Recently at our centre we have been discussing clocks, time
and some of the significant times in our day at pre-school such as arriving at
9 am, lunch time at 12pm and home time at 3pm. Gonzalez-Mena (1998) also agree
with this stating that teachers can help children learn and begin to understand
about time by using points throughout
the day with time.
Today I was at the carpentry table with a group of children
and I noticed B. was trying to saw through a piece of wood. I asked B how long
he thought it would take him to get right through the wood. B shrugged his
shoulders and said “I don’t know”. I suggested to him that we could time him
using the clock. He seemed quite excited about this idea and pointed to the
outside clock telling me we could use that one. I was surprised that he was
even aware of a clock being on the wall outside as it is used by the teachers
and I thought it was great that B. was aware of the clock. I thought this was
an opportunity to take advantages of an awesome learning experience that happen
every day in children’s lives
(Friedman, 2005). He asked if he could take a photo of the
clock before he started and he started his task.
Halfway through his task B. had a rest and looked at the
clock to see how long it had taken him. B asked me to count the numbers on the
clock. We counted together and I explained to him that he had been sawing for 5
minutes. This links to the communication strand in Te Whariki stating that
children can develop experiences with some of the technology and resources for
mathematics (Ministry of Education, 1996). He took a photo of his half way
point and he seemed so determined to finish it. I enjoyed watching B. doing
this activity as I could see he really wanted to get to the end of his task he
originally set out to do. His perseverance was awesome!
Another child E. was now interested in what was happening
and was also encouraging B. to keep going.
Finally he was nearly through to the other side of the wood and the look
on his face when he made it through was great, as he looked so pleased with
himself. “Young children begin to
understand the larger world through their understanding of themselves and their
experiences” (Mindes, 2006).
We then went to check
the time on the clock and B took the last time photo of his activity and
together we worked out that he took 10 minutes to saw through the wood.
Ministry of Education (1996) suggests that children develop
the ability to enquire and explore their own working theories about the
material world around them. Through this experience I believe opened up another
way of learning for the children through technology.
After B. had finished E. wanted to have a turn
doing the same thing, which turned into an awesome teaching and learning
experience for the children using a clock. Looking back at this experience I
didn’t realize that it had so much technology happening at one time. From using
the clock to the tools and also the camera taking the photos of the experience,
technology was all around us
References
Friedman, S. (2005). Social studies
in action. Young Children on the Web,
November 2001, 1-9.
Gonzalez-Mena, J., (1998). Foundations
of early childhood education; Teaching children in a diverse setting (5th
ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Ministry
of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He
whāriki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media
Mindes, G. (2006). Social studies in
kindergarten. In D. Gullo (Ed.), K
today: Teaching and learning in the kindergarten year (Chpt. 10,
pp.107115). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young
Children.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog on the clock and how there were so many elements of technology, such as the clock, tools and then the digital camera to take a photo. By using the clock to see how long it took B to saw through the wood ,gave B an understanding of time. You could extend on this by doing it with different sized wood so he can see that a large piece of wood takes more time than a little piece. I like how child E joined and gave child B praise and encouragement to continue on with his learning experience what a fantastic feeling child B must have got from this. This learning experience started with a purpose and it met the needs of child B and then child E and it was very creative to use the clock to time sawing a piece of wood (Smorti, 1999).Did you have conversations afterwards about clocks and time and have you done any other activities involving the clock?
ReplyDeleteRobyn, I liked this blog because I had not even thought about clocks as being technology, which of course they are as they were invented to help us tell time (Ministry of Education, 2007). I do not go a single day without wearing my watch and I have experienced a lot of children that enjoy wearing watches even though they are not able to tell time yet. This shows that they are aware of the concept of time, however, and that it has a large impact on our lives. I also enjoyed how you incorporated the concept of time into a larger learning experience for the children. You challenged B and encouraged him to persevere and focus on the task until it was complete. Without challenges, children will not take risks and become confident (Greenfield, 2011). How will you expand on this experience? Maybe you could come up with some other activities that focus on the concept of time to extend this learning.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting piece of technology that these children are interested in, I would love to be involved in the conversations that the children are having about clocks. What a cool idea to get a clock involved in his learning experience, from what you were saying he was excited and interested in this. Have you thought about exploring different types of clocks with children? For example a stop watch. You said how you enjoyed watching B throughout this task, well I really enjoyed reading about B’s experience, it was really interesting. I loved his perseverance and confidence; to me this showed just how great the learning experience was for him. When children are able to solve practical problems it helps develops their self-confidence and well-being (Ministry of Education, 1996). Wow, there was so much technology being used at one time, it was an awesome blog!
ReplyDeleteI liked this blog because it made me think about the different things around us that are considered to be technology that Initially might not of thought of(Smorti 1999).i really liked that the child was aware of the clock and when had a break took a look at the clock to see how long it had taken him. I thought it was awesome that after the first child had finished the second child wanted to do the same thing which turend into a meaningful learning experience.
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