Problem
Case Scenario Pinecones and cumquats - Ruby's learning story
Ruby (4 years old) walked quickly into the room clutching a plastic bag named 'Ruby's bag'. It seemed heavy and bulging as she needed two hands to manage it. She came straight up to me and said, "Quick, I've got to show you my pinecones that I collected under a tree!" She started to unpack the pinecones as we moved to make room! Previously a child had been counting his leaves on the ground so there were numbers drawn in chalk on the carpet. Ruby announced, "Let me count how many I collected for you!" As she started to line them up, she looked up at me and asked, "Is this maths?" "Of course." I replied, delighted that she had made the connection.
I suggested we put some paper under the pinecones so we could write the numerals as she counted. "Yeah sure," said Ruby. She reached the edge of the paper with her pinecones as she counted "Six" and I commented, "Uh oh, there's too many and they won't fit on the paper." "Just get another one." said Ruby, laughing at my apparent silliness! She ended up with three pieces of paper, just enough to fit them on. "Yeah, they can fit", smiled Ruby. The other children watched patiently as she went through the process of counting each pinecone right up to the number 15, touching each one. Ruby looked again, hesitated and then began shifting the pinecones around. After asking what she was thinking, Ruby replied, "I'm finding the big ones and then the little ones." She had sorted the pinecones into a sliding scale of size! She smiled as we gave her a thunderous round of applause. Ruby had also brought in a bag of cumquat seeds, and I suggested we count these too to see if there were more seeds or more pinecones. As Ruby put each seed in front of a pinecone, she realised there were more seeds and said, "There's more seeds." "Great maths Ruby! How many more?" I asked. No replies. "How can we find out?" Ruby didn't say anything she just started to count. She counted to 19 without missing a beat. I commented, "Oh, there's 15 pinecones and 19 seeds!", wondering if I can take it to the next level of critical thinking. "How many more seeds than pinecones are there?" and placed my hands under the remaining seeds to give a visual indicator.
Ruby moved toward me, leant over and counted the remaining four cumquat seeds that didn't have a pinecone partner. "Four" exclaimed Ruby and I replied, "Great maths, Ruby!"
A. The service in this scenario cares for children from birth to 5 years old. Review ACECQA's National Approved Learning Frameworks in essential resources and identify the national learning framework the service would be using?
B. Identify one Principle and one Practice from the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) demonstrated in this case study by the educator. Provide an example from the scenario for both of your choices.
C. Identify one example where the Educator promoted the child's sense of either Being, Belonging and/or Becoming. Refer to the Early Years Learning Framework to guide your response.
D. Identify one example where the Educator utilised the EYLF to support 'Intentional Teaching'?
E. The EYLF document 'Belonging, Being & Becoming' outlines five broad learning outcomes for children from birth to five years of age.