In Preschool 2 at RisingOaks | Oak Creek, educators are intentional about designing the learning environment and planning experiences based on the children’s emerging curiosities and interests. One morning, we observed a group of children sitting on top of the block shelf together. They were pretending that the shelf was their car, and they were headed on vacation! The children engaged in cooperative pretend play as they drove their car to many destinations, such as the beach, the jungle, and “dinosaur world”. We noticed that they had transformed some of the hallow blocks from the shelf into cameras, and were pretending to take photos along their travels. “I took a picture of a crab!”, said one child. “Look over there! A whale!”, another child said as they pointed towards the art area. Soon, many more children had taken an interest in using the blocks as cameras around the classroom.
Educators reflected and collaborated on the observations that we had made, and spontaneously implemented experiences and added materials to the classroom to build upon the children’s knowledge. We considered the children’s working theories about cameras and their interest in capturing photos during their pretend vacations.
Polaroid pictures were added to the block area, which included many sea creatures, jungle animals, and dinosaur images that we overheard the children discussing during their play. The Polaroids also included the names of each animal and dinosaur. The children incorporated the Polaroids into their pretend play, demonstrating creativity as they pretended to print them from their block cameras. They built their vocabulary and letter recognition as they noticed and discussed the names of the creatures.
Children were provided with the opportunity to create their own cameras out of cardboard. The children used cardboard cut outs, colourful glue, wooden shapes, beads, and twine to construct their cameras. Together, we learned about different components of cameras, such as their lenses, flashes, view finders, straps, and more as the children worked. When the cameras were dry, the children began to use them in their pretend play around the classroom.
We look forward to seeing how we can continue to build upon this emerging interest in our classroom to foster the children’s well-being, learning, and development. Perhaps we could add photo albums to our environment? Perhaps we could bring in a real Polaroid camera for the children to explore? Perhaps we could ask families to share photos from some of their family vacations?
“Educators engage with, observe, and listen to children. They discuss with other educators, as well as with children and families and caregivers, the possibilities for children's further exploration in increasingly complex ways. All are co-learners, constructing knowledge together.” (How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years, Page 15).
