Early childhood education and care

TCHE2560 – TASK 2 – INTEGRATED CURRICULUM

PLANNER Anurag Tiwari – s3803386

Part 1: Learning Story

Video Title: Counting flowers

Date:20/05/2020

Observer: Anurag Tiwari

Children’s Name: Jas (girl with hat); Pam (girl wearing white t-shirt); Nas (boy with orange t- shirt)

Focus A Learning Story

Taking an interest Finding an interest here – a topic, an activity a role. Recognising the familiar, enjoying the unfamiliar, coping with change

Jas is playing outdoors under the tank where she is picking up flowers one by one from the lawn. Jas then answers the 1st educator’s question, ‘Where is the vase?’ by replying, ‘It is inside’. Then she goes inside the classroom to wash the flowers and starts counting them simultaneously while putting the flowers in the vase. She ends the count at 34 and showed the awareness that petals are important to call it a flower and refused to put the leftover stem in her flower vase. She then along with the 2nd educator finds a suitable spot to fit her vase of flowers. Jas, Pam and Nas then became curious when the 2nd educator gave the idea of putting the number 34 in front of the vase. They understood quickly that they need to use 4 but Jas was unable to figure out what number needs to be put besides 4. Upon a small suggestion from the 2nd educator when she hinted what number starts from the sound ‘th-e’ and upon revising the count together Jas discovered that three starts with ‘th-e’ and three is needed to complete the number ‘34’ which represents the number of flowers in the vase.

Being involved Paying attention for a sustained period, feeling safe, trusting others. Being playful with others and / or materials

Persisting with difficulty Setting and choosing difficult tasks. Using a range of strategies to solve problems when ‘stuck’

Expressing an idea or a feeling In a range of ways eg. Oral language, gesture, music, art, writing etc.

Taking responsibility Responding to others, to stories, and imagined events, ensuring that things are fair, self-evaluating, helping others, contributing to program

Short term Review What learning do I think went on here? (Main learning in story)

What next? How might we encourage this learning (interest / ability/ strategy / disposition) to be:

In order to count set of items and things it is necessary to develop practice of counting and through numerical development during early years (Hannula, et al., 2007). The above learning story involves mathematical concepts such as counting, total number of flowers, also developing effective communication and problem solving using Intentional teaching strategies was a part of the learning.

Further, we can use leaves to understand photosynthesis which will explain how plants breathe and will explain to them that plants and trees are living beings as well. This can further be linked to Steiner’s theory that providing real life tasks which involves elements of nature builds the relationship of the child with the nature (Taplin, 2010) and gives a sense of belonging and connection with the outer world (EYLF Learning Outcome 2) (DEEWR, 2009).

Video Title: Making salad

Date:20/05/2020

Observer: Anurag Tiwari

Children’s Name: Jane (girl in pink t-shirt); Shane (boy in green t-shirt); Julia (girl in red t- shirt)

Focus A Learning Story

Taking an interest Finding an interest here – a topic, an activity a role. Recognising the familiar, enjoying the unfamiliar, coping with change

Jane and Shane are outdoors picking vegetables such as parsley, dill and chives for making a salad along with the educator. Jane and Shane are mindful of the plants existence and carefully step around the plants. They pluck the leaves and collect them in a bowl. Once they are inside the classroom, they start chopping the vegetables cautiously with a knife. The educator talks about the past salad experiences with Julia and Shane to which Julia responded by saying she was expecting it to taste like salad as it looked familiar to her. Julia and Shane further contributed to the discussion mentioning that salad is quick and easy to make. When the educator asked whether any energy or

Being involved Paying attention for a sustained period, feeling safe, trusting others. Being playful with others and / or materials

Persisting with difficulty Setting and choosing difficult tasks. Using a range of strategies to solve problems when ‘stuck’

Expressing an idea or a feeling In a range of ways eg. Oral language, gesture, music, art, writing etc.

Taking responsibility Responding to others, to stories, and imagined events, ensuring that things are fair, self-evaluating, helping others, contributing to program

stove is required to make salad? Julia quickly responded by saying, ‘No’ showing her awareness about salad-making. The educator than invited Jane to the activity and then introduced them all to the ‘Saw technique’ for chopping vegetables safely by moving the knife backwards and forwards. The educator also asked Julia to put the knife down emphasizing on the safe use of knife.

Short term Review What learning do I think went on here? (Main learning in story)

Children demonstrated respect and a responsibility towards environment by not stepping on the plants while picking the vegetables from the farm (EYLF Outcome 2) (DEEWR, 2009).

Jane, Shane and Julia displayed various attributes and qualities such as curiosity, creativity, persistence, confidence and imagination during the salad making process (EYLF Outcome 4) (DEEWR, 2009).

