Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmel

What a lovely week we have had. We are immersed in Olympic fever! There has been lots of excitement, discussion and sharing from the children and educators, after a wonderful start to the Olympics over the weekend.

“I don’t only go for Australia; I go for Australia and Israel”- Alice (5)

Embracing the Olympics

Does anyone know what started on the weekend?

Mili: Olympics.
Zach: I’m watching it, the swimming.
Arlo: I was also watching it this morning.
Abby: I watch them! Morning, night-time, all the times. My mum was waiting so long for the swimming to come on. And today my mum is going to watch the Olympic swimming.

Who knows where the Olympics are happening?

Zach: Australia.
Abby: America.
Bronte: Australia.
Mili: Africa.
Adam: Israel.
Finn: China? French? South America? Hong Kong?

We passed the Olympic logo around the circle which had the name of the country hosting the Olympics…

Arlo: Tokyo. I read it!

What do you know about the Olympics?

Etta: You try to win; some kind of special occasion and you try to win the gold medal. There are lots of sports and lots of people from different countries.
Rafi: They swim and then they go and get their clothes on and then the people ask them things.
Daisy: They might go to swim. They have to put on some clothes and they do great swimming and they hold their breath and go under water. They do big jumps and back flips.
Jesse: They backflip backwards.
Uriel: They swim, and Australia won.
Ziggy: They jump, and they swim, and they go under the water.
Ethan: There is swimming and riding on the bike and running. (Ethan shared in the morning that he had been watching the Triathlon.)
Daisy: Olympics you have to practise and there are different countries to do the Olympics.
Ethan: There are motor bikes at the back in case they break the rules. If they do, they will be put in the penalty box.

Following up on gender stereotypes, we talked about how in the Ancient Greek Olympics, only the men were allowed to participate in the different sports. The women were not even allowed to watch. The children made their thinking visible:

Josh: That’s rude because only the boys were allowed to do stuff.
Finn: Unfair.

We watched some swimming races and talked about some of the athletes. We learnt that there are 16 First Nations athletes! We looked at each individually.

Following on from this, the children were invited to represent the swimming pool and swimmers using mixed media – black markers, pastels, paper pieces and watercolours. The children were so engaged and focused during this activity, noticing details such as the numbers, the lanes, the starting blocks, the timers, spectators, and different positions of the swimmers in the pool.

The children are also keeping a tally of medals for Australia and will be adding to this chart daily.

Understanding gender stereotypes and diversity

Young children make sense of the world through imagination and play, by observing, imitating, asking questions, and relating to other children and adults (Vygotsky & Cole 2014). However, gender stereotypes can perpetuate inequality and pressure children to comply with standards of masculinity and femininity, which is potentially harmful. Early Childhood Educators are in a position to shape children’s understanding of gender, teach them to celebrate diversity and to challenge their views to help their growth and development.

One of the stereotypes that arose within the Dolphin group was “Only boys can do hammering”. We decided to further extend our discussion and explore gender stereotypes through conversation.

The follow-up conversation (that started last week) went a little bit like this:

Remember when we talked about woodwork and whether boys and girls can do woodwork?

Zach: Boys and girls can do woodwork.
Evan: Everyone in the whole world can do.

Can boys and girls do the same things?

Arlo: Shall I tell you the only thing that girls can do? Only girls can do milk from their breasts.
Abby: Boys can only do bricks and build houses.
Arlo: That’s not really true. It’s exactly the same as the wood. Girls can also do woodwork.
Josh: And Mums can only born babies. Dads give the eggs to the Mums.

We looked at some images of women in construction to provoke the children’s thinking…

Abby: Girls are building.
Mili: They may be building a house.
Finn: I think she’s building train tracks.

What do you think about girls working in building and factories?

Bronte: Good because girls are different like boys and boys are different like girls.
Zach: Maybe she’s building a machine.
Leah: It looks like she’s building a pathway.
Josh: Building a fence, fixing someone’s fence.

Do you see many girls building?

Josh: Whenever I go around the block I see builders, only boys.
Adam: I see girls.
Finn: Me too, building.
Evan: I see builders when I drive.

Do you think I could be a builder? (Educator to children)

Finn: When you go out of your job, you can be a builder. If you retire but you weren’t old, you would get out and be a builder and practise and learn to be a builder.

Such insightful words and observations from our youngest members of the Emanuel community. It’s never too early to start learning these life lessons – so powerful!

Mazal tov

We wish a huge, big Mazal tov to Craig, Claire and James Haifer on the birth of baby Tom last week. We hope he brings you much joy and happiness always.