Aurora Ecosystem
Establishing Connections; Creating Transformations
“Dare to dream and make dreams come true”
-To Hoai
At the core of the Reggio Emilia philosophy and our own, is the emphasis on building and sustaining relationships. We believe that strong communities are built on relationships.
So when we gathered as a teaching team early in the year, it was only right that we had many discussions about what we had been noticing in the classes when observing our children. How were they developing a sense of belonging? What were the signs of a community of learners connecting and how could we strengthen this?
We know that it is through responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places and things that children have opportunities to try out their ideas and refine their working theories.
We noticed common threads that resonated throughout the school; attachment and change therefore Establishing Connections; Creating Transformations was born. Empowering children to learn and grow requires teachers to foster children’s agency to create and act on their own ideas. So it was vital that the children were able to discover the connection between themselves and their environment, the connecting links between family and school, the relationships between materials and how all of these could be transformed.
Through the hundred languages we have explored these very broad concepts of connection and transformation in meaningful, age appropriate ways.It has also been a journey of discovering and strengthening the wonderful dispositions of learning we had noticed. The resilience, courage, curiosity, persistence and determination found in our children alongside the kindness and respect they were displaying as they connected and formed relationships.
At the beginning of our project we also met Cricket. We honoured To Hoai,the great Vietnamese writer through his wonderful book written in the 1930’s ‘The Adventures of Cricket’. Connection and transformation were two very strong themes that ran throughout the story. Connection being the joining together in harmony that cricket discovered through the relationships he made and the transformation cricket undertakes throughout his journey, of his character, his beliefs, his attitudes and his way of life.We all felt cricket’s journey became our own.
Introduction
At the beginning of our journey, our Discovery friends often spoke about their families and life at home.
This love for family was the starting point and the driving force behind our journey. Our children extended their family experiences through their art and in their play. They expressed themselves and their love for their families in many forms, using a range of materials to construct and portray their ideas.
While having the freedom to explore and play in the classroom, Discovery friends would often be building a big house in the construction corner and proceed role play family life. The combination of construction and dramatic play laid the foundation of our journey through which wwe explored families, homes and food within our community.
FAMILY
What is a family?
Who is my family?
What do families do together?
HOME
What is a home?
Where is your home?
HABITATS
Do animals have a family?
Do animals have homes?
My Family
We all love sharing about our families at home, especially during our assembily time.
One morning Toko showed us a beautiful drawing .“This is my mom. My mommy is so cute... and here my dad... he’s funny... haha and he’s so curious ...”
This sparked more conversations about our families and our Discovery friends started to tell us more about their families too.
“I have a baby too. His name is Chic...” - Vy
“His name is Ramen. My baby is 3 years old... almost...long long time...” - Udon
Family - Titan
We love to draw about our fam - ilies!
Mummy is Sitting - Mai
“This is a swimming pool... and flowers for me and baby. I draw a sky too...” - Anvi
Papa and Apple Eating Fish - Apple
“I want to show my home. My home number is 22. mommy and daddy watching tv with my baby and my dad downloaded dinosaur game for me - Mason
“My sisters and aunt cooking and my mom is working’’ - Dan
‘‘my mom said I don’t eat ice cream today ”- Vy
Our Home
The exploration of family life continued as our Discovery friends showed pictures and discussed their homes with each other. There was a lot of interest shown towards the different types of houses we all lived in. Many friends spoke about the size of their houses and the numbers on them.
My House - Dan
“My house is Landmark 81. It’s taller than a giraffe. My house is in 29, 2 and 9. I just live with my mum, my dad and my brother. The other houses are other countries. Myhouse connects to another park and other house connect to another park.” - David
Everyone Coming to my House - Vani
“We need the ladder to go up my grandpa will sleep upstairs. There is the kitchen next to the living room” - Eric
“I live in a tall building with elevator.”
- Dan
“In my house has a swimming pool and my house is number 3. Mason’s house is next to me. It’s Estella house. It has 2 slides.”
- Vani
“My house is circle, circle, 40-60 people in my house. My house has small house and big house. I got 6 houses. My house 1 and 10.”
- Apple
“My house is haunted house. Today my mum makes ice-cream house. I go home and eat ice-cream. My mum makes 180 icecream.”
- Bull
“I have swimming pool.”
- Sushi
“My house has 3 swimming pools. 2 swimming pools are broken. My house is 29.
- Mai
is my neighbor, Mai is next to my house.”
- Toko
‘‘Can I see inside your house Mr Adrian’’ - Bull
After a long conversation, we wanted to see how our houses look like. We used Google Earth to explore this. The first journey was to Aurora school, we saw our school and our swimming pool. Then we moved to Estella, Landmark 81 and Tropic Garden. The most surprising houses are Mr. Adrian’s house in South Africa and Ms.Penny’s house in New Zealand
We Want to Build Our Own Houses
But first, we had to draw our house plans!
We continued our discussion about our different types of homes. We were so excited to see Bull’s photos about his wooden house on an island. All of our friends were inspired by Bull’s wooden house and we wanted to build our own houses using popsicle sticks and other natural parts.
Tra Sua’s House in Canada - Tra Sua
We were thinking about the materials a house was made from...
