Learning Through Play
Play is serious business! For young children, play is not only essential for learning... it is the basis for how they learn. Children's natural curiosity and playfulness provide many opportunities for learning throughout the day. Many preschools use a play-based curriculum to build the educational component of their program- and at Children’s Day Preschool, we utilize the nationally recognized HighScope Curriculum. Quality interactions between children and their teachers allow children to grow and develop skills and abilities that prepare them for kindergarten and beyond.
The HighScope Curriculum uses an Active Learning Approach model that focuses on how the child manipulates materials and uses them to express ideas. The focus is not on the finished project. Process rather than Product drives the curriculum. It meets NJ early learning standards, the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework, and National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) developmentally appropriate practice guidelines. We utilize this nationally recognized curriculum so that our students can thrive and not only gain independence in their development and schoolwork but provide them with an early start to develop skills that many other children won’t start to develop until kindergarten or later.
The teachers at Children’s Day use the curriculum to build upon children’s love of “play”. Young children need to be involved in hands-on activities that provide the framework for exploring their interests and expanding on what they already know about something. Our staff designs and develops active “playing” and “learning” areas that reflect both the individual and group interests of the children in their class.
The physical environment in the HighScope Curriculum classrooms consists of several carefully arranged Interest Areas. Each area has a purpose, and curriculum goals and objectives are integrated across these areas as children work with all kinds of materials. A few examples include: Block Area, Book Area, House Area, Art Area, and Discovery Area.
Every child participates in a range of organized and self-initiated play activities on our playground to practice skills learned in the classroom as well as exercise, develop and strengthen their gross motor skills, and just have fun.
A supportive preschool learning environment promotes the development of children’s critical thinking skills; fosters awareness of diversity and multiculturalism; and supports enthusiasm and engagement as the cornerstones of approaches to learning. The environment must nurture children’s capacity to engage deeply in individual and group activities and projects. Such an environment is created through interactions with indoor and outdoor environments that offer opportunities for children to set goals and persist in following through with their plans while acquiring new knowledge and skills through purposeful play. Carefully planned instruction, materials, furnishings, and daily routines must be complemented by an extensive range of interpersonal relationships.
While the adults in the preschool environment provide the conditions and materials that influence how children play and scaffold learning so that more sophisticated levels of interaction and expression are realized, it is the child who determines the roles and the rules shaping the play. The learning environment must, therefore, accommodate planned and unplanned, as well as structured and unstructured experiences. Unstructured play should take up a substantial portion of the day.
Preschool learning materials are arranged to invite purposeful play and thus facilitate learning. They provide opportunities for children to broaden and strengthen their knowledge through a variety of firsthand, developmentally appropriate learning experiences. Inviting preschool materials also help children acquire symbolic knowledge, which allows them to represent their experiences through a variety of age-appropriate media, such as drawing, painting, construction of models, dramatic play, and verbal and written descriptions.
Play is an important vehicle for, as well as a reflection of, the social, emotional, and cognitive development of all preschool children, including children with disabilities.
And now that you know or have been reminded of all the benefits of play, let children continue their fascinating journey of learning through play at home! Here are a few ideas of things that you can do/provide at home to let the fun learning begin:
Provide:
Open-ended materials such as small and large boxes (cereal boxes, bar soap boxes, toothpaste boxes, etc.), paper towel tubes, plastic spoons and bottle caps, clean plastic bottles, cardboard pieces, etc. Think before you throw anything away! It may be a hidden treasure.
Clothing and shoes that you no longer use, baby blankets, old pans and wooden spoons that are no longer used in the kitchen, old cell phones, handbags, wallets, etc. Anything that they can use to pretend works!
Screen-free time and space. Children will only begin to pretend and create when they have the safe space and materials to so. Any screen (TV, tablet, laptop, cell phone, etc.) will distract them from play and its great benefits.
Allow children to choose what they want to do (providing choices that are all acceptable to the adult).
Interact with your children for at least 15 minutes a day during their playtime. This allows you to understand the skills they have and those you can build on. It also helps them build on their social skills and vocabulary.
Do:
Build forts at home with sheets or blankets on sofas, beds, or other safe furniture.
Build houses, buildings, tunnels, parks, etc. with boxes and other recyclable materials.
Sing and dance together!
Pretend play! You can be doctors, nurses, librarians, veterinarians, bookstore owners, shoemakers, mail carriers, chefs, moms and dads, teachers, car washers, mechanics, anything! Let your children lead the way!
Read, read, read! You can read books, lists, poems, rhymes, fun articles, jokes, interesting news about other children, new toys, etc. You can make up your own stories, write them, illustrate them, and act them out.
You can cook and/or bake together. It doesn’t have to be difficult and messy. You can start by toasting bread and adding butter together or making a simple sandwich.
Draw and paint.