Kei Tua o te Pae

JanuaryLauren (a teacher) brought in a CD of children from the Burnham Primary School kapa haka group.

As soon as Jace walked into the nursery today, he stood still upon hearing the music that was playing. He seemed to recognise the waiata. Jace just stood there, listening and looking around the room at the teachers and the other children.

A short time later, he began to move his body to the music, stamping his feet in time to the waiata playing. He seemed familiar with the actions for this pi…

Child: Jak

25 June

Observer: Maya

Jak approached me in the back room and asked if I could help him build something. We sat down together and talked about what he would like to build. Jak started to put a base down. “What could this be, Maya?” Jak asked me. “I'm not sure, but maybe it's the floor of a building,” I replied. “Look around you, Jak. What could this be?”

Jak carefully looked at the pictures on the wall.

“I know, it can be a Māori house,” he said.

“Do you mean a wharenu…

Children: Thomas and Isaiah

26 February

Teacher: Margaret

It’s our centre’s first birthday and distinguished guests have come from afar to help us celebrate. Isaiah and Thomas stand around the birthday cake with other tamariki.

Some of our guests donate trees to the centre. We were so lucky to receive two silk trees, two kauri trees, and an olive tree.

During morning mat times, we discuss the trees we received for our birthday in detail, thinking about the process that they may take to grow…

 

  Examples or cues
A Learning Story

Belonging

Mana whenua
Taking an Interest
Finding an interest here – a topic, an activity, a role. Recognising the familiar, enjoying the unfamiliar. Coping with change.

If ever there is music playing, you can always be sure that Immy will be there, ready to dance as quick as a flash.

Today was no exception … I arrived to find her swirling the two ribbons to and fro. “Up in the air,” I gestured. “Down on the ground …

Immy continued to wave the ribbons,…

Introducing Fe‘ao 

Learning story30 September Teacher: Karen

The children were all inside today as it was a rainy and windy day. When I came across Fe‘ao and Fatai, they had set up their own card game and were deep in concentration, taking turns to put their cards in the middle. They had found some dinosaur matching cards in the science area and were using these to play their game. When they ran out of cards in their piles, they would deal them out again.

Short-term reviewFe‘ao and his friend…

Learning story9 September

Teacher: Justine

Haere mai, Sam, and welcome to the Lincoln University Early Childhood Centre.

Sam appeared tired after Mum and Dad left, so I wrapped him in his blanket from home, and he fell asleep in my arms around 8.45 and slept until 9.30. He woke and gave us a few smiles as I held him, but he appeared quite drowsy and drifted in and out of sleep over the next hour. He fell back to sleep at 10.30, and I popped him back in his bed. He woke again at 11.15, complet…

11 June Writer: Pam

Cameron sat on the floor for 15 minutes till tidy- up time, looking at his folder. He turned the pages right to left and most of them one at a time, although not always. When a photo was on a different angle, he turned the page to look at it. He leaned over photographs he specially wanted to look at, saying “Ooh, ooh” at photos of him with babies. He verbalised while he looked – sometimes babbling as he pointed to photos – but he also pointed at the written words and moved h…

Many of the exemplars in books 11–15 directly document the continuity of learning in some way. A key strategy for mutual understandings about continuity and increasing strength is revisiting the documentation with children and families. Not all revisiting conversations with children and families are documented, but these conversations are also important pedagogical opportunities. Assessment for learning becomes assessment as learning. A teacher comment in the exemplar “O le matamatagā tusi” (Boo…

Children: Zach, Gabriel, Ivie, Nikita

10 June

Today was such a beautiful day that Jo moved the painting outside. This soon became a very busy activity as the children came over to see what was happening and got involved. We were using cotton buds as our paintbrushes, which took a lot of skill and concentration.

Zach was the first on the scene. Jo gave him a cotton bud, which he very carefully held onto in the middle and dipped in the paint then watched as he made lines and squiggles on the pa…

Child: Shai-Li

Teacher: Judy

Date: 20 May

I noticed Shai-Li and Talia sitting together in the book corner. The two of them were looking at a pictorial Hebrew dictionary. There was animated conversation between the two of them – Shai-Li was pointing to pictures and saying the Hebrew word, while Talia was doing the same and using the English word. At one stage I heard Shai-Li saying ”What’s that?” as she pointed to a picture. Then she replied to herself and said, “Hinei mayim.” After a while I…

Child: Jack

Teacher: Sue

18 March

Jack was sitting in the block corner stacking Duplo blocks on top of one another. He then reached for the train and tried to stand a piece of Duplo on top of its funnel. This did not work so he went back to stacking the Duplo.

Jack noticed another child approaching but carried on stacking. The child watched him and then helped him stack by handing him a block. Jack took it and stacked it. He then tried to stack the Duplo upside down but found this didn’t wor…

A cape for Conor

Conor looked over my shoulder. I was sitting holding the fabric while Harriette sewed her mermaid bra top. “You could sew something, Conor,” I said.

“I’m never going to sew,” Conor said.

“Ahh – well, you might not want to sew a mermaid bra, but you might want to make something else,” I said. “Like a cape perhaps ...?”

“Yes!!!” Conor said, suddenly very enthusiastic about that idea. Off he went to draw his plan and then we went on a hunt to find the right fabric. Unfortunat…

Child: Nissa

Teacher: Robyn

1 June

Rowena was very keen to make pancakes for morning tea this morning. We checked the cupboard for the ingredients and found that we had no eggs and no milk and so Nissa came to the shop with us to buy what we needed. Once back we started cooking. Delia, Melata and Tanya joined in making piles of pancakes. Our heads were down as we worked hard being very careful not to touch the hot pan when we flipped the pancakes and poured the mixture in. It was fun and the…

June 18Belonging | Mana whenuaTaking an interestFinding an interest here – a topic, an activity, a role. Recognising the familiar, enjoying the unfamiliar. Coping with change.

Wellbeing | Mana atuaBeing involvedPaying attention for a sustained period, feeling safe, trusting others. Being playful with others and/or materials. 

Exploration | Mana aotūroaPersisting with difficultySetting and choosing difficult tasks. Using a range of strategies to solve problems when ‘stuck’ (be specific).

Commu…

Narrative record for Abigail6 July

Abigail and the baby’s gender

Abigail has been quite definite that her new baby will be a girl, to the point where she says that if it’s a boy, she will take him back to the baby warehouse and swap him! Today we had a bit of a breakthrough. We were discussing that the baby could be a boy or a girl and you couldn’t tell, just had to wait.

(I had talked to Liz previously – they don’t know the sex of the baby.) Abigail was not convinced. I tried to say that boy…

Learning story23 April

Group story

 
 

A Learning Story

Belonging

Mana whenua
Taking an Interest

Yesterday Jane had a surprise for us at mat time. In the weekend she had been shopping and had bought a “Bob the Builder” kite. We were very excited and wanted to fly it straight away. But there was no wind! We made the kite up and put it in a safe place to wait for the wind to come.

Today when we came to kindergarten it was a very windy day. Aminiasi and Fe'ao asked Jane if they could fl…

Learning story17 September Teacher: Gae

Michael’s mum says he really likes helping at home. He closes all the doors and enjoys helping adults to do tasks.

Michael helps me to get his bottle ready. He opens the fridge, gets his milk and gives it to me, shuts the microwave door, and pushes the buttons.

Short-term review
"Belonging, Goal 1: Children and their families experience an environment where connecting links with the family and the wider world are affirmed and extended."

Te Wh…