Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Pre-School Group – Our ‘ME’ project - Working with Identity and
Belonging and incorporating the new FETAC module of Diversity and
Equality
The staff of Little Footsteps have been discussing the new FETAC course structures due to be
implemented in 2013, including a new module, ‘Equality and Diversity’, and whether we can do
more in the crèche to support this area of the curriculum.
Observing preparations for the Halloween festivities, we discussed the fact that not all of our
children celebrate this event in their homes. The second aim of the Aistear ‘Identity and Belonging’
theme states that ‘Children will have a sense of group identity where links with their family and
community are acknowledged and extended’ . Halloween is a community event for our service, but
it is a cultural event of Celtic origin, and is there a way that we could expand it to give the children
the opportunity to celebrate each other’s differences?
A childcare service does not exist in a vacuum; Bronfenbrenner’s theory of the environmental layers
that surround the child encourages us to work as much as possible with the children’s home and
community environments.
We wanted to work on something that would bring together the child’s classroom environment,
their home environment, and their community environment. Aim 1 of Aistear’s ‘Identity and
Belonging’ theme is ‘Children will have strong identities and will feel respected and affirmed as
unique individuals with their own life stories’.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
To build the life stories, and to incorporate all of the child’s environments, we came up with the idea
of the ‘ME’ project. To explore differences, we need to identify each child as a unique individual, and
so the ‘ME’ refers to the fact that each child’s experiences in working on the project will be unique
to him/her.
The project will involve requesting some background information from each family, namely where
the parents and grandparents come from, so that even where two children live next door to each
other, tracing their parents and grandparents will enable them to gain an understanding that each
one has their own unique heritage. To get this information, we sent an introductory letter and
questionnaire to each family.
Buy-in from our families was excellent. While we were waiting for the letters to come back in we
started discussing what being Irish is. The children came up with lots of ideas, and lots of fun making
things that they see as Irish – shamrocks, leprechauns, snakes....
and a lot of hard work was involved!
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
The questionnaires began to arrive back, with some surprises. One of the children has grandparents
from Scotland, so a morning was given over to discussion about Scotland. The Loch Ness monster
caught the attention of the group. So did kilts - Ellie told us ‘Its like a skirt. And its not a skirt though.
Its a kilt. The mans wear it’ and Mia said ‘The boys wear skirts cos they just like it’.
When Oskar brought in pictures of his grandparents in Germany, he told them everyone that they
weren’t granny and granddad, they are Oma and Opa. At story time that day Cat led by telling the
class about the Berlin wall, how it was built up and split the city in half, how people couldn’t go to
the other side, and how it was knocked down. Later in circle time, Leah told the class ‘Oskar’s mam is
from Germany. There was a flower on the road near the wall. A orange one’. James said ‘The people
knocked the wall down. They did because they wanted to be friends’ and Jack said ‘The big wall! In
Germany, and the builders did build it so they cant get through or over’.
The next day, the children were playing in the garden. Oskar went and got the box of blocks and
began building a wall. Two others joined in and they began calling to each other from the different
sides, and then knocked it down.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
And then others joined in. Ellie, Liam and Ben were building walls and decided to get some toy
people who could knock the walls down, and then the toy people made friends!
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Family photos were coming in. The children were really interested in each other’s photos so we put
the work into our library and they could take it to a table and have a chat about it.
Checking out each other’s photos
During drawing sessions, some of the children wanted to draw their families – all of the family,
including grandparents, sisters and brothers, and pets. We took their pictures and talked about
them. Lots of chat about their families –
‘Mammy is funny. Silly daddy is so small and here he is high in the Pavilions’
‘This is me and this is mammy. My mammy is pretty. She is beautiful too’.
‘My daddy he has a grey head with spiky hair’
‘My mammy has two eyes and eyelashes and flowers in her hair. And then my daddy was grumpy
cos he had green eyes’.
‘Thats my daddy, my mammy and this is me and my sister. The granny and granddad live away’.
‘Thats my family tree with loads of names. That’s my mam and daddy and my grandma but I don’t
know where she is’.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
‘Drawing my family’
Lilly drew mammy and daddy and a blue baby in mammy’s tummy. When baby William arrived the
next week we found out that she got the colour right!
Lilly’s good guess!!
When they were all finished, the children wanted to make them special so we carefully laminated
the drawings and they used them in the classroom as placemats for a week, before taking them
home to use them there.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
During the project, India celebrated Diwali, Asha came to school on two days in beautiful saris. She
told all the class about what her family does to celebrate the festival and the class made plates
decorated with shining jewels to symbolise the lights of the Diwali festival. She posed for our photo
and wanted to include her Diwali plate, she told us ‘This is for India. My daddy is from India’.
Our Diwali plates and Asha’s beautiful sari
When they were getting ready to go home Lauren came back for her plate. She told Rebecca who
hadn’t been there that morning ‘This is my plate. Its from India. I put loads of diamonds and jewels
and stars on it’.
