Some fun with the pulley last month

Counting around

Charlie wanted to know...

Setting up our Garden

Working Bee

Bring out the dead

Cork Guns 2

Batons

Car Jump

Last term we set up this ramp for the cars since they'd been a great interest in rolling things down the hill, plus a number of cars had been brought in. We soon added a jump and due to popularity kept it going over the days to follow, as the children worked to explore and master the skills involved. I noticed a lot of long periods of play by the children exploring the ramp as they perservered with the challenge.

Our Plane

More adventures

Lots happening this week, so here's some more movies, a little experiment to see how many children to hoist a teacher with our new 8:1 pulley set up, some of the bird life around the kindergarten (Tui, piwaiwaka, silver eye), a snowball fight, some builders and their discussions at smoko, and a roading gang discussing the difference between a police car and a taxi.

What's in a word?

A past parent recently asked me, "what really is the point of teaching children Te Reo Maori, they'll never use it in the real world, they'd be better learning something like French or Mandarin."

It's a good question to which there are many answers.

One answer is words, think for a minute how you would say "nuclear missile" to an ancient celt? "Spear that strikes mountains as lightning strikes trees?"

When you learn a language you don't just learn sounds that come out of your mouth but concepts and ways of thinking, new ways of seeing the world that other languages may simply not have the words to express. Remember hypotenuse? Perhaps that's why New Zealanders are seen as so creative, because we combine within ourselves ideas and words the rest of the world simply doesn't have access to.

A big part of learning to be an effective teacher is learning the language of teaching, most jobs have it their own special jargon and ways of thinking, that's one reason why a person straight off the street can't expect to be a fully effective teacher without training any more than I could become a world class chef overnight, even though I cook.

But what about jargon, what about your everyday words, the words you use every day! When did you learn most of the words and concepts you've spent the rest of your life relying on, the words of society, friendship, courage, contribution, exploration, communication, belonging and wellbeing?

In Early childhood of course. That's why it's so important to have a rich vocabulary around your children, but it must be in context. Children of this age are concrete thinkers, they learn best when they physically experience the concepts that go with the words. That's why I often prefer the label conceptary education to describe us that simply Early Childhood Education.

It's also why we have to ensure in our quest to keep kids safe we ensure they still get the full and rich experiences they deserve and not wrap them in bubble wrap. Kids need quality and quantity, experiences should be repeated so they can return to them and grow their understanding as they explore. Check out these snippets of some of the exploration this term.

Hear the words in the videos. "now it's my turn", "come back", think how you now use those words, think about what they're learning as they say the words that will set them up for life.

Learning to Screen Print

Snow Ball fight

Despite no snow we decided it was cold enough to have a snowball fight.

Today Lochie asked if we could have another one and this time, Sam, Caleb E, Callum, Tom (wicked aim and great dodging, knows how to hold his shots till you've thrown), Lochie (more great aim and good moderation pulling shots really well), Ollie and Charlie had a go.

Dodging lead by Tom who was an expert and tempering your throw for younger friends especially when in too close became the important lessons of focus today. We stopped for the occasional stung cheek or ear, if needed had a cuddle and then decided to keep going or do something else. We kept at it for over an hour till our arms were sore and we were to tired.

In the afternoon we shifted to bat and ball.

Inspirational Art

Abi began with brushes and ended up with her hands adding more and more to her picture till it got a hole in it.

After a bit she started a new one and Abi shared with Charlotte all the lessons she had learned. A bit from each pot, six magnets so it won't fall off with the movement.

They decided they needed glitter, I got some with Meadow's help to keep filming, and then some different glitter when it turned out I got the wrong sort.

I then noticed I was not the only media presence as three more cameras arrived.

Abi meanwhile resumed her dance to the background music as she painted.

These photojournalists were equally inspired and soon started their own similar projects

PS sorry Wills, you needed some help with hanging that painting didn't you, thanks Michelle for covering me on that.

Pulleys

Following on from lifting the rocks I decided last week to try out my new learning around pulleys and was soon joined by lots of helpers. The idea seems to be if you pull up twice as much rope you only have to pull half as hard. (See links on previous post.) So I set up what I hoped would be an effective pulley, modelling the trial and error nature of the experiment as I tested different setups. Then it was all hands on board to hoist each other up.

It still needs some work, but I'd like to set it up so a child can lift something with the pulley they couldn't on their own. One problem might be is there a difference between lifting and holding the weight. Maybe gears and brakes might have to be used?

Down the mine

Jimmy and Ollie dug a hole, a huge hole and decided to put planks over it. When I suggested with more planks it would be like a cave they got very excited.

Jack joined us (tunnelling is something he's been exploring a lot in his sandpit at home) and he was soon working away down the mine, eventually coming out the other side.
For safety we made a rule no one down the mine with out a teacher present. To facilitate this Jack decided to board it up when the teachers weren't able to be there. A great idea.
We also said no walking or digging on the top while people were down the mine and discussed not undermining our roof planks. We worked out a communication come emergency breathing pipe for use by our miners.

Jimmy thought about climbing through but was amongst those who while they wanted to, weren't as keen when they saw the passage, so he concentrated on adding external features.

Mickey and Caleb W both gave it several crawl throughs.

I shared with them stories of how in the old days children had to crawl down tunnels like this and up chimneys as a job instead of going to kindergarten.

Moving rocks

Watch this video to get an idea of how much weight one man can move on his own, you'd be surprised.




You might also want to learn about pulleys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T7tGosXM58&feature=related
or levers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2KfO_yrPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW7ztbwJKBk&feature=related
and screws, inclined planes, circular levers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1hjiOp6FEU

Teamwork

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Rollers

I set up a long pipe set at the start of the day along with many balls of different sizes and weights, then rolled one down so it leapt out of the scale bowl at the end and into a basket.

James thought this was cool and asked for a go, I thought about it and then said he could have a turn with my construction ;), Soon he was joined by lots of others, but it was James, Emily and Lochie who stayed with it throughout the day, racing the balls experimenting with the end and perhaps wondering while some balls went faster than others. We might have to borrow a timer and time our balls next time.