The Enviroschools Kit resource includes a large picture depicting many ways the Enviroschools five Guiding Principles can be seen in our communities. All Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association kaiako who have attended an Introduction to Enviroschools workshop will be familiar with this, as we always suggest the Big Picture exercise as an initial way to start unpacking these Principles.
The wonderful team at Settlement Road Early Learning recently attended an Introduction to Enviroschools workshop and then came up with an innovative way to use the Big Picture with tamariki.
This is their story…
We recognised the potential of the Enviroschools “Big Picture” and wanted to introduce it to our tamariki as a way of seeing the Guiding Principles through their eyes. What beautiful moments we experienced as our tamariki took ownership over the “Big Picture” and used it in their way to explore.
We decided to photocopy a smaller version of this beautiful picture and incorporate it onto one of our broken chrome books that the children like to play with just to see what might happen.
Throughout the day many of our tamariki visited the picture and had meaningful discussions about what they discovered, found and what was happening.
Tamariki interacting with the Enviroschools Big Picture
Deep in thought = what is there to discover?
We captured this photo (right) of one of our older boys who took it to the literacy corner. He chose a scholastic brochure (we recycle the old scholastic book brochures for the children to use) and, to our amazement he placed the brochure on the keyboard and began to circle items in the brochure as he was looking at the “Big Picture”. He remained deep in thought for quite some time.
He then took the brochure out into the playground and with several of his friends we could hear him telling them and showing them pictures that he had seen in the “Big Picture “.
This showed us a different lens on the Guiding Principles through the eyes, imagination and thoughts of our tamariki using recycled print, technology and sustainability. We were quite excited about how the children interacted with the “Big Picture” – this is Empowered Learners in action. Our children certainly teach us something every day!
Two girls were excited to explore the big picture on the table. At first, they simply looked at it, then began comparing what they saw. “Look, I have a sun,” one of them said. “I have a park,” other one replied. Soon they realised that both pictures were the same. They decided to play a game using the bottle caps on the table. One child named something in the picture, and the other had to find it and place a cap on it. They showed wonderful curiosity, cooperation, communication, and thinking skills as they played and learned together.
Learning through play while exploring the Big Picture
It was wonderful to see how they interacted with each other using the “Big Picture”.
Print