Kindergarten One

January 25, 2019

The children had discussed about landforms, particularly volcano, last week. This week's lesson focuses and deepens children’s knowledge about the volcano through a hands-on activity. The simple volcano experiment, in the lesson, allows the children to witness and experience a simulated volcanic eruption first-hand. It not only intrigue them to learn but also teaches them to appreciate and respect the beauty of Mother Nature.

Learning objectives

Children will be able to:

1. Identify the parts of a volcano (magma, crater, vent and lava)

2. Make a simple recording of their observation through video recording/photographs

3. Share observations of the experiment with their peers

Teaching Technique

According to MacNaughton and Williams (2008), documentation refers to collecting and presenting children’s learning in the form of paper or digitized record, such as anecdotal observations, photographs and video (p. 296). Usually, the class teacher has the responsibility to do the documenting, however, in the video, it is the other way around. The children have the duty of documenting down their volcano experiment using the iPads. Involving children in the process of documenting allows the teacher to understand how they view the world (MacNaughton & Williams, 2018, p. 303).

In Inquiry-based learning, documentation is a critical teaching technique. Documenting the investigation help children gain insight into their own learning through the development of collaboration skills, perseverance, critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Timothy, 2013). The video documentation that the children did will be used for the discussions, observations and sharing which will be done later in the term. It not only reminds children of their experience but also ignites their curiosity to dig deeper and ask more questions. When the teacher and children can revisit any section of the documentation for discussion, deeper learning occurs (MacNaughton & Williams, 2018, p. 299).