Author: Flinders University Childcare

The last couple of posts have talked about the typical progressions in children’s mark making. We discussed firstly the power of children recognising that they can make a mark, and then children’s progression into circles, lines and ‘seeing something’ in the drawing. The third major stage of children’s mark making is representation, where children begin to draw things that are recognisable to both themselves and others. These representations take on a range of different subjects and may be drawn from life, memory, imagination or experience, or some combination of these. The important thing is that children are drawing with the intent of drawing some thing, something that is recognisable to them and to others. Children will often begin exploring representational drawing by drawing people or faces. This may be because circles resemble faces (developmental theory), or it may be because children want to draw what is most important to them, the people around them (social constructionist theory). Whatever the motivation, children often begin experimenting with the face, the body, the limbs. Typically it starts with a disembodied face, then perhaps arms and legs may be attached to this face. Next children seem to realise that arms aren’t actually directly attached to faces, but to the body, and a second circle or line may appear to represent the body. The important thing to realise in these early stages is that children do not think arms and legs are attached to heads, but that they are breaking the body down into the mostRead more

Last week I posted about children’s mark making, and where they tend to start. First children experience the joy of making their mark; the recognition that they have the power to change things in their world. Once they have discovered this, children begin to take control of the act of mark making in a different way, beginning to explore what the process and the look of the mark in different ways. Some educators and experts refer to the early stages of mark making as ‘scribbling’ – where the child is not trying to draw anything in particular, and neither do the marks look like anything in particular. What is more interesting at this stage is figuring out how to control the marker, and how to coordinate all those muscles at the same time, whilst simultaneously keeping the paper on the table and occasionally changing colours. This a complex dance children are choreographing! In this stage of mark making, lines and shapes tend to join together, with no distinct stops and starts. Mark making tends to start with circles, or circular shapes, and then move into lines, both vertical and horizontal, although it is important to remember that each child’s journey through mark making is unique and may not fit within the typical pattern (this is no cause for alarm!). Children may draw layers of zig zags or round shapes, or one single large motion across the whole paper. The mark may only occupy one corner of the paper, or itRead more

I spent some time in Baby House today, during a gentle patch in their afternoon. Whilst I was there, some children were waking up from their sleeps. As I watched the educators help the children readjust to the room, I found myself thinking about an article I read recently by Anne Stonehouse. She was talking about babies and very young children transitioning from the bedroom to the play room, and the significance of this time. I watched as these babies were gently taken from the darkened bedroom to the bathroom, where they were gently dressed. I watched as the educators carried these babies into the play room, speaking softly to them and letting them know what was going on. I watched these babies take a moment to sit and just be, then once they were ready, move off to say hello or to play. Not one baby was distressed. Not one educator was rushed. Everyone took their time and moved gently and calmly about the space. It all just felt so kind, the way these educators recognised the children’s need to move slowly and gently between sleep and awake. Their intentionality during this time, the way the educators seemed to place themselves and make themselves accessible, the way only one educator helped one child at a time get out of bed, was so considered, and so responsive to the children. What a beautiful way for these children to start the afternoon. What a beautiful way for me to start theRead more

Documentation and assessment for learning are an important part of what we do as early childhood educators. Documentation helps us to recognise what is working, what isn’t, what opportunities there are, what children know and what children are thinking about. It is essential for planning, reflecting and assessing against the Early Years Learning Framework and for measuring the ‘distance traveled’ by children. But what about children’s documentation; children’s versions of what they know and see? Their self assessment, their understanding of what they have learned and how far they have come? How do educators capture this and use it to inform their planning, reflection and assessment? Sturt House have introduced journalling as a tool to enable children to document their own learning. Each child has their own learning journal, which travels between Sturt House and home, and operates separately to their learning portfolio. As well as this, there are two journals that track learning relating to two key curriculum areas; gardening and cooking. The educators use these journals as a way of sharing the role of ‘documentor’ with children. The journals are a place where the child’s voice sits beside the educator’s voice, creating a balanced and shared perspective on events and experiences. The challenge for children’s documentation is finding ways for all children to be heard. Sturt House achieve this by taking a wider view of what constitutes recording. Children are supported to share their thinking in a variety of ways. Some children choose to write, have their wordsRead more

One of the exciting things we are exploring at Flinders is nature play; the idea that getting out of the everyday spaces and into the wild offers children an opportunity to take risks both physically, emotionally and cognitively. The Sturt House children recently did just that; took a risk (after an extensive risk assessment) and left the centre, heading into the wild space between the Flinders and the university. The educators planned this experience believing that leaving the centre and entering the wild would build learning dispositions in children, such as resilience, persistence and risk management. And it is obvious these opportunities did present themselves when you look at the photographs taken during the walk. The children left the path and tackled long grass, muddy puddles and slippery hillsides, all of which required dedication, commitment and team work to overcome. Perry commented; “See, I just go straight through; nothing stops me!” demonstrating the positivity and persistence the children experienced. The biggest challenge the children faced was getting up and down the steep hill. They shared theories with each other; walking sideways, not running, taking your time and being careful, going down on bottoms, and walking on the grass instead of the track as it had more grip. “Hey take my hand and I’ll pull you up!” one child called to the next. The children were then able to test their theories and discover which one worked best for them, then test this result on the next hillside. Science is aRead more

We’ve been very interested in a collection of wild peach stones that Sturt House shared with us in Preschool House over the last couple of months. Initially, I set up the lovely little balls in a tray with a collection of spoons and some different sized glass jars. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I predicted it could become a space for some playful numeracy.  And playful numeracy did emerge. Children were intrigued from the first morning the provocation was offered. I observed their play over the morning, noticing how children combined the different resources in different ways. Some children filled each jar using handfuls of stones that they dropped in masses, and some carefully and methodically moved one stone at a time into the jar using a spoon. Some children took delight in pouring the stones from one vessel to another, and some children worked to ‘trap’ the stones underneath the upturned jars. But all children were deeply engaged with what they were doing. That afternoon, I took a moment to sit quietly with the children at the table. Saffron was beside me. She had two jars, one big and one small. She filled the small one first, and as she filled it, she counted the peach stones. She made it to twenty before making eye contact with me and asking what comes next – “21” I answered and she continued on. “27. 27 peach stones fit in the small jar” Saffron announced. “Now how many fit inRead more