Physical development

“Gross motor skills are encouraged through developmentally appropriate materials, equipment and indoor/outdoor activities”

 

We have an indoor gross motor room at the ‘Y’ for kids to play. It’s a huge open space for all kids, toddlers, preschool, and even infants. There’s a set schedule on the wall at what time each age group goes down to the gross motor room during the day. There’s also a specific time schedule when all the kids go down for the end of the day. I think that it’s important for there to be a schedule for all age groups because that way kids are being safe with each other and no other kids such as the younger ones don’t get hurt by the bigger kids. I also think that it’s important for the kids to have a gross motor room because they can have time to play with toys like passing the ball to one another or how to ride bikes, (usually we have small bikes for the preschool kids but we only take them out when there aren’t any toddlers or infants in the room).

 

“Individual fine motor skills are encouraged through a variety of developmentally appropriate materials and activities”

 

At the ‘Y’ the toddler wings have toys that teach them to do things in real life. Some examples that I’ve noticed is that there’s a kid that likes playing with this toy shark and it has buckles on it’s belly and this kid really likes buckling the buckles on the sharks belly. Another toy(s) that catches my attention is these little animals that have parts of their bodies screwed on and off, and whenever one of the kids shows me how it works, I hold the toy in my hand and show them righty tighty, lefty loosey. So they learn how to screw on parts on the animal bodies with the animal head. I think it’s important that kids have these kinds of toys because when they get older, they’ll know how to use these kinds of skills. 

 

“Activies and materials encourage children to develop their senses”

 

Of course children have to learn the 5 senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. In the preschool wing in one of the classrooms, they have kinetic sand for the kids to play with. There are all sorts of different kinds of kinetic sands and what I mean by that is that there are different colors such as pink, green and confetti. As I watch preschool play with the sand, they keep the sand with its individual color. I think one kid tried eating it, (typical). And the touch of the sand is soft and it’s really cool.  To me I think that playing with kinetic sand is important because the kids get a sense of the five senses, except you can’t taste kinetic sand and I don’t think there’s really a scent to the sand. However they learn how to keep the sand with its individual color and try not to get it all over the place even though that’s already been established. 

These are pictures that I found off of the internet. 

 

https://www.playwildchild.com/blog/gross-motor-playroom-benefits

 

I recommend this website to classmates and teachers. It explains the importance of kids playing in a gross motor room.

 

Cognitive development

“Activities involve developmentally appropriate, hands-on experiences”

 

Under 5.1 it talks about how children are provided to have time to play. It’s important for kids to play because it helps them with their social, language and cognitive skills. Children are provided with toys such as puzzles or blocks that can help them with their cognitive skills. Here’s an example, in one of the toddler rooms at the ‘Y’ there’s a puzzle board with four animal puzzle pieces and the kids have to match the piece where it goes in the puzzle board. 

 

“Materials and equipment provide a variety of opportunities for cognitive development”

 

Materials such as books, puzzles, and sand play have a way of helping kids with their cognitive skills. I’ve talked about the puzzle board, there’s also some books that the toddlers like to read and look at to help develop cognitive skills. There’s one book that shows how to put a piece of paper into either an animal or a shape and I would point to the picture and say “what’s that?” and one of the kids would say something like “a bunny” or “a star”. Or if I had an animal book in my hand I point to any animal and say “what animal is that?” Some of the kids are good with pronunciation and some are not, which is understandable because they’re little kids. But they would say stuff like “dolphin” or “dog”, it’s so cute how they say stuff. I think that having these materials is important because not only does it help with their cognitive skills but it encourages them to learn more about problem solving in the future.

 

“Candidate’s interactions intentionally build upon children’s prior knowledge”

 

Either a teacher or another kid interacts with another kid during playtime. I think I’ve talked about this in another discussion, but there’s a kid in one of the toddler wings that likes playing with this toy shark that has buckles on its belly and whenever she wants to play with the buckles she hands it to me to unbuckle the buckles so she can buckle them on herself. When she’s done she hands it back to me to unbuckle the buckles so she can rebuckle them again. Sometimes I’d help her with buckling one of the buckles because she tends to get the colors mixed up. Here’s another example, I see toddlers playing with each other with fake food or animal puppets, and it’s so cute how they hand the toys to each other. There would be one kid playing with a fake pizza and another kid with a fake pretzel and they’d switch toys to play with. I think that it’s important for teachers and other kids to interact with each other because it can help kids develop their social skills and know that they have friends that they can rely on other than their caregivers such as parents or guardians. 

