An Outdoor Learning Experience for Toddlers - Term Paper Example

Heading: Plan and design for outdoor learning experience for toddlers Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date An overview of the group The group used includes four infants from the state of Atlanta aged fifteen, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty two months in a range of two year. This group is the most ideal for my study since most toddlers at this age are involved in a lot of activities. The experience was conducted at the backyard of their homes during the day. Exploration and discovery of new ideas is very intensive at this age bracket. The other factor that facilitated my choice in this group is the environment around the state of Atlanta. The environment around Atlanta allows diversity in culture, natural factors and racial composition of the population within the state of Atlanta. As an example, the population around the state Atlanta entails both black and white Americans. Atlanta is a unique city which has all characteristics that need a plan and design for a toddlers learning experience who are in the process of physical, social, and moral growth. Element of learning According to Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2009), there are three elements of learning identified that put the children’s learning at the centre and inter-related elements. This includes Principles, Practices and Learning Outcomes. All the elements are essential to the early pedagogy and curriculum decision-making for children under the age of two. The principles deal majorly with respectful and reciprocal relationships amongst the entities involve in the child learning experiences, it may also include partnerships with families of the infants so as to achieve a relationship that sets a better environment for the toddlers to learn. High expectations and equity from the parents and educators is also handy for the toddlers learning experiences. Parents and educators must also Respect the diversity of cultures that is evident from the set up environment and also to observe the ongoing learning process for easy assessment at the end. The second element of learning experience is the setup of the practices that facilitate learning. The practices involve holistic approaches used in the process of learning that may be greatly dependent on the environment setting. A good practice may also involve being responsive to the toddlers and giving them a lot of motivation and assistance to whatever they are doing. Research has also shown that learning through playing with others is the most effective and faster means of ensuring that toddlers are engaged in a good learning process. Apart from the above, the study also adds that, intentional teaching by the educators can be used to pursue learning in a defined area that needed extensive and directional teaching to the toddlers so that they can be subjected to learn by themselves. Another practice that must be put in the plan by the educator is to conduct regular assessment to the learning kids to ensure that fast learning is being achieved. According to their Framework, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2009) did convey the learning outcome which could be identified at the end of the learning process. Learning outcomes that can be deduce from the children learning experience is that children poses a strong sense of Identity. This is necessary in that, if the children are guaranteed safety, security and support they grow confidence to explore and learn. From assessment, educators will note that children are connected with and contribute to their world. This arises because kids build up a sense of belonging to a groups and communities and a perception of the mutual rights and responsibilities obligatory for active community contribution and may also have a tough sense of wellbeing in that, they turn out to be strong in their emotional and social wellbeing. Learning outcome is a knowledge, skill or disposition that educators can aggressively encourage in early childhood settings, in association with children and relatives. Learning outcomes can also guides educators to design a working curriculum for conclusion making and assists in setting up, implementing and evaluating excellence in early infancy settings. Learning environment photo Learning potential that may be accomplished from the experience It is very important that in early years, the settings should be oriented to offer children the opportunity to be outdoors with peer group so that learning process can be integrated into the child’s development. Open-air learning complements the closed learning and is by the same token as important as indoor learning. Learning experience that runs seamlessly connecting indoors and outdoors learning allow children to make the most of the potentials. They also enable them to utilize resources accessible to them and expand their ideas with no interruptions. Outdoor learning is composed of all that children see, execute, hear or feel in their outdoor space. As noted by from Exploring Outdoor Learning in the Foundation Stage(2004), Outdoor learning settings is significant for the reasons that, they supports the advancement of healthy and active lifestyles in addition to offering children with opportunities such as freedom and movement; physical activity, promotes a sense of confidence and well-being. Most important is the advantage of developing harmonious relationships with others, communication, negotiation and cooperation amongst themselves. In addition, outdoor experience offers to support toddlers who learn best through action or movement and at some point provides secure and supervised chances for children to familiarity themselves with new challenges, risks and develop the skills to overcome tricky situations. It may also supports children’s with emerging creativity and problem-solving skills by providing rich wider scope of inventiveness, imagination and resourcefulness. In addition indoor learning gives children the option of getting in touch with the real world and offers exceptional experiences to them to develop fundamental understanding to the nature. Planning for outdoor experience According to the website living strong (2010) whether you desire to create from your own backyard or want to aid in planning an outdoor learning space, the development goes on more efficiently if you brainstorm ideas with the groups you plan to serve. A huge variety of outdoor learning settings are possible, from mud, log of trees, sand and water play ground to gardens and greenhouses for children below two years. The first step will be to assess needs and interests of the children