Centennial College Early Childhood Education

Student Name: Sayeda sultana

Agency: Muppets Children’s Centre

Age range of children: 3 years - 3 years and a half

Centre Focus: Emergent Curriculum

ANECDOTAL OBSERVATION

On September 25, 2012 at 3:30 pm, the student teacher went with ECE teacher and the children for a community walk. The children were then asking questions about the leaves. We answered their questions. In addition we said to them, “How does the colour of the leaves change at the time of season change.”Most of them collected leaves and said, “Fall is coming, all leaves are in the ground, and we will jump, crunch, and crunch.” Also, most of the parents said, “Children are very interested about leaves. They collect leaves from the playground, the park, and whenever they find leaves they start collecting leaves.” The children brought leaves to class and started comparing the leaves with one another. They also exchanged their leaves and mentioned the colours while exchanging. As the children started playing, they developed more clear understanding of leaves and their nature. Their conversations included:

”Does the leaves walk?” – “No leaves fly. Fairies wind blow and leaves fall down.” “Why do you think these leaves change colour?” – “They are bored, they don’t like one colour.

POSSIBLE CUES

Developmental cues:

Sort objects logically on the basis of one

dimension, such as colour, shape, or size.

Understand basic size, shape comparisons.

Able to classify by colours and types.

Understand simple questions appropriately.

Develop animism crediting inanimate

objects with life and lifelike properties such

as “Leaves are bored, they don’t like one

colour.”

Interest Cues:

Interested in nature.

Collecting leaves and comparing.

Stories of how leaves fall.

Possible Interests Web:

Small group experience (circle) to confirm interest in the topic: (describe all parts of

your circle)

In the circle time, I put a bamboo basket of leaves different in size, colour, shape and

texture. I asked the children to help me sort the leaves by colour, shape, size and texture.

Then I hid them in various places around the class, and asked the children to tell me

something interesting about the leaves. We discussed about when leaves change colour, and

then we began an interesting discussion. “N” knows when fall begins leaves start to change

their colour. “K” said, “I think leaves are bored, so they change the colour.” Then we started

exploring on a large paper what we know about the leaves and created a web. After finishing

the web, I said to the children, “Find the hidden leaves.”

Procedure:

Bamboo Basket, Different colours of Leaves Floor space and use of circle time to discuss and explore the leaves.

Consider the following and fully describe how you INTEND to explore your chosen experience with preschoolers

How will you introduce the experience?

According to the book titled Development profiles, Pre-Birth Through twelve, three-

year Children sort objects logically on the basis of one dimension, such as colour, shape, or

size, answer simple questions appropriately and ask increasing numbers of questions,

particularly about location and identity of objects and people. (Allen, K. & Marotz, L., p.134,

135). During free play time, some time I will place before the children some leaves of

different colours and tell them to sort by colour. Some time I will read various types of books

about leaves such as “Blue’s fall day, Fall Leaf Project.” I will provoke them to hide the

leaves and find them from different place in the classroom. I will ask them some open ended

question like “Where do leaves come from?”, When do leaves change colour?” etc. I will also

give to the children different types of leaves to touch, feel, and explore.” According to Piaget,

children learn through exploration and using all their senses. Vgotsky agrees with Piaget that

children learn by doing and emphasize the role of adults. Adults need to ‘scaffold’ children’s

learning by asking questions, giving hints. (Bullard, J., 2010, p.11, 12). Children are

interested about the leaves; now, the role of an adult is to scaffold their learning and provide

them material and environment to get more experience about leaves.

What lures might you use to attract the children?

The lures I will use are to bring leaves of different colour, shape and size and decorate

the bamboo basket with the leaves to attract the children. Also, I will use sentences, such as

“How many leaves we have?”, We will hide them many different place in our classroom.”

“Who want to sort and hide leaves?” Then I will start singing “leaves, leaves, falling down,

falling on the ground, red and orange, yellow and brown falling on the ground.”

Preschoolers require support and guidance to fully explore an experience. How will you guide and support their interactions with the materials and each other and with you? COLLABORATION

I will guide and support their interactions in the following way:

In the free play time, I will make a circle with children. I will first make a set up of the

experience that involves leaves. I will ask them open ended questions to provoke each other

to initiate conversation between them. The questions could be “Where do leaves come from?”

“Which season leaves change colour?” Also, I will ask the children how they feel when they

touch leaves. Then I will said to them,

“Who want to play with leaves?”

“Who like leaves to sort and hide?”

“Which colour do you want?”

Then I will give them clue how they will hide the leaves at different places in the class room.

I will then ask, “Who want to seek the leaves?”

“Let’s go to find the leaves.”

“How do you feel when you find your leaves?”

Closure is important in any planned experience. How will you end the experience with the children? What guidance strategies would be helpful to use?

At the end, I will repeat the conversation about the leaves. I will help children to find

the leaves. I will also give cues by telling them, “We found out our leaves, we know lots of

things about the leaves, and we are going to finish our activity.” I will also ask help from the

children for wrapping up the set up. I hope they will be enjoying while helping me.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR 6 EXPERIENCES IN THE PROJECT, COMPLETE THIS GROUP (CIRCLE) TO BE SURE OF THE CHILDREN’S INTEREST IN THE TOPIC

Arrange a date and time to implement your chosen experience using the elements you defined in your procedure.

I observed in my placement center that children are very curious about the natural

things such as leaves. Based on my observation, I have planned that on October 22, the

children will play leaf fishing game in the circle time. I have arranged various kinds of

leaves. I will tie 3 feet of string to a wooden spoon and attach a magnet to the end of the

string, and attach a paper clip to each leaf. Then I spread the leaves in the sand table and let

the children try to catch the leaves.

Materials needed: various kinds of leaves, 1feet string, wooden spoon, attach paper clip, and

a magnet.

