Week 4

How can you relate place thought to the exploration of the workshops on collecting?

In this week's task I got to explore different workshops in order to expand my thinking of teaching children the aspects of collecting. One of the workshops I looked at with my group was the 'Bowerbird & make a place collection'. I explored the library and found 2 books, in which I can use one for 2-year old children and the other for 8-year old children. I found this activity quite interesting because I was able to go around the campus to investigate place materials that can relate to the book and children's learning.

The first book 'The very hungry caterpillar' by Eric Carle I chose for 2-year olds because children at this age, they like to wonder around touching and exploring things. They can explore through the natural environment built on the idea of where the hungry caterpillar explored to find its food. Children can collect natural substances such as sticks, leaves, bark or food scraps which can show that they have an idea of what the caterpillar's life style is outside in its natural habitat. 'Collecting can help children how to sort, classify, match and organise their world' (MacNaughton G, & Williams G 2009, p.19). This is a useful way for children to learn how to sort the materials by its shape, sizes, texture, colours and smell like how the picture book had all the different colours and shapes in them.

The next book I chose as a group was for 8-year olds 'Banjo and Ruby Red' by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood. This book linked to cultural diversity as the dog 'Banjo' and the chicken 'Ruby Red' are different animals but they are able to prosper and become friends in the end. Children can gather cultural things that are valuable to them and bring them into the classroom to share their diversity with each other. Doing this will help children explore different ethnic backgrounds that will help them learn and understand the world about them and others as well as accepting everyone's differences.  

References:
MacNaughton, G & Williams, G 2009, Techniques for teaching young children; choices for theory and practice, 3rd edn, Pearson Education Australia, NSW.

Week 3

What skills can be developed by collecting?

Reading Chapter 2 on 'Collecting' from Techniques for Teaching Young Children, MacNaughton, G & amp; Williams, G (2009), opened my mind to new ideas and theories that I've never thought about before. To me, collecting is gathering things you like such as objects to form a collection you can keep for display. I never knew that it can be a teaching technique to help children learn through the process of gathering things and how it can help them learn to sort, classify, organise and match things together.

When I was younger I remember collecting shells at the beach because it had the sound of the sea when i placed it against my ear. It never occurred to me that collecting these shells actually helped me to know how to compare the shapes and sizes. Reading this chapter, it made me realise how the collection of things really help a children's development. I only thought that collecting things was only because it sparked children's interest rather than benefiting their development and skills. What also didn't occur to me was that collections don't have to be just objects, it can be sounds or words as well which i found quite interesting. What I also found intriguing was that a collection can be used to build children's counting skills. Children can learn to count just by looking at a collection of objects rather than just counting numbers.

Collecting also helps children to determine shapes, size, colour, sound, smell and texture. It helps them learn how to organise, classify and sort out which category it belongs to. As a teacher, I can help children strengthen their collections by displaying them in a glass cabinet with their description next to their collection. This can help them identify and match the labels on the item to encourage them to take care of it. It can also helps them to classify the contrast and comparisons of things. This shows that collecting enhances numerous skills to support children's development.

week 2 wonders

How can you relate your past experiences to the placements of materials that affect the learning of children today?

When I was in kindergarten, I remember having stations for different activities. Some included painting, some were dress ups and some included nature. Reading about 'Positioning equipment and materials' I can relate to the children and how their social interaction is based on the learning environment. It was hard trying to find the stations as a kid because I remembered everything being bigger in size which made it hard to locate where I wanted to go. I started getting used to the stations day by day however, one day the areas was changed all of a sudden. I was completely worried and confused of where my usual stations were placed and I wondered around trying to figure out what to do. Looking back and reading the text made me wonder do kids find it difficult to remember at a young age? Or is it the way we set out things that make it difficult for them to remember? I believe that young kids need time to enrich and broaden their knowledge one step at a time rather than all at once because it may be overwhelming for them at such a young age with little familiarities. Taking on my experiences from the past, I think that change is good but not such a huge change that will puzzle the children. Just little change such as adding nature background noises in a station area full of leaves will punctual children's interests and can make their play more effective. Adding other materials in the painting section will get the kids to experiment with other art supplies rather than just paint will broaden their exploration and thinking. This will enhance their knowledge and stimulate their brain development as they take part on what we organise desirably for them from time to time so they can be open-minded to new things as they grow.