Category: Education

7 Main Domains of Early Childhood Education

How To Develop Child’s Creativity?

How to teach the importance of health , hygiene and safety to Preschoolers?

Teaching Aids Help Children Learn Better

I am taking my blog to another level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.

Pics courtesy : Pexel / Canva

October 8, 2021October 8, 2021

Teaching Aids Help Children Learn Better #AllAboutPreschoolers #MyfriendAlexa

Teaching aid is a tool used by teachers, facilitators, or tutors, to illustrate or reinforce a skill, fact, or idea. As the name suggests, teaching aids, aid the process of teaching for the teachers, and provide opportunities for better learning for the children. Next to parents, teachers are the most important adults shaping the future of children. Indeed, teachers do so much more than just teach; they are involved in the lives of their children in many ways to enhance their learning experience. Teachers are more than just that, they are facilitators. They not only facilitate, they also are friends, confidants, role models, etc who identify children’s’ strengths and areas for development and plan instruction to maximize children’s learning and potential. Making use of a teaching aid rather than using just verbal communication enables better understanding and learning of a concept.

IMPORTANCE OF TECHING AIDS

They encourage brainstorming and generation of ideas.
They give children the opportunity to see what they are thinking.
Teaching aids are motivational tools that draw greater attention of children.
They help in increasing the attention span of children.
Teaching aids can be preserved, updated and reused.
They are cost effective.
They provide visual, tactile and auditory experience.
Teaching aids can be used with large and small groups.
They can be used for children across all age groups.

3 TYPES OF TEACHING AIDS

There are many aids available these days, but they are broadly classify as

Visual Aids: The aids which use sense of vision are called Visual aids. For example: actual objects, models, pictures, charts, maps, flash cards, flannel board, bulletin board, chalkboard, overhead projectors, slides etc. Out of these board and chalk are the commonest one.
Audio Aids: The aids that involve the sense of hearing are called Audio aids. For example: radio, tape recorder, CD, gramophone etc.
Audio-Visual Aids: The aids which involve the sense of vision as well as hearing are called Audio-Visual aids. For example: DVD, television, film projector, film strips etc.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEACHING AIDS

Flash Card

Flash card should have a boarder on all the four sides. The ideal size of a flash card is 1/4th of the mount board/ A4 size. Background of the flash card should be white or plain (depending upon its use, for example, Concept flash cards need plain background; story flashcards will have a colorful background based on the plot). Flash card should be held in such a manner that the picture on it is not covered in any manner. All the flash card has stories written on the back side of each scene, they should be numbered and kept in sequence. After speaking about a particular scene that flash card should be placed on the back side of the other cards and not on the table or on the floor, to avoid distraction of the children.

Calendar

The calendar must contain Day/ Month/Year ,Date- Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow, Season/Weather/Special Event. Festival, Holiday. The calendar can be made on one of the walls in the classroom at the child’s reach. Use a range of colors and texture to make the calendar interesting and attractive.

Picture Talk

Picture talk is used to take a recap of a particular concept. There should be boarders on the four sides. As it is too big to handle in the hand, it should be kept on a chair or table with the facilitator sitting at the back holding it. The background should be colored and not plain. While showing the picture talk of a particular concept allow children to first speak about all the things, they can see on it and then the facilitator can elaborate and cover the points missed.

Object Talk

Most of the object used should be real ones except rare cases like wild animals. The objects should be given to children to feel, observe and have a practical and better understanding about it. It is mostly use for introducing a new concept.

Flip Chart

Flip charts are usually used to narrate a story but sometime can also be used to introduce certain concepts. It is made in the form of a spiral bound table calendar. It helps in saving time and energy of drawing and making the same character again and again.

Flannel figures

Depending on the concept, the characters should be drawn and cut outs should be out of box board/ mount board. The characters should not be made too heavy otherwise they will not stay on the flannel board. Sandpaper should be stuck on the back side of the characters so that it can be placed on the flannel board and moved when required. The basic advantage is that it is very easy in handling and can be used either while teaching a concept or telling a story. Children can also use them easily to retell stories or revise concepts.

