This section is where students collect observations, pedagogical process, curriculum choices, implementation, documentation, reflection, and notes as they create environments and experiences with children indoors/outdoors. Students will refer to:
- ECED 1200
- ECED 1350
- BC Early Learning Framework (2019) Section 2
- Living Inquiries (BC ELF, 2019)
Pedagogical documentation (Pedagogical Narration) is a creative process and there are many ways to design and document what you, staff, children and programs are exploring. The following examples may help you plan your Pedagogical Documentation space.
How do we do Storying in the Juniper room
Narration: The first moment that I had seen in my practicum came about when the educators in my room decided to go on a hike around the TRU hill. An important question that I keep in mind whenever I go to practicum is around the question of storytelling. Storying is an important concept that I wish to observe and discover with the children. The aspect of storying has been a concept that is so interesting to me as a student. There are so many directions that storying can take you, so when I noticed the children taking particular interest in a tree truck found at the top of the TRU hill, it really connected to my own question on how storying is seen in the Juniper room. At the top of the tree truck there is a hole in which the children named the fairy house. In their own story, there is a fairy that lives right at the top of the tree truck. Each time the children hike around the TRU hill, they try to see if she is found at her house.
Evidence:
Description: The choices that were made at this moment are all related to the importance taken by the Juniper room to share the idea of storying with the children. The educators and even I as a practicing student take into account and observe the importance of storying and the different ways in which it can be presented and shown. I’ve seen how the educators present one way of storytelling to the children and that is by always having the access to books and story reading. I think this consistent access to storying by all in the Juniper room creates those opportunities for the children to explore their own idea of storying. These opportunities in turn created that moment for the children to create that story of the fairy house. Their own definition of storying is made by imagination and oral storytelling.
Your interpretation of the significance: The children’s investigation of the concept of oral storytelling and imagination struck me as the most important aspect of this fairy house moment. The children not only investigate the idea of telling stories on their own, but they also work together to tell stories. All of the children in the group contributed to this fairy house event, but from what I’ve heard, the entire Juniper room has been engrossed in this tale. Imagining these stories and collaborating to create the concept of the fairy home. Another crucial topic that children are constantly investigating is the idea of oral storytelling telling a story through voice and gestures. The children through different ideas and concepts were seen by the story fairy house. I believed that children in the Juniper room were affected significantly by this moment.
Narration: The way that land is utilized and perceived was the second important event. The Juniper Room is based on the belief that children’s growth greatly benefits from being outdoors. For this reason, the Juniper Room frequently goes on hikes across the TRU campus and hills. The way the educators utilize the land to show children the value of the outdoors and the land they live on is when I started to make meaningful connections between the hikes and the environment. The moment that I found significant was when we were on a hike and the children were walking on a pathway that was not yet known to them. It was the thought process of the different children about the hike itself. The excitement about seeing the new path and being able to relate to the land. They became more aware of the pathway and connected to the view of the places they live.
Evidence:
Description: The educators utilize the entire terrain for the benefit of children as a result of the choices they have made thus far. The instructors in the room utilize the land to teach children about the value of both the environment and the land they call home. In addition to the playground that children use, educators also use the surrounding acreage so that the children may explore the surrounding area. The Juniper also made a decision about the wording of our descriptions of the land. For instance, when it rains, speak positively instead of negatively and explain to the children the value of rain for our planet. On this specific hike, the children were complaining of how cold it was, but the educator explained calming about the time of year and land in which they live. I find these moments are in constant relationship with one another.
Your interpretation: The fact that the Juniper Room not only emphasizes the significance of the land but also forges a link between the people and the land due to their constant interaction is one element that I do believe to be significant. There are several situations in our culture when it seems as though people and the land are two distinct entities that almost never interact, yet this is untrue. People and the land are in constant communication with one another. The Juniper room emphasized the value of people and the land constantly being connected and appreciating the land.
Narration: The third moment that I found important was when the children and I were gathered around the drawing area and the children began to explain why they liked drawing. One child asked me the question: did I know why they liked drawing so much? I answered that I did not know. They explained that it was because you can draw anything with anyone about anything. The children at the table proceeded to share all their stories and drawings with me.
Evidence: collaboration between the children and I.
Description: The choices that were made when the children and I were sitting at the drawing area were just sitting down and listening to the children’s voices. I find sometimes when I ask too many questions about the children’s drawing they are either too busy to answer or don’t want to be disturbed. So choosing to just sit and wait until they spoke actually allowed me to learn more about their thoughts and drawings that I would have not learned if I were to bombard them with questions that may overwhelm them. They felt comfortable enough to explain their thoughts and imaginations, which I find important to this moment.
Your interpretation: I found the most significant part of this moment was actually seeing the importance of not imposing your presence on children. Asking too many questions to children overwhelms them to the point of maybe being annoyed by your presence. But sitting and listening to the children’s voices when they were ready to share showed how important it is to observe and wait. Their voices and thoughts come out more clearly when they share when they are done drawing, and their excitement to share goes up when that happens.
Narration: The fourth moment that I found important was the way in which play is used in the Juniper room. Because the Juniper Room is an outdoors program, the play takes place mostly outdoors and, most importantly, with the land. The moment that I found important was when the educators in my room decided to use the snow mountain that was accumulated from the snow ploughs. It was a very eye opening moment I I first thought there was not enough for the children to actually have a good experience to play. But because of all the opportunities that the educators take to show the importance of the land. It was amazing to see the children play with the pile of snow and explore their own imagination to enhance their play. At some points, the snow mountain was a castle, a motorcycle, an obstacle to finish, and so much more.
