We have approached our return to school as a time to re-connect to the Prep Neighbourhood, to draw inspiration from the home learning environment and be inspired by the many family experiences with learning.
The children have been afforded experiences and time to reconnect with their friends and their learning environments. Many children found comfort in a familiar provocation, an artwork in the Studio that they remembered beginning and happily continued, recording stories in a concertina book in the Learning Commons or constructing a map of the school in the block area.
During the six weeks of remote learning a rich inquiry into curiosity and what curiosity is, how it works and what makes us curious began. We have been inspired by the learning of the children and their families to continue to research this complex idea and its connections to learning. Many of the provocations posted during this time sparked both curiosity and joy in our children, including puppet performances, exploring facial expressions, science experiments and dinosaurs.
Whilst honouring this engagement with curiosity we also found children ready to reconnect with the ideas around the Mama Mia Pizzeria. As educators, this has re-ignited our thinking about the concept of systems in our world. We are now wondering how children use their knowledge of familiar systems to begin to explore and understand new systems. We are beginning to recognise that systems are everywhere in our world. The children have been exploring hearts and brains and are now connecting this to the system of the human body. We are excited about the possibility of co-constructing understandings of systems that exist in our world.
I think these are the intestines of the heart and they help the heart pump blood. Some of them stick out and send blood all around the body. Sam
You know the body has veins all around it. Frankie
We would need a person to take the customers orders and then take the orders to the bartender to make it. Zara
We need a sign to make people come to our shop, so that people walk towards our shop. Lucienne
We can use clay to make plates and dishes and cutlery and let it set. Flynn