Nurturing a sense of wonder about spiders

Last week, one of our children Sadie, brought a spider in from home, to share with her friends at kindergarten. It was quite a large spider that Sadie held in a plastic container and told me, ‘It was on my daddy’s jersey and it was creeping little like that (showing the actions with her hands) and it’s a wolf spider and there it was on the roof and then it climbed back in side. It climbed though the cat flap’.

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This spider, combined with Sadie’s infectious interest, immediately drew a crowd of children, all wanting to see and to know more. Sadie told them, ‘He eats praying mantis’s and cockroaches – we need to find some food now’.

With this comment all the children went in search of some food, and almost immediately we came across a praying mantis. This caused a great deal of discussion. Sadie was keen to feed it to her spider, but many children thought this wasn’t the right thing to do. Sienna told me, ‘Don’t put it in there Christine, don’t do it!’

Although we entered into some lengthy discussions about food chains, in the end it was a unanimous decision not to feed the spider the praying mantis, which meant we went looking for another bug. Soon we found a small red amphipod under the carpentry shed and fed this to the spider.

For the next half an hour we all watched avidly – would the spider eat the bug or not? The spider certainly looked interested and tried to catch it between its legs but apart from that nothing much else was happening. As we watched we began to discuss whether or not the spider could smell or see the bug. Sadie thought for a long while whilst watching and told the group, ‘I think they look with their eyes’.

Unfortunately, whilst engaged in our morning whānau time, we returned to discover the spider had died. Sad as this was, it had its advantages, meaning we could now carefully examine it under the microscope, which in turn subsequently led to days and days of investigation, inquiry and discovery relating to spiders.

Inquiry based leaning is a tool that we use a great deal at Mairtown due to the continued success we notice this style of learning has at extending children’s interests, fostering problem-solving and in-depth creative thinking and of course allowing the children to pose their own questions and direct their investigating.

Inquiry-based Learning is a dynamic and emergent process that builds on students’ natural curiosity about the world in which they live. As its name suggests, Inquiry places students’ questions and ideas, rather than solely those of the teacher, at
the centre of the learning experience. Students’ questions drive the learning process forward (University of Toronto)

As the children’s teacher, what I love about this style of teaching and learning is that it is deep, you can’t help but notice how absorbed and fascinated the children, when leading their own investigations, become. This is not learning that is one off, happening over just one day – this is in-depth, active, and involved. It’s concerned with the children noticing, questioning, negotiating their ideas, sharing their thoughts and being prepared to feel challenged at times when they may need to change their opinions or ideas in the light of a new discovery.

One can think about Inquiry-based Learning as a continuum that moves from closed to open. The more teacher-directed the learning, the more closed the inquiry. The more student-directed the learning, the more open the inquiry (University of Toronto)

Here is some of our learning and what we thought about spiders at the very beginning:

Spiders are black

They eat worms, flies, cockroaches and praying mantises

They spin webs

They have two eyes and eight legs

 For young children the most effective learning happens when they have repeated opportunities to use materials and resources to develop understandings of new concepts and ideas (EYLP, 2012)

Through our inquiries of spider hunting (we found some lovely specimens in the whare and shed!), examining these under the microscope and magnifying lens, observational drawing, watching some short online documentaries, the use of some wonderful books and plenty of opportunities to re-visit our spider investigations we discovered:

Spiders come in all shapes and colours and can be patterned.

Most spiders have eight eyes

Spiders have two parts to their body; one of these parts is called an abdomen

There is one species of spider that lives in and under water

Some spiders can bite (this led to lots of discussions, drawing and book searching about white tail spiders which most of the children were very familiar with)

The spinnerets are on the abdomen and this is how a spider spins its web

Spiders have lots of different names

There are jumping spiders

Spider’s webs come in different shapes and sizes and some spiders can spin a web that is like a tunnel

Misconceptions we became aware of:

The biggest misconception we discovered was that although many of us (including me) thought Sadie’s spider would eat the praying mantis, our research told us this is more likely to be the other way round (the praying mantis would eat the spider).

We also discovered (by using the microscope) just how very hairy spiders are - especially the legs. Many of the children transferred this new knowledge onto their drawings below.

This has been a wonderful journey.  I know that as the teacher leading this work with the children and though their questions, their desire to learn about spider facts and their innate need to complete observational drawings of spiders from the many books I sourced from our local library – I have, with the children, had my curiosity fostered, nurtured and I too learnt alongside my ‘spider fans’ a lot of new facts about these very interesting creatures.

Here are some examples of the children’s observational drawings – all based on some of our interesting New Zealand spiders.

Peter's Tunnelweb spider (with the spiders web next to it)

Sadie's spider from home

Taika's spider

By fostering a culture of inquiry, teachers help students become more discerning observers and thinkers. Critical-thinking skills deepen and become habitual. Curiosity is cultivated and preserved – and for good reason. As David Orr (2004) cautions, “the sense of wonder 
is fragile; once crushed, it rarely blossoms again” (Natural curiosity a resource for teachers, p. 24). 


Isaac's Therididae

Matteo's Water spider

Toby's silver-tailed spider

Reese's (left) and Sam's (above) White-tailed spiders

Sienna's horizontal orbweb spider

Emma's native forest orbweb

Noho ora mai,
Christine

Room on the Broom provokes imagination and creativity

The book titled ‘Room on the Broom’ written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, would be one of our children’s most favourite and frequently requested.  At the end of last term I was working with a group of children, and I thought I would share their learning with you.