"From this." - Bull, pointing to the wooden block.
"I didn’t have a wood in my house...no." - Apple
"I want to make a house like Aurora house" - Toko
"But where is the wood from?"
- Mr. Adrian
"...from the tree" - Anvi
“My house has no more water. The water is dirty. I have 2 swimming pools those are very deep. I have 2 houses in Saigon and 1 house in Binh Duong. The houses in Saigon are tall and many people and have swimming pool.”
- Udon
“My parent’s bedroom on top and my bedroom and my dog is here.”
- Mai
“This one is ladder to the roof. This one is my bedroom and this one is my brother’s bedroom.”
- David
Vy’s house with a swing and a purple roof.
“A door and window. The ladder just for walking. My room is on here and my mom and my dad sleep down here.”- Mason
Big Box Building
We built a house together.
Throughout this year, you have all shown a lot of interest in building a big house in our construction area. You use the big wooden blocks to make the walls, mats and pillows for the bed, and also some materials from the cooking area. You all take great pleasure in reconstructing family life in our classroom and enjoy creating dramatic play scenarios. We realized that we do not have enough blocks to make a bigger house, and all of you really want to make the house as big as possible! So, we began to talk and come up with ideas for ways we can make changes to our house as well as what materials we can use.
“We need a picture for the house.” - Dan
So, we began by drawing our vision for our house...
We visited our store room and found many boxes which we agreed would be ideal to use for our house. Then, we began to stick all the boxes together. You all displayed wonderful focus and showed us once again what skillful builders you are!
“We can make house bigger”
- Udon
“We can make house taller.”
- Dan
“The house will fall down. We must be careful.”
- Mai
“When the blocks went out we can make another house.”
- Sui
“We can make girl house and boy house.”
- Vani
“It’s hot, it can drop down.”
- Mason
“I just make a house for boy not for girl.”
- Titan
“That’s not fair.”
- Toko
We observed how many of you love connecting materials using tape. We loved seeing you all focus and using your fine motor skills for a long time while we added many more boxes to our structure.
"We make a bed and put in a house... a table for eating and a kitchen! - Vani
"We need to make something for the bed stand up. - Toko
"A chair and a roof for Santa Claus come... a chimney. - Dan
"Yes a roof so if the rain coming it’s okay. We need a door too!" - Toko
“Because the roof is outside. If it’s not hot we go outside and play if it’s hot we stay inside.” - Chika
"I don’t have a chimney in my house."
- Udon
"The chimney is for the fire to keep warm when it’s snow. We need a window too."
- Khoi
"Chimney for people stuck in the house... the animals can climb down too."
- Dan
"The wolf come in the chimney too."
- Mai
Habitats
Where do insects live?
We were very curious to learn more about insects, where they live and what do they eat. We watched a video about how ants build an anthill over night and the life cycle of a butterfly.
"Ants live in the desert... they can form quickly into any shape..." - Titan
"Ant house is so big... " - David
"The caterpillar is in the egg... eating the egg" - Toko
"It will grow up into a butterfly. But why does he need to make a house?’’ - Apple
"He needs to sleep there before he wakes up and turn into a butterfly... a raccoon! (cocoon)" - David
Udon - Wire Sculpture of insect
What is an Insect?
We had a lot of questions about insects. We already know some interesting insects that we can name, such as: dragonfly, butterfly, grasshopper, bee, ant...
“And ... snake!” - Bull
“Is snake an insect ? There are so many animals friends, but how do we know if it is an insect or not?”
- Mr. Adrian
“An insect is small and many legs.... Dogs are big and only 4 legs, dog not insect.” - Titan
After a while, we all noticed that all insect friends have something on their heads...What is it?
“Hands...” - Chika
“It’s hole” - Mason
“That’s hair...” - Apple
“No... it’s ear” - Toko
Vani - Wire Sculpture of Butterfly Wings
Mason - Wire Sculpture of a Caterpillar
Discovcovery and Food
Depending on the day, you would take on different roles within the Discovery family. Food and cooking also playing a big part as many of the family scenes that were reenacted were preparing meals, setting the table and eating together.
We noticed that cooking is always at the top of your list during free play. So, we wanted to offer you a real world experience using a clay stove and charcoal. Together we cooked our all the time favorite, pancakes!
We started by mixing our ingredients and making the pancake batter.
"What do we need to make pancakes?" - Mr. Adrian
"Butter...and flour!" -Toko
"A little bit sugar... we can also add syrup." - Bull
"Honey!" -Apple
"We have to careful fire... " - Chika
"A spoon and bowl" - Mai
"We need egg" - Vani
“Blue hamburger! Yummy yummy” - Titan
“It’s
my rainbow candy pizza!”- Vy
Birthday Cake - Anvi
Pizza Hamburger -
"We value space, to create a handsome environment and its potential to inspire social, affective and cognitive learning. The space is an aquarium that mirrors the ideas and values of the people who live in it."
- Loris Malaguzzi
Aurora International School Of The Arts 11-13 Tran Ngoc Dien, Thao Dien Ward, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Scholastic Year 2020/2021
www.aurorareggio.com