Reflection of the day
I was thinking today about how powerful project work can be foryoung children. I recalled one that took a turn I wasn’t quite expecting.
With our community, both globally and locally experiencing lockdown, I wondered how can we ensure that children have the right to experience their community, impact the world around them and learn lifelong values of “caring for country”?
I recalled how at the start of 2021, the children and I went on a journey of discussing, planning and holding a meeting with our director on our vision for a veggie patch.
As an early childhood teacher, I feel that educating children in the early years is not about sitting them down and having them recite numbers and letters. It is about giving them the foundation theyneed to be able to achieve both academic and life success. This means giving them the right to findtheir voice, the confidence to speak in front of others, the respect and ability
to hear different perspectives and record and document their own voices in ways that are meaningful to them. All of thishas been a part of our veggie patch journey.
Educators became invested in this learning, as one brought in power tools to work with the children on building, I was then able to bring in some of my tomato and lettuce plants from home to add to the garden, which led us to the conversation of how if feels when someone shares with us.
Here is where such project work can really take learning in a new direction if we are willing to let it.
How you can embed other areas of learning.
Language and literacy was developed as the children worked on their name writing skills, signing up to join me for gardening in the back and creating a poster to hang out by the gate for the community to read.
How a simple project can turn into community outreach!
A small group of children were then invited to carefully place the plants into smaller containers before taking them out to the community. The response from both you, our families, andthe community was one of gratitude and thanks.
Research has clearly shown that thereare outstanding educational benefits for children when involved in gardening activities.
Children can learn new skills, have fun, socialise and develop self-confidence by spending time in the garden tending plants and growing their own food. Most children enjoy being outdoors and love digging in the soil, getting dirty,
creating things, and watching plants grow.
However,when we add that element of community to the experience, it becomes so much more. The Australian National Quality Standards for Education and Care services reminds us that Quality Area 6 is about forming a collaborative partnerships with families and community links. The focus is to develop andmaintain reciprocal relationships between service and community through enriched mutual engagement that benefits the children’s learning and understanding of citizenship and stewardship.