Dragonology Dragon School | In The Real Wonderland - Play-Based Learning
An integrated ELA, English, math, science, engineering/ STEM and art homeschool curriculum for budding Dragonologists! Using open-ended, play-based learning we will imagine, create, engineer, experiment and discover all the secrets of the dragons! We will also meet some real-life dragon cousins, such as lizards, crocodiles, dinosaurs and more. In this child-led class, Alice encourages your child to engage in ways that reflect their own interests and learning preferences, to foster their learning autonomy, motivation and learning skills such as curiosity, attention, flexible thinking, planning, and executive function.| Neurodiverse Affirming - Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD, Gifted, PDA & 2E friendly | ESL welcome.
Alice Campbell
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:(188)
What's included
5 live meetings
3 hrs 20 mins in-class hoursHomework
There is no assigned homework in this class. In some cases, depending on the pace that each child prefers working at, they may not finish their project in the allocated class time. In this case they can continue working on their projects after class. Following each session, I will also provide a handout with suggestions for (optional) activities, play and art to extend children's off-screen learning and interests between sessions. Prior to each session, children will need assistance to prepare and set-up. This will typically take 5 - 10 minutes for most sessions.Assessment
I do not use tests or other standardised approaches to assessing children's progress. In this age group, testing it is not developmentally appropriate and in some cases may be psychologically and academically harmful. However, as a teacher, I do believe it is important for me to be accountable to both children and parents. I aim to deliver classes that are not just "busy work" or entertainment, but which actively contribute to each child's learning in meaningful and sustainable ways. To do this, I use continuous observation of children's activity and conversation. When I make these observations, I am specifically considering the child's development in relation to the learning outcomes of the class (see above). I then routinely provide feedback to children. This may consist of: ~ positive affirmation (e.g. "I really liked the way you communicated your idea with that painting"); ~ positive reflection (e.g. "I wonder how you came up with that idea?"); and/ or ~ positive stretching (e.g. "I wonder if you could show that idea in other ways?). This is a wholistic approach to assessment. The child's response to my feedback helps me understand of "how far" they have traveled in their learning, and then "what comes next" in their learning. I welcome questions and inquiries from parents about their child's learning progress.Class Experience
𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀, 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 "𝗜𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱"! --------------------------------------------- Ｃｌａｓｓ Ｄｅｓｃｒｉｐｔｉｏｎ In this class, we will play and learn in the magical, mythological world of dragons. We may even meet a few dinosaurs and modern-day dragon animals along the way! Each week, we will use dragon stories, art, play, engineering and experiments. Our stories and hands-on activities will introduce many new maths, science and language skills. This class also has a strong emphasis on critical thinking skills and problem-solving. At the end of our five weeks together, children will have created a beautiful collection of dragon treasures to keep their imaginations (and their learning!) alive. This class uses a teaching approach known as "scientific playworlds", which helps young children develop high-level STEM skills through imaginative play, art and story-telling. Research shows that, compared to circle time classes, this interest-led and play-based approach increases memory retention of science, maths and language concepts, and promotes children's longer-term interest in STEM (Chung, 2016; Fleer, 2017; Williams, 2010). ______________________________ Ｄｒａｇｏｎｏｌｏｇｙ Ｃｏｕｒｓｅ： Ｗｅｅｋｌｙ Ｃｏｎｔｅｎｔ This Dragonology course is structured to provide children with high levels of learning autonomy. In other words, this course does not use “pre-selected” topics or themes. Instead, each week we introduce a ‘big idea’. Our story-telling provides an opportunity for young children to both develop some vocabulary to engage with that idea, and to begin exploring what that idea means to them – and to others. Subsequently, our open-ended activities invite children to explore and develop a deeper understanding of of that idea. Rather than ‘giving’ children abstract ‘facts’ to memorise or telling children 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 to think, we use art, play and child-led experimentation to support their skills in 𝘩𝘰𝘸 to think and learn for themselves. This approach helps children develop their language, literacy, mathematics and science/ STEM skills as resources or ‘tools’ for engaging with their ideas in the real world. 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭: 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲. ➡ Big idea: Diversity. ➡ Exploration/ Activity: Multimedia art. ➡ Some of the focus skills we will use this week: Language and literacy (rhyme and rhythm, narrative language); Mathematics (tessellation, algebraic thinking, shape composition); other STEM (predictive thinking, scientific observation). 