T V scroll

A square or a rectangle carton should be used by cutting one side to make the screen of the TV with gelatin paper. Cover the other sides with chart paper. Story is drawn, painted or made on the individual sheets and are attached together in sequence to make a long roll. The beginning strip of the roll should be attached to one rod and the end to the other rod. Turn the rod to rewind or forward the story.

Poster

Poster is used to introduce concepts. It can also be used to introduce and remind children of the different rules, revise concepts, for display. Use variety of colors and textures to make the poster interesting and attractive.

Word Wall

A word wall is made to help children revise the words learnt in the class, it provides a ready reference for them to see as and when required. It is an effective technique for print exposure. Word wall should always be at the child’s level, in large print format, must have only words that have been introduce to the children and should laminate the words so that they don’t tear easily.

Puppets

There are different types of puppets to name a few there are finger puppet, rod/spoon/stick puppets, shadow puppets, body puppets, bag puppets, box puppets and glove/sock puppets. While using puppets it is extremely important that child has a good eye contact, get the puppet to look from one child to another, the puppet appears as if talking to the audience.

There are certain guidelines with respect to teaching aids

The décor of a classroom can transform the space into a welcoming and inviting place where children feel comfortable.
The chart should be displayed such that it is at the eye level of the children.
Display all children’s work such as worksheets and activities in the classroom.
Use strings, ribbons, cloths pin to hang worksheets
Avoid pasting directly with cello tapes and fevicol

The right classroom environment can play a pivotal role in how well children learn. These aids should provide them with educational, stimulating focal points without becoming distractions. Involve the children, let them help you hang posters or choose which wall hanging goes up next. This will keep them more personally engaged and make them an active learner.

You can read my previous posts here

7 Main Domains of Early Childhood Education

How To Develop Child’s Creativity?

How to teach the importance of health , hygiene and safety to Preschoolers?

I am taking my blog to another level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.

Pics courtesy : Pexel / Canva

October 5, 2021October 5, 2021

How to teach the importance of health , hygiene and safety to Preschoolers? #AllAboutPreschoolers #MyFrinedAlexa

HEALTH AND HYGIENE

Health and hygiene go hand in hand. Proper hygiene for children begins at the moment of birth when their tiny bodies are scooped up in towel or wrap and the protective coating from the womb is gently cleaned away. As a child grow, he/she can begin to learn personal hygiene with a little assistance from their parents. Developing good hygiene skills in childhood can set the stage for cleanliness habits as an adult. Personal hygiene is the practice of maintaining cleanliness of the body, it is done through bathing, hair grooming, and hand washing, brushing teeth, trimming nails and cleaning ears among others. Through these personal behaviours, social acceptances are gained.

Education can play a critical role in supporting the efforts of primary health care providers by teaching children about healthy behaviour. All schools should be aware of the importance of school hygiene and sanitation for their students. Teaching students about health focuses mainly on the dissemination of hygiene information aimed at changing or modifying their behaviour.

Maintaining good classroom hygiene is an important aspect of improving the educational efficiency of a classroom. Reducing the environmental factors that can cause illness will ensure that students and teachers will not miss out on valuable class time. Healthier and happier children will perform better in classroom, and teaching children about classroom hygiene could help them grow into environmentally proactive adults.

Role of Teachers in maintaining Health and Hygiene

Teaching the basics of proper personal hygiene is important for keeping kids healthy and clean by teachers. It is especially important for preschoolers to practice good hygiene, particularly hand washing because they spend so much of their time in close contact with each other in the classroom, sharing everything from desks and chairs to germs.

Teach proper hand washing

“Good health begins with clean hands”. The most important health and hygiene habit to teach children is to wash hands, especially after coming back home from school or playing outside and before eating. Hand washing is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to prevent the spread of germs and illness. Teachers should remind them from time to time to wash their hands with soap and lathers for at least 20 seconds before rinsing.

Teach them to cover sneezes and coughs during concept time

Germs can travel far and wide on a sneeze and cough. Get your child into habit of covering their mouth and nose with a tissue or their arm if they cannot reach a tissue fast enough when they sneeze or cough.