The children learnt the science of observing, forming hypothesis, experimenting and developing a conclusion. Also, the development of sensory education within children helps in meeting children’s individual needs and accommodates the sensory requirements of the classroom (Thompson and Raisor, 2013).

What next? How might we encourage this learning (interest / ability/ strategy / disposition) to be: We can further aim to plant the seeds and nurture the plants such as grass, mushrooms, etc. so that children understand and connect with the nature. It is also important for a child to build a moral sense and a strong character in order to inculcate virtues within and achieve self- mastery (Duschinsky, 2013) (EYLF learning outcome 1) (DEEWR, 2009).

Video Title: Reusing milk container

Date:20/05/2020

Observer: Anurag Tiwari

Group Activity (including 5 children)

Focus A Learning Story

Taking an interest Finding an interest here – a topic, an activity a role. Recognising the familiar, enjoying the unfamiliar, coping with change

There is a group activity which includes recycling and reusing milk containers, newspapers, etc. for constructing a door. The educator describes this activity as a massive task and calls the children as fellow workers. The educator then asks how many levels of milk containers are stacked? The children together count to 7 levels and then she mentions we must construct until we reach 10th level.

The educator then enquired the children that she can still see uncovered bottles, and follows up by questioning what needs to be done? The children responded by covering the bottles up with paper cuttings. She then also showed the children another construction which was named as doorbell, as one of the bottle caps was facing outwards like a doorbell. When educator asked what sound does a doorbell make? The children responded together, ’Ting- Tong’. During construction activity children expressed glue feels like a jelly to which the educator quickly asked, ‘Do we eat this jelly?’ and the children said in one voice, ‘No’ agreeing that glue is not safe for consumption.

Being involved Paying attention for a sustained period, feeling safe, trusting others. Being playful with others and / or materials

Persisting with difficulty Setting and choosing difficult tasks. Using a range of strategies to solve problems when ‘stuck’

Expressing an idea or a feeling In a range of ways eg. Oral language, gesture, music, art, writing etc.

Taking responsibility Responding to others, to stories, and imagined events, ensuring that things are fair, self-evaluating, helping others, contributing to program

Short term Review What learning do I think went on here? (Main learning in story)

Children are becoming more responsible socially and environmentally (EYLF Learning outcome 2) (DEEWR, 2009) and simultaneously developing engineering

What next? How might we encourage this learning (interest / ability/ strategy / disposition) to be: There should be a wide range of activities that presents the children with the opportunity to learn more about the 3r’s, i.e., Reduce, Recycle and Reuse. By

skills by constructing objects from waste materials. Student are learning a way to reduce their waste footprint and learning to be an environmentally friendly citizen.

inculcating classroom habits of segregating wastes and then practicing recycling of paper within classroom at the end of the week. This will help the children in understanding more scientific and environmental concepts and build sustainable learning concepts within the children.

Video Title: Discussing butterfly markings

Date:20/05/2020

Observer: Anurag Tiwari

Children’s name: Tim (boy with glasses), Jim (boy with red shirt) and Sky (girl with red shirt)

Focus A Learning Story

Taking an interest Finding an interest here – a topic, an activity a role. Recognising the familiar, enjoying the unfamiliar, coping with change.

In an outdoor setting on a bench using a tablet device, the educator along with Tim, Jim and Sky are discussing the markings on a butterfly’s skin. The educator asks what are these spots? Tim quickly said. ‘Eyes’. Then the educator starts describing how owls might get scared looking at the butterfly spots. Jim then contributed to the conversation by adding that most animals which get scared looking at a butterfly do not know that it is a butterfly and that they look at the big spots and get scared. Then Tim added to the discussion by mentioning the fact that, humans like butterflies, and Jim and Sky also agreed and connected with the discussion mentioning that they also like butterflies and they look beautiful. Jim

Being involved Paying attention for a sustained period, feeling safe, trusting others. Being playful with others and / or materials

Persisting with difficulty Setting and choosing difficult tasks. Using a range of strategies to solve problems when ‘stuck’

Expressing an idea or a feeling In a range of ways eg. Oral language, gesture, music, art, writing etc.

Taking responsibility Responding to others, to stories, and imagined events, ensuring that things are fair, self-evaluating, helping others, contributing to program

then mentioned that some predators do eat them. The educator then asks why won’t some other predators like the owl won’t eat them? Sky nodded in agreement and mentioned that some predators might think that they are large creatures.

Short term Review What learning do I think went on here? (Main learning in story)

Development of vocabulary and awareness about the creatures on the planet and their key characteristics amongst children is one of the key learnings from this experience. Through this learning experience children express great range of scientific learnings and children learn more about the environment by visualizing, application of their existing knowledge and participating in the discussion through communication of personal interpretations of a creature with one another. This learning experience provokes the children to think and determine what they think about a creature and what others think about it.

