Week 6: 29 February—4 March 2016

What is a city?

On Monday a small group of children had a conversation about their thoughts of what a city was whilst they worked on drawing their individualised representations of a city. The conversation had lots of different ideas and demonstrated how each child’s experiences of a city varies and shapes their knowledge. After the conversation we joined together as a group to share these ideas and also continue the conversation to see what other ideas the group had about cities.

The initial ideas from Monday’s discussion:

Blake: Where lots of buildings and my dad works near the museum.

Sean: It’s where people go.

William: I went to the city on the weekend and I got toys – there are toys in the city. You press number four in the lift and you go to the toys in the city. I saw horses walking on the road with people on the chairs. There were lots of people.

Lexi: There are lots of people there. I went to Crown and I got a fan. There is a big ‘roundy’ door you push. I saw the water foundation inside. You can get ice cream in the city.

Milan: I’ve been to the city. I had ice cream.

Angus: I went to Sydney. My cousins were there. There are lots of windows because there are lots of houses.

Kyler: I used to live in Sydney and my mum drove me over the Harbour Bridge over to the market. I have built the Bolte Bridge. (out of blocks)

Our group discussion:

What is a city?

Harper: A city is where you travel far and close.

Gigi: And a city has hotels.

Olivia: The city has places—where I went with my mummy.

Felix: He city has tall buildings and each one of them is high and some are little.

Thomas: Cities are made for people to work in.

Felix: And my mum goes to a new position in the city. So we drop her off and she goes to the train. My mum goes to the station. The train drops her off. It goes to the city.

Chloe: We can fly to other places if your house is burnt down. There are cities in other places and you can go to other houses—England.

Angus: A city has different kind of train. What are those trains called?

Billie: Trams.

William: My mum goes on a tram.

Angus: I was in a high building and I was looking down and I saw one on the road. (referring to the trams).

What are different way?

William: Bikes.

Billie: They gallop and you can sit on them. A carriage. And it can carry you to the city.

Isobel: When I go to New Zealand I had to live in a hotel for some days and then I could go. Then a green car drove me to my New Zealand house.

What could you see out the window?

Isobel: There was a park. And I could see a tower.

Alexandra: I’ve been to Puffing Billy and it took me to the city. It was very hot.

Is it the same train as the trains you see in the city?

Alexandra: It’s a different one. It has a face on it. It’s a Thomas train.

What makes the train move?

Alexandra: Steam.

Felix: Wheels

Week 6: 29 February—4 March 2016

Continued….

What is the city?

Blake: The city… there was a time I went to the city. There are big toy stores. And it has lots of bigger toys and model of a T-Rex.

Gigi: I’ve been to the city before to my dance school.

Taj: When I went on a train to the city. I saw a tall building.

Clara: Lots of fireworks. Lots of windows.

Arabella: I’ve been there before my daddy works there. He types.

Felix: That’s like writing.

Lexi: I went inside I saw my animal. I was born in the bunny. (Chinese New Year)

What else is on the city?

Henry: In the city. I see some buildings that have sticks on the top. They are called sky scrapers. The planes fly up in the air and the sky scrapers say ‘no’. Its has sticks that say go that wat and they use computers to navigate.

Ruby: We went to Bali and we went to a hotel.

Sean: Tall buildings.

Kyler: One time I went over it to go to the zoo. The Bolte Bridge.

Aiden: I remember the Sydney Bridge.

Kyler: Its called the Harbour Bridge. And I always go over it when I go to the market with my mum.

Thomas: I’ve seen the Sydney Opera House.

Thomas: Its somewhere where I went to weddings.

VEYLDF Outcome 4: Children transfer and adapt what they have learnt from one context to another.

The children demonstrated how they are able to transfer knowledge from one setting to another.

The Bolte Bridge The West Gate Bridge

VEYLDF Outcome 3: Children resource their own learning through connecting with people,

placed, technologies and natural and processed materials:

The children used manipulate resources to investigate, take apart, assemble, invent and con-struct different buildings they have seen.

