October, 2014

Using the Childrens Ideas to Drive Spontaneous Learning

Experiences
We know that childrens learning growth is contingent upon their interest
and engagement in the experiences they are offered. It therefore, becomes
essential that educators capitalize on the interests of children to enable
opportunities that offer meaningful learning experiences which heighten thinking
and learning.
As a conversation surrounding the creation of an arena was overheard,
Mrs. Murphy took note of the enthusiasm displayed by the two students as they
discussed the game of hockey. Realizing that this budding interest could be turned into more than just a 2D
drawing of the game,
Mrs. Murphy offer the boys her assistance in
creating 3D nets for the
rink the boys had drawn, in order to create a
they could play a game of hockey.
working arena where
With great
invitation and together
to bring the arena to
flight, other children
happening and came to

eagerness the boys accepted Mrs. Murphys

they began to gather materials that could be used
life. Shortly after the creation of the nets took
began to take notice and interest in what was
join in the creation process. After various
exchanges of ideas and some trail in error the children created two nets made out
of popsicle sticks, tape and paper. Looking down at the arena, N.V. realized
there was more work to be done as he said, guys, we need players too. The
children then began drawing, cutting and gluing pieces of paper until they had
created a Hockey team. Wanting to further the childrens thinking Mrs. Murphy
asked, How will your players shoot a puck? I notice your paper players arent
sturdy, Im not sure if their sticks will be strong enough. The children paused
for a moment, and then J.K. responded, We can use the popsicle sticks. The
children then broke popsicle sticks and taped them together in the shape of an
L, and fastened them to the players they had already created.
After the creation process was complete, the children negotiated with
each other to create Hockey teams and a scoreboard. Which was proceeded by
the playing of the game as the children spent the rest of their morning working
together as each child took an active role as either a Hockey player, score keeper,
referee or audience member.
The true engagement that ensued the invitation to move the childrens
interest from an illustration to an opportunity to bring their idea to fruition helped
facilitate a shared play experience. An experience where the children were active
communicators as they negotiated with one another, using both oral and written
language, as well as, body gestures to problem solve, experiment and gauge their
situation as they expanded upon one anothers knowledge. In addition, to
strengthening their self-regulation skills as they worked together toward their
common goal of enacting a team experience.
Note: video link has been restricted for privacy reasons

October, 2014

Making Time to Honour the Childrens Thinking

How do you begin to strengthen childrens oral language
and analytical skills, through meaningful experiences that give their
thoughts and ideas recognition?
As Sharon and I realized the need to give children opportunities
where their thinking was made visible in order to elicit further
understandings, as well as offer ourselves additional occasions where we
could listen to childrens competencies, we knew we needed to carve out a
dedicated period of time where children could be explicitly heard.
We used this idea to create sharing books, for each child. Books
where they are encouraged to represent their thinking, creations, and
explorations through visual representations, as well as through the written
word. We close each learning day with a whole group experience where
we come together for the children to share what they accomplished in their
books. After the children are given an opportunity to present and explain
their work, we encourage the childs peers to ask a question about
somethings they are curious about in their classmates work.
As we first introduced the idea of sharing books we knew this
would be a strong tool in building childrens oral language and
communicative skills, as they searched for descriptive words to explain
their thoughts and ideas. Additionally, building motivation for printing as
children try to convey their ideas through words. Each year when we explain the sharing books to the children
we are met with an overwhelming rate of participation as they create multiple artifacts of their creations in order
to share them with their peers. The intrinsic yearning children have to share their ideas can be seen daily, as
they depict, share, communicate and question each others learnings, while expanding their own
understandings and the understandings of their classmates.
This notion of honouring the childrens thinking, giving them early experiences to weave their ideas
throughout the fabric of our classroom, is a powerful
tool that not only builds the childrens self-esteem as
they begin to see themselves as a true member of the
learning community, but also allows the learning
environment to be infused with the childrens
contributions for knowledge growth. The intense
engagement the children show throughout our share
time, truly honours our desire to build a community
of learners within our classroom, giving voice to our
students, enabling them to feel valued as an equal
member of the class as their ideas are given as much
weight as the educators within the room. Co-

construction allows us to foster learning that is not only positive, but truly meaningful.
October, 2014

Co-Constructing the Learning Environment

As Halloween drew near the children began to demonstrate a strong interest in all
things scary and spooky within our imaginations. Conversations about monsters and
ghouls became the norm on the playground. The children began to act out their
knowledge and experiences surrounding traditional Halloween characters as they played
games such as zombie tag.
As an extension to these emerging interests Sharon and I saw an opportunity to
engage the children in socio-dramatic play experiences within the classroom
environment. Knowing that children need to be active participants in conceptualizing
ideas for learning to maximize student engagement, we wanted to discuss and give the
children an opportunity to contribute their ideas and skills to the learning environment.
During a whole group discussion we brought our noticing of the childrens
interests to their attention, we then planted the seed that we could turn our dramatic play
area into something different. The children instantly began sharing ideas about the scary
things they thought we could transform this area into and after much deliberation they
came to the consensus that a haunted house would be the best idea.
We then wrote down all of the ideas the children had for the haunted house and
discussed the things we could make and/or bring in
to start the transformation process. The following
day we took the childrens idea of creating a monster
door, and simply put out chart paper that had the
words, lets design a monster, and the outline of a
door on it, as an invitation for the children to begin
putting their ideas into action.
As the children began to create and construct
various items for the hunted house, they began to
demonstrate an enhanced interest in the dramatic
play area. In affording children an opportunity to feel
as valued contributors in the creation of the learning
environment, we found that additional opportunities for practice in
receptive and oral language skills was seen as children were actively
involved in role playing scenarios within the haunted house.
Co-construction of the sociodramatic play environment acted as a gateway for learning opportunities to
occur as it can be perceived that the heightened engagement of children
was due to their active participation within the creation of the learning
environment. When childrens ideas are valued, learning is pushed forward
as children begin to see themselves within the experiences they are offered.

October, 2014

Enabling Opportunities for the Children to Take a Leadership

Role within the Classroom
Taking the lead from the children Sharon and I introduced the idea of changing
our socio-dramatic play area into a restaurant after noticing many of the children
building fast-food restaurants in the block area. Using an idea web as a tool, we
gathered the childrens thoughts and ideas surrounding what we would need to have
and create to bring our idea to fruition.
During the following week we set out a variety of art materials and paper,
explaining to the children that they would have to create the items we needed for the
restaurant. The children began creating various pictures of McDonalds, narrowing
down the focus of our restaurant to a specific style of food and environment. Taking
the idea of creating a door from our pervious transformation in dramatic play, a
haunted house, the children decided they once again need to create an entrance point
where their play experiences would begin.
Working as a class the children painted, used cookie cutters, and used various
others art materials to make a door, signs, food, a menu and money for their play
experiences within their McDonalds. Our restaurant is still currently a work in progress as the childrens ideas
are still emerging and the process of creation is still continuing. However, the active engagement of the children
in co-constructing the dramatic play area has offered children the opportunity to become leaders within their
learning.
Children need opportunities to interact in personal, social and language learnings in a variety of contexts
in meaningful ways. The classroom must be an environment that truly honours
children where they are, providing supports and challenges for children in ways that
strengthen their desire to learn.
As educators it becomes our responsibility to instill the outlook and skills
children need towards a strong foundation for learning, which will support their
future successes as they continue to grow and gain new understandings.