How to Improve Childrens Learning and Development - Article Example

Annotated Program Plan for a Week Name: Grade Course: Tutor’s Name: 12th August, 2010. Brief Introduction A program plan covers the details of what should be done in a program and how it will be done and by whom it will be done. Below is a short description of a program plan on how to improve children’s learning and development. There are so many ways to improve children’s learning and development and most of them are included in early childhood curriculum. There are five sections in the curriculum that have been covered in the program plan described below but only specific activities described to achieve the aims. The curriculum includes; personal, emotional and social development of a child, communication language and literacy where only language for communication purposes is covered, a child’s creative development, physical development and helping the children have knowledge and understanding of the world. Curriculum Objectives Site(s) Activities Teacher Strategies/Resources To help the children develop and understand the importance of relationships Class toys and items’ -store room Monday: Arranging similar items in their respective shelves. Different items such as toys, blocks of different shapes will be placed in a store room where the children can be allowed to place them in respective shelves. The shelves will already have some blocks of different shapes but well organized so that, a triangle shaped block is in a different shelve from a rectangle shaped block. Similar toys will also be arranged in their own shelves. The children will identify the similar blocks and toys and place them in their respective shelves1. OR Allowing the children to build blocks or models of their choice using art and craft materials2. Providing the materials to be arranged and guiding the children. Observing the children and their actions and taking necessary actions incase need be. The teacher should always take not of disruptive behaviors of any child to ensure appropriate care is given3. To teach children how to listen, speak and communicate Classroom Tuesday: Story Telling ‘The Rabbit’. The teacher will select a story to tell the children and engage the children in story telling actions such as questioning them about related stories or ideas4. Read the story to the children Observe the children’s behavior and take appropriate action5. To improve the children’s creative development Classroom OR art room Wednesday: There are two activities that the teacher can choose from: Either allow the children to independently play with clay and make models of their own choice using art and craft materials or engage the children in creation of music6. The teacher will guide the children in creation of music through creation of beats using percussion instruments. In the case of clay and art and craft models, the teacher is to observe and guide only when necessary7. Improve Physical development Outdoors Thursday: Playing outdoors freely. Allowing the children to create their own play grounds with very little guidance8&9. Observe only and let them play10. Helping the children have knowledge and understand the world: to improve investigation and exploration skills Outdoors Friday: Treasure hunting. The teacher develops a map giving directions on where the treasures are. The treasures can be identified using different colors or objects11. The treasures can represent what the children love which can be identified during class lesions for example during an art and craft play session. An example of a treasure can be what each child created during an art and craft session. Provides guidance during the treasure hunt12. 1. Personal, emotional and social development Arranging similar items in their respective shelves is an activity can help the children develop relationships with each other and the teacher. Another activity that can be used to improve personal, emotional and social development is letting the children to do something on their own. This can be done by providing drawing materials and some art and craft materials then allowing the children to create what they like. The teacher only provides guidance when necessary for example when the child requests for help asking questions about how to make a house in his or her developed home, and by telling the children what they are supposed to do with the materials13. This activity helps the children gain self confidence, raise their self esteem and motivates them towards learning. These activities help build children’s social and emotional behaviors but the teacher has also to play a role in nurturing the children’s behaviors. Children have different behaviors, come from different families and have different experiences. For this reason, the teacher has to ensure that every child receives good care and attention. Some children may not act as required by the teacher, Barnes refers to this as normal verses disturbing behavior14,they may for example cling to the teacher when in fear of something, may avoid new tasks, may be angry when told to do something, may be over active or may just cry. Such actions show that the child needs attention and should be guided towards cooperating with others15. The teacher has to first understand why the child acts in such a manner, determine the function of the action and then resolve the problem16&17. 2. Communication, Language and Literacy Aim: To teach children language for communication purposes. Activity: Story telling For children to learn and be competent they have to learn how to communicate, they have to be read to, they have to know how to listen, speak, to read and to write18&19. These cannot happen without support from the teachers and the parents. The children therefore have to be given the opportunity to express their skills. They have to be encouraged to use their skills in different situations and for different purposes for example, if they learn language for communication purposes, they have to be given a chance to communicate with other people. This also encourages the development of social skills. By offering story telling classes, the children learn to listen; they learn to speak and to communicate. After storytelling and even during story telling sessions, the children can be asked questions related to the story to encourage their understanding and speaking as well as communication. When the children are given the opportunity to use their already developed skills, their confidence in using such skills is built and this improves learning and development20. 