Learning Story 1

Number: 31573998 Tandia Wilkinson

(Adapted from Carr, M. (2001). Assessment in early childhood settings: Learning stories. London: Sage)
Childs name: Brooke M
Date: 7th April 2015 Activity: Reading, Viewing and aural language
Learning Disposition
Taking an interest
Being involved

Persisting with difficulty

Expressing a feeling or idea

Taking responsibility

Examples or cues to
demonstrate this
Brooke took an interest in the
illustrations in the book.
Brooke was intrigued for the
entire story and joined in, in
the rhyming words.
Brooke found it difficult to
pronounce some words in
the story so she clapped the
syllables in the words and
explained Thats what we do
at school.
Brooke would clap and laugh
at parts of the story she
found amusing.
Brooke helped bring a chair
over for her little sister to sit
on and enjoy the book too
and asked questions about
the story, during and after.

A Learning Story
At the start of the session Brooke enjoyed listening to the story The Wonky Donkey
by Craig Smith. At times of the story there were a lot of rhyming words, so Brooke
would join in with pronouncing the words. Brooke asked questions during the story
when she did not understand a word and would stop at a page when she found a
picture aesthetically pleasing. She found it very enjoyable as she would laugh and
look very pleased with herself. Once the story had finished Brooke was enthused to
comment about the story, she said, The donkey liked listening to country music
and was reflecting upon the events that occurred in the story. Her enthusiasm for
the music element of the story linked to her own passion of music and dancing. She
immediately wanted to demonstrate her own dancing, and proceeded to take me
outside to show me the stage that her father had built for her to dance on. Once
she had danced, she wanted to hear the story again, and sat with me in the story
teller seat to read to her sister. Once she had heard the story again, Brooke walked
around the room searching for other things that might rhyme with donkey. She
showed me items and asked if they rhymed, sometimes deliberately testing me.
She told me a honkey nut rhymed with donkey, then laughed and held up her doll
and asked if it rhymed, saying Does it rhyme with donkey? Of course not, silly!

Short term review: (What learning do I think is going on here? What comes next?)Brooke used learning outcome 4.1: Children develop
dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and
reflexivity, in her interest in the book and learning outcome 5.4: Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work,
in her aural language skills.
Next Brooke will undergo a practical activity, by making a wonky donkey puppet, using her writing and fine motor skills. Another
possibility could involve reading a second book with more aural language patterns.

Learning Story 2
Number: 31573998 Tandia Wilkinson
(Adapted from Carr, M. (2001). Assessment in early childhood settings: Learning stories. London: Sage)
Childs name: Brooke M.
Date: 7th April 2015 Activity: Holding a pencil and using oral language
Learning Disposition

Examples or cues to
demonstrate this
Taking an interest
Brooke clearly had an
interest in her writing skills
and making sure her
fingers were holding the
pencil properly.
Being involved
Through the duration of
the puppet making activity
Brooke was constantly
rearranging my fingers on
the pencil to the way she
wanted it.
Persisting with difficulty
Brookes difficulty was
convincing other people to
hold a pencil like she did
and her persisting were
constantly reminding me.
Expressing a feeling or idea Brooke used her oral
language and physical
assistance to express the
idea of holding a pencil.
Taking responsibility
Brooke helped others with
their fine motor skills and
writing skills.

A Learning Story
Brooke and I were colouring in a picture of a donkey to make puppets. After a short
time, I noticed Brooke had stopped colouring and was observing her sister and I.
Once she realized I was watching, she turned and explained to me how to properly
hold a pencil Thats not how you hold your pencil. You hold it like this and then
proceeded to demonstrate the correct way to position your fingers around a pencil.
Later on in the session Brooke picked up on it again and said that I still was not
holding the pencil correctly. She once again corrected me, and continued to watch
what I was doing until I held the pencil correctly. She then moved to correct her
sister, but in this instance went to stand with her, and physically repositioned the
younger childs fingers, realizing that she needed more assistance than an adult
might in this action.
Brooke enjoyed writing and putting her fine motor skills to the test. She seemed
very accomplished with herself and her instructions she made about how to hold a
pencil properly. In this activity Brooke was scaffolding and peer teaching me. When
a child helps another it promotes their linguistic skills and it promotes a higher
understanding level of the idea they are trying to convey.

Short term review: (What learning do I think is going on here? What comes next?)
Brooke used learning outcomes 5.1: Interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes by explain how to hold a
pencil and showing how to hold it and 5.3: express ideas and make meaning using a range of media, on her puppet.
To extend on Brookes fine motor skills played based learning such as play dough sculpting would benefit or to specifically extend on
Brookes pencil holding skills using different writing materials, such as crayons.

