Kowhaiball Analysis

Hazel, you were really interested in having a turn at putting pōro/balls down the plastic tubes. There were lots of other tamariki who wanted to have a turn at this activity too. Because there were so many eager participants, we made two lines at each set of tubes and you joined the line to the right of the sandpit. Hazel, you did a really good job of waiting for your turn at the tubes. You waited so patiently with your pōro ready to put it down the tube. When it was your turn to put your kōwhai ball down the tube you placed it in and then watched it eagerly has it rolled out the end. You enjoyed placing your pōro down the tube over and over again. So to extend on this I gave you another ball. It was kikorangi and smaller and I said to you “I wonder which pōro will go faster down the tube?” First you placed the kōwhai ball down the tube and we counted to see how long it took to come out. Then you placed the kikorangi pōro down the tube and we counted again. Both balls were fast, but we ascertained that
You chose to use the kikorangi pōro and gave the kōwhai ball to Autumn. I explained to you that when I said tahi, rua you needed to let your pōro run down the tube. You both put the balls down the tube simultaneously and once again it was the kikorangi pōro that shot out the bottom first. We now knew for sure that the kikorangi ball was faster than the kōwhai.

Learning Taking Place: Hazel, throughout this learning experience you were exploring the math concepts of one to one counting, learning to predict the outcomes of experiments, and you were comparing the speed of the balls. Te Whāriki, the Early Childhood Curriculum, states that children should have opportunities to predict, estimate, and make comparisons,” this is what you were doing at Jump Start on this occasion by trying to find out which pōro was the fastest down the tube.

Future Learning