Using Scissors

                                                         Using Scissors

The non digital experience I have chosen to look at is using scissors, this is because the children have had a strong interest in cutting things out, they love to cut paper with nothing on and cut out what ever shape they like but they also enjoy finding pictures from magazines to cut out. Because of the children enjoying using the scissors I thought it would be a good idea to ask the children if they wanted to pick some photos off the computer of themselves and their friends to cut out and they could keep them or make a picture of all the photos they cut out, the children thought this was a great idea so we picked the photos and the children begun their cutting. The smiles on their faces as they cut the different photos out and how they loved to see themselves and their friends. Once the children had finished their pictures they wanted to put them up on the wall so that they could see them every day. This then started a new discussion about how we were going to get the pictures to stay on the wall, the children were all excited about getting to use the gun stapler. There was great team work going on and the children were willing to let me help them out with using the gun stapler as it was very hard to use.

I feel that this whole experience relates to the belonging strand in Te Whāriki as it is our job to make sure they children feel like they belong at the centre and that they know they have a place. By allowing the children to pick their own photos and cut them out and also stick them on the wall only helps more to make them feel welcome. Te Whāriki says “children and their families experience an environment where: they know they have a place”.(MOE, 1996,p54.). This experience with picking their photos and cutting them out and putting them on the wall, doesn’t happen very often but we do allow the children to build on their skills with using scissors, the scissors are always available for the children and there is a wide range of materials to cut out. Again like in both my other reflections we encourage the toddlers to take control of their own learning. This way the other children are able to watch and observe what the others are doing with the scissors and learning of them.

From this experience of the children using the scissors there is a lot of technology that the children are learning about. First thing is that they paper are cutting can be used for a lot of things folding, writing on and cutting. Then the scissors they learn that if used the right way they are able to cut through lots of materials and that the scissors are able to cut shapes that children want, by moving their hands. Then they also use about the gun stapler and how by pushing the top of it you are able to make the staple come out and hold their picture on the wall. As teachers I feel that we forget about how important the small things can be for children, just learning about what scissors do is something very big for a child and it can take them a long time to learn just how to use them the right way. Giving children this opportunity to explore these new found technologies such as paper scissors and gun stapler can help them hugely with their development. 

Reference:

http://amysorrells.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/scissors.jpg

http://lynslines.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/mp900399071.jpg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRSgw83DxlR6qJ1lD_AJz1bDHypgwnokIVoHiSWUGxbXdImqgCSA5GFa_nC

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. (2004). Kei tua o te pae assessment for learning: Early childhood exemplars. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

A. Ap, & Talay-Ongan. (2005). Child development and teaching young children. Australia: 

            Cengage Learning.