Changes to Kākano

I started teaching in the kākano hub at a very interesting time of the year. I came in at the start of term 2 to pick up the new entrant roll growth children. At the same time the our team moved into our new building. My first day in the hub was the first day for everyone in our team. Our team has approximately 100 children and 5 teachers. We have now been in our new space for a term and a half. I have learn so many new things being in this new space and as a team we have worked together and are continuously tweaking our hub to ensure it runs smoothly. 

A major focus in our hub is learning through play, this is heavily incorporated into the running of our program and the way we structure our day. In addition to our learning through play we also have 'provocations' set up around the room when the students are not working in their instructional groups. Here the children have free choice to pick an activity to do i.e. "Can you order these numbers from 1-20", "Can you match the blend with the picture?".

Working in this new space has been amazing and it has been fantastic to see how well the children have adapted to the space and the new routines. We have changed many things in the hub since the start of term 2 such as simple routines i.e. sandwich snack, to bigger changes such as how we run our literacy sessions. Each teacher has the opportunity to run their instructional groups how they want to and can tailor them to meet the students needs. For example, I have a lot of the new entrant children in my groups. I do lots of short lessons with them interspersed with play. 

Working with four other teachers works really well in the hub and has been amazing to me as a beginning teacher. We can always talk to each other and get ideas for our groups and find new ways to do things as you are constantly looking at the way others do things. 

Over the past term and a half the major things I have taken out of this experience is:

• not being afraid to change things and try new things. 
• the importance of communication between colleagues to establish the best learning environment. 
• having clear and set routines in the hub i.e. when tidying up, time frames to ensure the hub is running efficiently. 

We are still changing aspects of our hub and tweaking our learning environment. Looking back we have already come a long way and our hub is continually getting better.  

Why Blog?

Reflecting on Simon Scott's blog post Blogging! Has it made a difference?, this has highlighted to me the benefits of blogging for children. Blogging is a fantastic channel in which we can get children engaged, excited and interested in literacy. What spoke to me in the post was that blogging creates an "authentic global audience", children feel much more driven to write through blogging as it is real and they know they can elect a response from other people. I love the authentic nature of this and the motivation it provides as it gives students a sense of purpose. 

One important aspect I took out of this blog if I were to implement this in my classroom was to follow the 3 steps to write something positive, thoughtful and helpful on another students blog when commenting. I like how by doing this continues the learning, the piece of writing doesn't stop there and students can keep working on it. 

What was further highlighted to me in the post was the improvement in punctuation, I thought is was amazing how much a child's punctuation can improve by blogging. 

Questions I have now relates to how can I implement this with my students? As a teacher of junior children (5 and 6 year olds) how can I do this in my classroom on a smaller scale? Could I use apps such as seesaw to stimulate the same sort of learning for my students? Could I use ipads, where the students write on the ipads and listen o their stories back with their friends around the classroom?

Simon Scott Blog: A learner's Journey (http://alearnersjourney81.blogspot.com/search/label/Blogging) 

Literacy in our Space - Toolkit Reflection

I recently attended a toolkit session held by another teacher where she reflected and talked about the different way they are teaching literacy in their space. In her 2/3 hub she found that many of the students in her class were very disengaged in their literacy sessions, the students didn't want to attend their reading groups, were not motivated to write and in general were very unresponsive to the lessons. Therefore, she took a new take on literacy to make the sessions much more interesting to the students and to get them involved in literacy. 

Through using 'learn, create, share' and putting the learners at the heart of the learning process this resulted in the literacy sessions becoming more interesting for the students, it gave them more motivation and and encouraged learner agency. The literacy sessions for the week are structures as follows; a theme/topic for the week is chosen i.e. eggs, on Monday the focus in on the learn strand i.e. find 5 facts about eggs from QR codes, library books etc, as the week progresses students then move into the create element i.e. create a poster and then at the end of the week the students share i.e. on seesaw or to their class members and the class members are engaged to comment on their posts.