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟮: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗴𝗴𝘀. ➡ Big idea: What makes something beautiful or special? ➡ Exploration/ Activity: Making dragon eggs. ➡ Some of the focus skills we will use this week: Language and literacy (temporal language, social-emotional language, science vocabulary); Mathematics (fractions, subitization, shape composition and decomposition, measurement); other STEM (hypothesising, scientific observation, behaviour of matter). 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟯: 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. ➡ Big idea: Caring for others through problem-solving. ➡ Exploration/ Activity: Fire-breathing art. ➡ Some of the focus skills we will use this week: Language and literacy (social problem-solving, prediction and anticipation); Mathematics (shape composition, measurement, patterns and algebraic thinking, spatial orientation); other STEM (properties of water, behaviour of colour). 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟰: 𝗙𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻. ➡ Big idea: Courage ➡ Exploration/ Activity: Creating paper dragons that fly. ➡ Some of the focus skills we will use this week: Language and literacy (narrative language, social-emotional language); Mathematics (spatial awareness, shape composition, patterns and algebraic thinking, measurement); other STEM (physics/ aerodynamics, prediction and hypothesising). 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟱: 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀. ➡ Big idea: Facts or fantasy? ➡ Exploration/ Acitivit: Dragon home sculptures and constructions. ➡ Some of the focus skills we will use this week: Language and literacy (persuasive and description language); Mathematics (spatial awareness, shape composition and decomposition, measurement, comparing and composing number); other STEM (engineering, problem-solving, design thinking). ______________________________ Ｉｎｃｌｕｓｉｖｅ Ｐｌａｙ ＆ Ｌｅａｒｎｉｎｇ Ｅｘｐｅｒｉｅｎｃｅｓ...Ｆｏｒ Ａｌｌ Ｌｅａｒｎｅｒｓ All children have preferred ways of engaging with learning content. Typically, children learn best when they can engage with content in a way that reflects their own unique preferences and learning styles. I endeavor to ensure that this class is inclusive of all learners (including E, 2E and other neurodivergent learners). I do this by structuring classes, activities and conversations so each child can choose to engage in the whole class, using whatever way is most appropriate, meaningful and memorable for them. In this class, where we will be undertaking our own dragon projects, I structure each experience so that children may elect to engage through any one or more of the following ways: ~ sensory experience ~ exploring and discovering the properties of materials ~ manipulative and fine motor activity ~ sorting/ aligning/ categorising/ patterning activity ~ exploring cause and effect ~ problem-solving ~ construction ~ imitation and role play ~ fantasy/ imaginative play and creativity ~ art and artistic play Because I maintain very small group sizes, I am able to ensure that each child is able to participate in whatever way is most meaningful for them. This means that each child is able to enjoy the benefits of a group class, while at the same time being supported with an individualised and personalised learning experience. __________________________________________ Ｔｅａｃｈｉｎｇ Ａｐｐｒｏａｃｈ This information will help you decide if my approach is a "good fit" for your child. This class is capped at a maximum of five learners, to ensure each child has the best possible child-led, personalised learning experience. I believe that learning comes not from memorising abstract facts, but though children being able to create and make sense of new ideas. To guide this learning, we need to have immersive, two-way conversations with children. Small class sizes allow me to work personally in this way, with each child. Child-led learning means that your child decides how they participate and what they focus on in our class. In this class, I do not tell children what to think about, or what to focus on. Instead, my goal is to understand your child's unique internal motivation. I do this by using stories, art, creativity and conversation to spark engagement. I then support each child to respond to these ideas and to follow their interests in a way that the class content and material comes to life for them. This helps make their learning become meaningful and sustained. You may see some differences in my classes, from the traditional US-based pre-K/ K/ early elementary and seated classroom approach. My aim is to extend your child's learning beyond our allocated screen time, through teaching and classroom practices such as: 🦋 Child-led learning (not teacher-led instruction) 🦋 Shared understanding (not imposing meaning) 🦋 Individualised and humanising relationships (not standardised expectations) 🦋 Hands-on, authentic play (not lectures) 🦋 Deep experimentation with creative, scientific, mathematical and relational process (not factory produced products or worksheets) 🦋 Collaboration and meaning (not rote memorising) 🦋 Imaginative resourcefulness (not mundane replication) 🦋 Growing children's passions (not their performance) 🦋 Reading and responding to children’s cues, behaviours and signals (not managing, pathologising or fixing them) 🦋 Being an adult who is in calm control (not an adult who is battling for control and compliance) My teaching approach tends to suit families who are seeking a humanising and wholistic learning experience for their young child.
