One technological wonder that most of us consider we cannot live without is the tooth brush, and might I say thank goodness for that. That furry feeling you get when you haven’t cleaned your teeth is horrible. August encompassed oral health week and was the perfect opportunity to have the local dental nurse come along to the centre and talk to the children about the importance of cleaning your teeth. "being part of a community confirms children's sense of belonging" (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004, p. 230). (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer (2008) emphasise the importance of children engaging and collaborating in community experiences” "children learn about the processes, concepts and practices that are valued within their community (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2008, p. 37).
The dental nurse brought with her a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste for every child in centre that day and various pieces of equipment to show the children what she may use when checking the children’s teeth. The children also got to view a short DVD of a child having some dental work done on their teeth. “It doesn’t hurt” she assured the children and explained how she could put their tooth to sleep if she felt it was a particularly large hole. I thought to myself “yeah right” I wonder if school children still call it the 
murder house. Historically the approach to teaching was more of a focus on educators planning specific skills for children to learn. Today the focus of social construction of knowledge is recognised, and the significance of children learning about their community is an important part of experiences necessary that contributes to a child's holistic development (Arthur, Beecher, Death,Dockett&Farmer,2008).
Te Whāriki states "children have extensive prior learning and experiences which provide starting points for further learning" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 83). The next day some of the children still were asking questions about the dental nurse so we set up the projector and used youtube to Google dental clinics and small clips of looking after your teeth. By using the projector it enabled a larger group of children to become involved in the thoughts of others and became an activity that drew the children in, it is a subject that all or at least I hope all children will experience and have their own knowledge and views on.
Hey Erin this is a great post!! sounds like the children learnt a lot from having someone come into the centre. i find our children engage more when someone new is explaining! how are you going to review this with the children? have you spoken about it since the dental nurse was there? Cool post!!
ReplyDeleteA very good reflection on technology and social studies. Your children have been lucky to have visitor to come over :)
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