Group Project: Pedagogical Documentation

By: Harleen Mann, Mary Faith De Leon, Nimra Khan, and Shabnam
Omerkhil
 Group Project: Pedagogical Documentation

Harleen Mann, Mary Faith De Leon, Nimra Khan, Shabnam Omerkhil

The Reflective Professional: ECE 245 RNA

Deborah Sargeant

Week 8, November 2nd, 2021

I have maintained Academic Integrity in my work by adhering to the values of honesty and integrity. I declare that this work respects APA
requirements as well as policies within the School of Health Sciences.

Harleen Mann, Mary Faith De Leon, Nimra Khan, Shabnam Omerkhil

N01286576, N01305458, N01390215, N01383554

 1) What interested/engaged children?

- Children are interested in the snail, they are engaging in a conversation with the
educator and amongst one another. They are all interested in observing the snail and
seeing what it’s doing.
- Being outside with the children and around nature can also make them appreciate
nature even more.
- Outdoor play can be children’s intellectual, emotional, social and their physical
development as well. By being outside and around surrounded by nature, children
experience a change and can stimulate all their senses.
- Engage the children by asking them guided questions like, What color and shape of
shell do they have?, What can you say about their skin like is it fast or slow?, Do they
have legs?, Where are there eyes, Do you think they have ears?, What do you think is the
purpose of that shell? Etc.
2) What might be the intentionality with which the adult builds the contexts
in this experience?

● In our opinion, we think the intentionality with which the adult builds the context in
this experience is to have children engaged in outdoor/nature play and observations.
○ This is as the outdoor environment allows for the children to have a direct
sensory experience with what nature holds, just like the snail. This gives the
children the opportunity to interact with unfamiliar surroundings, create
questions, and develop solutions, just like with the snail where we see the
children engaged with the new creature, giving the adults an opportunity to ask
questions, and have the children learn.
 3) What would be your next action?

● In our opinion, the educator can challenge or scaffold these theories

by reading the children a story related to snails/nature and asking
them questions about it and getting them to relate it to the
observation experience they had with the snail. In addition, the
educator can also get the children to do some hands on activity
before and after the observation to have them engaged more.
 4) What questions do you have for children?

● What did you notice about how the snail moves?

● Why do you think the snail’s body has a shell? (Bring attention to the shell
and answer any questions they have about it)
● What does a snail remind you of? (Association)
● Have you seen any other snails before? (Talk about how there’s different
types of snails) there’s garden snails and land snails
5) What learning processes do you notice? (You can refer to questions and
provocations in How Does Learning Happen document)

- A pedagogical approach that I notice the educator using is they are engaging
as co-learners with the children. They participate in the exploration of the
snail and they ask a relevant question to help guide the inquiry of the
children. This also helps fulfill the question “What can be done to extend and
deepen the children’s learning?” from the How Does Learning Happen
document (OMEd, 2014).
- Another approach that is used is attention, by children paying attention to
the snail it encourages their exploration and inquiry (OMEd, 2014). The
outdoor environment supports children’s learning, and fosters their creativity
and cognitive abilities. is an amazing environment where a lot can be found
and explored just like the snail.
 6) What were the dynamics among children? Among children and
educator? Among children and other than human?

● Among the children, we witnessed shared feelings of awe and exploration of

the snail. They are investigating this new discovery together, bouncing
questions off each other.
● We see the educator responding to a child’s question with another question
in order to have the children think hard and come up with an answer to their
own question.
● Among the snail and the children, we see the children are very amused by
the snail, and it may be their first time seeing one. They ask a lot of
questions relating to the snail because they do not know a
lot about it.
 References

Dietze, B. & Kashin, D. (2019). Playing and Learning in Early Childhood Education (2nd ed.). North York, ON: Pearson.

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2014c). How does learning happen? Ontario's pedagogy for the early years: A resource
about learning through relationships for those who work with young children and their families. Toronto: Author. Retrieved
from https://files.ontario.ca/edu-how-does-learning-happen-en-2021-03-23.pdf

Snail video. Found in Zimanyi, L. (2018). Wonder and wisdom in a children’s forest nature program. Retrieved from
https://theconversation.com/wonder-and-wisdom-in-achildrens-forest-nature-program-106692