EARTHWORMS

It was Monday morning, after the rain, the children went outside to play.  As they were playing, one of the children found an earthworm and everyone gathered around to see it.  They watched as the earthworm wriggled and tried to get inside the hole.  When the worm disappeared, they wanted to know where the worm went and after discussing with the children, they understood that the worm lives underground and they help our plants to get nutrients and helps them to grow.

 I decided to go to our library corner to find a book on worms. I did find a book on worms and thought that it would be a good idea to read to the children explaining more in detail about worms.

Stories are one of children’s most pleasurable activities and they are also very important for children’s development of language. Intellectually stories increase children’s knowledge as they learn more about new ideas, experiences and adventures (Wright, 2003). Emotionally stories help children to overcome negative emotions such as fear of the dark or the doctor (Wright, 2003).Stories which deal with physical development help improve children’s body image. Social value is also taught through stories were children learn to have compassion for other children (Wright, 2003).

While reading the stories to the children they asked questions, especially on what worms eat. Showing them the different pictures of all the stuff worms eat made understand the importance of leaves, ants and other bugs. “T” spoke out quite loudly telling the other children that they should not break the leaves of the trees because the worms would not have food

While reading the story out to the children we were sitting at the art table. After our story a few of the girls decided that they wanted to draw out worms. Te Whāriki says stories develops the child imagination and creativity (Ministry of Education, 1996)

The children decided that they wanted to see the picture of the worm while they drew they own. Identifying objects with their own piece of drawing helps the child with the developmental process of been able to copy (Jalongo & Stamp, 1997).

Through this learning experience of drawing children develop physical co-ordination between hand and eye. They also learn the difference between different art materials (Somerset, 2007). They were also able to relate the experience they had with finding the worm to their drawing in turn giving their drawing more meaning and understanding. We as teachers need to remember that the end product is not what is important but the fact that the children are able to express themselves (Wright, 2003)