Remind them not to touch the eyes or mouth or to pick the nose

Germs can easily enter the body through the mucous membranes of the eyes and through the nose and mouth.

Encourage good dental health and hygiene in the classroom

Children have the motor skills necessary to do a fairly good job of brushing teeth on their own, though you may still want to take a quick turn until they are 6 or 7.

SAFETY

Young children deserve to live and play in safe environment, and it is the responsibility of every adult to help keep children safe. Preschool children should not be expected to actively protect themselves; however, it is important to offer children the opportunity to learn about safety as early as possible. Learning safe habits during early years may have lifelong benefits. Integrating safety education into the daily curriculum can help children learn and practice safety.

10 most important environmental concerns in keeping children safe:

To protect against falls, stairways, windows and elevated surfaces
Children should be protected from electrical outlets by using specifically designed outlets or safety caps
Electrical cords should not be within the reach for children.
Emergency phone numbers should be posted near each telephone (Poison control, fire department, emergency contact number of parents and others and the child’s doctor)
To prevent poisoning , make sure all cleaning supplies and medications are in locked cupboards.
Toys need to be safe by being age and developmentally appropriate for the group.
Buckets and tubs containing water needs to be closely supervised and emptied when not in use since small amount of water can be a drowning hazard for young children.
A daily safety check and maintenance is critical to keep equipment and the child’s environment safe.
Children should be safe from other children who are aggressive.
Children should be taught about good and bad touch.

Even if the environment meets safety guidelines, supervision is critical in ensuring child’s safety. The majority of injuries (60%) that occurs in early childhood settings are due to child’s behavior rather than environmental causes, for example, a child tripping and falling, colliding with objects, or one child pushing another as they go down a set of stairs.

Most of the states have established child-staff ratio assist in providing adequate supervision. It is critical that program maintain these ratios. In addition, it is important that adults actively monitor children. Many program require staff to maintain visual contact with children as they play. Low classroom strength can help children to feel a sense of privacy, while still allowing adults to adequately supervise children.

Although severe injuries are rare in early childhood setting, it is important to be alert and to immediately correct safety dangers. It is also important to assure children remain safe through adequate supervision.

The sense of safety and security, afforded by teachers provides children with responsibility. Keeping everyone safe and healthy should be a class effort, and everyone in the classroom, be it children , teacher or other staff should feel accountable for the overall health of the class.

While taking care of health, hygiene and safety of children , teachers needs to develop effective rules with the class. Remembering the rules are important and the best way to do that is actively teach the children.

Class discussion : Talk about why we have rules. Talk about situations when the rules help us. Ask children to give examples.
Act it out : Let children role play the rules.
Play games and show the importance of having and following rules.
Refer to the rules when children use challenging behavior. This will help teachers to stay positive with the children and redirect them to an appropriate behavior.
Read scripted stories about the rules and class room safety and hygiene.

Remember having effective rules with regards to health, hygiene and safety, well designed environment, appropriate learning activities, and nurturing relationships reflect what we know about how young children learn.

You can read my previous posts here

7 Main Domains of Early Childhood Education

How To Develop Child’s Creativity?

I am taking my blog to another level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.

Pics courtesy : Pexel / Canva

September 27, 2021September 28, 2021

How To Develop Child’s Creativity? #AllAboutPreschoolers #MyFriendAlexa

Hi Everyone,

Here is my fifth post for #MyFriendAlexa. In the previous post I talked about 7 Main Domains of Early Childhood Education, to add on to that today I will be sharing with you another domain which might not be included in there but is considered as the most crucial and most vital development when it comes to children’s holistic growth.

Creative Development which also include Aesthetic development. Creative development refers to the development of child’s abilities in terms of creative skills and aptitudes using development appropriate practices; it involves children setting off their own learning, making choices and decisions by themselves. Aesthetic development in children is the artistic processes that a child experiences or goes through as he/she grows. Artistic processes that a child goes through are drawing or painting, creating structures, pretend play and using props during games. Aesthetic development is considered as an important factor in human development.

