Learning Plan (Bachelor of Education – Early childhood) Topic: Title of experience: Maths and counting Sports Day! Date: Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators Links to the Early Years Learning Framework: Related LOs: 1. Children have a strong sense of identity Content/ concepts being explored: Age group: 4-5 Counting, quantities, one-to-one correspondence, sorting, matching, team work, sharing, independence skills, mark making. Rationale: The experience extends D’s knowledge of numbers; other children within the group also like to explore number rhymes and games so this experience will be set up as a small group table activity and an outdoor experience as intentional teaching spaces; however the children may adapt, extend and create different experiences which suit their learning interests. This fits in with D’s progress towards the Foundation Phase of the Australian Curriculum: Number and Algebra – Number and Place Value. Comments: rationales can be made by linking learning experience to both Australian Curriculum as well as EYLF. A brief explanation is needed to justify your learning experience. You may also justify it with relevant theories. Child/Children’s Background Knowledge: D is a four year-old boy who is currently interested in numbers and puzzles. (see appendix 1 for learning journey). He likes to count up to twenty and understands one-to-one correspondence but is still learning the value of each number beyond ten. D has many close friends and they often play together. They love outdoor playing. Dramatic play and sports are among D and his friends’ favorites. Recently, D watched cricket with his family, and he started (tried) to understand the scoring system as to figure who was winning. From D’s portfolio, it is also evident that D shows interest in writing and he is starting to show understanding of written symbols. Comments: In the Australian early childhood education context, learning planning is undertaken with a holistic approach, and should start from the child, the child’s strengths and interest. It is important that you provide evidence as such in your planning. Relevant background information and evidence such as learning stories, photos, observations, and communication with the families. Since you are only staying in the setting for a limited period of time, you may also need to gather information about the child from talking to your mentors and other teachers to ensure you have a sufficient understanding of the child. Additional information can be included in the appendix while you summarise the key points in your learning plan. Learning Objectives: For D to develop an understanding of the value of numbers by sorting and counting the bean bags For D to connect number names to quantities by matching the score and writing it on a chalkboard when each child has a turn. For D to explain the rules of cricket and in collaboration with the teacher work out how the scoring works in a cricket game. For D and the teacher to write a learning story about cricket Links to EYLF documentation – “Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes” “Children use language to communicate thinking about quantities to describe attributes of objects and collections, and to explain mathematical ideas” “Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work.” “Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency” Comments: while you are considering the learning objectives, think about what evidence you will gather to demonstrate these learning objectives are achievable. How are you going to gather the evidence? Use the SMART principle of writing learning objectives Teacher Focus/ Intentionality: What areas will you concentrate on e.g.; teaching strategies, EYLF practice /principles, interests, equity? As a teacher you will not invade the children’s play; you will show respect for their creativity and ownership of their experiences so you will demonstrate sustained shared thinking and sustained conversations. You will therefore, carefully observe the situation and know when to help with extending, questioning, supporting, clarifying etc. in particular you intend for D to: increasingly co-operate and work collaboratively with others persist when faced with challenges and when first attempts are not successful Comments: make sure the areas of focus are consistent and coherent with each. Environment and Resources: What resources and materials will you need to have collected? Where will the experience take place? Considerations for time, space and teacher support? How will the environment be prepared? Preparation: 40 balls/beanbags (20 balls for each group, total two groups), a chalkboard to record the score; some bins or buckets to throw the beanbags into Setting up the environment: Other support Assessment Strategies: How will you identify what the child/children have learnt and how will you record this? Observation: Learning stories (photos, children’s voice and parents voice): Communication with parents: Were the goals achieved? Did the child achieve what you planned for them or something else What learning was evident Stage Plan for all stages of the experience Approx. Time (full day? Morning? Specific time? E.g. 12-1pm) Morning Outdoor Before How will you lunch. introduce the Because experience/concept(s) this is the and engage the time when it interest of the is not too child/children? hot in the summer and this learning experience can be followed up with indoor experience later in the afternoon. Stage 1 Introduction Pre-Service Teacher’s Actions Child Actions /Tasks What will you do during this time? What prompting questions might you need to prepare? How might you assess and record learning? How will you cater for individual differences? What will the children be doing during this time? There is a group time in the morning. I will use this time to discuss the learning experience with D and a group of children (including D’s friends and children who would like to participate). The children can choose to take part or continue with the rest of the learning program. We will discuss some sports activities, and record all the activities. I will follow up the children’s ideas and follow up later to see which activities possible in the centre. To start with I will suggest and introduce the learning experience to demonstrate what “sports” we can have. We will then discuss the rules and agree how many bean bags are needed to be added