The most important thing I took out of this talk was how this teacher has adapted her space and her literacy program to meet the needs of her learners. I love how this new process of learning has got the students engaged and has incidentally without them knowing has got them doing their literacy work. It has made the learning process fun and engaging. It is evident that student engagement is at the forefront of this program.  Further important points that I have taken out of this session includes;

• Working with their students needs and catering to these needs
• Acknowledging that what works one year with one group of children won't work the next year - you need to cater to the students in front of you and these needs will change completely from year to year
• The importance of student agency
• Ipad apps very effective for learn, create, share
• Encourages self-directed learners

On reflection, I now have some questions, what about the children that don't do the work? What accountability processes are in place and how do you ensure that all are working? Overall, I found the talk to be very valuable, it helped me to think of new ways to teach literacy in the classroom, gave me great ideas and really made me realise how important it is to change your programs to fit your learners as student engagement is the most important aspect to teaching. 

Useful resources 

Learn, create, share site: http://www.manaiakalani.org/our-story/learn-create-share 

Creating Balanced Readers in Guided Reading

Choosing the correct text type and level is essential for teaching reading to young learners. When choosing these texts we need to make sure they are going to help us to create a balanced reader, this is the take home message I got from the latest course I have been on regarding guided reading in the classroom. 

But what is a balanced reader? 

Reading is not just about ensuring that our learners can decode words, but it is also to ensure they read with fluency and correct phrasing and as educators it is our job to teach this. Through effective selection of texts and a good understanding of what each level entails, we can teach our learners to be balanced readers.

I completely agree with creating balanced readers, however,  I admit that as teachers we can look at reading as a 'numbers game', where we have a level in our heads we are trying to get our readers to. We move them up here if the students are decoding the words, however, are we focusing to much on the decoding and not enough on fluency, phrasing and comprehension. I know as a junior teacher where my children are reading a lot of books at magenta, red and yellow, decoding is a strong indicator to me as to whether they are ready to move or not. However, what I have come to understand is that we need to create a balanced reader, yes we want them to be able to decode words, but they also MUST make sense and understand what they are reading, they need to be able to read fluently and have correct phrasing.

The PM reading books have been carefully constructed in a way that allows us as teachers to teach our learners the meaning of different elements of text i.e. introducing question marks at level ___, introducing contractions at level___. This is not random but very specific to the level of reading the child is up to. We need to be aware of this, so that our specific teaching points circulate and hone in on these teaching points.The PM  reading books have been specifically created so that we are teaching students to be balanced readers, each level is teaching children a new bode to their belt in terms of coming a balanced reader. We need to ensure that as educators we are ensuring our learners are balanced in their reading so that they can understand and make sense of what they are reading, as this is important for their future at school and the outside world.

The Importance of Play for Developing Physical Literacy in Children

Physical literacy is defined as 

               “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding required by participants that allows them to value and take responsibility for engaging in physical activity and sport for life ” (Margaret Whitehead). 

We want to encourage children to be active, have the physical skills to be active in society so that they lead lives that are healthy and so they will value physical activity throughout their lifetime. 

We can use play as the medium to encourage physical activity for children of a young age. 

               “Play allows children to experience fun, joy and laughter in a way that is important to them. It’s also where they develop and practice life skills” (Sport NZ). 

SportNZ has highlighted the importance of play for children in their article 'The Importance of Play' and this has helped me to understand how play is important for children not just for their social, cognitive and emotional development but also for their physical development. 

We know that play can help children to develop their fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping and throwing, play encourages creativity and innovation, it improves children’s understanding of their relationship in the physical environment and can help to improve resilience (SportNZ). 

In addition to this children have a right to play under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We need to give children "time, space and permission to play" (SportNZ).  Children are not playing as much as previous generations due to;

• constraints around time
• changes to the environment they are brought up
• changed perceptions around health and safety regarding where young people can play
• increased technology resulting in more screen time 
• lack of adult awareness regarding the importance of quality play

We need to ensure that our children are given the opportunity to play as it is important for their well being. Play is a fundamental component of physical literacy in terms of building children's physical, cognitive, social/emotional and spiritual development. Play we want to encourage and facilitate includes; 

• a variety of play
• individual and group play
• space for play (man made and natural)
• sensory rich play and play that encourages lots of physical movement. (SportNZ). 

