Keeping our little learners engaged can feel like a constant juggling act between meaningful involvement and careful supervision. But fear not fellow educators, because this quick blog post is here to ignite a newfound spark of curiosity and elevate your structured learning opportunities into magically meaningful moments.
We all know the importance of a play-based program in early childhood education. It’s something we’ve become very accustomed to all across Australia. But how can we make sure that these playful moments are the best they can be, fostering the cognitive development we all hope for? Here are 5 creative ideas to infuse into your everyday learning activities to elevate the richness of the learning experience.
Sensory Storytelling:
Storytelling is a timeless cornerstone of early learning, but have you tried incorporating sensory elements recently? Put a pause on the traditional picture books and instead challenge yourself to create a story box filled with textured objects, scented play dough, curated loose parts or even colourful scarves. As you narrate the story, invite the children to touch, smell, and interact with the objects – this will create a more immersive experience and solidify their memory of the story. Intentional forethought is needed, as this works best when the objects can in some way be tied to the story.
For example, if the story has the characters traversing a field of lavender, then having actual cuttings of lavender in the story box would be a great tie in to activate the sense of smell, sight and touch. What’s great, is that this is an all ages experience.
Maths in Motion:
Learning numbers doesn’t have to be confined to worksheets, rote memorisation, or constant one-to-one correspondence. Get your little learners moving with active games! Clap out rhythms for them to count along to, or create an obstacle course where they have to complete a specific number of jumps or hops to reach the finish line. Even a group game of who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, when allowing for time spent counting the ‘found’ cookies in the jar, and the ‘remaining’ cookies still yet to be found provides a great incidental learning opportunity for mathematics learning.
This can be extended if you and your service have the opportunity to get out onto Country. Using mathematic language, you can challenge children to find sticks, leaves or other natural materials that are ‘larger than’ or ‘smaller than’. This all goes such a long way in a child’s early maths literacy.
Science Sleuths:
Turn everyday moments into mini science experiments! Everyday routines, ritual and interactions all offer a plethora of opportunities to stop and ask why to provoke new lines of thinking. For example, the next time you are washing hands with the children, why not stop and ask why? This can introduce the idea of germs, which can be accompanied by a range of very visual science experiences which can bring the love of learning to life. Or perhaps if you have both cold and warm water, why not explore concept of dissolving? Fill two bowls, one with warm water and one with cold. Drop in objects like salt and sugar, or even spoons or toy cars and see which dissolves faster (or not at all!) in each temperature. This will spark curiosity about the world around them and introduce basic scientific concepts.
Dramatic Play Adventures:
Dramatic play isn’t just about make-believe! Set up a dramatic play area that reflects a current theme you’re learning about, like a grocery store or a farm. As children engage in pretend play, they’ll be solidifying their understanding of the world through social interaction and storytelling.
When creating these little reflections of the real world, you’re providing children with the opportunity to play out their first exposure to this situation is a calm, safe and warm environment. The fear or apprehension of receiving a needle as part of the immunisation process can be minimised by creating a doctors play area where children act out this very interaction. When it comes time for the real thing, there’s an increased level of familiarity with the process, and a renewed sense of confidence in knowing what is going to happen. Think about all the potential areas you can explore (Travelling by boat / plane, going to ‘big school’ before the transition happens). The possibilities are endless.
Craft & Conquer:
Learning doesn’t have to be passive! Arts and craft – based activities allow children to express themselves creatively while also strengthening their fine motor skills. Plan artistic projects that tie into your current learning theme. For example, if you’re learning about different animals, create masks or puppets the children can use to act out their favourite creatures. You can also think about when you use the creative arts in sequence to your learning intentions. You could use it formatively to assess what the children already know. You can use it summatively at the end of a learning sequence to gauge what they took away from the planned learning. Or, the creative arts process can be the learning itself through a project.
By incorporating these simple yet effective strategies, you can transform day to day learning supercharge it in a fun and engaging way. Remember, the early learning years are all about fostering the love of learning, and by making it both fun and engaging, you’re setting your students up for future success in the many years to come!
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