OUR PLAY-BASED CURRICULUM FOR TODDLERS
At Magical Memories Daycare, we focus on children's interests, their developmental levels, their personalities or temperaments and their individual needs provide important information.
According to proponents of the concept, play enables children to make sense of their world. Children possess a natural curiosity to explore and play-acts as a medium to do so. The five elements of a children’s play area:
Play must be pleasurable and enjoyable.
The play must have no extrinsic goals; there is no prescribed learning that must occur.
Play is spontaneous and voluntary.
Play involves active engagement on the part of the player.
Play involves an element of make-believe.
The philosophy of our program is PLAY BASED, child-centered, and developmentally based. It is based on the understanding that children learn through direct interactions with their environment and the people within it. An infant needs nurturing, warmth, security, laughter, and love… and all are in plentiful supply at Magical Memories Daycare.
Our walkers' group abounds with energy and curiosity. With them, it is all about cause and effect! At Magical Memories Daycare, we greet these little movers enthusiastically with caring, experienced staff members, a proven routine, and a stimulating program that allows them to explore the world around them in a secure, fun, and loving environment!
In a safe, loving, respectful environment, children have the greatest opportunity to grow and develop. Such an environment should be the foundation of all child care programs; however, I believe it is an educator's duty to go above and beyond safety, love, and respect. We, as educators, should strive to create an environment that is fulfilling, enriching, and supporting all possible learning and growing opportunities.
IMPORTANCE OF PLAY:
Play is sufficiently important to the United Nations that it has recognized it as a specific right for all children. Children need the freedom to explore and play. Play also contributes to brain development. Evidence from neuroscience shows that the early years of a child’s development (from birth to age six) set the basis for learning, behavior, and health throughout life. The child’s neural pathways influence their development through exploration, thinking, problem-solving, and language expression which occurs during play episodes. According to the Canadian Council on Learning, "Play nourishes every aspect of children’s development – it forms the foundation of intellectual, social, physical, and emotional skills necessary for success in school and in life. Play 'paves the way for learning'”.
Learning occurs when children play with blocks, paint a picture, or play make-believe. During play, children try new things, solve problems, invent, create, test ideas and explore. Children need unstructured, creative playtime; in other words, children need time to learn through their play.
Play is serious business for the development of young learners. This is such an important understanding. A deliberate and effective play-based approach supports young children’s cognitive development. When well designed, such an approach taps into children’s individual interests draws out their emerging capacities and responds to their sense of inquiry and exploration of the world around them. It generates highly motivated children enjoying an environment where the learning outcomes of a curriculum are more likely to be achieved.
Children in playground sandbox: It has been acknowledged that there is a strong link between play and learning for young children, especially in the areas of problem-solving, language acquisition, literacy, numeracy, and social, physical, and emotional skills. Young children actively explore their environment and the world around them through learning-based play. Play is a vital part of a child’s optimal social, cognitive, physical, and emotional development. Researchers agree that play provides a strong foundation for intellectual growth, creativity, problem-solving and basic academic knowledge. According to researcher Dorothy Singer, “Through make-believe games, children can be anyone they wish and go anywhere they want. When they engage in sociodramatic play, they learn how to cope with feelings, how to bring the large, confusing world into small, manageable size; and how to become socially adept as they share, take turns and cooperate with each other. When children play, they are learning new words, how to problem solve, and how to be flexible”. As children learn through purposeful, quality play experience, they build critical basic skills for cognitive development and academic achievement. These include verbalization, language comprehension, vocabulary, imagination, questioning, problem-solving, observation, empathy, cooperation skills, and the perspectives of others. Through play, children learn a set of skills: social skills, creativity, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, and imagination. It is argued that these skills are better learned through play than through flashcards or academic drills.
Play develops children’s content knowledge and provides children the opportunity to develop social skills, competencies, and disposition to learn. Play-based learning is based on a Vygotskian model of scaffolding where the teacher pays attention to specific elements of the play activity and provides encouragement and feedback on children’s learning. When children engage in real-life and imaginary activities, play can be challenging in children’s thinking. To extend the learning process, sensitive intervention can be provided with adult support when necessary during play-based learning. Play-based learning can also be defined as:
“Children being active and involved in their learning, children learn best through firsthand experience.”
The purpose of the play-active learning is that it motivates, stimulates, and supports children in their development of skills, concepts, language acquisition/communication skills, and concentration. It also provides opportunities for children to develop positive attitudes and to demonstrate awareness/use of recent learning, skills, and competencies, and consolidate learning.
“The level of children’s play rises when adults play with them. The variety of play children engage in also increases when adults join in. The joining in is different from control. Controlling makes children follow their parent's agenda and does not lead to as much cognitive development as when parents follow their children's lead”. There are several ways educators/parents/guardians can facilitate children’s learning during play:
1) Adults can role-model positive attitudes towards play, encouraging it and providing a balance of indoor and outdoor play throughout the year. When adults join in they should guide shape, engage in, and extend it, rather than dictating or dominating the play.
2) Orchestrate an environment by deciding what toys, materials, and equipment to be included in that environment. It is important to offer a variety of materials and experiences at varying levels of difficulty. The choice of materials is important because it provides the motivation for children’s exploration and discovery. Both indoor and outdoor experiences should provide exploratory centers and space. The play environment should allow children to make choices, and to explore play possibilities. The play environment should reflect the child’s daily living experiences.
3) Observe carefully as children begin to use the toys, materials, and equipment. Observing is an ongoing process, providing information about the child’s interests, abilities and strengths, and opportunities for further learning and development. Observation helps identify ways adults can build on and guide learning.
4) Insulate oneself carefully into the play activity
5) Listen, repeat, extend and ask questions at the right time
6) Extend children’s natural observation by providing the language necessary to help children articulate what they see happening. Adults can promote play and opportunities for expansive discoveries; they can enhance (or facilitate) play by encouraging children to bring their interests and experiences into the play. The adults can ask questions, to expand and enhance play.
7) Help children recognize the concepts that emerge as they grapple with the environment, make hypotheses, recognize similarities and differences, and solve problems.
8) Provide social knowledge while allowing children the opportunity to learn the physical and logical-mathematical knowledge that helps them understand the world around them
Play helps children learn by connecting with their senses and new language that contributes to their learning.