Enabling Environments: Let's explore ... Crocodiles

Our project on crocodiles began last summer, when we noticed that the role-play conversations of children in the pre-school rooms tended to feature a crocodile as the ultimate baddie.

The timing was perfect, for it was around then that I inherited an unusual gift from a friend: the preserved head of a baby crocodile, complete with skull, teeth, glass eyes and scales coated in a kind of shellac.

I had put the word out that I wanted the atelier (art studio) at Reflections to be like a museum, full of interesting objects for the children to explore. Since the crocodile head, I've acquired the likes of a fox skull, a sheep's jaw, and a 15ft python skin - all of which came in handy during the course of the project.

TIMESCALE AND CHILDREN

The crocodile project ran over three months from July to September last and involved about 40 children. Children tend to dip in and out of our project work because of the high proportion attending part-time, and in this instance it coincided with the four-year-olds preparing to go to school and the three-year-olds moving up from the younger section of the nursery. These transitions created two distinct phases within the project, with 20 children involved during the first six weeks, 20 involved in the second half of the project and three children throughout.

OBSERVATIONAL DRAWINGS

Children were obviously fascinated by the crocodile skull, which featured frequently in small-group discussions. The children began observational drawings of it in July, and for the next three months they would revisit this activity, learning observational skills and ways of working with different media.

At first the children simply observed the skull and drew it using pencil, ink, charcoal, pastel, fine liners, felt-tips and crayon. At each stage the children talked about the different properties of the medium that they were using, and shared their learning with each other.

Next, we provided photographs of crocodiles (from magazines and the internet), to enable the children to observe more closely certain details of the animal such as their eyes, teeth and scales. And from there we introduced microscopic images, so allowing the children to make comparisons between crocodile skin, their own skin and that of the python, which hangs as a lampshade from the two lights on the atelier ceiling.

In their drawings, children took great care to include details of the eyes and eyelids, making conscious decisions about each line. They regularly shared their thoughts and advice on how to observe closely.

DVDs AND PROJECTED IMAGES

We projected crocodile documentaries on to an atelier wall, so giving the children a deeper understanding of crocodile life - how they walk, swim and feed, where they live and what shares their habitat.

Each day we also used the overhead projector to cast images of crocodiles and swamps on to a wall, making the room ooze with 'crocodileness'.

PAINT

After some time, the children expressed an interest in depicting the crocodile using paint. When we realised that we didn't have the appropriate colours, the children set about mixing powder paints to create their own palette.

They spent days creating beautiful hues and became adept at making a very specific 'crocodile green', which they chose to use on the front cover of the book that we have written about the project.

CLAY

After their painting experiences, we decided to introduce clay. In retrospect, we introduced it far too early in the project and then didn't feature it perhaps as much as we should have.

The children did enjoy modelling the crocodile skull and making clay teeth, but they gained most satisfaction from their drawings, and making homes and dens for the crocodile.

WHAT'S INSIDE?

Gradually the children started to ask about what was inside a crocodile. This in part stemmed from one of our parents bringing in a tortoise egg.

I introduced this to the children without saying where it had come from, and they immediately decided it must be a crocodile's egg. Even Thomas, whose mother had brought in the egg, believed it came from a crocodile. Each child was given the chance to hold the egg, which they chose to draw.

To develop this growing interest in the inside of the crocodile, I sourced an anatomically correct model of a female crocodile, showing the skeleton and internal organs. The children constructed the model together, naming each piece, including the ovaries - which sparked some interesting questions.

Elliot (3 years, 1 month) and I had a conversation about the crocodile's lungs and how we use our lungs to breathe, a subject that was extended further by the other practitioners through books on anatomy and how our bodies work.

STRONGER CONNECTIONS

Once the children came to realise that crocodiles had some of the same internal organs as humans, they began to feel a greater connection with the animal, a connection that later became apparent in their role play, movement sessions and storytelling.

The documentaries that we projected on the atelier wall also helped change the children's views of crocodiles. 'Animal Nation: Crocodiles', the least gory and most suitable DVD that I found for young children, features a fight with a hippo. This encounter helped the children to realise that crocodiles aren't always the 'baddies' and that they too have enemies to beware. The children noted the contradiction between tough and tender, as they observed the crocodiles carrying their babies in their mouths and the lizard who would sneak in to steal the crocodile eggs.

The nursery plans rhythm and movement sessions for the children and during one such session, the children focused on how to move like a crocodile, making careful and considered movements.

This developed into storytelling, and the children created drawings to support their stories. The storytelling, in turn, was incorporated into their role play. They would tell each other the stories, while some would act them out, becoming the different animals and different characters.

The atelier was soon transformed into a crocodile swamp, with children choosing fabrics such as green silks and satins, dark green velvets, brown cotton and organza, to create an imaginary world for their amphibious friends.

Children became the crocodiles, draping themselves in swamp-coloured fabrics. They would move around the atelier keeping a watchful eye on the documentary as they carefully stalked their prey.

When we projected the DVD, the images of animals would fall directly on to the children, who then took on the personality of whichever animal was projected.

