Entry Two

My centre is a Reggio Emilia centre where more natural colours and items are being used each day.  I don’t know much about the planning that happens for the children in the under twos area as I am not part of the planning part of the week.  But when I am sitting down with the children they are learning so much with lots of different skills, as they are under two they are learning new skills at a very fast rate.

I support children’s learning in the area of social sciences by teaching them that there are different cultures in our community by using different languages around the children with the English word as-well so they learn that there is more languages out there in the world not just English and Te Reo since we are a multi-cultural centre.  While out in the garden we learn that pulling all the plants out isn’t good for the environment but if we water them enough for them to grow and with the sunshine we will end up with yummy vegetables for lunches, we have a few children in our area that love the hose and to fill that love with the hose we let them water the plants, not only do they feel accomplished that they got the hose but they are also helping the environment and feeding the plants (Ministry of Education, 2007) “Working together helps children develop confidence in their ability to develop relationships with others” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 94).

In our centre we encourage children to be a part of different culture celebrations; we celebrate Matariki for Māori week with art work, and words of the week teaching staff, parents and the children simple words each week.  They participate in the cultural settings that we are doing such as lights of festival, when we bring in holi power and paint each other’s faces “children are helped to participate in social and cultural settings, demonstrating consideration for others through qualities such as caring, fairness, tolerance, and generosity” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 95) the children learn to also take turns when we are doing painting of faces.


With learning alongside the children and using Te Reo in the centre we have a board up for a word a week which can last a couple of weeks, this word is changed when the children start saying it and understanding what it is they are saying.  This started with the word pātara which is bottle and an important word for toddlers when asking for their bottles.  Nāpu for nappy which we have noticed children saying nāpu and tapping the back of their nappies which tells us they understand the word we are using this gives them another way to communicate with staff “as children’s abilities to communicate develop, they are able to form good relationships with others and participate constructively in a range of social and cultural settings” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 97).

References

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. 

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning                Media