Wednesday, 2 February 2016

What might see in the city? After our discussions about cities we asked the children other than buildings what else might they find in the city.

Do you think we will see water or a river when we visit the city?

Blake: On Footscray River we see goldfish and signs for snakes. We can see big buildings not for away—if no clouds.

Gigi: On the beach we see fast silver fish.

What about in the city? Do you think we might see tall buildings? What sort of different transport will we see. Will told us yesterday about the horse and cart. What is the name of our city?

All: Melbourne.

Blake: The Yarra River.

Gigi: A tall building has a lift or stairs.

Alexandra: My mummy doesn’t call it an elevator. A lift.

Chloe: My mummy calls it a lift.

Harper: My mummy goes to the city. There is a house that looks like a bird house.

Lexi: In the city we saw eels in a lake.

Thomas: I once saw in a dirty river.

Blake: Its brownish and ells swim really well in murky water.

Henry: The Wast Gate Bridge is closed. Water is underneath it. If it is closed you have to go under the tunnel. It goes under the bridge.

Thomas: I think Mr. Bull was digging up the road.

Clara: We built some blocks like a tunnel.

The children then took the opportunity to use different materials including blocks, material, magiclay, wire and mosaic tiles to create 3D representations of buildings that are in the city of Melbourne.

The Melbourne Star

The Arts Centre

Monday, 29 February 2016

Give me a home near the water During our music session with Ms. Sofo the children have been learning the lyrics to a verse of Home Among the Gum Trees. After we worked as a group the children then wrote their own verse using the tune of Home among the gumtrees connecting to where we live in Bayside.

Ms Sofo: Where do we live?

Henry: I see the sea from the bridge.

Billie: On the Melbourne Bridge there is the Melbourne Star. You sit on it. You see the water and the whole city and aeroplanes.

Lexi: At night time, it glows up. St Leonard’s is near the sea.

Blake: There are sharks, whales, dolphins, a porcupine puffer fish.

Ms Sofo: What sorts of things do you like to do when you are near the sea?

Children’s answers:

Swimming, digging in the sand, going for a walk, seeing starfish, collecting shells, making rockets in the sand, making sand castles.

After thinking of different things we do near the beach we came up with a verse which we performed using different musical instruments for sound effects.

Group 1

Give me a home near the water

With lots of water

A spade or two and a dolphin

Surfboard on the roof

Seagulls in the air

And an old sailboat

Group 2

Give me a home near the water,

I love the water

A shark or two and a whale too

Surfboard on the roof

Seagulls in the air

Sandcastles and shells

VEYLDF Outcomes Observed: Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes: Children use language and representations from play, music and art to share and project meaning and contribute their ideas and experiences in play and small and large group discussion.

Week 6: 29 February—4 March 2016

‘The bunnies have to go back because they have to lay

Easter eggs.’ - Alex We have had lots of joy learning about the rabbits and watching them grow. This week we have been making sure we

have lots of bunny cuddles before they go.

Thursday, 3 February 2016

A Japanese story Last week we had some teachers from Japan come to visit the ELC. They left some lovely presents to thank us for showing

them through our beautiful centre. One present was a children’s book, written in Japanese. Using only pictures to guide

them, the children were asked to interpret the book.

Looking at the cover, what do you think this book is about?

Gigi: Japan

Felix: The gnome who ate the cupcake

Alex: But gnomes have hats that point up…that hat is pointing down.

Chloe: Maybe its called ‘The gnome, the rabbit and the bird…’

Harper: …are searching

We wondered how we could understand the story if there were no words to help us.

Ruby: We can pretend there’s words!

We continued to look through the book, searching the illustrations for clues. By the end we had ‘solved the mystery’ and

understood what the story was about. We then sat in audience position and half the class were invited to come on ‘stage’ to

bring the story to life through drama. After the performance, the groups swapped over and the story was presented again.

At the end of the show, the actors stood tall, and said Arigato.