From www.saraswatipreschool.blogspot.com
The other day I had a class reunion – my friends wanted to know how I applied whatever I learned in Engineering school to the preschool classroom?
Here is how it works….
I lead a group of 3 to 5 year olds in a classification activity in English. There are about 10 children. The children pick some animal pictures, say out what animal it is and where it lives, then stick them on the correct habitat picture– sea, farm or forest. A few rounds go smoothly with each child getting a chance to pick and paste. We are up to the last round, however, there are not enough animal pictures. I tell the children ‘we have a problem. I repeat in Indonesian, ‘teman-teman, kita punya masalah’. Everyone perks up to hear what the problem is.
Panji : sesama teman kita harus berbagi
Rayya : diambil aja lagi
‘Bisa…jadi gambar yang sudah ditempel diambil lagi untuk teman yang belum dapat giliran
Rayhan: Kita ambil 3 aja
‘Maksud Rayhan kita ambil 3 terus dikasih ke temennya 3, terus yang lainnya gimana?
The children were quiet again…thinking some more.
Atau maksud Rayhan tadi 3 anak dapat 1 gambar? Kita coba ya…
Rayya, Putri, dan Abi, pick 1 animal – only 1. All three put out their hands to pick a picture.
wah, sepertinya kalau buat kelompok, kita harus diskusi dulu siapa yang pilih gambar, siapa yang menempelnya….kalau begitu kita buat saja kelompok berdua ya….
Gian : Aku sama Ekal
"Yang lain sudah buat kelompok berdua?…Nah sekarang diskusi dulu sama temannya siapa yang memilih, siapa yang menempel - who picks, and who pastes’"
"kalau gitu, seperti saran Zila, kita ambil lagi yang sudah ditempel…"
What are the children learning?
Definitely content of subject, as in, names of animals and their habitat,
a basic step to higher order thinking – classification,
some very important life skills as in being brave enough to express ideas, respecting others for their ideas, listening to others, ethics of working in a team, creative problem solving….
Back to addressing my friends’question - does this have any connection to my engineering degree…I am sure it does in many ways, some ways more obvious than others. We continue to work with passion, and trust that the things we do all fits together, and make our lives complete. SDC.