3. Supporting Creative Development Activity: Two activities can be done in this case. These are; Allowing children to explore clay independently and make models with glue. This improves their creative development. The children can also be involved in creation of music: The practitioner will work out different rhythms with the children using percussion instruments. This improves the children’s creative development since it supports their curiosity, play and exploration21. Creative development is part of child development and should be supported as well22. According to MacFarlane, children are naturally curious and would constantly explore, investigate and experiment to understand the environment around them23. Through play, the children can communicate, discover and understand the world around them24&25. Their curiosity, exploration and play should therefore be supported to ensure that they develop their creativity. This is the reason why it is important to provide music, art, imaginative activities, mathematics, design, technology, dance and role play activities which give them the opportunity to explore and share their feelings, thoughts, creativity and ideas26. The children explore the world around them through seeing, touching, hearing and through response to sights, colors and textures. By offering them a chance to experiment on their own with different colors, textures, sights and so on, their creativity is developed. Offering the children clay to play with and glue to make their own models of items and even involving them in creation of music are important ways of improving their creative skills27. 4. Supporting Children’s Physical Development Activity: Playing Outdoors. Child development also entails physical development and any activities that can improve their physical development should be encouraged. Physical development helps children improve their coordination, manipulation, movement and control skills and this is through interaction and physical activities. It aims at improving the child’s confidence in movement, helps the child move with imagination and safety and makes the child aware of the space around him or her and the others28. Apart from movement and space, physical development activities help the children be aware of the importance of good health. The children must therefore be supported on physical development and given activities such as playing outdoors, going on swimming lessons and many others29. Playing outdoors is also important to the children since it is the best way of learning because of free play. Children’s free play is spontaneous, self motivating, imaginative, active, free of any adult rules and pleasurable. This results into a quality play which engages the child’s intellect, emotion, gross motor, individual growth, fine motor, senses and social interaction. It contributes a lot to the child’s development30. 5. To help the children have knowledge and understanding to the world Activity: A class Treasure Hunt. Knowledge and understanding of the world is another area of learning and development that entails a lot. The world is changing and new technologies are being developed, the children should not be left behind in this31. This area of learning covers the following aspects; i. ICT, which is about how the children learn about new technologies such as computerized toys and computers ii. The place which is about how the children learn about the natural world and develop likes and dislikes for certain things iii. The time which covers how the children find out about the past and the present events that affect their families and their lives in one way of the other, either positively or negatively iv. Investigation and exploration, which covers how the children can be helped to identify objects and materials with their properties to understand the similarities and differences and the changes and patterns. This also gives the children the opportunity to question how and why things work the way they do hence improving their development (understanding of the world) v. The communities which help the children understand different communities and their cultures hence recognizing the different cultures of a society vi. Making and designing which is about guiding the children through the construction process. It entails making the children learn about the tools and materials that can be gathered to construct houses, toys, tables, chairs and many other things that are present in the society and they can be made aware of, learn about how to construct such structures and items using various techniques in a creative and safe manner32 In this section, the activity selected is Treasure hunting which is within the school compound. The teacher selects an area where specific objects can be hidden and develops a map for the treasure hunt. Each child can be given an item that the whole class will be looking for and the teacher guides the treasure hunt. This covers the exploration and investigation aspect of understanding and having knowledge about the world33. References Barnes, P., 1995, Personal, Social, And Emotional Development Of Children, Wiley-Blackwell, London. California Childcare Health Program, 2006, Social and Emotional Development of Children, Ed.1, A Curriculum for Childcare Health Advocates. Viewed on 11th August, 2010: Children’s Creative Development, Viewed on 11th August, 2010 Kids Development, 2010, Language Development Stages in Young Children. Viewed on 11th August, 2010: MacFarlane, J., 2008, Supporting Children’s Development, an Extract from: Putting Children First Magazine of National Childcare Accreditation Council, Issues 27, pp 6-9. Viewed on 11th August, 2010: White, R. & Stoecklin, V., 2008, Children's Outdoor Play & Learning Environments: Returning to Nature. 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