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Diverse play-based experiences response - April

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Diverse play-based experiences response - April

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* Sand (building a volcano out of sand, baking soda and cola//to make it 'erupt') this provides children with a play based and educational opportunity as the activity can be explained in relation to a real life situation.
* Play dough (children presented with the opportunity to be creative and express their own ideas, a guide could also be followed by children to recreate something made by the teacher to gain knowledge of each child's understanding and individual perception of an object/task)
* Drawing/ painting (children provided with a chance to express individuality and experiment with different art mediums to create something unique/representational)

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·      Building with blocks or Lego: Improves fine motor skills, patience, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Children can engage in teamwork and communication when playing with others.

·      Playing in the home corner with dress-ups: Encourages creative thinking, sharing, and decision-making and has physical benefits such as building up the skill to zip, button and put on different types of clothing.

·      Sandpit play: Build on developing physical skills such as motor skills, gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination and strengthening muscles when using as a shovel to dig. Sand also has sensory properties and children can feel, pat, shape and build with the sand.

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Sensory play: This involves engaging children's senses (touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing) in different ways. Teachers can set up a sensory bin with materials like water beads or rice, or incorporate sensory play into other activities like painting, cooking, or nature walks.

Storytelling and dramatic play: This encourages children to use their imaginations and creativity to explore different roles and perspectives. Teachers can set up a dramatic play area with costumes and props, or incorporate storytelling into activities like creating a storybook, writing a play, or telling stories aloud.

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Water Play:

Similar to sand play, water play enables children to experiment in a safe environment with basic concepts such as volume. Additionally, water play is great for learning consequences of actions. Add in some hand-eye coordination and physical strength, and water play is a firm favourite.

Dress-Up and Role Play:

dressing-up in clothes and props such as toy doctor’s kits, allow their imaginations to run wild.  Dressing-up helps children to begin to make sense of the adult world, roles, and interests, as well as boosting social interaction. Also, dressing-up helps to reinforce the self-care aspects of self-dressing which is essential for primary school life.

Music, Dancing, and Singing:

Singing and music hugely aid in the development of language and form the basis of literacy skills, as well as basic mathematical concepts such as counting. Furthermore, they begin to develop rhythm, whilst also refining their listening skills. Dancing helps the child develop strength and flexibility, not to mention coordination.

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- role playing in the kitchen with pots and pans and food(toy): encourages creative thinking and uses the child's imagination for example a scenario. Promotes fine motor skills (cutting up the food)

-Constructive play (Play dough)
Promotes fine motor skills (sculpting the dough) and encourages children to express their ideas and thinking while sculpting the dough

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- roleplaying: flight simulator, encourages teamwork and creative thinking skills, dressing up as pilots/ flight attendants, building a "plane" out of cardboard, make "in-flight announcements" that practices speaking skills, etc
- constructive play: lego blocks or wooden blocks to encourage creativity

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- Constructive Play (e.g., tower of building blocks)
- Imitative Play (e.g., copy actions children see repeatedly)

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Play dough: fine motor, creativity

Dramatic play: encourages communication, imagination, creativity

Water play: explore senses, gross and fine motor skills as they try to scoop, pour and stir.

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- Discover the outdoors: Exploration and discovery help children more fully understand the world around them.
- Make something together in the kitchen: Try drawing out the recipe in little pictures so children can read the recipe too with teachers.  It teaches children responsibility and sharing with friends.

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Sensory game: first find a suitable pot and pour baking soda powder into it, then add food coloring into the white vinegar to make different colors, and finally use a dropper to drop white vinegar of different colors into the baking soda powder and observe. When white vinegar and baking soda are mixed, there will be a lot of bubbles, accompanied by a squeaking sound, which is the generation of carbon dioxide. Children will find it very magical and interesting, and they can also observe the changes produced by mixing different colors at the same time. In the process of playing, children can touch the bubbles with their hands. This is definitely a new experience of sensory touch, which can promote the development of the brain and exercise the fine motor skills of the baby's hands. And if you want to have a real volcanic feel, you can fill a drinking glass with soda powder, and then pour white vinegar to create a volcanic eruption.

Have a cardboard box and some toys or small items ready.  First dig a hole in the paper shell according to a certain shape (for example, you can cut the paper shell into the shape of an animal's head, and the opening is the animal's mouth), and then let the children throw toys or small objects into the hole (feed the animal). In the game, children need to use their eyes to estimate the size of toys or objects, and compare them with the holes on the paper shell. Moreover, in constant experiments, children realize that only objects smaller than the hole can be thrown in, and larger ones can be thrown in.  Items cannot be thrown in. Children learn to observe, compare and think, and improve their cognitive ability.

