How it works:
Hide number cards (1–10) around the classroom or outdoor space. Children search for them and, once found, place them in the correct sequence on a number line. You can add a twist by associating each number with a movement (e.g., jump 5 times for number 5).

Domains of development supported:

• Cognitive: Enhances number sense, sequencing, and problem-solving.

• Physical: Promotes gross motor skills through movement and coordination.

• Social-emotional: Encourages teamwork, turn-taking, and confidence.

• Language: Builds vocabulary as children describe their actions and numbers.

Domains of Development Supported:

• