I'm sure many of you can relate, teaching young children is a bit like herding
cats, but it was completely joyful.
And so today I wanna share some moments and some experiences
that I've had in the past week.
The first one was me coming to my senses.
I had those name over writes laminated, and ready to go with a
whiteboard markers the whole lot.
And.
Thankfully I came to my senses because otherwise I would've ruined kindergarten
in the first week for 13 children, and I mean, these were four year olds.
As I was looking at them, they were struggling to hold crayons and
paint brushes, and I was ready to teach them how to write their names.
What was I thinking?
I mean, so very luckily, and I'm very pleased with myself, that I actually
shook myself awake and realized that this would've been a serious rookie mistake.
But there are two things that happened that I wanna share with
you that were completely joyful and that really made this week.
The first was we were outside playing and, in the area where we play,
there were loads of acorns and some of the children got really, really
interested in these acorns and started collecting piles of them.
And so I got a plastic bag and I suggested to this little boy that we would put
these acorns into our nature tray when we were back in our learning space.
And it's just a tray on the shelf and I've got some other seed pods
in there and a magnifying glass.
So that's what we did.
The next day we were in the morning reading once again
from the creation story.
And so I was talking about what things are from nature and what are natural objects,
and so I said, well, nature or natural objects are like the acorns we collected.
They're seeds and so I went about explaining how seeds fall on the
ground and they're covered in soil, and then it rains and the sun shines.
And I was doing this of course in my very best curiosity inspired voice.
And then a gigantic tree grows like the gigantic oak tree
we have in our play area.
And I especially used the word gigantic because it was in the story, in the
creation story that we had been reading.
And so the next thing you know, these children are gathering round.
And in this tray was also a pine cone, and one of the children picked up a
pine cone and one of the seeds fell out.
And I explained that these pine cone seeds have these little wings and they flutter
to the ground like little helicopters.
And then of course they're covered in soil and rain and sunshine, and
they too grow into giant pine trees.
Well, lo and behold, I then took one of these seeds and I dropped it from a
height and it fluttered down just as I had explained, and the squeals of delight
surrounded the room and the children just became so enthusiastic and excited.
They were shaking the pine cones, getting the seeds out, looking with
the magnifying glasses coming up to me and saying, is this a seed?
Is this a seed?
They were completely fascinated with this whole idea of these seeds
being planted and then, or, you know, falling into the soil and
then growing into ginormous trees.
So that was the first moment of highlight that was an absolute
celebration of learning this past week.
The next was a few moments before or after that, I can't quite remember now.
Um, one of the little girls again about the creation story piped up
and said when she came to school this morning, she saw the moon in the sky.
And I just thought, wow.
And I asked her what was she wondering about that?
And she responded, why was the moon and the sun in the sky
at the same time in the day?
And so I could have just applauded her intelligence.
I could have just applauded her fabulous, uh, observation and left it at that.
But I hopped up, grabbed a big piece of paper and I wrote down her question.
And so what we're going to do with that is that next week we are going
to explore that question and go do a little mini inquiry on that, and
I'll get some books and we'll read about that and we'll explore why do
we see the moon in the daytime sky?
And so these were just two little examples of how simple everyday
moments that I could just have left.
Those acorns could just have been left.
I could have noticed, I could have said something and that could have been that.
I could have just acknowledged the child's observation about the moon in the day's
time, sky, and left it at that too.
Nothing could have happened.
That would've been it, and I could have carried on with other stuff.
Instead, I let my curiosity and my enthusiasm infect these children.
And without any fancy resources, I used their fascination to spark
curiosity and awe and wonder about the world around them.
And so now the trick is of course not to just leave it there.
I now have to go and use those moments in the coming weeks and
turn those fascinations into rich learning experiences that these
children are going to remember.
And so as you go about your teaching next week, either in your homes or in
your classroom, look out for those little moments where you can turn everyday
curiosities into rich learning experiences for children, because they will be more
likely to remember those, than they're going to remember anything that you do, I
don't know, on a worksheet or in a book.
So as you go about your teaching next week, look for those little moments
that you can go deeper and make learning come alive for children.
And if you're interested in learning more about strategies that you can
use to spark curiosity and make learning come alive for children
Then my mini course professional development might be just
what you're looking for.
I'll leave a link for you in the show notes.
That's it for today.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for your support.
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So until next week, same time, same place.
Please stay blooming curious, and take care of yourself.