Learning on mathematics with Mickey Mouse and Winne the Pooh

Our centre is currently working on a “mathematics” project as a majority of children have shown a huge interest in numbers, shapes and time, etc.  The children were spending a large amount of time on mathematical learning in different activities, storytelling, singing songs, drawing, constructing, puzzles etc.  My mind automatically flooded with questions, such as how can I extend children’s learning on mathematics through their favourite activities?  What kind of mathematics knowledge can I introduce to the children?  What other learning experiences could I offer the children?  Through research, I found some amazing software teaching mathematics for young children, I thought the computer could be a great resource for supporting and encouraging children’s learning on mathematics.

On a recent Friday morning, I set up the computer with the mathematics learning software (Disney Learning Preschool) for the children to explore.  Just as expected, the Mickey and Pooh features attracted children’s attention quickly.  H who is a nearly three years old boy gripped the mouse without any hesitation and started to explore the programme.  I noticed that he did not know how to play the game but he was confident in pressing the button of the mouse.  I explained the game to him and allowed him to choose the answer. He was very engaged in counting Pooh’s honey and finding the same shape as Mickey.  Soon after, a few children came to join us.  Unfortunately, H did not want to give others’ a turn until I asked him to share.  The following week, most of the children were fascinated with the computer.  The children always reminded us to turn the computer on by pointing to it and saying “Mickey, circle”, “Pooh bear.”

After the day I, used computer with H to further his learning on mathematics, I discussed with his dad about his learning and behaviour.  His dad told me H was given enough space to explore the different modern technology at home.  He knew how to turn on the TV, use the DVD player, and he enjoyed sitting on dad’s leg to use the computer, he even had an iPod Touch at home to play with (WOW)!  

As we all know, mathematics is important as it provides children with the skills and knowledge to support them in other curriculum areas.  Mathematical activities are embedded in their real-life activities which can help children develop language as they ask questions, develop fine motor skills when they touch and move objects, as well as improve  their social skills as they work with parents and others on a problem (Copley, 2006).  Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aoteraroa/early childhood curriculum promotes a holistic approach to the learning and development of children with its foundation being the learner, and the engagement of the learner within the learning environment (Ministry of Education, 1996).  Holistic teaching promotes a view of mathematics as a positive, self-motivated, self-directed problem-solving activity at the time that children first develop their mathematical beliefs, habits and feeling.

I chose to use the computer to extend children's learning and development of mathematics, because Clements (2002) advocates the use of computer in teaching mathematics as children learn through exploration, creative problem-solving and self-guided instruction.  Clements’s (2002) exploration and creative problem solving aspects of computer use are in line with Yelland’s (2002) who identifies that children are particularly interested in computer games which are challenging and narrative.  To me as an early childhood educator, I believe technology is not perfect, and it is evident that it is unpredictable and messy but one of the main implications was responsibility for teacher to guild the children through the activities.  “Technology cannot be separated from the responsibility that comes with it” (Mulbery, 1992, p.27) as it holds great power.  I will be aware of selecting software in accordance to children’s stage of development.

Sharing the chilcren's learning and mathematical thinking with parents is another effective way to extend learning from the centre, Greenman (2001) emphasizes that parents have a huge impact on the development of their children.  Interaction between parents and children are directly linked to children's opportunities to learn.  In that way, children will feel that mathematics is a part of their life as a whole, not only in an early childhood setting. 

Reference list:

Clements, D. H. (2002). Computers in early childhood mathematics. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 3 (2), 160-181.

Copley, J. V. (2006). The young child and mathematics. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Greenman, J. (2001). Empowering parents? Child Care Information Exchange, 3, 56-59.

Yelland, N. J. (2002). Playing with ideas and games in early mathematics. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 3(2), 197-215.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aoteraroa. Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Mulberg, C. (1992). Beyond the looking glass: Technological myths in education. In C, Budgett-Meakin (Ed.), Making the future work (p. 145-153). London: Longman.

 

Self-portrait from a mirror

Self Portrait - no aid



Self Portrait - using mirror
and teacher guidance

 One day, I noticed N, who is a girl and is nearly three years old, was concentrating on her drawing. I kept quiet and moved a bit closer to observe.  I could see that a girl was being drawn on her paper. After N finished her work, I pointed to her picture and asked her, “who is this?”, “That’s me!” she proudly answered. “Look at my dress, is it pretty?” The girl drawn was wearing a flowery dress, her eyes were different sizes and she was missing a nose. “Yes, I like the dress, but did you forget to draw something on your face?” I said pointing to the picture. She looked at her picture, and then looked up at me with a puzzled face. I decided to introduce mirror as a technology for N’s self portrait drawing. I went to the shelf and brought a mirror back. I then asked her to look at her reflection in the mirror and compare what she drew. “Is there anything different?” I asked. After comparing carefully, N realised that she forgot to draw a nose for herself in the picture. “N is not got a nose” she laughed, and quickly drew a nose for herself. We had a little discussion on her hair, eye colour and hair length. After this meaningful experience, I encouraged the children to use a mirror to look at while they drew their self-portraits. Once the children observed themselves in the mirror, their self-portraits were much more alike.