Room on the Broom is truly a special story that seems to really capture children’s attention from the first page to the last; as well as foster their curiosity, excite their imaginations and spark a full spectrum of feelings from joyful, sadness, and even slightly scared.  It is one of those books that children seem to absolutely love to listen to, and explore the story over again and again.  It’s wonderful how some of the children fully immerse themselves into taking roles of the characters and complete the sentences from the book.

“Adults should read and tell stories, provide books, and use story times to allow children to exchange and extend ideas, reinforcing developing concepts of, and language for, shape, space, size and colour as well as imaginative responses.”

Te Whāriki p.73

One of our children explained how they had a DVD of Room on the Broom at home, so they brought it along to share with the other children who were interested to watch.  It was fascinating to observe the children’s reactions as they watched the story come to life in animation on the big screen.  Afterwards they were keen to share what they most enjoyed and remember about the story; Emma said “The best part of the story is the monster it says, ‘buzz off that’s my witch’ to the dragon and then the dragon gets a fright then let’s go of the witch, then flies far, far, far away.”  Peter said “I love the dragon and he has fire coming out.”  Kayla said “I like the witch flying on her broom stick.  I’m not scared of the monster or dragon; I’m not scared of anything.” 

While discussing with the children what their favourite parts of the story were, my attention was drawn to the children’s attention.  I could clearly see they were enthralled with the ending of the book where it reads “Iggety, ziggety, zaggety, ZOOM!  Then out rose… a truly magnificent broom”.  This part of the story seemed to really captivate the children, which subsequently led them to design their own magical brooms sticks.  I love how a story like Room on the Broom provokes imagination and creativity amongst our children.

“The imagination is energetically deployed and reaches its peak in children’s early years of life; however, it gradually declines as children grow older.  But, imagination is precisely what is needed to keep us intellectually flexible and creative in modern societies.”  Wright, 2010

Here are some examples of the children’s work;

Miller: “Mine is a superhero broom.  The black bit is the thing that makes it go really fast.  This is the wing so it can fly.  I’m going to do dots; these are going to scare away the meanest dragon of all.  This is the light so they can see at night time.  I have giant seats and a roof so they don’t get wet.  This is a rope so they can rescue people if they have to.  Here is the superhero window.  This red button is to make it go super fast.”

Mia:  “That’s the witch, that’s the dog Zippy, that’s my cat Bingy and that’s my bird.  This is nice and round so the bird doesn’t touch the roof.  The bird is so tall on this perch.  These fairy lights sparkle in the night, only at night.  They don’t sparkle at the day time cause it will make the batteries ran flat.  The roof is so they don’t get wet and they will always have a home.  You’re not allowed to touch in there or you will get fire on your hands.”

Tyler:  “This seat is for the witch, this one for the cat, this one for the dog, this one for the bird, and this one will be for the frog.  That is for the petrol so it will go.  These are magic flowers that magic the broom to go.”

Reese:  “One seat for the bird and a shower for the frog.  That’s a door for a special place to put stuff in.  I’m making a bus broom, so it can fly and have wheels.”

Emma:  “This is my broom stick, here is my purple chair and I have a light at the front and light at the back so I can see.  I’m going to put on a roof on mine.  My broom stick can be a boat, submarine or bus.  This me on my chair, I’m going to have a pet mouse, this is going to be its chair.  Now I need a blanket for the mouse.  I’m going to draw a dog and this is its chair.  I got a roof so nobody gets wet from the rain.  This is my frog.  This is my bowl of strawberries so I can eat them.  I need a magic wand and heaps of little lights with a little house for the fairies.  I’m drawing heaps of wings to help it fly.”

Taika:  “That’s me and that’s Noah and Mummy and my Dad.  It has a steering wheel to drive and it has lights.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”  Albert Einstein

Ngā mihi nui
Susie

Our extended playscape

Nau mai haere mai. Welcome to term two at Mairtown Kindergarten.

In our absence over the term break, a year of visioning, planning and teamwork came to fruition when Cole from Stoneworks came in to re-develop our grass mound area.

Our vision was to add some extra natural features to our current mound to transform it into a more inviting and challenging space for children’s play and engagement. This would be created through the addition of volcanic boulders and a pole-climbing wall.

We are absolutely chuffed with Cole’s work and his ability to create an extension of our playscape that looks like it’s always been there!

Whilst the additional features are quite simple, as anticipated they have been a key focal point for children’s play and exploration over the past two days. This beautiful natural landscape has become another space for our tamariki to challenge them-selves, test out physical and motor skills and most importantly take new risks.

 

Taking risks allow children to learn at the very edge of their capabilities. Risk taking allows children to push themselves further and to extend their limits. Risk taking in play allows children to vary the familiar, to try out new ideas (Tovey, 2007)

A big thank you to our wonderful parent support group for fundraising the money to support our curriculum initiatives, and to our kindergarten community who recognise the importance of developing their children’s ‘can-do’ attitude by allowing them to explore and learn in an enabling environment.

Ka kite ano

Kim

(If you are interested in contacting Cole Jobe from Stoneworks his number is 027 2262 046)

'Awhi is good medicine'

We are currently enjoying the term break here at Mairtown and will return on the 20th April. I hope that you all had the opportunity to get out and make the most the Easter weekend's glorious weather and if you are lucky enough to be having an extended holiday with your tamariki, we wish you a refreshing and inspired break.

Recently on my visit's to other kindergarten's in NKA I had the pleasure in reading this little phase about hugs at Tikipunga. It's a beautiful reminder for us all...

Awhi is good medicine.

It transfers energy and gives the person hugged an emotional lift.

You need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs for maintenance and 12 for growth.

Scientists say that hugging is a form of communication because it can say things that you don't have words for.

The nicest thing about an awhi is that you usually can't give one without getting one back.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Pai tou ra

Kim