Parent Evening David's Talk

David’s Talk
Skills children take with them and a bit on Blogging

Two questions I hope to answer:
How our does the Early Childhood Curriculum link to school?
How is Kindergarten preparing children for school and life?

The New New Zealand school curriculum can be found here.
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/the_new_zealand_curriculum
The New Zealand Early Childhood curriculum can be found here.
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=3567&data=l


School curriculum on left Links from Earlychildhood curriculum on right.


The Vision of the New Zealand School curriculum is that children will be:

• Confident> Empowerment/ Whakamana
• Connected> Relationships / Ngã Hononga
• Actively involved> Family and community/ Whãnau Tangata
• Lifelong learners> Holistic development/ Kotahitanga

Corresponding principles of the early childhood curriculum on the right.

The school curriculum expects children will develop the Values of:
• Excellence: Perseverance, aiming high
• Innovation, Inquiry and curiosity :Reflection , curiosity
• Diversity: Respect, openness.
• Equity: Fairness
• Community and Participation: Caring, Helpfulness
• Ecological sustainability: Caring, cleanliness,
• Integrity: Honesty, responsibility
Corresponding EC virtues on the right.

The school curriculum expects children will be competent to:
• Think about and make sense of the world: Exploration -Mana Aotüroa
• Use Language, Symbols and Texts: Communication –Mana Reo
• Manage Self: Well Being –Mana Atua
• Relate to others: Belonging –Mana Whenua
• Participate and Contribute: Contribution –Mana Tangata

Corresponding EC strands on the right.

Subject Learning areas.
• Technology: Learn the uses of and how to use technology from scissors and sewing machines to cameras and computers. Remembering the technology we use today may not reflect the technology in use in 20 years time.
• Mathematics: Learn about counting, number concept, shape, patterns, size, matching, adding and taking away.
• English: Stories, books, language rich environment, pre writing skills
• Language: Stories, symbols and words of other cultures.
• Health and P.E.: Looking after yourself (toilet, dressing, eating etc), exercise, balance, coordination
• The Arts: Using their senses to explore and feel the world, expressing feelings through movement, symbols, colour, song, sound etc.
• Science: Using their senses to explore and think about the world. Develop and test theories.
• Social Science: Learning how to make friends, interact with others

In Early childhood all these areas are covered in a holistic way, examples on the right.

Part 2

A closer look at pre writing skills
How do you teach a child to write?
Do you just give them a pen and teach them?
Of course not.
Like everything in life you need to do the preparation work first if you want to get a good result.

To learn to write you first need:
• Hand Strength and dexterity
• Forearm and shoulder strength
• Muscle coordination
• Developed senses
• Hand / eye coordination
• Knowledge of words and sounds
(Is it a pump or a bump?)

These skills develop
• As the body matures
• Through observation
• Through experiences
• Through practise

Children Develop them
• Through play. Play is children trying things out.
• One Step at a time (picture a stair)
• Children’s minds and bodies are keyed to develop skills when they’re ready, not before and with more difficulty afterwards.
• Our role is to watch for signs of when a child is ready to explore an idea, develop a skill or a step towards a skill and then to support them with opportunities to do so and experiences around it.

As an exercise think about the following activities around the kindergarten.
See saw, goldfish, bubbles, climbing, hopscotch, swings, scissors, road signs, balls.

How do they develop the skills to
Read, write, do maths, make friends?

Thanks for reading

Remember to make comments on the blog!

David.


Pre writing skills – here’s a link to a website that discusses these.
http://www.otworks.ca/otworks_page.asp?pageID=711