Date: 22 August 2012
Photo from Google images
Today we
decided to have some music and dance movement outside. We just bought a Hebi ring
(a stretchy cord) for children to have fun. We took the CD player outside and
put the music on. There were twenty preschool children playing this game in the
playground. With the “Stretchy Cord” song singing “Swing left, Swing Right,
Pass the ring along…” the children did the action. At the first time, we could
not make it smoothly, because some children moved so fast and squashed too much
with the cord passing on. Some children made the left and the right direction
wrongly when they “Swing left, Swing Right”. Before we had it again, I let the
children do the action slowly without the music. When they were all familiar with
the action and kept a nice space, I turned the music on again. This time
children could control their body and pass the ring successfully. I was happy
to observe that child E corrected child O’s action when Oliver swung to the
wrong direction. The children had lots of fun in this game, and a lot of conversations
happened during the game.
Fleer and
Jane (2011) define that “technology is everything we use around
us-construction, clothing, tools, computers, machines, medicine, etc” (fleer
& Jane, 2011). The New Zealand Curriculum (2007) states “technology is associated
with the transformation of energy, information, and materials. Technological
areas include structural, control, food, and information and communications
technology and biotechnology” (Ministry of Education, 2007). The cord is a huge
elastic band covered in fabric. The fabric cover is full of different colours,
so it is also called ‘rainbow ring’. The Hebi ring gives children a visual
picture about what the circle looks like, while it teaches children about
shapes, sizes, directional and positional terms, etc. Smorti (1999) emphasises “technology
is a creative and purposeful activity aimed at meeting need and opportunities
through the development of products, systems or environments” (Smorti, 1999).
Photography by Rachel Sun
This
stretchy cord experience allows children to gain increasing control and
awareness of their bodies. Children continue to “develop their understandings
of personal and shared space, levels, and directions and growing movement
vocabulary” (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005, p182).Te Whariki emphasises the importance which children develop ability
to determine their own actions and express emotional needs (Ministry of Education,
1996). The Dalcroze method recognises coordination of the eye, ear, mind and
body in the musical movement (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2009). The stretchy cord
is a structured game which teaches children how to follow “rules” within a
social group. In this group play children have opportunities to learn with,
from and alongside others, furthermore develop conflict resolution skills. Through
playing with the stretchy cord, children were encouraged to learn from others
and build social confidence and communication skills. From Vygotsky’s
sociocultural perspective, it fosters children’s cognitive development (Berk,
2007).
I believe
we need embrace technology education in the early childhood teaching practice.
Technology education gives children opportunities to build their technological knowledge
of their community, thus orients to the real world. As early childhood
educators, setting up the physical educational environment which allows
children to easily access is very important. All children need the time, space and freedom to develop
creativity and problem solving skills, which environments for young children
need to be flexible and to adapt to their changing needs, providing new
challenges as they grow and develop (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett &
Farmer, 2008).
Reference
Arthur, L., Beecher,
B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2008). Programming
and planning
in early childhood settings. (4th ed.). Victoria: Australia
Thomson.
Berk, L.
(2007). Development through the lifespan.
Boston, U.S.A: Pearson Education, Inc.
Fleer, M., & Jane, B. (2011). Design and technology for children. Frenchs Forest, Australia:
Pearson Australia.
Isenberg, J., & Jalongo, M.
(2009). Creative thinking and arts-based
learning: Preschool through fourth grade (5th ed.). Columbus, Ohio,
United States of America:
Pearson.
Ministry
of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mo nga
mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand:
Learning Media.
Ministry
of Education. (2007). The New Zealand
Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Smorti,
S. (1999). Technology in Early Childhood. Early
Education, 1, 5-10.
