Children were eager to make playdough. Getting all the dry ingredients together and putting it into a bowl and then mixing it with water the dough started to take shape. Once the playdough was ready children were ready to use it. Fellow members your probably wondering " What about the playdough you havern't even said what the ingredients to making playdough is and why"? I know what your thinking. The reason why i put this post up is because of what the tamariki wanted to do with the play-dough. Gone are the days when all I had in my day was just plain mud and water we did lots of things with mud, painted the house with it putting it on our bodies from top to bottom with it ha ha I'm grinning while I'm typing this but the best part was throwing it at my sister and my cousins that was the good old days it certainly has brought make some magical moments for me. So you can just imagine how i felt when they were wanting play-dough i was over the moon especially getting to pick different colours to put in our play-dough i felt just like the tamariki I felt like a child myself. Noticing as the children started doing their shapes i was quiet surprized at the results. For myself as a Maori female i was quiet taken back at what the tamariki were producing. The children korero about mat time and how some of the children were wearing necklaces. One korero they shared the most with each other were some of the greenstone that the tamariki were wearing, and talked about it been a special gift and is given to a special person.Te Whaariki states Children develop an appreciation of the ways in which they can make contributions to groups and to group well-being. (Ministry of Education. 1996). So the children had decided that they were going to make special necklace for a special person. According Santrock (2008) "Children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings. They form stable concept and begin to reason". (p.247)
It felt great when they asked me to make one, i felt awesome demonstrating and talking to them while I did my Taonga. According to MacNaughton and Williams (2004) "Demonstrating will effectively support children's learning when staff uses clear unambiguous verbal instruction to support the demonstration". (p.55). Children started rolling, pushing, shaping and cutting the playdough this helps tamariki develop their literacy and numeracy skills as children make sense of sybmbols representing information. Tamariki show great hand and eye co-ordination Sensory skills that extends imagination and creativity. An open resource with no set way of using no predetermined skills or abilities required.
WoW what can i say i am blown away at what the tamariki have produced.
Tumeke Rawatu Tamariki ma. As you can see the proof is in the pudding.To all thse Carvers out there "BEWARE" you have competition.
MacNaughton, G., &Williams, G (2004). Technique for teaching young children
Choices in Theory and practice (2nd ed).
French Forrest, NSW, Austrailia: Pearson Educaation.
Ministry of Education (1996). Te Whaariki; He Whaariki Maturanga
mo nga Mokopuna o Aotearoa. Early childhood curriculum. Wellington; Learning Media
Santrock,J.W. (2008). Life-span development (11th ed). Boston, Ma.,
United States of America: MaCraw Hill.
Tumeke Rawatu Tamariki ma. As you can see the proof is in the pudding.To all thse Carvers out there "BEWARE" you have competition.
MacNaughton, G., &Williams, G (2004). Technique for teaching young children
Choices in Theory and practice (2nd ed).
French Forrest, NSW, Austrailia: Pearson Educaation.
Ministry of Education (1996). Te Whaariki; He Whaariki Maturanga
mo nga Mokopuna o Aotearoa. Early childhood curriculum. Wellington; Learning Media
Santrock,J.W. (2008). Life-span development (11th ed). Boston, Ma.,
United States of America: MaCraw Hill.
Kia ora Alex, I enjoyed how you combined the children's learning from experiences you had in your own childhood. It bought back memories of my own and I also used to make mud pies. Have you thought about doing different textures with the tamariki? For example sand, shaving foam or finger painting? You could even work in a garden with them which could be similar to using mud, like you did as a child. It would also be a great opportunity to introduce fruit and vegetables to your centre which the tamariki could eat. This is a fabulous activity for the children's well being and sense of belonging (Ministry of Education, 1996), while also introducing the outdoors in a different way to your centre. Pere (1991) book Te Wheke has some good references you could use to tie the activities back to your Māori heritage. Ka pai Alex.
ReplyDeleteKia Ora Alex
ReplyDeleteI can see by your reflection that you enjoyed interacting with the children, this is great as sometimes technology is something that we as teachers can learn together with the children. This becomes a collaborative process that is productive and helps children to see how effective using play dough is. I noticed that you mentioned about the children utalizing their sensory skills, this is a great way to extend this learning to possibly cooking scones for instance, the children are able to extend the sensory skills in different areas of the centre. Great job well done Alex.
Well done Alex. I am sure that most of us early childhood educators even the teachers would love to play with play dough and of course you are definitely right about your feeling that you felt like a child once playing with the play-dough, as I felt that too. It is a good experience Alex because you and the children had made something out of it and it relevant to technology, as technology is about creating or producing something. Because you love working along with young children and being part of their play, you could teach them how to make a gloop, and I’m sure they’ll love it. Ka pai Alex
ReplyDeleteKiaora Alex :)
ReplyDeleteI reckon olden days outdoor experience is way better because everything is first hands experience, get to use your whole body and I am sure if we have that today our children would just stay outside all day. But then again everything now a day have upgrated and technolgy have increased tremendously.
Yes sometimes when we are with the children we sometimes feel like a child because of the excitement we share together with the children which is good because it shows that we are able to bring ourselves to the children's level. Hence when we do that we become to understand the child better and the way the child think and develop.
Reading your reflection sounds like fun and you did a great job with the children. Its good to see you supported the children through out the whole process and you also got demonstrate which makes their activity simple and fun.