Report Teddy mobile by The Haagse Hogeschool, Bianca van Dijk

Evaluation points

 

1. The aims

-  learn to handle tools: screw driver, drill, saw, wrench, etc.

-  learn about energy: electricity, noise, light

-  learn about materials: iron, wood, synthetic

-  learn about mechanical transmissions

-  learn about constructions

-  stimulate creativity

 

 

2. Social situation in which the materials are used

     At first I did an activity to stimulate the  curiosity of the children. The activity I did was a piece of paper placed on the turning table, than turn the table on and  guide a felt tip from the centre of the paper towards the side of the paper.  This was very much a guided activity. After this activity the children knew what to do with the mobile and then I let them discover  further. At this moment you can speak of an open situation. Children discovering on their own, but when they have questions they can ask me about it and then I help them.

 

3. Evaluation/ reflection

     At first it is useful to discover yourself what is possible with the mobile, so you learn to ‘play’ with it. Children will do the same, and when you have some experience yourself with the mobile, you can adapt to the ideas of the children. They will come up with ideas of which you have never thought of.  Bear in mind that  that will happen and don’t be afraid not to know the answer to the question of the children. You can always discover it yourself or look it up.

    Gender aspect: there were no differences with the younger children but with the older children you could see that the boys were  searching for the exiting activities and the girls also played with the figures at the flank.

    Before I started the activities with the mobile, I didn’t think about the gender aspect, because I wanted to see what happened during the activities.

 

a. Way of teaching

    What way of teaching did I use?:

    As I have written above, I used a guided form of teaching with the first activity. Later on it went into a more open situation.  I worked with small groups of 4 to 5 children, so that they can  all work with the mobile and be busy. When you  have larger groups, there will be children doing nothing, and you don’t want that.

 

Which materials:

-  standard materials delivered with the Teddy mobile, like iron shapes.

-  pieces of paper (circles)

-  felt tips

-  paint

-  apron

-  straw

-  tools, like a screwdriver

-  clock of paper

-  tubes

-  injections

-  puppets

-  marble slide

-  marbles

 

Steps during the lesson

                                                                                                                

Subject matter	Child	Environment
	1. Discover/play: All kind of activities, like paint dropping, making an electrical circuit, and so on.
2. Input from the teacher: Explanation on the process and the things that happen during the lesson. And also expand the knowledge of the children
	3. Reflection of the children What did we do? They can show it to other children to share their experiences or write about the activity or make a drawing about it.

 

 

Possibility to adapt to the group:

The Teddy mobile can be used in every group and in any theme. An activity like paint dropping can be done with children of 4 to 6 years old, but also with children of 10 to12 years old. The difference is that the younger children will enjoy the activity like it is in its more basic form and the older children want to discover more. They will let one colour  out and see what the get. Or they  discover you get other figures when you don’t drop the paint on the paper,  but  put the paint directly with the straw on the paper. Then you get the same effect as the activity with the felt tip and a piece of paper.

This is just one example of the possibility to adapt the Teddy mobile to the group, but there are much more.

 

Useful for every day education:

The Teddy mobile certainly is useful for every day education. The problem is that there is only one Teddy mobile at the moment.

But when you  have a mobile you can use it every day. Of course you have to make a programme which includes the aims of technical education. Otherwise the activities will be isolated from the long term curriculum.

 

b. Child and learning

How did the children react on the activity?

The children were really curios about what the mobile could do. They also liked the technical course, because it isn’t an every day lesson for them.  The Teddy mobile was an exiting thing in the school, every child wanted to play with it. Unfortunately this was not possible, because of the lack of time. The mobile evokes curiosity and stimulates the children to discover what to do with it. The children wanted to use the tools which I brought with me and wanted to learn how to use them. I also stimulated them to help each other with the tools. This went very good. It did not matter whether  the other child was a female or a man, they all helped each other.

 

 

What do the children learn?

Ÿ         how to use tools

Ÿ         working with the Teddy mobile

Ÿ         technical skills, like how to make a lamp work, for the older children and for the younger ones how to turn the   turntable on.

Ÿ         the learn to discover new activities with the mobile

Ÿ         the learn to work into a group, cooperation

 

The children really liked the activity, so they had no problems sticking to it, they came with new ideas and kept working even during break time.

 

c. Proposals of the teacher

 

When you are working with the mobile, do not doubt your own technical skills. Just work with it and expand your technical skills and discover new ideas together with the children.

 

The Teddy mobile is not finished, so you have to bring extra materials with you to make an activity work. This is also one of the keys for success  because it children will have a lot of input. In the presentation we mentioned to ‘Keep the Teddy alive’.  The aim should not be to finish it because it will then be an ordinary toy.