue with the children and together they have come up with a plan. Not just some ordinary plan, a marvellous plan indeed.

This is what has been decided at our morning meetings with children. Whaea Taini has lost so many precious things and so why not make her somet…

Assessments value the interactions between adults and children and with peers. They are specific about those aspects of verbal communication that the children are developing. The exemplar “Starting with photos” illustrates how powerful photographs are in initiating a network of other communication modes and in maintaining a connection with the home.

Working theories developed by teachers are relevant here; one teacher’s working theory relates to the value of te reo Māori.7 All early childhood t…

I noticed Rahmat was calling to me and gesturing for me to come over to his easel. He was painting on the far side of the easel and I couldn’t see his creation from where I was.

I went over. ”WOW! Snakes.” “All have tongues and eyes,” he said.

“Beautiful snakes,“ I said. “Do you have snakes in Afghanistan?” I asked. “Yes, and in Pakistan too.” I began to write about his snakes on the painting – my version.

Rahmat listened respectfully to me. I could sense he was not satisfied with my ideas. H…

The busy puzzling morning – Part 1Phoebe often enjoys setting herself the task of solving puzzles. Today she carefully tips out an interesting puzzle that shows lots of pictures about te ao Māori – the Māori world. She turns the pieces over and then is soon absorbed in studying the features of the puzzle. She holds up a comb piece and puts it into the appropriate place, commenting to Ann that she has combs at her house. As she selects hei tiki she wrinkles Phoebe is keen to work from left to rig…