ASPIRE to teach and learn together!

Mosgiel Central Kindergarten is a semi rural kindergarten situated about 25kms south of Dunedin. We are licensed as a full day kindergarten operating as a 6 hour session with 40 children in the morning and 30 in the afternoon. We are a 4.33 teacher team, our full time trained and registered teachers and 1 part time trained and registered teacher.

To read the full article, members please log in here. To subscribe please click here.

Our philosophy is supporting learners to ASPIRE to teach and learn together (Ako), empower teachers and learners to think, experience and make informed choices for lifelong learning (Sustainable), encourage and value children, their whanau and wider community involvement (Participation). We strive to empower all to make discoveries (Investigations) with a large amount of our thinking time spent (Reflecting). Lastly we also value in our (Environments) that encourage connections. 

INSPIRE ME!
Involve me aMCK_I23end my whanau – working in partnership has been a successful way to engage and receive support from families. This supports an environment of trust and respect. Each week on a Friday the children facilitate, with the support of the teachers, a shared kai. Our menu is created, ingredients sorted, then prepared and eaten at kindergarten. Our families support and value this weekly event by providing ingredients from the shopping list, talking with their children about the experience and supporting on the day if needed. Our Friday shared kai has been a weekly event at kindergarten for more than 4 years now, an event that was initiated by a child at the kindergarten at the time and is now an embedded part of our culture at Mosgiel Central
.

Nurture my well-being – At our place, feeling like you are at home is important so a practice of speaking with children respectfully, listening carefully and creating an environment to feel safe allows children the opportunity to learn in a happy, healthy and safe place. Our culture of healthy eating and healthy attitudes supports children’s health and well-being (their whole self), allowing children the opportunity to be ready to learn.

In listening to our children and their families we discovered that our children enjoyed the Friday shared kai so much that to weave together some social pressures impact ing on our whanau’s l ives we would begin making, baking and eating a snack break and morning tea together as community. Our children have been able to share their healthy eating and attitudes ith the wider community and extended family. Making ‘ka pai’ choices has been a valuable way to ensure our children have the sustainability of energy fuelling foods and the recommended nutrients to support optimum learning and at the same time developing new skills and attitudes for their health and well-being. The children have developed their caring thinking for others through these experiences also. A great example is the understanding our children have for children and teachers with food allergies. Our children will ask about the ingredients in our foods and if the children with allergies can eat it.

SustainaMCK_I23cble thinkingour programme is centered on sustainable practices from planting/growing, creating and eating foods
to the recycling of all waste. Our goal is to grow sustainable citizens of Aotearoa. At kindergarten we have an orchard, food gardens and a native water feature attracting the most beautiful birds. The children are fully involved in the planning and maintenance of these processes. These are complimented with a worm farm and recycling processes such as composting/bokashi bins and a process to recycle plastic and paper. We were rewarded for our learning in 2012 by winning our local Department of Conservation award called the Toroa Award; an award we are truly proud of. Fancy winning an award for doing something that the children love and participate in; processes that are teaching us to be responsible 21st Century citizens of Aotearoa!

MCK_I23b

Participation is supported – all children and teachers are encouraged to participate in their own way. Their contribution is then valued through positive praise and supported with social and emotional coaching. Everyone is encouraged to take informed risks – ‘have a go’. We encourage children to give everything a go at kindergarten; we aspire to foster children’s ideas and learn from the consequences. Of course health and safety is paramount but we believe that managing risks provides great learning opportunities. Children are encouraged to think about the risks and supported to think about possible consequences – all participation is supported and valued.

Investigations – our environment is created with the aspiration to encourage all children to make discoveries to teach and learn. Our worm farm has been a great example of supporting children with tools and an environment to investigate. From this provocation the children have explored the life cycle of our worms, which has also led to other animal life cycles being explored. The children have the opportunity to have hands on experiences to investigate, an experience that is embedded in our culture.

Reflect and Respect – our environment supports reflection through a thinking process. Children are encouraged to think about the possible consequences of their actions and are given opportunities to think about their actions. Children are respected for their thinking processes and the need to be supported as unique learners.
Teachers use Edward DeBono’s thinking hats as a self review tool and support children with the use of this tool as a strategy for thinking when appropriate. The hats can offer children a process to think about their thoughts, process, respond and reflect on their own learning in their own time, supporting teachers to remember that all children use different learning styles and think differently. If we are truly valuing children as competent and confident leaders of their own learning then we need to give children the opportunity to process and reflect on their thinking. Teachers also offer other tools and strategies such as open ended questions, active listening and making time for children to think and respond and promote creative, critical, collaborative and caring thinking skills.

Environments – our enviroMCK_I23dnments aspire to be spaces of opportunity, which are aesthetically pleasing and full of experiences to discover. As teachers we are always reflecting about practice and how 27to add value to children’s learning. Our self review process is based on Edward De Bono’s six hat thinking adapted with Mosgiel Central’s learning community flavour to ensure we get a varied and authentic review. This process allows us to make the time to reflect and present such environments to support children’s teaching and learning.

Make connections – being resourceful is an important part of our place. Making connections is important for the sustainability of our relationships with others. We recently held a community lunch. Members of our community; the public health nurse, vision and hearing technician, fireman, police officers, new entrant teacher, neighbours etc were invited to join the children for a community lunch. This was a great way to be resourceful within our community and make connections. The children enjoyed hosting suchan important event in our community.

Enjoy your work – finding humour is an important Habit of Mind and an important part of life at Mosgiel Central. We feel it is important to our sense of well-being and belonging to share a sense of fun with others. Teachers support children’s natural sense of fun. Sharing jokes is a common theme around our place. You need to be careful where you are sitting or someone might jump out with a surprise. Education is such a difficult world to work in but the most rewarding. To help us get through the difficult times a sense of fun always allows us to have a laugh, make someone’s day and share the lighter side of life – an extremely important way to keep yourself healthy and be the best teacher you can be on the floor supporting children to teach and learn in a challenging 21st Century.

MCK_I23

Related Posts

Fostering Wonderment and Awe in the Classroom

Fostering Wonderment and Awe in the Classroom

Back to School

Back to School

How Artificial Intelligence Augments Biological Intelligence

How Artificial Intelligence Augments Biological Intelligence

Making Learning Real

Making Learning Real

Mosgiel Central Kindergarten


This article was written by Paula Reynolds who is the Head Teacher at Mosgiel Central Kindergarten. She has been an early childhood teacher for the past 18 years and is passionate about children’s learning in the 21st Century. Paula is an advocate for children, their families and my teaching colleagues and view learners as whole people. The kindergarten has a supportive teaching team and working together is a value underpins their teaching and learning. Her colleagues have had much input into this article.