Through play we can encourage children to improve their physical competence and understanding of how to be physically active, thus building their physical literacy. Physical literacy develops throughout our life and we want to give children the best start to build this physical literacy.

Having previously completed a physical education degree I strongly believe that physical literacy is important in both children and adults. I do believe that things have changed recently and children are not playing outside as much anymore and they are losing some of these fundamental skills. There appears to be a lack of importance on playing outside and as a result children are not learning the skills of running, jumping, throwing and catching incidentally. They instead need to be taught these skills. I believe that physical literacy is important and that play is a good vehicle to improve this in children. Play is a natural way to encourage physical literacy in children, they enjoy playing, it is what children do, it is something that should be an essential component to their day.

Questions I now have is around time. How much time should children be playing outside? How can we bring more natural resources into the school. Do we need to schedule time for children to play outside beyond what they already do at break times?

Resources

The Importance of Play  https://sportnz.org.nz/assets/Uploads/attachments/Sport-New-Zealand-Play-Principles-Nov-2017.pdf 

https://sportnz.org.nz/about-us/who-we-are/what-were-working-towards/physical-literacy-approach/ 

How does Maths fit into a Learning through Play Environment?

How can we stimulate math learning through play? 

What mathematical concepts children are picking when they are learning through play and what we can do to facilitate their learning in the classroom?

Play is very important for learning mathematical concpets, play is the natural way that children learn and make sense of the world around them. Play is enables children to “explore, investigate, recreate and come to understand their world” (earlyyears). This enables children to grasp many mathematical concepts, including; experimenting with math language such as measurement, shapes, patterns and ordering, children can begin to understand positional words such as in, on, outside, they show an awareness of time, are aware of shape in their environment and become to me aware of conservation. Children are making sense of how number systems work and not just reciting numbers i.e. playing “supermarkets” ‘can I have 3 pieces of fruit?’. Children understand what three means and looks like.

Math experiences need to be both planned and spontaneous. Children need both teacher-initiated group work and freely chosen play activities. Children need to be interested in what they are learning, play is a vehicle, it gives students plenty of opportunities to experience mathematical concepts. There needs to be a balance between teacher initiated and child-initiated activities. Content matter and student choice is important for math as it creates meaningful learning experiences, play provides this opportunity. When students learn in meaningful contexts this enables children recognise their own strengths and interests and build on these through engaging in play they find interesting. 

So how do we facilitate this in the play environment to ensure our children are experimenting and learning about these mathematical concepts? 

• Sand and water, language dough, imaginative play, books and rhymes i.e. ‘one, two buckle my shoe…., physical play and nature help to introduce mathematical concepts to children. 
• Further equipment could include; a bakery kit: recipe cards, bowls, cooking utensils, supermarket kit: empty boxes, play money, scales, shopping lists, price tags, cash register, measuring and weighing kit: tools such as rulers and scales.

To implement this into my teaching I will ensure that children have a lot of access to these materials when they are learning through play. When talking to them and questioning them in the play based environment I will ensure that we are using mathematical terminology in our conversations. I will continue to run my math programme with both planned teacher activities but also with lots of play as I acknowledge the importance of play to stimulate math thinking. When they are playing they are learning and they don’t need to constantly be doing activity sheets as the play they are engaging in is very important to the concepts they are picking up.

Questions I now have include what about the children that are not naturally drawn to maths activities, do we want to push/encourage them towards more mathematical talk or will they pick up on mathematical concepts in any play they are incidentally doing? 

Resources/Readings

http://www.ero.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/ERO-Early-mathematics-March-2016.pdf

https://education.govt.nz/early-childhood/teaching-and-learning/learning-tools-and-resources/play-ideas/maths/

http://www.early-years.org/parents/docs/maths-through-play.pdf

Perry, B., & Dockett, S. (2007). Play and mathematics [Abstract]. The Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. doi:10.1107/s2052520617010769/ps5062sup1.cif

Longworth Education - Learning through Play

Looking back on the Longworth Education Learning through Play course the biggest thing I took was learning about the importance of children's ‘urges’ or schemas (patterns of repeated behaviour which allow children to explore and express developing ideas and thoughts through their play and exploration (flyingcolours.uk). Children may exhibit these urges through engaging in play such as construction, throwing, rotating objects, ordering, families, transformation (i.e. turning something into something else) and jumping. What I took out from the course was that all children have urges and as educators we need to facilitate these urges through play in the classroom.

