Interactive Programming Communication

We are having great success using a large Webbing Board in our room. Thanks to someone for this great idea (I would love to take credit, but alas it was not me!) this is proving to be the perfect solution to our issues of communication due to language and literacy challenges.  Working with a group of people representing 11 or 12 different countries all at different levels of skill in reading and writing in one common language can be a big challenge! The Webbing Board allows us to use pictures and fun artsy touches to convey our program in one easy to read place. Both staff and parents can add to it, which means we have a collaborative program.   Parents are happy to see the daily growth of the board, and have a great time with the pictionary aspect!!!! Not always neat and tidy but fun, informative, interactive, inclusive and easy to use cross-culturally.

Where we're at: Report on ELECT in our Sector

There are those who embrace change as a new and exciting opportunity for growth, and those who find comfort in the safety of the status-quo. Where do you stand?

 

Coffee Grounds Mud, leaves, rocks and sticks= dinosaur habitat!

Sheri-Anne Giggey (from our program) recently presented at a messy play workshop/share session at the November CMAS conference in Toronto, where it became apparent that there are still numbers of Educators working in our LINC programs who are resistant to the ELECT principals- they sited reasons such as; 

• It is too much paperwork, no time to do it;
• we have all the craft ideas for Theme Based Programming already, why change;
• We want to do ELECT but our Supervisor won't let us - or- I want to do it but the other staff won't support me- how do I convince others?
• I'm too old to change the way I do things. Too old to learn a new system.
• ELECT , especially Emergent Programming is too hard to explain to the parents.
• There is no time to involve parents in the program/ it's a scheduling issue.
• We don't have paid time to do this extra work.

 Of course, those in the "embrace change" camp have no issues, in fact they are finding ELECT to be the most educationally and creativity liberating system to come along in years. 
Yes, it is a messy system. Often it is hard to find the order in the chaos until the end of the day when you can stop and think about where you have been, the adventures you went on, how they connected and what you will do tomorrow. You think about all the things that you came up with because of something someone said or did that sparked an idea. You realise how much dynamic programming might have missed if you were still running a Theme Based Program.

I was recently at an art convention (professional illustrators) workshop and 'emergent' is exactly the process of collaboration and creativity that they go through; the very process that results in the movies and TV shows we all love to see, in the great architecture we admire, and in the discovery of cures to disease.

Given the freedom to grow, the freedom to think creatively -  unfettered by change resistant Educators, perhaps the children we have in our care now will be curing Cancer in the future.

Coffee Mud 1/2 cup of coffee grounds 1/8 teaspoon vegetable glycerin (or shaved clear soap) 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar 1 cup of very hot coffee 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil optional: 1 tablespoon instant coffee *Glycerine is optional too but it will make things smoother

Lighten- up ... It's only a mess!



 Lighten up on restricted "proper use" of materials and see what happens! Today I cleverly put out a big pile of play dough and the Letter Stamps thinking it would be a good way to help the ones who are off to KGT this fall. HA! they had their own needs and interests.  Two of the children at play are expecting new additions to their families so they needed to work on more important issues ... so lighten up, don't jump in to stop what you might not understand, see where they take their own play! I spent the morning observing what turned out to be elaborate work (messy-sure, but the value of the play is far more important I think) and not anything that I "expected"!







Child Builds a
 play dough baby!

 


Construction toys double for a bottle!



It takes a village! She gets her friend to
dump out a bin of toys to make a cradle!



Baby needs a blanket, tissues are handy!




Dump out another basket of toys
to make a diaper bag!

Take your baby to work! Baby sits
on the counter at the store  they made in the
puzzle area(our store would not do!) so that
Mom can feed and care for her
while earning a living.

  







 



























Individual Portfolios

At Main Street Childcare, we use hanging files on the counter for each child. Located in the front of the folders is the ELECT document to encourage staff to read when time allows.
In the files, a collection of "stuff" is inserted in the appropriate child's file folder. This may include a drawing, painting, a photo or a scrap of paper where we/ they jot something wonderous down. This could be a first English word, comment, a story or picture.
This hanging file method works for us and provides us the flexibility to add more to each individual file later. When completed we then meet with the parents to share their child's creations and successions. It also gives us the opportunity to introduce ELECT to parents.

Daily Explorations

At Adult LINC Childcare, the staff capture children's play and discoveries with pictures and download the pictures onto the computer desktop for the parents to view upon pick up.

Through the EYES of a child

The children at Confederation LINC program were given a camera to capture points of interest. They clicked the camera button over and over taking near and far shots throughout the program. The little photographers had captured amazing points that we adults would otherwise see as insignificant. The children's prints were developed in 8x10 photos, laminated and posted throughout the room for display.



ESL Staff discussing art with students



Parents examining art

 ELECT - Principle - Partnership with families and communities- Photo Art Project con't.- We have mounted and opened our exhibit in the offices of Graybridge Malkam. We discussed the mounting and decided to take a professional approach after looking online with the Kindergarten Children at different art exhibits and how they were curated. As well, the children recall how the exhibit they saw at the National Gallery was mounted (complete with description of the exhibit!) . They wanted it to look like "they are in the the museum".
I have attached a couple photos of our opening, unfortunately you can not see the pride on the children's faces(we did not want to publish children's faces,sorry) as they described(reflection) how they did their work to their parents. I wish I could have understood them, but of course they were all speaking in their own home languages.  Some of the families have brought their relatives in to see the work, and I have taken pictures to email to them.  One family is moving the program before the exhibit is done so they will send me a forwarding address to ship their sons work to them.  We have received rave reviews from office personnel outside of the Child Care, and visitors to the office. Clearly this has been taken very seriously by everyone with great respect given to the works of art. Apart from the obvious benefits to the children, this project is further building community for our families, creating opportunities for dialogue about ELECT and shining a positive light on the importance of "child's work".  It is making adults think! 

We visited the national Gallery where there was a photo Exhibit on object compairason. The children were intrigued and started using the photo block cameras to take pictures of objects in the room. We got out our digital and have been letting them use it to take pictures, then pulling them up on the computer and discussing composition, form , color and content. Excellent language tool! Note: put the safety strap around their wrist to avoid disaster when they get so excited they drop the camera!!!!
Our next step will be to print them and frame them for our own Graybridge Gallery!
I added some examples of the hundreds of shots they have taken.

One of our parents just suggested we publish a newsletter/gallery program for the rest of the students so they can come view the childrens work...great idea.

If anyone else has ideas we are happy to hear them.

Photo Art Project

Baking Soda experiences

From our baking soda and vinegar experiences, we began capturing details of our volcano eruptions and have started observation journals of our findings with the children.
Our book is displayed on our parent board and a copy on our children's book shelf.

Observing Children's Play Articles

I have read some interesting articles on observing children's play and thought you might be interested in reading the articles as well.  
Perhaps you'd like to share documentation tools that work in your program.

Click on this link to view observation documents

Enjoy your read!

CLIC

Travaillez-vous comme éducatrice ou coordonnatrice pour le programme CLIC?

Partagez vos expériences avec la mise en oeuvre du cadre d'apprentissage, L'apprentissage des jeunes enfants à la portée de tous dès aujourd'hui.

LINC/ CLIC

Do you work in a LINC program? Let us know how you've implemented ELECT in your program. Visit our Contact Us page for more information.