EDEE 253 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Toothpaste
22 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
P.17-21 (theories take shape)
-What do you think are the overall goals in project work?
-What did you learn about the teachers’ role?
-What did you learn about the child and his/her capabilities?
-What pre-school competencies (for 5 yr. old K) could be assessed and why?
-The children were becoming fascinated with the fragrances that permeated the environment
-The teachers were recording some of the children’s comments about the fragrances and the oil
burner and how it might work
-The teachers chose to create a small group smelling session in which groups of four children
would have an opportunity to smell scented oil and dried materials
-The teachers asked the students to make associations with each scent (what did it remind
them of? where did they think it came from?)
-The students smelled four different oils and described what they smelled like
-The teacher recorded the conversation, transcribed each one and shared it with their
colleagues
-The students then went on to smelling the dried materials
-The children were able to associate some smells with prior knowledge (if they smelled
something similar before) Ex. for the peppermint some kids said it smelled like toothpaste
-The children seemed eager to mix some of the dried materials to create new scents
-Children started labelling their mixtures
-Both the children and teachers began to notice fragrances, even subtle ones, with a heightened
sensitivity
-Students started to smell objects around school to see what other smells they might find
-One child started to notice that dogs were experts at smelling - the students invented a game
where they would present to be dogs
-The children started to smell very unlikely objects: desks, chairs, doors
-The teachers saw that the children were excited to smell new things and allowed them to go
outside in small groups to explore
-Outside the teachers were detectives following the child detectives as they searched for new
smells
-The teacher took pictures of the children smelling and recorded the children’s comments
-Project involved: initial planning by the teachers, children in small groups, teachers taking notes
and tape recording, children outside, an investigation initiated by a student teacher, children
found scent in everything, response to curiosity by the children and teachers, connections to
real experiences, the initial phase of the scientific method (observing, questioning,
hypothesizing), exploring, risk taking (teachers), children speaking freely, children describing
their emotions in words, teaching gave no answers, children and teachers listening and
observing, different facial expressions, smells evoking memories, teacher as facilitator and
supporter, children receiving validation
-Children are learning to discriminate in an area that is not prominent but very important
(smells), they are learning about scents as a language, they exploring how smells work, they
are learning about cause and effect, they are isolating one sense, they are learning to discover,
they are learning to be comfortable expressing their own ideas, they are learning to learn in a
group and build on each other’s ideas.
-The teachers had a lot of meetings and brainstormed ideas and games
-In groups of 4 the children and teacher would place a vase of flowers on a central table in the
studio. Then, the group would move to the door of the room fattest away from the flowers. The
teacher would as “can you smell the flowers?”. Each time the group would move a little closer
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Document Summary
The children were becoming fascinated with the fragrances that permeated the environment. The teachers were recording some of the children"s comments about the fragrances and the oil burner and how it might work. The teachers chose to create a small group smelling session in which groups of four children would have an opportunity to smell scented oil and dried materials. The teachers asked the students to make associations with each scent (what did it remind them of? where did they think it came from?) The students smelled four different oils and described what they smelled like. The teacher recorded the conversation, transcribed each one and shared it with their colleagues. The students then went on to smelling the dried materials. The children were able to associate some smells with prior knowledge (if they smelled something similar before) ex. for the peppermint some kids said it smelled like toothpaste.