A further important aspect I took out of the Longworth Education course was not being afraid of using the word ‘play’. Learning through play is a powerful learning process for the children and is our method of teaching. Play teaches children to develop their social, cognitive, mental and emotional skill sets through decision making, problem solving, creative thinking and sharing. Furthermore play helps to develop children's oral language through complex discussions with each other. There is real learning happening through play despite the perception that we might come across through the term ‘play’. We shouldn’t try to downplay it, we should embrace the term play. We need to look at play as a learning process not a privilege.

When children are playing it is essential that their play is self-chosen and self-directed, we want children to be intrinsically motivated. Play should be process driven, what students are making is the learning not the final product. One interesting point I took away from this course was for the children to have the ‘freedom to quit’. This was an interesting aspect that I hadn’t considered as important, but by allowing children to ‘quit’ this helps them to grow their intrinsic motivation. If they want to stay in the game they will explore all the possible avenues. However, if they quit, they have to deal with not going back into that game and finding an alternative. Another interesting point I picked up from this course was not interfering in children's discussions when they are sorting out a problem. It is important for them to sort it out themselves and not always run to the teacher.

Brain development is an important element that comes from play. By allowing children to be imaginative and involve themselves in fantasy and dramatic play this creates the highest level of thinking. Fantasy play stimulates and enhances children in their creative thinking. With creative thinking children are able to think outside the box. Along with creative thinking, children are also developing problem solving skills. Both sets of these skills are essential skills for the adult workforce.

As alluded to above, play should be an essential part of schooling. Five year old children are not coming to school ‘school-ready’. They are not ready to sit down in formal instruction as this is not developmentally appropriate at this age. Roughly 3-7 year olds are in the pre-cognitive stage of development. At this stage language development is important. They need to be involved in make believe play, open ended science questions, building with blocks etc. which will set them up for formal schooling at a later stage.

I have also learnt that it is ok to set back and just observe the children. We don’t have to be playing with them constantly and talking to them, but it is just as important to look back at what they are doing with their peers or by themselves and what skills they are using and developing.

Observations that I have already made in the classroom since the course includes the ‘ice-cream shop’. Children are ‘selling’ and making ice-creams from this shop. Already through playing this game they have demonstrated concepts relating to maths through giving and receiving money, right and wrong i.e. it is not right to steal money, problem solving i.e. how will we deal with the robbers who steal our money, oral language development through conversations with the setting up of the shop and creative thinking i.e. making ice-creams out of sticks because the rest of the ice-creams have been sold. This play has been fun and effective for the children and it is all intrinsically driven.

Questions that I now have from this course include the equipment. I would like to know how often we should be changing the play equipment around and how important student voice should be in this decision. I would also like to know, is it ok for students to be doing the same thing every day or should we be encouraging them to try out different play or extend them to other areas.

This course will and has already impacted my teaching. This course has taught me to observe children's urges and find ways that we can facilitate this in the classroom to support children in their play. Another important I note I took from this course is the language we are using surrounding play. Instead of using ‘play based learning’ we need to start saying ’learning through play’. Play is the major vehicle in the learning and this is what children are learning from. Play is the sole component to this learning area and not a contributing factor.

The next steps for my teaching will be to find more ‘random/small bits’ for the children to play with such as sand, shells etc. Play equipment doesn’t have to be and shouldn’t be expensive. A further next step is to look into our classroom now and see what adjustments we can make to make it even better to support children with their play.

Resources

Longworth Education. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.longwortheducation.co.nz/single-post/2016/12/11/Play-The-Four-Letter-Word-in-Primary-School

The Best Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2018, from http://www.institute4learning.com/resources/articles/the-best-schools/

Engaging in fantasy play could benefit creative thinking in children. (2016, September 15). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160915085731.htm

http://www.flyingstart.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Schema.pdf

Play based learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.discoverytime.co.nz/play-based-learning/