Date: Mar/Apr 2018 Teacher: Rose

It all began in this water trough.

One sunny day, I spotted you AJ
having so much fun playing and
pouring water. I know how much
you are into water play. You could
stay there for ages but I know
there is something about water
that you like so I started the
conversation. I never thought
that the conversation would be the
start of something interesting to
learn and know about you.

Our conversation:

Your words here... Rose: Hi AJ!

AJ: I am washing my car.
Rose: Oh, is that your car?
AJ: No, but I have a car at
home.
Rose: What does your car
look like?
AJ: It’s a red car.

Rose: Can you tell me more

about your car?
AJ: It’s a racing car.
Rose: How big is it? Can I
ride in it?
AJ: No, it’s this big (while
showing his hand)

It was such a great time

talking to you AJ!
 And then one day, when we were sitting at the
The following day, I spotted you at the block table, I asked. “AJ, I want to see your racing
corner playing with the plastic trains yet you car, would you be able to draw it?”. You
were saying that it’s your pretend racing car. excitedly said, “Yes!” and immediately told me
Here’s what we talked about: that you would like to use the colour green to
draw you racing car since there’s no red
AJ: My racing car is like this. crayon in the basket. And you made scribbles on
Rose: Did someone give it to you? the papers.
AJ: Ron gave me the racing car. He fix
it.
Rose: How big is your car?
AJ: My racing car is little.
Rose: Do you love cars?
AJ: No, I love racing cars.
Rose: Do you have a lot of racing cars
at home?

Your words here...

AJ, proudly showing off his friends what he drew

on the paper.
 Date: Mar-Apr 2018 Teacher: Rose

Sandplay in the middle of the outside playground. New

learning experience for the children. I collected some sand
the day before to put this out and thought it would be a
good transporting experience for the tamariki. Looks like it
was indeed a good one because I spotted you AJ having so
much fun in filling up the plant pot. But what surprised me
was the thing that you did afterwards. I heard you
murmuring a sound. It wasn’t that clear and so I asked,
“What did you just make AJ?”. You said, “This is a rocket
ship. Gru’s rocket ship!”. I initially thought that it was
Groot of Guardians of the Galaxy. But then our stories and
description about the said character did not match. Good
thing I talked to your mum and she said that it was Gru of
the Despicable Me. (Haha!)

Your words here...

Going back to the story, you have made Gru’s

rocket ship by pretending that the sand is the
fire that helps to launch the rocket ship. What a
cool idea! Impressive use of your imagination AJ! I
love how you were able to reinvented the sand to
become the fire of the rocket ship! That was such
a great use of your creative imagination!

After that, you showed how Gru were driving the

rocket ship and where it goes. And you said, “ The
rocket is going to the moon.”
Getting some cellotape to start his Gru. And the next few days have become more
exciting. I have been hearing Gru a lot of
times and so one day, I thought of putting
these boxes and open-ended resources on
the table. I asked, “AJ, what do you want to
do with these?”. And no longer a surprise for
me when you said, “I want to make Gru!”, with
an excited face. You independently chose the
materials to be used. We have everything
that we needed. All set, ready to start.
You were very hands-on. All I needed to do
was to hold the boxes together and you did
the rest. And when we finished it, you were
so excited to show it to your friends and
ofcourse to your mum. While waiting for her
to come out, you were testing out if Gru could
stand and upon realising that he couldn’t, you
came back at the table and tried fixing it. AJ,
I am so proud of you and I am happy to be
part of this lovely creation. Job well done!

Making sure that Gru’s arm is attached

to his body.

Cellotaping the legs Attaching the legs. Testing if Gru can stand.

Another opportunity arose when I saw this
clay set up on the table. “AJ, what could we
do with this clay?”. You stopped for a while
and thought of something. Then you
responded, “Gru!”. Thought it would be a
good a idea so we gave it a go.
You got a lump of clay and started moulding
it. We started with his head. A perfect
circular shape head for Gru, great! Then
you began to shape his body. You did not
forget about his belly and so we added a
small lump of clay for his ’big’ belly. You then
proceeded to making his arms and finished
it off with his legs. I was impressed to see
what you have made. Looks so amazing! you
were so proud and happy and so do I.
I love how this learning journey has started and
how it has been extended. I love how our
conversation led me to knowing you more, what
you like and what you are interested in. I love
learning alongside you AJ. I have learned to know
about Gru and not Groot. :)
Through the learning experiences AJ, you were
able to communicate your feelings, wants,
interests to me. You showed confidence in your
ability to express your ideas in a variety of
learning resources. Your creativity and wide
imagination is reflected in your masterpieces
created in your engagement with the learning
experiences and resources made available for
you. You have been such an active learner and
explorer. May you continue to become more
confident with your abilities, AJ. Look at what you
have done this past month, you can do a lot more.
Believe in your skills, AJ! :)
Your words here...