I AM A CROCODILE

In August, the older children left for school and a younger group joined the pre-school section. They immediately noticed the dens and role-play resources and adopted a more physical approach to the project. They didn't want to sit down and draw the crocodile - they wanted to become the crocodile.

In the cross-over period, the older children worked in groups and took time to share their knowledge of crocodiles with the younger newcomers.

ON REFLECTION

Time. Often I felt that the project wasn't moving quickly enough, but in retrospect, I feel that had we slowed the pace and allowed the children more time to explore, the project would have provided the children with a much deeper and more valuable experience.

Children's interests. By following children's motivations, every strand within a project has the potential to develop into another project. From the children's questions about the crocodile model we could have developed a project entirely about anatomy and considered the features of the animal (eyes, teeth, scales) in depth. The children could have revisited again and again the patterns in the crocodile's scales.

Planning. My observations, which I shared daily with team members, were fed into the weekly planning of the other rooms. Later, we reflected on how we could have pursued different strands of the project in depth through creating different crocodile experiences in each room. For instance, the Construction Room could have focused on den-building; in the Communication Room, the children could have told story after story and recorded them, then made them available to share with their friends.

Skills. Some children developed their drawing abilities and gained great confidence from these new skills. For example, one boy, Lachlan (3 years, 6 months), originally doubted his drawing capabilities, but then learned that if he observes an object as he draws, he can create a wonderful likeness,which he still talks about.

Child-led learning. Although I knew the project would be guided by the children, I still felt at the outset that I had an idea of where I wanted the project to go or questions I wanted to ask. However, when the younger children arrived, the activities became much less predictable.

I felt some concern that the younger children weren't responding in the same way as the older ones, but came to realise they had carved out a brand new project for themselves. When they played under the projected images, they began noticing the colours and shadows. They also used torches when they were in their swamp dens, an interest that immediately led to another project about light.

REFLECTIONS NURSERY

Reflections Nursery, a private setting in Worthing, West Sussex, draws its inspiration from the infant-toddler centres and pre-schools of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy.

The nursery employs two full-time indoor atelieristas (or artists) and a part-time outdoor atelierista. The senior atelierista, Angela Chick, has a degree in fine art, graphics and textiles and visited Reggio Emilia on a study tour in 2010. Senior management at the nursery have also attended many study tours.

Adopting the Reggio approach means children at Reflections have the chance to engage regularly in long-term project work, usually inspired by their own interests.

Reflections won Nursery World's Nursery of the Year award in 2009. It gained an outstanding in its 2010 Ofsted inspection and was voted Worthing Business of the Year 2010-11.

To find out more about the nursery, go to www.reflectionsnurseries.co.uk

RESOURCES

• - Revell: X-Ray anatomy model of a crocodile from Osborn's (£16.09) - This snap-together anatomical model kit has a semi-transparent skin, allowing you to see the anatomical structure, including bones and organs. The enclosed booklet contains essential scientific facts about the animal and its anatomy, as well as details of how to construct the model.
• - Wild Republic Science Kit Crocodile Skeleton - This anatomically correct kit teaches children about the crocodile body and includes experiment guide, 12 bone pieces, base, supporting pin, name plate and name label. Available from Amazon.com.
• - Uncover a Crocodile - A board book with 3D model of a crocodile by Paul Beck, Ben Grossblatt and Davide Bonadonna (Silver Dolphin, £8.26) takes a look inside a Nile crocodile.
• - Small-world crocodiles are available from Schleich; prices vary. Available from all good toy shops.
• - Various DVDs about crocodiles are available but Animal Nation 'Crocodiles' (£9.99) is not too gory for young children to watch.

Books - fact and fiction

• - The Very Clever Crocodile by Jack Tickle (Little Tiger Press) - Crocodile is clever, he creeps up close to you, then gives a cheeky croco-smile, and jumps out with a BOO!
• - Have You Seen the Crocodile? by Colin West (Walker Books) - The parrot, the bumble bee, the frog and the hummingbird all keep asking if anyone has seen the crocodile and the answer is always no. Little do they realise how close the cunning crocodile actually is!
• - Smile, Crocodile, Smile by An Vrombaut (OUP Oxford) - Meet Clarabella Crocodile, who has so many teeth that tooth-brushing time can last all day and she misses out on playtime - until her friends come to her rescue.
• - The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles and Mike Terry (Bloomsbury) - Every morning, a crocodile shouts his warning to other animals to stay away from the river or else he'll eat them. Then one day, the creatures are woken to the crocodile's groans of pain and the smallest of all the animals, a mouse, finds a way to solve their snappy dilemma.
• - Crocodiles and Alligators of the World by David Alderton (Facts on File) - The lifestyle, zoology, evolution and conservation of crocodilians.
• - Alligators and Crocodiles by Sally Morgan (Amazing Animals, Franklin Watts) - Exploring the world of the largest of all reptiles.
• - I Love Crocodiles - First Facts and Pictures by Steve Parker (Miles Kelly Publishing).

FURTHER INFORMATION

Reflections Nursery has published a book about its crocodile project. To order a copy of its Crocodiles!, priced £10.99, e-mail martin@reflectionsnurseries.co.uk