Ellie said ‘Its like a plate and I will pretend its the plate for Mary and Joseph.’
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Each completed family questionnaire was discussed among the group, and as questionnaires arrived,
the children each began to build up a portfolio. We talked to the children about what we would do
with their portfolios, and they all wanted to bring them home on the day of the Christmas play.
Based on the information that is coming in, we have printed maps of the world, of Ireland, and of
whatever countries each child’s family originates from, so that they have maps showing their homes,
and their grandparents’ homes.
The children have been looking at each other’s maps and seeing that they have all have different
ones going into their folders. Colouring the correct portions of the map, some of them decided to
take out the Montessori jigsaw maps, so that they could take the World and Europe and Ireland
maps apart and make them back up again.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Some of the children have grandparents living in Sweden, so the group discussed Vikings and made
Viking helmets. Luckily it wasn’t raining that day so they were able to be Vikings during playtime.
Some of the group with ‘Viking’ headbands and flags that they’ve made themselves
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
As each item was made, played with, and added to the portfolios, the teachers and children
discussed them at circle time. Each circle time concludes with the teachers reminding the group that
everyone has their own parents and grandparents, and that everyone is different, and that everyone
is special.
Some of the children have to go a long way to see their grandparents, they go in the car or the train
or on a plane.
But grandparents don’t have to live far away to be interesting. Lots of the children have grannies and
granddads in Dublin.
The teachers talked to the children about Dublin and about Swords, and our Montessori culture shelf
has plenty of information about Dublin and the local area. Living in Swords is fun; the children talked
about the things they like to do there, and when they go to their grandparents houses at the
weekends, they talk about what is different.
Liam was colouring maps that we had printed and he said ‘thats the world. Ireland is green. I live
here. My mammy’s from Kerry’.
Leah said ‘all my family lives in Ireland. My dad was a little boy and nana Cara. My granddad is
Mick’.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Making the flags
Liam came in with a football jersey, so we talked about the colours for different countries. Some of
the children knew about county colours and have football jerseys for Dublin, and also from other
counties where their grandparents live. Catherine told them that counties and countries have flags
as well as jerseys and Mandy our Montessori student showed the children what the South African
flag is like. Mia wanted a flag so some of the group sat down to make an Irish flag. Then Mandy
showed them the pattern of a South African flag and we spent time over the next couple of days
making a flag for every country represented in the class.
Oskar was drawing a German flag and Lauren said ‘That’s the big wall and they’re smiling cos they
like being at home. The wall got knocked down.’ James was working on a South African flag and he
said ‘ the animals bite in South Africa I think’ and Jack answered ‘in South Africa do spiders bite?
Even in Australia they bite. His name is Steven like my daddy’ and Ben said ‘the rainbow serpent was
a big snake in Australia and I didn’t fight it but it did turn into a mountain, the people were inside’.
Liam said ‘yes the rainbow serpent ate all the mans and they turned into animals. And then he
turned into a hill’. Last week, Cat had told the children about Australia and an Aboriginal story about
a serpent which had obviously captured the imagination.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Our project wall
Not everything goes into the portfolio, we’ve decorated our classroom walls with some of the work
from the project.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Using the puppets to tell an Aboriginal tale from Australia
In the middle of all this work, some special visitors came with the postman from very far away – 8
puppets of all different ethnic backgrounds. We had to unpack them and have a look at them all.
Then at circle time, the children met each puppet individually, and chose names for them. Then they
discussed which country each one came from, and the puppets joined in with the group for
storytime.
The puppets are a little difficult for small hands to manipulate, but they are fun to work with!
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
One day, the children were talking about their families, and one of the group was talking about the
big spoons her mam uses in the kitchen. This caught everyone’s attention as they all had favourite
things in their own kitchens, so we decided to put together a basket of kitchen tools that we use
ourselves in the crèche kitchen. We suggested to the children that they ask at home for something
that they use to come in for a few days for our ‘home basket’, so that the children could explore the
items that they all brought in.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Books are really important to children’s learning, and we used a mix of books that children brought
in, our own fairly extensive classroom library, and books from the local library to support the
children and give them a reference source for additional information. They were encouraged to look
in the books of the world to find answers to their questions about what other countries are like.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
At the same time, work on preparation for the Christmas play was progressing and one parent sent
in a disc with a Polish song to be added to the play. This led to a discussion about Poland.
Of course everyone loves dragons and they read in a book about a dragon who lives in Krakow. Later
the dragon theme came back during circle time. Jessica said ‘There was a dragon, a Krakow dragon.
He burst out and exploded. He was eating everything!’ and Liam added ‘the Krakow dragon had a
head like a egg. He flies in the air. He was very scary’. Lilly got the book they had read and told the
Cat ‘the book’s about thinking about what’s in it. You read it’. Axel said ‘the book’s about the world,
the orange part is Poland and the tiny little one is Ireland’.