particularly in the learning experience. Your outdoor learning environment may complement an existing science, art, social studies or ecology set of courses and allow access to a key concern, determining how the play ground will accommodate frequent visits and many children (Theemes, 1999). In step two you must consider whether your settings will include gardens, sand pits, wild habitats, compost pit, water flow, bird feeders or any other environment that can prove useful to the children learning (Kinsella, 2007). The next step involve configuration of the playground to allow for the learning to meet the set criteria. For example create a variety of surfaces to make an outdoor more interesting like Gravel, stone and pebble paths work well for drainage. In the next step consider the utilization of the natural features like a stream or lake by placing large supporters so that children can gather there for observation and experiments (Arthur, 2010). Other natural objects may also be integrate such as rotting logs, hills, trees, nesting boxes, ponds, native plants and rocky to improve the learning. Finally, create gathering areas where the toddlers will regroup to accomplish a certain goal. Group some rocks around a given area to facilitate a common playing point to avoid the toddlers from dispersing far apart. Help them to put up a clubhouse using clay or other natural materials (Leeds, 2004). According to Dolby (2007) the above plan is incomplete if the setup is posing a risk to the learners. It is therefore necessary to implement several precautions to ensure that the learners are highly secured. This can be done by securing the entrances, exits and boundaries to reduce the contingencies involved. It is also necessary to analyze the weather condition so as to ascertain the clothing, shelter and shade to be provided to the toddler to protect them against extreme weather conditions. Roles of educators in learning Educators are tasked with work of making sure that they observe the children as they learn and give practical example to the learner with aim of stressing a particular concept needed in the learning process (Goodfellow, 2010). They are also responsible in providing relevant guidance for effective learning to take place. Educators are required to focus and train children on the importance of their right to play and learn from experiences they enjoy at their childhood. Children’s agency or children educators are supposed to provide guidance, care and teaching in order to shape children’s experiences in their development process (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009). When educators craft environments whereby children experience pleasure, caring and respectful interaction with their environment, children react accordingly thus allowing the teacher to accomplish one of the goals and responsibilities. Their work is also to support learning and wellbeing of the toddlers by offering trusting relationships, warm, predictable and safe environments, verification and respect for all aspects of their cognitive, emotional, physical, social, linguistic, creative and spiritual being. Educators also need to understand the environment and experiences in handy for optimized learning experiences. More so, they are necessitated to poses a rich mathematical vocabulary to precisely describe and clarify children’s mathematical ideas and to support numeracy development (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009, p.38). Assessment strategies It is also very essential for educator to gather information related to the children engagement in learning process and to analyze it as substantiation on what the learning children know, understand or can do. Continuous assessments include diverse methods of collecting and validating different learning route that a child might take during the learning process. The aim is to achieve the best outcome for the learning experience for children in different habits. Involving children, professionals and families in the expansion and implementation of appropriate and suitable assessment methods allows knowledge to materialize which would be impossible if educators rely exclusively on their own strategies and perspectives (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009, p. 17). Designing inclusive assessment practices which encompasses all the entities involved in the process of children learning and the recognition of families divergent view, assist educators formulate significant sense of what they have experienced and observed so that they can support effective learning for all children. As stated by Linke (2006) educators, families and children all add to successful transitions. Most of the assessment is associated with the learning outcome from the children and practice used in the learning experience that the child was subjected to. Educators use a variety of strategies to collect, document, synthesize, organize and interpret the data that they gathered to review children’s knowledge. They search for appropriate ways to collect rich and meaningful information that depicts children’s learning in context, describes their progress and identifies their strengths, skills and understandings. More recent approaches to assessment also examine the learning strategies that children use and reflect ways in which learning is co-constructed through interactions between the educator and each child (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009, p. 17). References Arthur, L. (2010). The early years learning framework: Building confident learners. Canberra: Early Childhood Australia. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2009). Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Canberra: Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments Dolby, R. (2007). The circle of security: Roadmap to building supportive relationships. Canberra: Early Childhood Australia. Goodfellow, J. (2010). The early years learning framework: Getting started. Canberra: Early Childhood Australia. Kinsella, R. (2007). Greening services: Practical sustainability. Canberra: Early Childhood Australia. Linke, P. (2006). Managing change with infants and young children. Canberra: Early Childhood Australia. Theemes, T. (1999). Let’s Go Outside! Designing the early childhood playground, High/Scope Press,Ypsilanti, Mich. Leeds, EYDCP. (2004). Exploring Outdoor Learning in the Foundation Stage, East Leeds Family Learning Centre, Leeds. Living strong. (2010). How to Create Outdoor Environments for Learning & Fun article, Retrieved 08 July, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/233941-how-to-create- outdoor-environments-for-learning-fun/#ixzz1S78ujHF9. Read More