Branching Out: Guiding from ECE to the Early Years of School

Today I attended the above Professional Development session at The Orchard Child Care Centre and Kaharoa School.  The great session gave me a number of ideas and things I'd like to take back immediately to my own Play Based Learning classroom.   These include:

• instead of 'tidy up time' using the terminology of 'refreshing the space' - a much more positive way to approaching it.  Both facilitators today mentioned this use of music during this time.
• encouraging students to join into mat time by asking "Are you Ready?" and giving them the opportunity to not quite be ready - this will work nicely with our new 1:1 reading program - rather than me asking a student "Would you like to read with me?" which gives the expectation that they don't have to, an "Are you Ready to read with me?" approach, gives the expectation, that if not now, it will be later.
• instead of using the name "Learning Stories", change it to "Play Memoirs", a much more authentic name for what is being created.
• increase my printing budget so all Play Memoirs can be printed and kept in a clear file in the classroom for students to browse at any time and revisit the exciting things they are doing
• a basket for the Numicon so students can use this in their play
• stones to indicate if students would like milk that day - similar to this sign in arrangement

Sign in stones - add one to the basket if you are at school

Hanging hooks for the mud kitchen

Dishracks under the mud kitchen to collect equipment

Microwave oven in the mud kitchen

Permanent space for writing nailed to the fence

Some great story ideas with loose parts - we need to challenge ourselves to create these in 2020

A great way of bringing fire into the playground - this is for making popcorn

A great use of the wooden reels - tables!

Native bird puppets - a great way to incorporate bi-culturalism

A free standing sign - explore Gary making these

The option of having tea each day - all sourced from an opshop and herbal tea made each day - great for wellbeing

An awesome way to store shoes and socks and hats

What a welcome on the fence when you come in

Watering cans hung in their place - we need more of these!

A great way of capturing parent voice - could be done each year from PEPs

• Explore the book Mauri Ora - Alsop & Kupenga - include these short whakataukis on Learning Memoirs alongside some Te Reo

Reflection on Kaurihohore School Visit - Class Learning Journal

This blog post is the first in a series which will document my thoughts about what I observed and the changes I'd like to try in my own Play Based Learning Classroom as a result.  In order to really document and reflect, I'm choosing to focus on one aspect per blog post which provides an opportunity for me to not only document what was seen and its effectiveness but also unpack how I'd like to imitate or innovate what was seen in my classroom.  This blog post focuses on the Class Learning Journal.

This was an A3 size pad with 50 - 60 pages, spiral bound and quite sturdy. The journal was available for the class to look at anytime and stored by the teaching station.  Over the morning, several students took the opportunity to look back through the journal and review something the class had looked at. 

Early on in the day, the whole class gathered on the mat and added to the journal.  Firstly, they reviewed the learning from yesterday (about snails) and the teacher prompted them to remember what the pointy bits at the front of the snails were called (they had discovered that they were called tentacles).   After reviewing the picture and words which were added yesterday, they moved onto the journal entry for today.   One question that was posed yesterday was the relationship between snails and worms and the teacher had a child appropriate video for viewing today which showed this.  The conversation, lead at first by the teacher, asked where else the students had seen tentacles.   The discussion turned to an octopus which has 8 tentacles and a question was posed "where is the mouth of the octopus".  The group talked to a "talking buddy" with their ideas and then shared back into the journal with the teacher writing, "The mouth of an octopus is ...." and noting down the ideas shared by the students.   She admitted to not knowing the answer and left this as an un-answered question (learning for tomorrow?).    As the session (approx 10 minutes) drew to a close, it was clear that some students still wanted to share, so while many went off to where they wanted to play, the teacher said she would stay behind if anyone wanted to share - several students took this opportunity.

During the discussion, the teacher encouraged students to not put their hand up but rather to "look for a gap" when they wanted to say something - if they struggled to find a gap, they could put their thumbs up to show they had something to share and were struggling to find the gap (this way the teacher could support them!)

This session had a variety of learning opportunities through:

• reviewing the previous days learning
• multimedia - video to explain new learning (using You Tube)
• buddy sharing to hear what your buddy thinks and share back with them
• modelling of writing questions and ideas into the learning journal (students see their ideas valued and captured)
• photos to provide a visual link for the students

After this great session, I looked back through the learning journal so far and noted:

• All items were dated
• There was a great variety of learning showcased through the journal - a variety of questions posed (and answered, or suggestions given); photos of the students learning with words added e.g. collaboration, friendship, perseverance; student art which was glued in and shared; photos of animals or things with questions and discussions around (following on from interests of students)

So What Now for My PBL Classroom:

I think the journal is great and something we could do as a whole class to start the day (except on Hui days) as a great way to extend thinking, encourage conversations and buddy sharing (oral language) as well as document some of the great learning, key competencies and extend discussions and thinking of the students.   

I will need to carefully scaffold the sessions and ensure they are not too long (5 - 10 minutes at most) and model and show the use of buddy's to share.   It will be important to include a range of different experiences to cater for the class and also to include photos of the students so they feel part of the process.  I feel it will be easiest to start with photos of play in action (with appropriate language) as this will help reinforce the key competencies that are most needed with my class and then move onto investigating and posing questions that come from interests.

With a digital hat on I'd like to photo each day's session and place it on Seesaw to allow parents to see what we are discussing in class and provide an opportunity for them to hear from their child the learning they have been doing and encourage that home/school partnership and further the learning for students at home.