 

 

 

 

https://headstart.gov/curriculum/article/importance-play-early-childhood

 

I recommend this website to students. It talks about the importance of play in early childhood.

 

 

Communication in classroom

“Literacy/storytelling/bookmaking materials are provided”

In the toddler rooms at the ‘Y’ there are many different kinds of books for the children to read. There are animal books, mystery books, etc. One of the toddler rooms just got a brand new animal book where you can touch a certain texture in the book. I’ve had a book like that before but it was with animal fur. I think that it’s good for children to have these certain books because children can identify certain animals/objects in books and try to pronounce the name of the animal/object. It’s also good to have a touch book so children can get a sense of what they feel when they touch the texture that’s in the book. 

 

“Activities promote language behavior”

One of the toddler rooms has cue cards of animals and other objects for children to identify. For example the teacher would hold one card up in her hand and ask for one child to identify the object that’s on the card. Whatever child she would call on, that kid would have to say what it is on the card. The teacher would do this with one kid at a time so every kid gets a turn. I think it’s important to have cue cards because that can help encourage children with their communication skills. 

 

“Candidate reads to children in a developmentally appropriate manner”

During free play, one of the children would come to me with a book in their hand, I ask them if they want me to read it and they nod their head yes. Usually it’s the mystery books where you have to identify certain objects in the book. When I read the book I have the inside of the book face the child and I would ask that kid something like, “Where’s the bird?” The child would then look and point to the object and I’d say “good job” or “well done” because it’s good to build up their confidence by encouraging them. When I’m not reading a book with them, one of the teachers would grab a sesame street book and a few kids would gather around the rug to hear the story of the book and the teacher brings a lot of personality and energy to get the children excited. It’s important for a teacher to read to the kids because the children are free to use their imagination and develop more of their communication skills with the mystery books. 

 

https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/read-together-support-early-literacy  I recommend this URL to all students and staff. It talks about reading in early childhood.

 

 

Sensory and Creativity 

 

“Art materials and activities are available for children daily”

 

In a classroom, teachers provide children with art activities for them to do during the morning. Here’s a couple of examples that I can share. At the ‘Y’ in the toddler section, since its Halloween time, the classrooms decorated pumpkins by using brown paper bags, orange paint and green ribbon. Last week one of the toddler rooms was drawing ghosts by using black pieces of paper, the teachers would outline a ghost and use white paint and googley eyes. I think that it’s important for children of all age groups to have art activities because that can open up their imagination and creativity. 

 

“Music and dance/movement materials and activities are available for children daily”

 

Music is very effective for kids, it can boost up their energy or make them sleepy for nap time. In all three toddler rooms at the ‘Y’, the teachers play soft lullaby music from their computers or their radios to help the kids go to sleep for a nap. Sometime after nap there’s one toddler room that plays happy playful music for the kids to dance along to. It’s important to have music in classrooms because it shows that the classroom is fun and spreads positivity and excitement. 

 

“Dramatic play materials and activities are available for children daily”

 

In an ECE classroom, there are toys that provide dramatic play for the children such as animal puppets, costumes and fake food. Two of the toddler rooms at the ‘Y’ have animal puppets and play food for the children to play with. Sometimes I’ll even put one of the animal puppets on and the children would put fake food in the mouth and I would act like the animal is eating it and the children just get so excited. There’s only one toddler room that provides costumes for the children. There’s a construction costume, a chef, a police costume, etc. It’s so cute seeing them put the costumes on and they just have fun with them. This is important because not only does it create creativity but it also involves social skills because children interact with one another and interact with their ECE teacher. 

https://mybrightwheel.com/blog/sensory-development

 

I recommend this to everyone, students and teachers. It talks about the importance of sensory development.