Learning Story 3
Number: 31573998 Tandia Wilkinson
(Adapted from Carr, M. (2001). Assessment in early childhood settings: Learning stories. London: Sage)
Childs name: Brooke M.
Date: 7th April 2015 Activity: cognitive development and writing
Learning Disposition

Examples or cues to
demonstrate this
Taking an interest
Brooke took an interest in
this activity as she got to
be creative and explore
different media.
Being involved
Brooke enjoyed this
activity and was very
hands on orientated. She
continued creating a
donkey puppet for
proximally fifteen minutes.
Persisting with difficulty
Brooke found it difficult to
put the split pins into the
donkeys legs but was very
persistent and did not
want any help.
Expressing a feeling or idea Brooke used her oral
language skills to express
why she was using each
material and each colour.
Taking responsibility
Brooke took responsibility
in helping her younger
sister cut out her donkey
puppet.

A Learning Story
Brooke created her Wonky Donkey puppet using her cognitive and creative skills.
She used different materials, such as glue, scissors, collage pieces, stickers and
pencils. By providing different materials Brooke was able to expand her cognitive
thinking and create patterns and put her own perspective into learning. Brooke
used materials that were provided and also other materials she found in the house
to create her puppet. Brooke said, Im going to use a cotton ball to make the
donkeys eyes. Brooke was able to use a cotton ball to represent eyes and to
express her cognitive thinking. Brooke used a number of different colouring in
pencils to design her puppet and make it unique. She said Im going to use the
pink pencil this time and then coloured in parts of the donkey pink. Brooke was
able to use her writing skills and identify different colours. She had told me at the
start of our activity that her favourite colour was pink. When I showed her different
varieties of pink, she was excited to see the many shades she could use. She
proceeded to arrange the shades form darkest to lightest, then used these to colour
her puppet. In addition to using a range of deliberate patterns, Brooke was quite
descisive when using stickers to write her name on the back of her puppet. She
found the letters for her name, then returned them to the pile if she had two that
were of the same colour, seeking to continue her rainbow theme.

Short term review: (What learning do I think is going on here? What comes next?)
Brooke used learning outcomes 4.4 Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and
natural and processed materials by using cotton balls as eyes and 5.3: express ideas and make meaning using a range of media by using
different materials to design her puppet.
Extension activities may include making a theatre for the puppet or Brooke could draw her own donkey without a stencil.

Learning Story 4
Number: 31573998 Tandia Wilkinson
(Adapted from Carr, M. (2001). Assessment in early childhood settings: Learning stories. London: Sage)
Childs name: Brooke M.
Date: 9th April 2015 Activity: gestural and spatial awareness
Learning Disposition

Examples or cues to
demonstrate this

A Learning Story

Taking an interest

Brooke took a high interest in

the activity as she already
had a passion for dancing.
Brooke was involved in this
activity through her dancing,
designing the theatre and
performing the show.
Brooke initially found it
difficult to stick the material
onto the cardboard to make
the curtains for the theater.
she tried using glue, then
staple it and after much
hunting around the house
found some sticky tape that
worked.
Brooke used her oral
language and dance to
express her ideas and
feelings.
Brooke took responsibility in
creating her own script for
the puppet show and making
it possible for her younger
sister to join in with her
puppet in the show.

In the final session Brooke watched a video of the story The Wonky Donkey. By
using a video Brooke was able to use visual skills in the literacy learning steps. After
the video finished Brooke decided she wanted to watch it again and this time she
danced with her puppet. Brooke hopped on one leg and said, Im a wonky
donkey. She used her spatial awareness and gross motor skills to perform her
dance, then went to dress up as a donkey, adding a headband with ears from her
Easter collection. Although she enjoyed the video, she was more interested in the
music and wanted to play the CD that came with the book. While the CD played,
she danced and then took the book and sat down with her sister to reread the story.
As she read the story she encouraged her sister to use her puppet to act out the
story.

Being involved

Persisting with difficulty

Expressing a feeling or idea

Taking responsibility

During this session Brooke also designed and played with a puppet theatre. During
the show Brooke hid behind the theatre box and was not able to use her gestures
or facial expressions so she improvised and made the puppet use gestures, such as,
raising his leg or head or jumping up and down. She made sure it was possible for
her younger sister to join in the performance and used oral interaction skills with
her sister throughout. Her creativity and speaking and listening skills were clearly
on display, as she retold the story and added her own words. When one of the sticks
she was using to hold her puppet fell off, she exclaimed Oh! What a shonky wonky
donkey! then laughed for an extended period of time at her own joke.

Short term review: (What learning do I think is going on here? What comes next?)
Brooke used learning outcomes 2.3 Children become aware of fairness, when she let her sister join in and also 5.1 Children interact
verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes when she used her verbal language in the puppet show and non-verbal
language through her dancing.
For another activity Brooke could make a choreograph performance from her dancing about the wonky donkey.