8 WAYS TO DEVELOP CHILD’S CREATIVITY

A child’s creativity starts with their method of thinking and problem solving. Daily challenges to expand their reasoning and understanding of the world, along with an encouraging environment allows for a child to become more confident of their views and opinions. There are several ways to develop child’s creativity, most of which can be incorporated into daily life.

Allow your child to make simple choices, such as what to eat for dinner or where to go on a weekend. This encourages them to think independently, exercising an important aspect of creativity.
Encourage independence from caregivers and media. A child that is constantly entertained by others or the television will struggle to find things to do on their own without access to media.
Provide items in your child’s environment to stimulate their imagination. Drawing supplies, blocks, books, and random craft supplies can all contribute to elaborate dramatic play schemes.
Brainstorm different uses for items with your child. For example, a cardboard tube can be a telescope, tower, or person. Validate all your child’s ideas, praising him or her for such an impressive imagination.
Ask your child open ended questions to stretch their understanding and help them to postulate ideas. Ask your child “what if” questions. “What if people could fly?” “What if people lived in space?” “What if dolphins walked in land?” Involve your child in figuring out ways to make an improvement upon something. “How can we clean up the living room faster?” “How could we water the flowers without spilling any?” “What could we do to make the ball bounce higher?” Reading a book is an excellent activity for your child to exercise their creativity. Ask your child what could happen next, or how a character feels and why?
Play with your child. Work together to establish dramatic play scenarios, using substitute items for props when needed. Pretend play allows children to imagine life from a different perspective, an important building block of creativity.
Be prepared for “messy play”. While it may seem that your child is playing in the mud simply to make more work for you, in fact there is a great deal that is learned by playing with such things. When they are finished playing, make it a rule that they must help clean up. If faced with the choice of getting messy then cleaning it up and not getting messy at all, almost all children will choose the former option.
Engage in storytelling. Start a story and take turns building upon it. Follow your child’s lead in what the mood of the story should be. Expect most stories to be more on the silly, impossible side. Since this is just a story, no idea is too farfetched.

CREATIVE PLAY

One of the most important types of creative activity for young children is creative play. Creative play is expressed when children use familiar materials in a new or unusual way, and when children engage in role-playing and imaginative play. Nothing reinforces the creative spirit and nourishes a child’s soul more than providing large blocks of time to engage in spontaneous, self-directed play throughout the day. Play is the serious business of young children and the opportunity to play freely is vital for their healthy development.

Even as early as infancy, play fosters physical development by promoting the development of sensory exploration and motor skills. Through play and the repetition of basic physical skills, children perfect their abilities and become competent at increasingly difficult physical tasks. Play fosters mental development and new ways of thinking and problem solving. Through block play, children are confronted with many mental challenges having to do with measurement, equality, balance, shape, spatial relationships and physical properties.

One of the strongest benefits of play is the way it enhances social development. Playful social interactions begin from the moment of birth. Dramatic play helps children experiment with and understand social roles. It can also give them countless opportunities for acquiring social skills as they play with others. Through dramatic play, children gradually learn to take each other’s need into account, and appreciate different values and perspective.

Through play, children can express and cope with their feelings. Play also helps relieve stress and pressure for children. They can just be themselves. There is no need to line up to adult standards during play. Play offers children an opportunity to achieve mastery of their environment. They control the experience through their imaginations, and they exercise their powers of choice and decision making as the play progresses.

Play helps develop each child’s unique perspective and individual style of creative expression. Play expresses the child’s personal, unique responses to the environment. It is a self-expressive activity that draws on the child’s powers of imagination. Play is open-ended, free-form and children have the freedom to try out new ideas as well as build on and experiment with the old.

Play provides an excellent opportunity for integrating and including children with disabilities in your program. The opportunities play provides for control and independence are important issues for any child but are especially important for these youngsters.

Therefore, as a caregiver, we must be careful to avoid dominating the play ourselves. Play should be the result of the children’s ideas and not directed by the adult.

Pay attention to play, plan for it, encourage it!