As this stage of the project draws to a close, the children helped put their work into polypockets and
bound them into books ready to go home.
Our project books waiting for Christmas
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Meantime, the staff are reflecting on the process indicates that this work will not necessarily reach a
conclusion. This particular stage will conclude when the Christmas play is enacted and the children
take home their project portfolios to discuss with their parents.
As a staff group, we have decided that we will look for feedback from the participating families in
the new year, and this is a project that we will repeat with each incoming pre-school group in the
future.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
What did we learn?
The children learnt lots of facts about different countries and counties, but the main theme which
ran through the project was that each one of them is different, and each one has their own family
history and their own story to tell.
This started out as a simple exercise in Equality and Diversity, but as it progressed, we realised how it
covered a range of early years theories as well as completely covering all areas of the Aistear
framework and much of Siolta.
Aistear.
In Well-Being, we have helped develop childrens backgrounds, to be aware that others are different,
to respect themselves, others and the environment (Aim 1)
They have learnt to pay better care to their environment, become reflective, thinking carefully (Aim
3)
They have become more active citizens, and respect their own, and others, lives (Aim 4)
We have covered all of Identity and Belonging, we have given all children assistance in building their
self-identities and have helped them understand their own life stories (Aim 1)
They have a sense of group identity, within the group, within their family, and within their external
environment (Aim 2)
They have expressed their views, and grown an awareness of their own, and other’s culture,
recognising that every one has their own unique culture (Aim 3)
Children developed new ideas from the original theme and the staff supported them in developing
these ideas, ideas based on the theme, linked to their own backgrounds (Aim 4)
In Communication, we have covered all four aims; expressing themselves verbally and non-verbally
(Aims 1 and 2), broadening their understanding of the world (literally) through language (Aim 3) and
expressing themselves creatively and imaginatively (Aim 4).
In Exploring and Thinking, we have helped children make sense of the world around them (Aim 1),
helped them gather information and thinking about what they learn and how they learn it – Lilly
telling the teacher to think about what is in a book (Aim 2). They have represented through symbols
– Berlin wall, shamrocks and snakes, country maps and flags (Aim 3) and demonstrated a positive
attitude to learning with confidence that their thoughts and ideas are listened to and acted upon
(Aim 4).
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
Siolta
1 – Rights of the Child – each child in our group had a voice, was listened to, was able to develop
their ideas, taking the lead or joining in as required, and each one was made clear that their
individuality was recognised and valued
2 – Environment – the project covered different times of the curriculum – play, work, crafts, circle
time – and ranged from the outdoors to the indoors, utilising a variety of existing materials and
creating new ones where necessary
3 – Parents and Families – the exercise was extremely interactive with parents and families were
encouraged to contribute to our work
4 – Consultation – Staff discussed the work in advance, took on board and incorporated ideas from
parents and from the children
5 – Interactions – The project required co operation between children and adults and is being
documented so the idea can be replicated in future years
6 – Play – The children have plenty of time for play in in the exercise we can see how some of their
heritage ideas transmitted into games
7 – Curriculum – Our curriculum is based on the Montessori method and this theme tied in with the
Culture theme of Montessori
8 – Planning and Evaluation – The exercise was planned within the staff group, rolled out,
documented, and has now been evaluated, released to parents, and assessed for inclusion in next
year’s curriculum.
9 – Health and Welfare – Component 9.6 – this exercise has helped our group make and sustain
relationships within the group, and to secure relationships with their families.
10 – Organisation – The project has been documented for inclusion in future programs; all records
have been kept securely or returned, and consent has been sought from parents to maintain
confidentiality.
11 – Professional Practice – This work demonstrates an ethos of ongoing professional practice, in its
attempts to be proactive about the 2013 FETAC program.
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Little Footsteps – ‘ME’ Project
12 – Communication – All stages of this project have demonstrated communication with parents
and information sharing
13 – Transitions – As this project has taken place in the middle of an academic year, the issue of
transitions is not relevant
14 – Identity and Belonging – This theme is core to the project in promoting the idea of each child as
an individual with a unique heritage
15 – Legislation and Regulation – This work demonstrates a compliance with legislation and an
attempt to keep abreast of forthcoming childcare curricula
16 – Community Involvement – The work of this project does not have a direct link to the Siolta
requirements for Community Involvement
Main Related Theories
Montessori – One of the areas of Montessori is Culture. From carrying out this project, we have been
able to increase our cultural resources to include information from the countries studied, touching
on history, literature and geography.
Bronfenbrenner
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological theories relate to the child’s entire environment . This project brings
together each child’s Microsystems and their classroom, their home, their grandparent’s homes, and
explores their relationships as a group with the Macrosystem of the Irish environment and also the
environments of their cultures.
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