Name of the experience: Leaf fishing game (cognitive and fine motor activity).

Explanation of the experience:

During free play, I will make a circle with children. I will set all the materials

mentioned above in the sand table. I will start to communicate to the children about the

leaves, by asking different questions about the colour, shape and size of the leaves. Then, I

will provocate them by asking open ended questions such as “Who want to catch red one?”,

“Who want to catch green one?”, “How many leaves do you have to catch?”, “Who have

found three big leaves?” I will also give them clue saying, “Under the sand there are lots of

leaves, if you want you can search, and find some yellow one.” Also, I will read a book about

leaves. I will them why leaves fall down and where they come from. I will give them visual

knowledge by showing leaves’ pictures of four different seasons and explain them how they

change colour from time to time. I will sing a song about leaves like “Fall is here, fall is here,

yes it is, yes it is. We can see the leaves change. Then they fall on the ground. Blow away,

blow away.” The children will also be singing with me. According to the book titled

Children, Gardener (1993, 1995) believes that schools should foster all intelligences, not just

the traditional linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. Teachers should capitalize on

the strongest intelligences of children. Some students may best understand unfamiliar

cultures, for example, by studying their dance, while other students may understand these

cultures by studying their music. (Kail, R. & Zolner, T., p. 341).

Appropriate Developmental Goals:

This experience will support the fine motor skills by holding wooden spoon and

catching leaves. It will also enhance their cognitive development by identifying different

colours and sorting objects logically on the basis of one dimension, such as colour, shape or

size (Allen, K. & Marotz, L., p.133, 134). Moreover, it will provide an opportunity of a

sensory experience of hard and soft feelings. This experience will enhance the language skills

by using the words like hard, red, yellow, and also by asking questions. It will provide social

and emotional development through collaborative performance. It will also provide the

development in physical (fine motor), cognitive, social, emotional and language domains and

support the development of a whole child.

Evaluation and Reflection:

NOW THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED THIS GROUP EXPERIENCE (CIRCLE):

HOW DID IT GO? ARE THE CHILDREN STILL INTERESTED IN THE TOPIC?

It was really a great experience. The children seemed very enthusiastic and interested in future

exploration of leaves. They were very excited in catching leaves from the sand table. They

caught leaves by colour, shape, and size. Then they compared the number of leaves with one

another. The experience was really a success.

WILL THE INQUIRY PROCESS WORK WITH THIS TOPIC? WHY OR WHY NOT?

This will work for several reasons:

Fall is the best time to pick leaves as they change colour. Moreover, it is the best time to teach the children about the leaves.

Lots of leaves are easily available.

Leaf is natural and safe.

We have enough time, space and scientific equipment to explore the leaves.

My second web provides lots of opportunity to explore in several curriculums.

Rationale:

Dear parents,

My name is Sayeda. I am a doing my placement in Muppets Children’s Centre. In

couple of weeks I am going to implement six planned activities based on my observation, and

children’s cues and interests. My selected topic is related to children’s everyday experiences

with leaves. After observing the children and speaking with them at circle time, I have

discovered that they are so much interested in leaves. Most of the children enjoy playing with

leaves, and most of the time they are talking about the leaves, and they enjoy encounters with

different leaves. Moreover, leaves are available all around the place. We can integrate leaves

in the curriculum to utilize as tools in order to enhance their development of all domains.

According to Vygotsky, the difference between what a children can do without the support of

a more experienced caregiver and what the children can do with that support (Kail, R. &

Zolner, T., p. 248). Preschoolers are naturally curious and they will have many opportunities

over several weeks to explore leaves, and they will be benefited in all developmental

domains. For example, they will feel texture; they will count leaves and define different types

of leaves. It is an open ended experience which they can extend more. The children will learn

how many colours the leaves change, and when leaves change colour, so they will learn about

the seasons. Therefore, these experience and environment will work for children as a third

teacher. This experience is beneficial for preschooler children because they are now at

preoperational stage, and they will learn how to use symbols, such as words and numbers,

colour and texture.

During this time, the children will:

Sort, classify, and categorize leaves.

Explore and crunch leaves

Compare and contrast the similarities and differences

Make leaves of different colour with play dough

Goop with leaves, using leaves as paint brushes and draw leaves

Collect leaves and pretend that children are squirrels and getting ready for winter

Make head gear and waist gear with leaves and wear them and dance with leave songs.

We will be posting evidence and samples of our work. Please check in often and share

this experience with your children!

Thanks for your cooperation,

Sayeda Sultana, Student of Centennial College.

KWHL Chart

K (Know) W (What do we want to know) H (How will we learn it) L

Fall, winter, springWhen do leaves change colour?

Make leaves of different colour with play dough.

Green, yellow, red, brown

How many times do leaves change colour?

Different colour. Goop with leaves, using leaves as paint brushes and colour leaves.

Red, yellow, big, small, round, square

How are leaves different? Collect many leaves of different size, shape, and colour and sort them.

In winter all the leaves fall down.

What happens to the leaves in the winter?What happen to the squirrels?

Collect leaves and pretend that children are squirrels and getting ready for winter.

Smooth, rough, rough, and dry.

How we feel when you touch a leaf?

Place leaves in the water and sand table to explore and crunch.

Make happy sound, crying, laughing.

How do leaf sound when wind blows?

Make head gear and waist gear with leaves and wear them and dance with leaf songs.

Bibliography:

Kail, Robert V, and Zolner, Theresa. Children A Chronological Approach. Toronto:Pearson, 2012. Print.

Allen, K. Eileen and Marotz, Lynn R. Developmental Profiles. USA: Thomson, 2007. Print.

Bullard, Julie. Creating Environment for Learning. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc., 2010. Print.