Teaching young children about technology from an early age is very important as technology is incorporated in their society, their world and it will rule their lives (Mulberg, 1992). As we are a Reggio Emilia inspired centre, I believe that the Reggio Emilia Approach is an important way to implement technology in early childhood settings in New Zealand. Facilitating the environment as the third teacher will help children’s learning, and will develop and expand their technological practice (Cadwell, 1997). The environment was set up to be the third teacher whereby, the child N was engaged with the surrounding and learnt from it. He was given lot of opportunities to explore himself whether through this self-portrait activity and the way he communicated with me and his peers. In N’s learning experience, I used open-ended questions to excite her interest and curiosity. As MacNaughton and Williams (2004) states, questioning is an important technique because it invites the children to discover something for themselves. To continue supporting N to be an independent learner, I applied a mirror in her environment to encourage her to observe herself carefully and think deeply, thus assist N’s development on self-awareness. As an early childhood educator, I believe that using several resources to facilitate children’s learning would help them achieve the goals easier (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004). After exploring the mirror, N then identified the problem with her portrait and found a possible solution.

In this self-portraiting activity, mirror is a technology and tool for children learn and observe themselves. Drawing is a skill that we practice daily with the children. We experience ourselves from the inside out, mirror gives us a brief glimpse of ourselves from the outside.As Pelo (2007) describes, a self-portrait is an intimate, bold declaration of identity. I realised that self-portraits are great way to have child look at themselves and think deeply about body awareness, help the children build their self-esteem and see themselves as unique individuals. During this self-portraiting from the mirror, the children are both the artist and the subject, self-portraits are expressions of how the children see themselves at the time. This is in line with Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aoteraroa/early childhood curriculum, “the arts are important to the growth of self-expression and to a sense of self-worth and enjoyment” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.94). Through the discussion, children developed “increasing understanding of their bodies and how they function” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.48).

Reference list:

Cadwell, L, B.(1997). Bring Reggio Emilia home: an innovative approach to early childhood education. New York: Teachers College Press.

MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2004). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice. Frenchs Forrest NSW: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aoteraroa. Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Mulberg, C. (1992). Beyond the looking glass: Technological myths in education. In C, Budgett-Meakin (Ed.), Making the future work (p. 145-153). London: Longman.

Pelo, A. (2007). The language of art: Inquiry-based studio practices in early childhood settings. Yorkton, Canada: Redleaf Press. 



The discovery about the light!

Light has fascinated children in our centre for little while.  I have enjoyed observing the expression of children’s faces when they discover the sun spot on the floor and the reflection of the mirror on the ceiling.  I wonder how can I support and extend children’s learning on light?

I researched on this area through books and internet, and became aware of the overhead projector may be a good tool to help children’s exploration on the light project.  The overhead projector is an old-style technology with the light bulb securely enclosed within the base unit so it is safe for the children to use independently.

I set up an overhead projector in our utility room in this morning.  When the door is opened, N a two years boy, is the first one to notice the light. He ran very fast into the room and looked the reflections on the wall curiously.  It took him a few seconds before he noticed the origin of the light—the overhead projector. He moved closer to the overhead projector, and started to explore it.  He walked around the overhead project, when the light of the overhead projector is in his eyes, he squinted.  He even tried to block the light from the overhead projector by his hands and looked right into the light. Then he had a fiddle with the projector and adjusted it.  When he shut the lid of the light, the whole room was turned dark.  To my  surprised, he wasn’t scared of the darkness, and repeatedly moved the lid open and shut.  When T who is nearly three years old girl came to experience and explore the overhead projector, she was more fascinated by the different objects next to the overhead projector.  At the first she put a cardboard on the overhead projector and noticed that was block most of the light, so she gave it up and chose a chain and some bites, she twisted the chain moved the bites on the overhead projector around and watched the reflection on the wall. Then she got a cut plastic bottle.  “Look, it’s a flower!” said T in excitement. She even put her hands on the overhead project, “my hand is like a shadow, Rain. Look at my fingers. It looks funny, very, very big.” T said.  She invited N and I to put us hands on the overhead projector as well to confirm his theory.

After having a big laugh, T kept on working according to her plan. Putting different shapes and coloured objects on the overhead projector.  Look the amazing picture she made for us through the overhead projector!

What a fantastic and adventurous journey! A journey full of laughter where children explored the light using technology.

I believe that exploratory stage is important in toddlers’ learning as they discover and explore the properties of the materials in their environment and “learn by doing rather than being told” (Ministry of Education, 1996,p. 23).  Through the exploratory stage children develop technological knowledge of how to manipulate of the materials and how to use these materials effectively (Napper, 1991). 

