Ideas from the Tga Kindergarten’s after completing this activity!
How can we capture children’s ideas?
With emergent learning in a kindergarten setting, the role of the teacher is to process what’s heard and done and incorporate this into the vision. In small groups in the sand pit, inside, the native area and the vegetable garden at our host kindergarten, teachers discussed what questions or actions they could take to capture the children’s ideas for the future of the kindergarten. These are their favourite ideas:
- Observing and playing alongside children- seeing what they are focused on.
- Allowing children to explore and be challenged (in terms of health and safety)
- Asking ‘what’s in your garden?’ or ‘what food do you like to eat?’ As an opening to discuss what they would like to see in the gardens
- Create a story of questions i.e.
Teacher -I wonder why that bird flew inside?
Student – I think it’s hungry
Teacher – I wonder why it’s hungry? Or What could we do to help it?
- Posing problems
- Let children draw what they would like to see on a whiteboard
- Roleplay
- Use different senses
- Let children try their own ideas (i.e. Kids setting up for the day)
- Moving equipment around and observe how children respond. Ask why they like it?
- Modify their environment
- Provide natural resources to build on their knowledge i.e. a hollow log- what is this? Where has it come from?
- Providing books e.g of a story read about a barn owl that provoked children to want to create bird feeders
How can we capture our communities’ ideas?
- Share children’s ideas with parents and ask them to add to them
- Develop relationships with families before asking for input
- Involve families in gardens by encouraging them to bring in seeds (therefore planning things that different families know and like)