Evidence:
Description: The choices made here in this moment to promote the children to play were to encourage that play is an important part of a child’s growth. This philosophy of the Juniper room is play-based learning that is shown within their program. Opportunities are made by the educators to be able to express and do play in different places. Those are the choices being made, but as well, the educators provide the place and observe play, but play is mostly done by the children.
Your interpretation: The reason as to why I found this moment significant was because it was the way in which I responded to the view of using the land around us to promote play. I first responded to the situation with a lack of understanding and confusion by viewing children playing on a snow mountain. Seeing and observing how my own mentor promoted play, as well as the response of the children to that environment and their play.
Narration: The fifth moment is the process where both exploring art and the outdoors meet. The outdoors play an important part in the program, but the Juniper room tries to provide multiple ways for the children to explore various concepts in the outdoors. This moment was when the children were discovering the different patterns of art that they could make with different colours on a piece of wood. The exploration of art outdoors had an impact on the way in which they viewed nature. They questioned the difference between in colour, in patterns, and in ways in which the colour disappeared into the wood.
Evidence:
Description: The choices that were made by the educators to provide all the opportunities to introduce different ways for children to discover all kinds of concepts such as patterns, colour combinations and the ways in which different materials react to one another. The process is seen and observing the needs of the children. What was significant about this particular moment was the way the children began to consider those many ideas. Activities that combine the concepts of using natural resources and other materials, like paint, are endless. My goal is to be able to recognise such concepts and identify those possibilities. To be able to recognise the need for opportunities for children to experiment with various materials while exploring ideas.
Your interpretation: The part that I found important about this moment was that I made the connection with different types of materials for the children to explore various concepts. The children exploring how different materials interact especially with natural materials was a concept that was important to this moment. Natural items with limitless potential frequently inspire children to play in more complex ways. Natural materials are beneficial to the senses. They vary in sizes, hues, scents, and textures. This way of bringing opportunity to the children will encourage a more complex play where their ideas connect to recent and new information. This is why this moment is significant.
There are different moments that make me think about the connection between children and
place. In my own experience from practicum, my mentor and other educators do a good job at
utilizing the space around them. The place is not constricted and confined to just the caribou
yard but at using and acknowledging the space around them. One moment that I think is
important to the question of space is when we as a group go for hikes into the mountain and
discover the place known as the Pirate ship. The Pirate ship is a dead tree that lays about on
the side of a trail, its huge branches make it hard to miss. The children love the tree; it is a
place and space that invokes thinking and imagination. The part that I found very Significant
is in the way in which the children spoke about the image of the tree, they themselves know
that the tree is dead and that it will no longer continue to grow like other trees. But they are
amazed about the many possibilities that the dead tree can offer. The Pirate ship is a place
that allows for the children to imagine different adventures and stories. One day it can be a
sinking ship, another day it can be a spaceship flying to space where a child is the captain,
and the other children are the crew. I find that the children connect and go beyond and do not
think about the tree just as a dead carcass but push limits about what the tree could be. Both
reality and imagination play a role in the way in which the children interact with the children
using all the branches and trunks as handles and bottoms of spaceships and ships. The
children create those stories that associate with the place. Which is Significant to how they
interact and think about the place
The statue game in the Juniper game is a story that has been passed on from child to child. Storying in the Juniper room is a form of communication that I see within the children and the educators. The statue game is a form of storytelling that I have seen in the Juniper room. The game is one that is seen the most when we go on our walks around the Tru Campus. The children go for walks most days and have different places around the area of Thompson River University that they frequent. One place that the children and educators are frequent is the horticulture garden. The horticulture garden is a place that is surrounded by different types of plant life, and at the end of the garden lies a garden with a pond that contains live fish. The first time I witnessed the game was the first time I had visited the garden with the children. Most walks that we do are towards the TRU hills to the very distinct pirate ship tree that lies in between the hills. The statue game has different concepts that the children have expressed from child to child.
One account of how the games work is by Penny, a child from the program who expressed that the game is played like this.
They (the children) can be any statue they want and be on any statue they want.
They stand up, or they can sit up if they want.
They run away because they need to run away. If you are touched, then you are the new owner.
Another account from a different child named Reese.
You become a statue and stand to be safe. There is an owner who can tag you.
You have to run away from the owner. Then you run away because you need to.
Then you run back to the place that you were standing on and touch it to be safe.
If you are tagged, then you go to jail. (Jail being the bench just right outside the gazebo and that stands right under the huge maple tree.)
Another account from another child named Rae
You have to run away because you have to.
You can’t let anybody grab your spot; otherwise, jail.
The story of the statue game changes from child to child but the game rules are essentially the same. The statute game is a story that lets us share information in a way that creates an emotional connection between all the children.
Consensus between the children can be seen through the means of meaning-making of the statue game. Creating a story through an already existing game to make a game that has meaning to each child.
It was a meaningful things to be able to experience the last bus trip with the children. It was time the children would share their new stories or stroies they created together. It was a meaning making trip that i was glad I was a part of. For example after spending some time at the local park there was a traill around the park that we explored together. The children were fancianted by the geese and ducks and even made up stories about some. There was a child named jaxon who picked up a stick that had a mini stick on it and said he was fishing for ducks and fishes. It was a meaningful ways in which they explored new parts of kamloops creating a sense of community with a land that might have been familiar and unfamiliar to some. The ways in which they all asked different questions about certains things and how we explored new ideas like as we were waiting for the bus back to cariboo we saw a lot of heavy machinery constructing a new building and the children all asked different ideas and questions about what could possibly be going there. I am glad this was a time was a i able to be a part of with the children for the last time.