Technology is everywhere, by exposing new things to young children and allowing then to explore how things work and function, they could possibly transform it into something unique as they are our future technologists (Muberg, 1992).  The overhead projector activity based on the children’s interest—light. It not only extends children’s learning on light, also was encouraged them to experiment their own working theories. The children gradually piled up a selection of materials on the surface of the overhead projector, watching how the images projected onto the wall change.  They become more and more interested in the projected images and move over to the wall to interact with them.  The size and shapes of the images on the wall prompt a discussion about how the images might be created.

Moving backwards and forwards between the overhead projector and the wall enables the children to develop their reasoning skills and make connections in their understanding of light, shadow and magnification.  Creative thinking skills develop in a context of imaginative play, with the children seeing the connection between a solid object on the overhead projector and the image created on the wall.
Through this light project by using the overhead projector, children have access to technology to help developed their ideas of light and spatial understands by seeing things from different spatial viewpoints and “moved in space and ways in which spatial information can be represented” (Ministry of Education, 1996. p.90).

Reference List

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aoteraroa. Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

 

Mulberg, C. (1992). Beyond the looking glass: Technological myths in education. In C, Budgett-Meakin (Ed.), Making the future work (p. 145-153). London: Longman.

Napper, I (1991). The development of technological capability in young children. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 16(3), p.23-27.

What's with the sicssors?

Through observing the children’s daily activities, I noticed that a number of toddlers (2 to 3 years old) are enthralled with scissors at the moment.  They are very keen on activities using scissors inside and outside.  One morning, I observed P, H, and K at the table which set up with papers, magazines and scissors.  They were trying very hard to accomplish their goals of using a pair of scissors.  They used scissors and different resources and made a cutting mess on the deck.  While observing, I had noticed that it is a challenge for the children to cut paper when they don’t know how to hold the scissors properly.  H was using his thumb and index finger holding the scissors with blades pointing down.  Therefore his grip of the scissors was not very firm and the blades kept pointing at the opposite direction as H wished.  

Then I demonstrated and help them to cut paper apart and how to hold scissors correctly.  I showed them how I would hold the scissors, by putting thumb in the smaller loop and other fingers in the bigger loop.  I offered for them to try.  I had provided them with the opportunities to get used to opening and closing scissors.  Then the scissor cutting process became more achievable.  Soon the children have seemed to master the concept of using the scissors to cut papers apart.  I encouraged them to cut lots of strips and gave them many opportunities to practice.  Shortly they have the control of their holding hand and the cutting hand and were asked to practice how to cut straight line and squiggle lines. 

Now our children are really into control, power and independence, and so the feeling of cutting up something with scissors blades.  They were encouraged to cut papers, magazines into various shape to express their creativity.  I used open-ended questions to extend their cognitive learning and make connections with their cutting creation.

A technological object which promotes children’s fine motor skills and helps to develop hand-eye coordination is the scissors.  When scissors are held correctly, and when it fit a child's hand well, cutting activities will exercise the very same muscles which are needed to manipulate a pencil in a mature tripod grasp (Lippincott, 2004).  And that, Napper (1991) states that development of “technological capability” is an important idea to help advocate technological learning in early childhood setting.  Young children have the technological capability as their ideas are the beginning of creating a new or improved technology, and children are seen to work successfully with man-made environments and mad-made things through the use of their technological skills, knowledge and judgments to help solve problems and produce objects. 

A child’s cutting ability not only depends on their fine motor control of the scissors but also on his/her visual understanding of what he/she wants to cut (Carpenter, 2000).  Therefore, as an early childhood educator, I should offer the children plenty of opportunities to develop their hand-eye coordination in different scissor activities.  Scissor skills are built upon children's past development and it is important to introduce new skill in a logical progression not by leaps. Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aoteraroa/early childhood curriculum says that “in exploring the physical environment, children gain increasing motor and manipulative control and skill in using tools and materials safely” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.98).

By providing materials and help them advance their scissor skills, the children found another way of expressing themselves. I used open-ended questions to start a conversation about their creation.  Children develops rational verbal communication involves thinking process, this enables them to express their own ideas and describe what they are making (Berk, 2003).  This also helped the children reflect on their creations and actively involved children in the learning process for example, I encouraged children to question themselves and find out the inspiration of their creation (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004).

Reference list:

Berk, L. E. (2003). Child development (6^th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon and Pearson Education.

Carpenter, S.B. (2000). Scissor sorcery: Cutting activities for Early childhood. (2nd ed.). The United States of America: Humanics Learning.

Lippincott, C. (2004). Fine motor activities for preschoolers. Retrieved from  http://make-the-grade-ot.com/Fine%20Motor%20Activities%20For%20Preschoolers.pdf

MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2004). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice. Frenchs Forrest, NSW: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aoteraroa. Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Napper, I (1991). The development of technological capability in young children. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 16(3), p.23-27.