Learning Goals
The intended learning outcomes for this class are aligned with the Australian and UK early years curricula. They are also consistent with the preschool/ early years curricula for NZ, China, Korea, and most European countries. This class utilises the Michigan Essential Literacy Practices Framework, and the Mathematics Learning Trajectories.
______________________________
Ｉｎｔｅｎｄｅｄ Ｌｅａｒｎｉｎｇ Ｏｕｔｃｏｍｅｓ
1. I can explore, infer, predict, and hypothesise in order to develop an increased understanding of the environment and my relationship to it.
2. I can combine fine-motor, cognitive skills and thinking strategies to achieve increasingly complex patterns of activity to create, communicate, solve-problems and adapt to new situations.
3. I can manipulate objects and resources in order to investigate, take apart, assemble, invent, assemble, construct, and experiment with cause and effect.
4. I can make predictions and generalisations about different environments, and communicate these using language, gestures, numbers, and symbols.
5. I can use language, gestures or visual symbols to communicate and convey meaning about social and personal experiences; mathematical ideas and scientific concepts.
______________________________
Ｃｒｉｔｉｃａｌ Ｔｈｉｎｋｉｎｇ Ｑｕｅｓｔｉｏｎ(ｓ)
1. Are dragons real? How do we tell the difference between something that is real, and something that is not?
2. What do dragon stories teach us about our world?
3. What would it be like to be a dragon?
______________________________
Ｓｃｉｅｎｃｅ Ｃｏｎｔｅｎｔ ａｎｄ Ｃｏｎｃｅｐｔｓ
~ Living things are adapted to a particular ecology.
~ Living things grow.
~ Engineering involves designing something to solve a problem.
~ The structure of something influences its function.
~ Light comes from a source, and travels through the air.
~ An ecology is made up of many different plants and animals that all interact together.
~ Oil and water are different substances, and oil repels water.
~ Water moves across a surface.
~ Fire is a source of heat and light.
~ We see colour when light is reflected off a surface.
~ Things move and stop as a result of forces. Forces are "pushes" and "pulls". Gravity is a type of force.
______________________________
Ｍａｔｈｅｍａｔｉｃｓ Ｃｏｎｔｅｎｔ ａｎｄ Ｃｏｎｃｅｐｔｓ
~ Counting.
~ Subitising.
~ Comparing number.
~ Composing numbers.
~ Patterns, structure and algebraic thinking.
~ 2D shapes.
~ Composing 2D shapes.
~ Disembedding shapes.
~ 3D shapes.
~ Composing 3D shapes.
~ Spatial visualisation and imagery.
~ Spatial orientation.
~ Measurement (length).
~ Measurement (area).
~ Measurement (angle and turn).
______________________________
Ｖｏｃａｂｕｌａｒｙ ａｎｄ Ｓｐｅｅｃｈ
This class will provide a setting for children to develop and practice their vocabulary and speech relating to the content, concepts, and activities we are exploring. The words we will be using will include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.
Vocabulary (or knowledge of words) includes understanding their structure (morphology), use (grammar) and meanings (semantics). It also includes understanding how one word links to other words (word/semantic relationships). Oral and aural vocabulary skills (or, for non-speaking children, visual and gestural vocabulary skills) are absolutely crucial to later development of literacy decoding and reading comprehension and fluency.
Because this is such an important skill gained in early childhood, I use a strong evidence-based and developmentally appropriate approach to vocabulary and speech development. This includes:
𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁 𝗩𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗯𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
Explicit vocabulary discussion means that, in this class we not only use words, but we may also sometimes talk about them. We might discuss, for example:
~ what does this word mean?
~ what words would communicate what we want?
