Not just play - Ship decorations on the boat

Do you remember the exciting "pirate" career that the children from EY 3&4 at Huili Nursery Nantong experienced last semester? At the beginning of the new semester, this group of little pirates has set sail once again!

Last semester, they explored the Maritime Silk Road, designed, and built their own pirate ships, and successfully conducted trial sailings through various experiments. This semester, they turned their attention to the details of the pirate ships: the ships in the pictures seem to all be adorned with ship decorations! So, what are ship decorations? The children concluded their own views through collecting information and observation: Ship decorations can come in various forms; the different directions of fish eyes represent different meanings; animal paintings on the hull can scare away sea monsters, praying for a safe voyage; sculptures have a similar purpose...

It turns out that ship decorations play such an important role! Then our pirate ship also needs one! Teachers encouraged the children to use the open resources around them to create their own ship decorations. The children's unbridled creativity brought about a variety of splendid artworks, and through observation, the teachers discovered that the children first focused on the entire sailing scene rather than the elements of "ship decorations" in isolation. Therefore, teachers utilized the events in stories to encourage children to collaborate in their creations, and then combined their works into one complete ship decoration.

After Toby, the captain, experienced his first attack from an octopus, he decided to modify his ship. But he didn't know what patterns to draw on the ship's hull to scare off sea monsters, to avoid getting lost or always to have nice weather. So, the children were asked to help Captain Toby to decorate his ship. They worked in groups and were responsible for different patterns. They completed this task brilliantly!

At Huili Nursery Nantong, the process of inquiry-based learning is an indispensable part of the daily curriculum arrangement. The teaching process is not a set of isolated, simple activities, but rather forms a continuous whole under the purposeful and planned guidance of teachers. Through role-playing activities combined with pirate stories, cooperative exploration, and other methods, children not only learn knowledge but also identify the relationship between themselves as a human and the authentic life and learn how to collaborate with others and respect multiculturalism. With the teachers' skillful design, they try, explore, and innovate in challenging environments, continuously discovering the infinite possibilities of their potential and achieving self-transcendence.