to each bin; so children have a concept of number value and link it to the symbol. I will then make sure everyone has got a hat and sunscreen on before we all go outside and set up the environment. Children will discuss group rules (a list of what to do, and what not to do). These rules will be listed with numerical headings and pictures/illustrations. Hats and sunscreen on. Children work in a group and support each other. Individual differences are celebrated as each one will bring his or her strengths. Stage 2 Main Body Describe the experience; what will children be doing? How will concepts/ issues be explored? List at least three focus questions relating your learning objectives to be asked of the children. Two groups (yellow and green team, 5-8 children in a group) Goal: Throwing the beanbags/balls into a basket, The winning team will have the most beanbags/balls in the basket. A supporting teacher and a child will be the judge. Some children will be asked to do the tally on the chalkboard. The complexity and challenge can be increase depends on the situation: 1. Each group of children will stand in a line and take turns to throw a ball into the basket. 2. Each group of children will stand in a line. A ball is given to the child who is standing at the end of line, and the ball will be passed on to the first one in the line. Then the ball will be thrown into the basket. 3. Different coloured baskets in various distance. The points will be different for each ball thrown into different baskets. For example, a ball in the closet basket will be worth 1 point, the basket the furthest away will be worth 4 points, and so on. Children will help set up the environment: Measure, Decide (as a group) where to place the baskets Decide (as a group) the distance between the throwing spot and the basket. (Discuss what a fair distance it should be). Stage 3: Conclusion How will you conclude the experience? Reflect on learning with children? How will you encourage a smooth transition to the next experience Children are gathered together under a shade Scores are added: looking at how the tallies are added. We will all count as group and show one-to-one correspondence about the number of bean bags and the symbol which matches the correct value. Ask children to reflect on the experience. Transition: go inside/washing hands for lunch They can learn about patterns while waiting: for example, who are wearing red will go, who are wearing blue… Evaluation and Self Reflection: Did your experience meet your learning objectives? Why/ why not? What aspects of the experience worked most effectively? What aspects could be improved and how could they be improved? E.g. flow, resources, teaching strategies, environment, assessment of learning etc Children were very enthusiastic. There were 6 children at the beginning, and at the end the group expanded to 12. When more children were joining in, we had to change and renegotiate the rules. The children had to take turns and wait for their turn. This shows the learning experience follows the children’s interest. Involving children from the very beginning, developing rules, setting the environment could also be a contributing factor of its success. Team work, sharing, and independent skills are achieved well through this experience. Sometimes, when the children were excited and running in different directions, I found it difficult to manage the group with only one other adult to support me. However, it could be viewed as an opportunity to further support children’s teamwork and budding leadership, a group could have voted their own leaders to organise, coordinate and support their group. More roles and responsibilities could be created to allow better collaboration. In reflection, although the rules were not able to be enacted, I shouldn’t have focused too much on management or control. We could talk about the situation as a group later on in the afternoon group time. The utmost goal is learning rather than over emphasising a fixed outcome. There was also evidence that children were improving their skills and knowledge as effective communicators. For example, while B and M did the tally, and added the number up, D went to check the result. He carefully counted the tally and checked if the counting matched the written number. He clearly understood the values and also a numerical value could be presented by a corresponding symbol (the number). He was able to compare the different values, and bigger and smaller values, when he smiled and said “we won!” This learning was not always evident in my previous observations. However, D was clearly very confident and competent in using mathematical concepts to communicate during this learning experience. Comments: in section, you need to briefly summarised and described main findings of the experience (what learning happened?). Attach your detail/additional evidence such as observations, learning stories, photos, communication records, and any related evidence as an appendix. Then explain how the information demonstrates that you have (or have not) met the learning objectives. What went well, what needs changes or further following up. Follow-up: Are there any areas that you would like to follow up on? Emerging interests/concepts to explore further? It would be similar to the original plan but we could increase the challenge and complexity of the games. Today we only had time for the first two options; we could follow up with option three and more. I would encourage D to be more independent and the children to create their own games. Parents could be involved to organise and demonstrate a mini cricket game and discuss the scoring system in cricket with the children. An emerging concept in maths learning could be spatial awareness. Children today measured the distance for the baskets to be placed. This is a starting point to introduce concepts in measurement. Adding up the scores also provides a great opportunity to explore calculations. Mentor Teacher Comments: Appendix: D’s learning journey Pre-service Teacher final reflection: http://earlyyearsmaths.e2bn.org/resources_116.html As Soon as D entered nursery it was very clear that he was interested in numbers. He would sit with the number puzzles and for example, put the numbers in order, saying each number name in turn. He would make comments about the numbers – “Watch me! Zero’s nothing,” (pointing to 0) - taking the piece of puzzle out to reveal nothing.