What next? How might we encourage this learning (interest / ability/ strategy / disposition) to be: Introducing them to more local and live creatures so that they develop an understanding of their surrounding and develop harmony with them at an early age. Encouraging positive learning experience through field trips, farm trips, etc where children can see animals in their natural habitat and develop a positive perception towards other living beings. Young children may not be able to remark on their rich experiences through their early vocabulary which are rich in nouns and scientific words (Tunnicliffe, 2013). Such activities can promote and raise the vocabulary levels of the children.

Part 2: Integrated curriculum planner Date: 25/05/2020

RECOGNISE: Children's prior

knowledge, learning and

interests

RESPOND: Experience(s) planned (integrated play

spaces and/or provocations planned across STEM)

Link to EYLF/AC: Clear learning goals and

teaching strategies that were planned with links to the EYLF

Recycling classroom paper waste

The items needed for recycling classroom paper waste are:

1. Paper (Shredded) 2. Small and big buckets 3. Manual eggbeater 4. Wooden frame (strainer) 5. Loads of water

Recycling paper waste is a group activity where the children can contribute to reduce waste footprint. The educator needs to pour some warm water and shredded paper in small buckets (depending on the number of participants) and leave it overnight to soak. The first step requires the children to use manual eggbeater and mix the soaked shredded paper in the water until it becomes somewhat like a pulp. Then pour the pulp like batter into a big bucket and the small buckets can be used for next turn of children or more mixing. Continue this process until you have enough mix available. Then we need to reverse the process and remove the water from the pulp in the big bucket. Using wooden frame (water strainer) strain the water out and spread the quilt like soft pulp flat. Once the water strains out you will have a new sheet of paper which you need to dry with paper towels to absorb the leftover water with the new sheet. Using intentional teaching the educator needs to explain how water separates the paper fibres from one another and gets suspended in the water. This activity is the perfect opportunity to introduce new scientific concepts and give a hands-on sensory experience.

 Children become more connected with the environment they are staying in by understanding the importance of environment sustainability and broaden their understanding about the world. Through this activity children will develop a healthy practice of being aware and knowledgeable about the waste they are creating and how they can reuse waste materials (EYLF Learning Outcome 2) (DEEWR, 2009)

 By understanding the importance of scientific concepts and sensory play, the educator can provide opportunities for children explore their environment, manipulate objects and experiment with the waste materials and become self- reliant (EYLF Learning Outcome 4) (DEEWR, 2009)

RECOGNISE: Children's prior

knowledge, learning and

interests

RESPOND: Experience(s) planned (integrated play

spaces and/or provocations planned across STEM)

Link to EYLF/AC: Clear learning goals and

teaching strategies that were planned with links to the EYLF

Growing plants in the classroom

Items required for the activity:  Pots (Plastic/Biodegradable)  Soil  Seeds

(grass/beans/herbs/mushrooms)  Scoop  Pen marker  Gardening gloves

This is a group activity where children will be able to get real life experience of gardening and learn about the science behind the life of a plant. After you have arranged all the items required give the children gardening gloves and provide them with a scoop. Next step is to fill up all the pots with the soil and once the pot is almost full ask them to dig a small hole in the centre using their fingers/hands and slide the seeds in the hole. Cover the hole with the soil and then ask the children to gently pour water in the soil. Label the pots with the name of the seeds planted and find a place to keep them in the classroom. Throughout the week, the children should water the plants and look after its growth as per the requirements. Every week organize a group meet and ask intentional questions such which plant is big and why? Also, ask them why some plants have grown more than some others? How many leaves each plant have? Thereby provoking them to indulge in counting.

 Children through this activity will use problem solving skills and be open to new challenges and discoveries (EYLF outcome 1) (DEEWR, 2009).

 The children will build on their own social experiences by planting a new life in the shape of a plant and stay connected with the environment they live in and contribute towards it (EYLF learning outcome 2) (DEEWR, 2009).

References:

DEEWR. (2009). Being, Belonging and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [Ebook]. Commonwealth of Australia.

Duschinsky, R. (2013). AUGUSTINE, ROUSSEAU, AND THE IDEA OF CHILDHOOD 1. The Heythrop Journal, 54(1), 77-88.

Hannula, M., Räsänen, P., & Lehtinen, E. (2007). Development of Counting Skills: Role of Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity and Subitizing-Based Enumeration. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 9(1), 51-57.

Taplin, J. T. (2010). Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education: Offering a curriculum for the 21st century. Theories and Approaches to Learning in the Early Years, 2, 86.

Thompson, S. D., & Raisor, J. M. (2013). Meeting the sensory needs of young children. YC Young Children, 68(2), 34.

Tunnicliffe, S. D. (2013). Talking and doing science in the early years: a practical guide for ages 2-7. Routledge.