~ what other words can we use for this?
While these discussions are explicit, they are not a discrete part of our classes or delivered as a "lesson". Instead, we weave these into our organic discussions while we play, create and tell stories. I do not choose or have a "list" of specific words that children "must" learn. My approach is to respond to children's interests by offering explicit vocabulary discussion that is purposeful, and which helps each child engage with their goals, interests and motivations. This means that children are developing their vocabulary (and self-awareness of it) in a meaningful, relevant and active way.
𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
While it may seem "efficient" to get children to memorise, or rote learn, words - this approach has been shown to have no real value in speech/ language development generally, including vocabulary development. Rather, evidence confirms that the critical requirement for strong vocabulary and speech development is sufficient opportunity for children to engage in meaningful, two-way conversations that are interesting to them.
To provide this for your child, I maintain very small class sizes and a child-led approach to learning. This ensures that each child has many opportunities to "chat" and "talk" with me and other learners throughout this class about the things that have captured their interest or that they are discovering. I focus on finding opportunities within these conversations to not only introduce new vocabulary, but to also extend and stretch each child's confidence in using and understanding vocabulary in speech.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
~ Children will need assistance to prepare and set-up prior to each session. This will typically take 5 - 10 minutes.
~ In WEEK 4 of this class, younger learners may need some minor hands-on assistance from a parent with our class activity.
~ Some of the materials needed in this class will need to be collected from nature in your local park, streets or neighbourhood. Many families like to do this by doing a treasure hunt on a "nature walk" prior to the class.
~ This class includes a strong focus on children's hands-on participation and agency. Please be aware that some activities are "messy", and I suggest having a large tray, towel or sheet to ensure easy clean-up following the class. Children should wear clothes that you are comfortable if they get messy or stained.
~ In this class you have the option of using home-made salt dough using flour, salt, water and vegetable oil. If your child has food allergies, please ensure to use flour and oil types that they are not allergic to.
Supply List
𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 - 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭 ~ 2 - 3 sheets of any sort of paper - A4 or larger size. ~ Things like colourful foil, candy wrappers, etc are idea for this class. But any colourful paper scraps will work (wrapping paper, junk mail brochures, crepe paper, old cards, etc.). If you prefer, you can purchase "foil craft sheets" on amazon or from most craft stores (around $1 - $2) - but this is not necessary. ~ Loose items from around your house (fabric scraps, bits of old wool or yarn, ribbon, buttons, sparkles, sequins) ~ If available: some nice things fond in nature that can be glued on paper (feathers, leaves, flower petals) ~ A black sharpie, marker or texta. ~ White/ pvc/ Elmer's/ school glue - placed in a dish, with a brush. ~ Child-safe scissors. ~ Optional: glitter, sequins or other sparkly things. 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 - 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝟮 - 𝟱 𝗔 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀, 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸. In summary, the ESSENTIAL materials needed for weeks 2 - 5 will include: ~ Egg shells ~ Some cheap vegetable oil ~ A packet of paper straws. ~ Food colours. ~ Some paper for painting - water colour paper is ideal, but not essential ~ A simple kitchen sponge ~ Some plain printer paper ~ A roll of kitchen foil ~ either Air dry clay OR a good batch of salt dough to be made with flour, water, salt and oil. A recipe will be provided. ~ Some acrylic paints. I recommend having white + at least 4 different colours. These are available cheaply from most $2 shops or department stores. ~ 3 - 4 paint brushes of different thickness. ~ Some dishes for mixing paints in. ~ Any lovely items you collect on a nature walk - leaves, flowers, acorns, pine cones, interesting pebbles, bits of bark, feathers, etc.
1 file available upon enrollment
Language of Instruction
English
Joined May, 2020
5.0
188reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
I am both a trained nurse and Masters qualified Early Childhood teacher, and a Play Therapist. I have over 30 years experience in working with young children, specialising in designing programs to improve children's developmental, educational/ learning and mental health/ well-being outcomes in both "typical" and complex circumstances. I have received numerous government and industry awards for my work in both teaching and therapeutic practice. Reviews
Live Group Class
$105
for 5 classes1x per week, 5 weeks
40 min
Completed by 21 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 4-8
4-6 learners per class