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Play - based Learning Experiences - Sarina

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Play - based Learning Experiences - Sarina

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Sensory play -  playdough (adding different materials such as garden herbs, cardboard rolls, pipecleaners, googly eyes, cutters, rollers, patty cake pans, fragrances) to enable creativity and imagination to flow. Exploring 5 senses.
Water play - pipes, funnels, water wheels, empty bottles, washing babies, washing dishes, ocean animals, fishing games, bubbles
Role play - transforming home corner spaces into themes such as cafes, pizzeria, ice cream shop, doctor's surgery, hairdresser, airport (literacy and numeracy can be introduced into these experiences)
Construction - wooden blocks with animals, trainsets, cars with road safety signs, cardboard boxes
Manipulative play - sorting with tongs - colour sorting, counting, fine motor development
Outdoors - gardening, magnifying glasses, obstacle courses, tree climbing, nature play, nature treasure hunt

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Hands-on Materials (Leafs, twigs, logs, branches)

Promote fine motor, problem solving and creativity in children

explore the world around them

sensory exploration

Sand Play

Building of sculptures, writing a story in the sand

Role - playing in the classroom (exploring the world around them)

allows the child to be expressive

shows their thought process

show understanding

Building with blocks - Lego, wood blocks, cubes

Promote problem solving, creativity, opportunities to communicate with others

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Recycled or found materials

plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, natural materials (leaves, twigs, rocks, pebbles).

finding new use / purpose for using these materials

Music & dance materials

using tissue boxes, rubber bands, plastic tubes

encouraging children to create their own music, songs, dances

Dress-up clothes/materials

age-appropriate, safe materials/articles of clothing

e.g. dress up as doctor, firefighter etc.

imaginative play

Active toys

balls, hoops, jump ropes

props in imaginative play

explore different uses of these items

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Role-playing: can take place anywhere. It will promote children's communications which can also be the most effective way of acquiring knowledge for children.

Sensory games: play dough, fingerprint, sensory balls, sandboxes, sand tables

It assists children's exploration, curiosity, problem-solving, and creativity through touching, feeling, and experiencing the materials.

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Play-based learning experiences - Katrina 

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Play-based learning experiences - Katrina 

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Play dough: enhance imagination & hand-eye coordination, develop motor skills and encourage children express their thinking into shapes.

Dress up and role play

Help children to experience adults jobs and interests. Help boost up social interactions

Sand play: developing kids' self-confidence and physical development. Scooping, digging, pouring and sifting teaches children how things work.

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Play based experiences.

By providing students with music, dancing and singing in open ended style play.

Painting and drawing through purposeful play. A designed task or subject that can be expressed through painting or drawing.

Dress ups! This can be open ended play.

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Dramatic play in early childhood settings often reflects real-world technology through activities like setting up cafes, bakeries, or other shops. This type of play familiarizes children with everyday technology, such as using credit cards or operating a cash register, by incorporating these elements into their play scenarios.

At my centre, when a relevant book isn’t available, we use tablets or the TV to access online versions of the book. This approach helps engage children with the content they are interested in. For instance, we have used the TV to explore the Olympics, where children watched short clips of gymnastics and then attempted similar moves on the mats. This use of technology extends their learning and connects their interests with educational content.

In our building and construction activities, children use Lego or Moblo to create their own structures and designs, which enhances their creativity and problem-solving skills. Additionally, box collage serves as a form of technology were children design and experiment with different materials. For example, the children’s current project involves experimenting with boats and various materials to determine what will float in water. This exploration not only extends their interest in boats but also teaches them about buoyancy of different materials.

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Looking at what students enjoy and what their interests are can help to plan play-based experiences that students will be engaged in. This will lead to further question from student's to allow for more play-based experiences. Using real world experiences that the students have had also contributes to learning. Using the resources in the classroom can often allow for play-based learning. Some student's do initiate the learning experience and the teacher can design more experiences similiar to what the student's have done.

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Play based learning should be a joyful experience where children can extend their knowledge for learning outcomes, when a topic is of interest, a child is more likely to engage. Elements of learning can be practice with guidance from an adult who can support/extend thinking with how/what/why questions, this will enable elaboration of language and cognitive skills while communicating what they know an adult can support extensions for where to next.

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Connector Block Building Challenge

Children are challenged to use connector blocks to design and build a bridge for toy animals to cross a pretend river. They can experiment with different structures, test whether their bridge works and modify their designs. This play-based experience develops creativity, problem-solving and the Technologies processes of designing, producing, testing and evaluating.

Unplugged Coding Obstacle Course

Children participate in an obstacle course where one child acts as a “robot” and another gives instructions to help them reach a destination. Children create, test and debug sequences of directions while developing computational thinking, sequencing, problem-solving and collaboration through active, playful learning.

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When planning play-based learning experiences in an early years classroom, I think it's important to draw on children's interests and relatable everyday experiences. Open-ended activities such as building with loose parts, designing obstacle courses, creating mud bike tracks, exploring and observing nature or constructing with recycled materials all encourage children to problem solve, collaborate and think creatively. By thoughtfully providing engaging materials and asking thoughtful questions, teachers can extend children's learning through creative and imaginative thinking while still allowing them to lead the play and explore their own ideas.