Skateboards, Skateboards Everywhere

15/04/11

Today I noticed a group of boys at the top of the blue slide with bits of cardboard boxes, I watched them slide down the slide standing on the cardboard. I asked the teacher on float if she would be able to come down to the playground so I could go and talk to the boys to find out what they were doing. I walked over to the group of boys and asked "what are you boys doing" and they all replied "skateboarding". A turned around and said to me "this is the ramp" (pointing to the blue slide), M and W said "we go down it". The boys took turns going down the ramp (blue slide). When they reached the bottom they picked up their skateboards and ran up to go down again. 

Boys at top of ramp

 

Boys going down ramp

    

I then noticed four other boys who had pieces of a cardboard box down on the concrete jumping up and down on it, twirling around on it and even moving it along the ground like a skateboard. I walked over to this lot of boys and asked them what they were doing and C said "tricks, watch this", C jumped and twirled around and said "that was my trick". C then did a trick we held on the recycling bin and jumped up and down on his skateboard.

C doing his tricks

Z and M said "Amy look", when I looked over they were moving on the cardboard boxes as if they were skating on a real skateboard they both said "we going fast".

Z and M Skating

N called out to me and said "Amy watch this", N was doing lying on his skateboard and using his hands to move it along the ground then he hoped up and and skated along with one foot on the skateboard moving around in circles.

N doing his tricks     

   

The three boys that were going down came over and joined in and was showing what they could do on their skateboards. It was good to see that the boys were sharing their tricks with one other as they would say "can you do this", then show the trick, then others would copy.

Te Whāriki suggests that “children should experience an environment where they learn strategies for active exploration, thinking, and reasoning” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.88). This means that children have the opportunity to participate in socio-dramatic play. Socio-dramatic play is more involved and helps children learn to put themselves in the other person’s shoes. (High Reach Learning, 2007, p.1). This was shown when the boys took turns to show their tricks and copy one another.

Te Whāriki also suggests that “children experience an environment where they are encouraged to learn with
and alongside others“ (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.70). This was shown when the boys took turns to go down the blue slide and sharing their tricks and moves on the skateboards.

According to MacNaughton and Williams (2004) “to demonstrate something is to show how it done” (p.55). Demonstrating helps children learning by showing them how to use different types of materials or equipment or even how to do a particular task. I noticed that the boys used this technique when showing each other how to do a trick as one boy would demonstrate the trick then the rest would try to copy.
Was wondering if anyone could give suggestions on how I could have extended on this activity with the group of boys.

Reference List:

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He Whāriki mātaurangi mō ngā mōkopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington: Learning Media.

MacNaughton , G., & Williams, G. (2004). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (2^nd ed.). Frenchs Forrest NSW: Pearson        Prentice Hall.

High Reach Learning. (2007). The importance of Play. Retrived from http://www.highreach.com/highreach_cms/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=nhipqKPyYB8%3D&tabid=106