As a prekindergarten teacher and mother of three young children, I would like to express the importance of center based instruction in prekindergarten and early childhood education. School administrators and officials that do not work directly with small children do not understand the importance of prekindergarten. This discussion has come up on several occasions as attempts to cut funding and the entire prekindergarten program all together. I have also overheard highly intelligent officials and leaders in our school district disregarding prekindergarten and early child hood centers as a play period that lacks instruction and value. I am compelled to express knowledge and firsthand experience of the importance and value of centers in our pre-k and early childhood classrooms.
Young children learn through play and interacting with their peers. In prekindergarten and most early childhood centers, children are allowed ample free play opportunities. These free play opportunities give children a chance to interact and learn from their peers. It also allows children to explore and learn through play. While children are in learning centers, they are not only playing, they are also exploring, learning, and
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5). One of the most popular centers in our classrooms is the Dramatic Play Center. When parents and other individuals visit our classroom, they sometimes fail to see the importance of this center and mainly see a play area with a kitchen for the children. The Dramatic Play Center has so much valuable instruction embedded within the center. The Dramatic Play Center helps children learn to socialize, imagine, explore, as well as use words, write, and extend their vocabulary to new words and topics embedded in the endless possibilities of themes in this center (Ihmeideh, 2015, p.
The infant that was observed for the purposes of this essay was Phoebe, a two-month old girl, born via cesarean section at thirty-eight weeks of gestation to interracial parents. She was observed in her own home, in normal behavior and interactions between her and her mother. The observation was separated into two different one hour sessions.
During this assignment, I needed to observe infant/toddler from birth to 36 months. The observation was for 30 minutes while the infants interact with the world. While the observation, I created a running record observation to keep track of the developmental domains. The observation took place in the ECE classroom. There were three children which were Charlotte, Loui, and Benjamin. They were placed in the center of the class where there was different kinds of toys. During the observation, Charlotte and Loui were interacting with one another. However, Benjamin wasn’t interacting at all. Loui interacted with classmates and went outside the circle to get some toys.
In this assignment I am going to describe a child observation that I have done in a nursery for twenty minutes in a play setting. I will explain the strengths and weaknesses of naturalistic observation through the key developmental milestones based in Mary Sheridan (2005) check-list and provide a theoretical explanation to support the naturalistic observation.
The facility I did my observation at was Tutor Time in Fairfield, and I arrived there at 3:15pm. When I arrived there, I could instantly see that it was a child centered program by the feel of the artwork the kids had made that were on the walls, the passing classrooms and it smelled like sugar cookies throughout the building. It was very quiet in the office area and in the halls when I was walking to the class of preschoolers.
The daycare that I visited was Rosemont Daycare and Preschool. This center is faith based and I was able observe the “Duck Class” which was the age group of four and five year olds. I went to observe on February 11th and 16th, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 and the 18th from 3:00 to 6:00. On the 11th and 16th, there were a total of 12 children in the Duck class. At 9:00 the children were engaged in circle time meaning that the children were learning about their bible verse for that month which was “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” The children then discussed what they thought that meant. On the 11th I was present to see the children, the ones I decided to observe were Kali, Roslyn, Fiona, and Brayden. When the children were doing crafts I sat near the counter island in the class room so I was out of the way but still able to see and hear what the kids were doing and saying at the table.
I observed at St. Eve’s Learning Center location in their preschool room. The center has a naturalistic feel to the environment and all of the staff is friendly and welcoming. The classroom displayed best practices, modern theories and research, and followed expected standards set by their accreditations.
from the first bar, she quickly swung her feet over to the side for leg support.
Observation is very important in young children because that is how you get to know a child better. While observing how a child interacts with their peers, adults, and how they behave in different settings, you are getting to know the child without speaking to them.
While walking through the front gates of County elementary school, you see children of all ages playing while they wait for the school bell to ring. Walking to the classroom that I will be observing you see students with their parent’s line up waiting to get signed in. The students are to be signed in by a parent or guardian for safety precautions, and shows that the child was signed into school. As a visitor, I am to sign myself in, this shows I was in the classroom, at what time was I there, and reason for visiting the classroom.
...ctive. Play is an essential learning tool and one that must not be ignored within the classroom. It is a catalyst to help children develop socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively. It is not only an important part of a child’s development as a pupil but also a child’s development as an individual.
By attending preschool there is a reduction in the amount of aggression and acting out during kindergarten (Yoshikawa). A preschool encourages these types of games by providing play areas such as the dramatic play that contains a pretend kitchen, a table, dress up clothes, as well as many other things. By encouraging this type of play children can be seen giving each other specific roles and jobs. Imaginative play helps them develop important skills such as taking turns, paying attention, communicating, and responding to one another’s actions
The areas that cover learning in the preschool classroom differ from nation to nation. Whether you are looking for preschool for 3 year olds or preschool for 2 year olds,you can look for certain general themes like knowledge and understanding of the world, communication that comprises listening and talking, social, personal and emotional development, physical development, and math development and awareness. It's crucial to select the preschool that's appropriate for your children so that their mind is stimulated properly. The base for developmental education of preschool aged children is established on these principles. Preschool is for the children between two to five years of age, and throughout this developmental phase, they learn & absorb the information quite quickly.
Learning Centers: Dramatic Play- Play is so very vital to students. It helps them with social and even emotional skills. It also helps with reading, writing, math just to name some areas. The will be also using their fine and gross motor skills in this center.
A very important experience a child can have throughout the course of preschool and even elementary school is the chance to use dramatic play. A child in this setting has the wonderful opportunity to create a world of their own that they have power over. A child can participate in this alone or participate with a group of children. This gives the child an opportunity to play with different types of communication, whether they are role-playing as Mommy or Daddy or the family pet. The knowledge they have at that point of the world they live in will show during this play; if the teacher walks by while the children are playing, it is possible that she will hear a conversation that happened in the house when they overheard their parents talking. Overall, this type of play teaches children how to make friends, how to communicate with those friends, and how to maintain those friendships.
Socio-dramatic play benefits children by developing social and oral interaction with peers, and extending their vocabulary with topic related language. Educators can set up socio-dramatic play areas so that they contribute to developing the children’s emergent literacy skills. Fellowes and Oakley state that educators can facilitate emergent literacy learning in a socio-dramatic play area by including writing materials that can be easily included in play, for example, note pads and clipboards. Another way to facilitate emergent literacy is to include real texts such as signs in the play area, but these texts must be relevant to the experiences of the children (2011). An example of a socio-dramatic play area that helps develop emergent literacy skills is a restaurant or café. To allow the children to have opportunities to develop their emergent literacy knowledge while playing in this socio-dramatic play centre, the educator could add these literacy related