Glen Education McKinnon

Listening to children’s voices.

By Glen McKinnon Educational Team 

At Glen Mckinnon Kindergarten, we believe that every child’s voice is unique and important. This term, we’re excited to share how we are celebrating and encouraging the children to share their ideas and thoughts about what is important to them.

Why children’s voices matter

Children’s voices are powerful. When they share their thoughts, feelings and ideas, they learn to communicate effectively and build confidence. Listening to children helps us to understand their needs and supports their emotional development. Listening carefully to children’s voices is embedded in our program and forms the basis of our planning and reflection.

Documenting children’s voices

This term, we have spent a lot of time asking children to think about what they enjoy at kindergarten and the reasons they are interested in these activities.  We decided to create a mind map with the children. We asked the children the question - “What is your favourite activity at kindergarten and why?” 

We then documented the children’s answers on a mind map. 

Similarly, we created a collage with the children. We invited everyone to draw a picture of what they enjoy most at kindergarten. These drawings formed a beautiful collage of everyone’s current interests at kindergarten.

The answers to these provocations have given us some wonderful insights into the children’s interests and have inspired us to investigate new and exciting learning opportunities. We reflect on these answers when planning the learning environment. We also asked the children to be actively involved in implementing these activities. For example: some children indicated on the mind map that they were interested in drawing. We invited these children to help set up this area the following day and to consider which materials they would like to use at the drawing table.

We placed both the mind map and collage on the wall at the children’s level so that we can all continue to refer to them when reflecting on children’s learning. This will ensure we are actively listening and responding to children’s voices about what is important to them during their time at kindergarten.