How children reconstruct the guided activity to their free plays


My little friends always surprise me with their capacity for learning and creativity. At the circle time, guided activities with specific instructions are surely beneficial for the young learners. Even more, to observe how they reconstruct certain activities in their free plays truly amazed me. Here are some examples.


1.  Small bears on the bridge.

When we talked about bears, I incorporated science and math in this theme. I used colored cups and popsicle sticks to create “bridges” and put some small bears on the top of each popsicle stick. We tried to put as many bears as we could while keeping the bridges in balance. Then, I put my little friends into small groups, gave them some cups, sticks and bears and asked them to work as a team to build a bridge. They surely had fun.


On the second day, when I opened it as one of the table time activities, Child E reconstructed the bridges with the small bears on the top of the sticks. He shouted out my name and proudly announced “ Miss Agnes, look, I made it!” I gave him a thumb up to encourage him to continue. His successful presentation made more friends join the activity. I heard the counting and the conventions about how to build the bridge in different ways or directions.   



2. Obstacle course with “pool noodle rings”

During playtime in the gym, I used hoop-la-hoops to make obstacle courses. They walked, jumped and hopped through the rings. It was really fun. A couple oof days later, I saw Child P line up the “pool noodle rings' ' as the obstacle course we did but simpler and easier. She started walking through the rings and more friends joined her game. She was very proud of herself by leading her fellows to do the obstacle course.  



Guided activities provide structures and steps that enhance children’s cognitive development, including understanding the concepts, analyzing the elements, and recreate the similar experience with their own imagination and creativity. Also, the sense of self-achievement thrives the little minds on more exploration with curiosity once they can lead their peers to initiate similar activities in free play. It encourages a willingness to take on further challenges as well. From a social learning perspective, the more interactions among the peers, the more collaboration will be involved. 



As a teacher, I also view my role as a facilitator. It always amazes me to see these sparking moments as well as encourages to foster a more positive and supportive learning environment for the young children, to express their full potential. Their daily progress is truly rewarding.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  The importance of consistency in an age of 3 to 5  group room To young children, consistency in managing behavior helps young children to develop a sense of responsibility and accountability. It tells young children the boundaries and expectations on what is acceptable and what is not in the group setting.  The common misbehaviors are having temper tantrums, pushing, biting, fighting for their turns, or interrupting the discussions or plays among the peers. Finding the cause of their misbehavior surly is essential. However, taking action and being consistent in managing these inappropriate behaviors are more powerful and just words. Here are some approaches I consistently use to handle these situations.  1. Stop the wrongdoing Let’s say Child A and Child L are pushing each other. Instead of saying “what happened,” I always say “stop” first. Then, I take them on the side, asking them what happened or finding out what caused the fight. For young children, they are still developing ver
Read more
  We’re Going on a Bear Hunt “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” is a well-known children’s book. While I was preparing for the Bear theme, this book popped into my mind right away. Other than just reading the story, I would like to come up with an activity with hands-on and interactive elements to enhance storytelling experience.  I did some research online. However, most of the activities are either arts and crafts or making a map. Therefore, instead of just making a map, I used toys found in the classroom to create the “ plots” from the story. The first one is grass made up with some green Lego Duplo. Then, some wooden blocks are used as “mud.” The felt trees are arranged as the forest, and some blue crystals on a blue blanket as a river. Finally, the bear hinds in the cave. All the stations are small but symbolic. I also draw out the map in accordance with the story on the whiteboard to visualize the pictures for my little ones. So, here is how I conducted this activity.  We started with
Read more
  Mandarin Circle –introduce Mandarin as a foreign language to young learners at the age of 3 to 5  How learning a foreign language is beneficial for child development Learning a new language at a young age can be an enriching experience with numerous benefits. First, numerous scientific research has evidently shown that learning a new language has an impact on gaining more neurons that coordinate communication and facilitate connections between different brain regions. Second, It helps cognitive development at an early age, especially critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Moreover, attention span can be improved since language learning requires concentration. Finally,  children also benefit from learning a new language with better  memory skills and more creativity   How the first language influence the second language acquisition  The significant influence of L1 (first language) to L2 (second language) has been proven in many scientific researches in the last few decades. The
Read more