You can read my previous posts here

September 23, 2021September 23, 2021

I am taking my blog to another level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.

Pics courtesy : Pexel / Canva

Seven Domains of Early Childhood Education #AllAboutPreschoolers #MyFriendAlexa

Hi Everyone

This is my fourth post for #MyFriendAlexa and one of the most important aspect in Early Childhood Education for everyone to know. Now before we move on to know these domains it is important to understand what development is.

Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from conception of death. The scientific study of human development seeks to understand and explain how and why people change throughout life. This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality development.

THERE ARE 7 DOMAINS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Gross Motor

This involves learning to use all the “big” muscles on our body. Crawling, walking, running, skipping, jumping and climbing are all examples of gross motor activity.

Fine Motor

Fine motor involves activities teach hand-eye coordination. These activities require a child to learn to precisely control the muscles in the hands. Things like colouring, writing, cutting with scissors, using tweezers, tearing paper, etc. all help build fine motor skills.

Language

This domain includes alphabetic, phonemic awareness, oral, and written language. Even though your little one won’t be able to read for several years, you can read to them. Talking about things throughout the day even when it feels silly is especially important as well. Learning ABC’s, as well as sound each letter makes is another example of language activity.

Language development is a process starting early in human life. Infant start without language, yet by four months of age, babies can discriminate speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in uterus when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother’s voice. Usually, productive language is considered to begin with a stage of preverbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intent known to others. According to general principle of development, new forms then take over old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions which they had already expressed by preverbal means.

Stages of Language Development

Babbling (3-9 months)

Single Words (10-13 months)

Two Words (18- 2 years)

Multi word Sentences (2years+)

As children age, they continue to learn new words every day. By the time they enter school around the age of five, children typically have a vocabulary of 10,000 words or more.

Cognitive Development

This includes cause-and-effect, reasoning, as well as early-math skills. Believe it or not, a baby who continually drops a spoon from his highchair is exercising his cognitive ability. He learns that when he drops it, you will pick it up (Cause-and-effect). Counting and patterning are also included in this domain for pre-schoolers.

Cognitive refers to the inner processes and products of the mind that leads to “knowing”. It includes remembering, problem solving and decision making.

Social/Emotional

Your child is a social being! Learning to play especially with others is a skill. “Teaching” in this domain also involves making sure a child feels safe and nurtured. Manners and using kind words might also be examples includes in this domain.

Self-Help/Adaptive

Activities in this domain include learning to dress yourself, feed oneself, using the toilet, brushing teeth, bathing, tying shoes, etc. Everything that a child needs to know to start being more independent could be included in this domain.

Moral/Spiritual/Cultural

It is difficult to make generalization and identify milestones within moral, spiritual and cultural development. And the reason is, there are many factors which influence their development like nationalities, cultures and families, all do things differently.

Moral development

Morality is the ability to learn the difference between right and wrong and understand how to make right choices. Children do not usually demonstrate moral behaviour and beliefs until they are around the age of two. At this point many children start to show empathy-based guilt when they break rules. As with other facets of development, morality doesn’t form independently from the other areas of development. Children’s experiences at home, the environment around them, and their physical, cognitive and social development influence their understanding of right versus wrong.

Spiritual development

This is often closely linked to moral development. It includes beliefs, whether religious or not, the search for meaning or purpose, relationships, creativity, a sense of otherness, wonder and awe, self-knowledge, feeling and emotions. A child is likely to have the same opinions as their caregivers until they are of an age where they can decide for themselves. This development continuous throughout a person’s life.

Cultural development

Culture refers to the customs, practices, languages, values and world views that define social group such as those based on nationality, ethnicity, region or common interests. Culture affects many areas in a child’s life, including food they eat, the behaviours they are allowed to exhibit, the holidays they celebrate and the activities they participate in.

The main thing to know about these domains is they are all equally important. Each of these domains are also interrelated. For example when your baby starts crawling, he will also be enhancing his cognitive abilities by learning about world around him. Leaning new words will encourage her to participate more in social situations. Just watch your child for a few minutes and you will see how each domain affects the others.

You can read my previous posts here