Do Crocodiles eat Grandmas?

Rocky Shore trip

Making our mark

Spider

Light trap delight

How a cicada sings

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.

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.

Oh NO! Mr Possum...............

Hayley's Frog

Hayley and mum caught a frog on Friday, after a quick call to David for support on frog care.

They went out with Stefan to catch some crickets and butterflys. Our gutters were leaking (time to clean them) so Caleb gathered rainwater in buckets for the frog.

He started the day light green (see below) but by the end of the day was dark green.

The Virtue of 'Wonder'

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Beautiful Beetle

We found this gorgeous beetle near our light trap.
If you held him in your fingers he would bite. He happily nipped away at my finger nail as I demonstrated this so no one would try.
Then I demonstrated the correct way to hold him, by letting him walk on you.
He was an up beetle. Some insects like to go up, some like to go down, he liked to go up.
After he'd walked on me for a while the children overcame their fears and had the courage to hold him too, soon he had quite a queue.
Eventually he got tired of playing with us and flew off to the Christmas tree. Passing him over.

Walking him hand to hand.

Up the arm and onto the hand again.

Have a go Jo.

Your turn Jack.

Caleb demonstrates how to hold him for a new budding photographer learning how to use the camera.