3/9/15
A 3 year old girl who attends my centre bought in a large bird’s
feather to show all her friends. It was long, firm and had an interesting
spotted pattern on it. When I asked her where she collected her feather from,
she was unsure and unable to answer the question. The children were fascinated
by this feather and wanted to hold it, stroke it and ask the girl who brought
it in plenty of questions about it.
The interest the children showed in this feather was
astounding. I decided as a centre, we would solve the mystery of which bird
this feather belongs to. I gathered all the bird resources we had, this
included both fiction and non-fiction books about birds, soft toys and the
iPad. In doing this I was facilitating the children’s learning giving them what
they required to learn and reach a successful outcome. “Faciliatating is a
process of making children’s learning easier” (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). I
asked the children to bring in any books about birds they had at home and also
told them to keep an eye out for more feathers that we could add to our
collection. The collaboration between children, teachers and their families to
find as much information on birds as we could provides the children with a
sense of unity and teamwork which spread throughout the centre. “Children
experience an environment where they encouraged to learn with and alongside
others” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 70). They took responsibility for
their own learning and used their curiosity as motivation to find out where
this feather had come from.
The children decided they wanted to use the iPad as their
first from of research. They used Google to search for images of ‘New Zealand
birds’ but only found pictures of indigenous birds such as kakapo, Tui and Kiwi.
After having no luck in identifying the origin of the feather they started to
become frustrated so I got out a book we had in our centre library on birds and
sat down with them. We looked at each page, reading about all the different
kinds of birds while we had our feather hung up on the wall next to us so the
children could refer to it as they looked for the right bird. I felt that I was
involved in this learning process and the children recognised that I was there
to support and encourage them when their lack of success caused their
enthusiasm to wane, “Educators support children’s learning by being available
to give assistance when needed and providing physical and verbal support”
(Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2011, p. 392).
After nearly looking through the entire book we finally
found the mystery bird. It was a Pheasant bird. The children were so excited
and pleased they had finally solved their problem and now they could go back to
enjoying and appreciating the size and texture of this feather. This
provocation helped the children develop confidence in working with others to
explore the environment and make sense of their social ‘place and environment.’
The investigation provided an opportunity for the children collaborate for a
common cause allowing children to feel a sense of belonging within the centre. An
important aspect of being involved in early childhood education is allowing
children to feel a sense of belonging, both in the centre and in society.
I love that the mystery feather sparked not only that child's interest but the whole centres. I also am really interested in how the children wanted to learn more about the feather and that this mystery in which bird the feather belongs to has sparked everyone in the centres interest. This experience must have been very exciting not only for the children but the teachers and parents that got involved.
ReplyDeleteGetting the children to take their own responsibility for their learning seems like a great strategy. And one strategy that I would really like to take back to my own centre and try with a few of the children in a major project like this. Having the children take responsibility for their own learning, did it cause any conflict between the children in anyway?
You said that everyone in the centre used a range of resources to extend the children's learning and research; did you or any of the children think to contact a local bird watcher? What other resources do you think you could have used to extend on their knowledge and research? What strategies did you use to support and encourage the children when they become frustrated and lacking in their success of finding this mystery bird?
Seeming as you found which bird this mystery feather belongs to, where do you think you could go from here to extend the children's knowledge on birds? If you could do this experience again, would you do it any differently and how would you do it differently to this experience? If your centre is allowed to go out on excursions, then you could possibly look into going to a bird sanctuary. This would allow the children to be up close with the birds and looking for the mystery bird.
What a cool idea to facilitate the children's interests in a feather. I liked that you went above and beyond for the children. It is good that you included all the other children in the centre who were interested and made it a centre wide interest rather than just focusing on one child.
ReplyDeleteQuestioning the child who found the feather on where they found it was good and although she couldn't answer this question it will have helped her want to know what bird it was from and create even more interest in the feather. By doing this you gave responsibility to the child to think about where she may have found the feather.
I also liked that you used a range of resources including non-fiction and fiction books, google and soft toys. This is good way of letting the children do the research themselves without going straight to the iPad and googling the answer. It also gives the children the opportunity to see if they can match the the feather with one in the book. This is a great way of giving the children the opportunity to create their own learning and take charge of it. In what way to you think you could further extend the children's responsibility for taking charge of their learning?
The fact that you gave the children the choice of what resource they wanted to use first is another great way of allowing them to harness their own leaning. This is a way of them being able to gain independence in using the different resources. You said that the children became frustrated when they couldn't find a prefect match. In what way did you calm them down and encourage them to continue searching?
You continued the search by using books as well. I liked that you did this because then the children are able to see different birds and you are able to read about them if they become interested in that particular bird. You said that you were there to support them. In what way were you supporting them?
I think you have done a great job in extending the children's learning from a single feather and in the end finding out what the bird was. In what way will you further extend their learning on the mystery feather and the Pheasant bird? Do you think you will bring in more pictures of the Pheasant bird and get the children to draw the bird? or bring in more mystery feathers and get the children to continue their research into other birds? Are there any opportunities to go and find a real Pheasant bird?