The Energy! kit contents
Identify
At the beginning of the year Springlands Kindergarten put their hand up to be the first to trial The Enviroschools Marlborough new Energy kit. Containing a variety of resources and activities the kit was put together with funding from Toimata Foundation and their relationship with the Ministry of the Environment.
Starting with a brainstorm to gather the children’s knowledge, this became the springboard into a whole new area of learning for both tamariki and kaiako.
Brainstorm session
The kit was used as the basis for their exploration of the topic. Utilising every activity in the box, kaiako were blown away by the engagement and knowledge growth from the tamariki. See Story
Tāwhirimātea: Wind – changeable, gentle, fresh, brisk, stormy
Explore
As the interest grew so too did the range of activities and experiences. Soon they were taking “Energy” walks in the community to notice the energy all around us – powerpoles, solar panels, gas bottles, feeling tāwhirimātea, they were even treated with seeing someone change the battery in their car. They explored static electricity with balloons and tissue paper, they used their breath to create bubble paintings which lead to testing how much force was needed to blow different objects along the floor with a straw – feathers vs corks, marbles vs ping pong balls.
Exploring Energy in their kindergarten and wider community
Tamanuiterā: Sun – radiance, light and energy
Take action
The concept of energy became a talking point in all areas of their programme – in their māra kai – the need for water and sun to grow plants, at kai – how we need food to create energy in our bodies, on their nature connection excursions and then even at home. Tamariki began sharing their learning with their whānau and also sharing their home experiences at Kindergarten.
They held a “wheels” day at their local park to explore kinetic energy and then to wrap up the term’s learning they took a full class trip to Brayshaw Heritage Park. Here the tamariki, kaiako and whānau support were able to see machinery/ cars and trains from past times as well as go for a ride on the mini coal trains.
Full class trip to Brayshaw Heritage Park
Reflect
There are still so many other forms of energy to discover so this term they are taking a focus on heat sources and plan to provide experiences using the solar oven, fire pit and electricity. They will also revisit using the energy kit at the beginning of term 3 to ensure all new tamariki have the opportunity to learn from these experiences too.
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