At RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Nicholas, the toddlers were very interested with firetruck songs over the past several weeks. This interest has now developed into a rich and meaningful exploration filled with music, movement, and pretend play. During circle time, the children usually request the songs, “Firetruck” and “Hurry, Hurry Drive the Firetruck,” and immediately gather around the carpet as soon as the song begins, looking very happy and excited. They all sit closely together to show interest in participating and actively engage in all the actions in the song, which include turn the corner, climb the ladder, and spray the water as they sing along. The room filled with smiles and laughter as they enjoy the experience.
Children show connection with this interest more deeply. Every time we are about to sing this song, Liam, Summer, Zahra, and Hudson always take the firetruck toy and handed it to the educator which shows connections between objects and songs. Based on their consistent interest, we further extended it and created a large fire truck out of a cardboard box and added a pretend water hose that is connected to the fire truck. They showed interest and excitement when we placed it in the middle of the room. They were very curious as they touched it, looked inside, and wanted to take turns riding on it. We made a dramatic play scene where toddlers became “firefighters” and they dressed in firefighter costumes and hard hats to go to a fire. There were paper flames in the loft area, pretending to be a building on fire. The toddlers took turns one at a time, sitting into the fire truck, holding the hose, and to squirt water to the flames. To make it more realistic, we also bring-out a ladder to the dramatic play scene, and they took turns climbing the ladder to pretend putting out the fire from the top. Their focus, balancing skills, and perseverance were greatly demonstrated as they took turns and encouraged one another.
The experience demonstrates that toddlers learn to develop skills across various domains. The children develop language skills through their practice of repeating words and imitating sounds and their ability to match words with physical objects and actions. The children develop social and emotional skills through their practice of taking turns and working together while they gain confidence in their ability to work as firefighters. The children develop their cognitive skills through symbolic thinking and problem-solving that involve fire extinguishing through water spraying. The children develop their gross motor skills through climbing the ladder and entering the firetruck, while developing their fine motor skills through hose gripping and squeezing. The children use music and movement and imaginative role-play to create artistic expressions of their thoughts and feelings. The experience establishes a strong connection to the foundations of How Does Learning Happen: belonging, well-being, engagement, and expression as the toddlers demonstrate focus, joy and physical confidence and collaboration.
This experience also shows that genuine listening to children together with following their interests creates authentic and powerful learning experiences. The song started as a basic musical piece but developed into an intricate joyful experience which enhanced all aspects of language development and physical growth, social connections and cognitive understanding. The toddlers used their singing about the firetruck to develop physical growth and build social connections while they learned about their environment through play.0000
