When I was in the preschooler’s room, I noticed that 2 boys aged 3 and
4 brought hourglasses and shapes to the table and were looking at them. The
hourglasses looked beautiful as there were all different colours, shapes, and
materials inside the hourglasses. I came to the boys and asked them, pointing
to one of the hourglasses, if they know what it was and what it was for. The 3
year old boy said it was an object and the 4 year old boy said that it was a
timer. I think both of the boys’ views were quite right. I asked them how many minutes
to go until all the sand goes to the bottom when you turn it over. They did not
know about that so we decided to measure the time with a wall clock. We did
this experiment with the smallest one. We looked at the second hand in the
clock on the wall, and turned the hourglass over. The boys were so excited to
see how long it went. We counted together following the second hand in the
clock. We discovered it was a just minute to go. 
I was wondering when actually a human being invented an hourglass. I
went to Google it. I found out that it is unclear but it already existed in 14th
century because I found a depiction of one. Measuring times are essential for
our everyday lives. An hourglass is a measuring tool. A sand glass can be used
as a kitchen egg timer. It helps us to measure an accurate time for cooking an
egg or whatever, otherwise we might miss it and it can be overcooked. Technology
is about “helping people and solving problems” (Smorti, 1999, p.5). An
hourglass is thus technology.
Another example of this is a way of turn taking for young children. In
my teaching practicum last year, a teacher encouraged the children to use a
sand timer for turn taking when they were using an iPad. It is because the
teacher had just bought the iPad for children for their learning so the
children were extremely excited to play with it and conflict occurred all the
time. The behaviour of the children had become much better since using a sand
glass.
Links with essential skills for contribution in Te Whāriki states that “growing
experience in solving problems together develops children’s understanding of
how technologies can help them and others” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.96).
In this experience some of the children actually became keen on looking at the dropping
sand. They also learned a mathematical concept from the sand timer. It is
linked to the outcome for communication which is “children develop experience
with some of the technology and resources for mathematics, reading, and writing”
(Ministry of Education, 1996, p.78).
In the modern world, we now have a stopwatch or a digital egg timer to measure time. They are quite useful; however, I strongly recommend using an hourglass for young children to develop their mathematical skill and problem solving skill. Children can easily recognise the time concept by seeing dropping materials. Nowadays we use hourglasses as ornaments because they are beautiful. Therefore I believe that it can foster children's sense of aesthetics as well.
In the modern world, we now have a stopwatch or a digital egg timer to measure time. They are quite useful; however, I strongly recommend using an hourglass for young children to develop their mathematical skill and problem solving skill. Children can easily recognise the time concept by seeing dropping materials. Nowadays we use hourglasses as ornaments because they are beautiful. Therefore I believe that it can foster children's sense of aesthetics as well.
Reference list
Ministry of
Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki
matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New
Zealand: Learning Media
Limited.Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 1, 5-10.
An hour glass is a common time measuring device in ECC. When I was on my last teaching practice, the teachers there also used an hour glass for keeping track of time, while the children used ipad. Thus the children knew about their given time, so everybody got a chance without any conflict.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to know how an hourglass fostered children’s learning. You have well related to the modern and olden technologies of measuring time. The children learned about time as well as the movement of the second needle. The egg timer is a new thing to me. I never knew we could cook eggs by following an egg timer. I browsed it and came to know its function. I lived all my life in developing countries, so I had limited knowledge of technology till I reached New Zealand.
Sundial is also an interesting horology for the children. One day you could teach the children about sundial. You will get it from You Tube.
Wow, I would have never thought that an hour glass would be considered as technology, so awesome reflection Miyuki. I have never used an hour glass before or have even come across it so it was interesting to read and learn a little bit more about an hour glass and how important it is when developing children's learning with technology. As Judy mentioned, I also did not know that you could use an hour glass to time eggs when being cooked, very interesting information. Moreover, I liked how you encouraged children to use this hour glass and helped them understand more about how it worked. I believe that with teacher's guidance, children are able to gain and develop more skills.
ReplyDeleteMiyuki this is a very good example of technology. Technology has existed since centuries but its nature and form has evolved with time. As you stated hour glass is a good tool to teach children about turn taking, mathematic skills, science, observation and making them think about the concept behind this falling sand. I am encouraged to show children in my toddlers room the hour glass as a tool of turn taking and part of learning social skills. Miyuki I believe that you have a very genuine way of interacting with children and make a connecting and creating, asking the right questions to extend learning. To extend the learning for children you may ask children to explore and link between science and technology and show them how they are different yet closely related. As Te Whāriki, states, “using many materials for different purposes enables children to recognise that different technologies may be used in various places and settings.” (Ministry of Education. 1996. p.95).
ReplyDeleteI have seen hour glass and timer used at the centres. I my home centre we use timer to check on the children while they are sleeping. When I was on the teaching practicum I experienced teachers using timer to encourage children to take turns and avoid conflicts while they were playing computer games but I had not thought of a timer being a technological device. So thank you Miyuki for making me aware of this. In your reflection you mentioned the uses of hour glass, egg timer and have proved that it is a technological device that helps people and solves problems (Smorti, 1999). Further in the reading it also states that teachers need to focus in more depth on their interactions with children in particular questioning techniques in order to develop children's own perspectives as well as the capacity to continue acquiring new knowledge and skills. This is what you exactly did. First you asked the right questions and later when you found that the children were not able to answer you took a roll of a facilitator providing resources using wall clock to explain the concept of time. You did a good job.
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