Author: Yang Jiqing

Recently, feeding chickens, herding ducks and collecting eggs has become a popular activity at Menglian Street preschool in Tengchong City.

Everyone gave each chicken and duck a different name: Reed catkins, Black bean, Dahei...... .

These "handsome chickens" and "leisurely ducks" walking proudly back and forth in the clearing every day, or searching for food in the grass.

Since they came to the preschool, they have become the popular king of the preschool, being chased by different children every day.

Why they came to the preschool？Yang Chunbo, who is in charge of the project, said that a few days ago, the teacher presented the class the picture book Hen Lolis goes for a walk. The children were fascinated by the hen and kept asking their teacher why Lolis had wings but she couldn't fly, why Lolis didn't swim straight across the pond, and why roosters didn't lay eggs.....?

So many questions, surprisingly, the teacher, who grew up in the countryside, was unable to answer. Although the children asked these common sense questions from daily life, and their own hearts also have a positive answer. But it's hard to explain to the kids why.

When Yang Chunbo learned this, he communicated with the preschool teachers that it was better to build a space in the corner of the preschool for raising ducks and chickens, and organized the children to observe and understand the characteristics of chickens and ducks, as well as their living habits.

Then Yang Chunbo and the whole preschool teachers and children began to build a chicken shed, using the wall to build a simple shed, and then bought chickens and ducks for the shed.

Since then, the children have become the keepers of the small animals, responsible for daily feeding and care. Some children even brought grain and vegetables from home, so that they could eat more delicious.

When it comes to taking care of these small animals, no one cares more than the children in the preschool class. As the parents said, the family may have raised a group of chickens, ducks and cows, but they didn't see the children being so attentive either.

When Yang Chunbo went to Menglian Street preschool again, the children ran up to show him the chicken shed, and proudly told him that "this is our preschool's small zoo."

There are nearly 30 chickens and ducks in the chicken shed. Apart from taking care of them daily, the children also play with them after class, and the teachers also take advantage of the opportunity to lead the children to observe the characteristics of animals, the relationship between animals and plants, animals and weather and so on.

Close observation and experience give rural children the opportunity to explore and learn, understand animals, understand their relationship with the surrounding natural environment, but also enhance children's sense of responsibility, task awareness and cooperation awareness, improve children's service ability.

Two days ago, Yang Chunbo shared with me that the chickens in the chicken shed have begun to lay eggs.

Early in the morning arriving at the preschool, the children can't wait to go to the chicken shed to see and look for treasures like hand-picked eggs, this is a harvest, a very happy one.

The "handsome chicken" and "leisurely duck" in the small zoo of children's class have gained a group of loyal fans.

In the preschool class, there are happy and interesting stories every day.

Project introduction:

The Preschool of the Future project in Menglian Street, Tengchong City is funded by the Tin Ka Ping Foundation, and HPP has cooperated with the Education and Sports Bureau of Tengchong City to assist the implementation of its "One village, one preschool" policy. The project focuses on improving the hardware facilities of the POF organizing professional and systematic training to help teachers improve their skills, and developing a playful curriculum in the five major areas around the Learning and Development Guidelines to avoid the tendency of primary school-oriented teaching and to achieve the overall balanced development of young children. The project team regularly supervises, supports and manages the preschool classes, provides tools and materials to improve management and teaching, and offers support in daily operation and management, teacher training and management evaluation, aiming to help them strengthen their teaching and management skills, improve the quality of teaching and management in early childhood classes, and enable local children to enjoy higher quality preschool education services.

 The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and have nothing to do with the position of the funder.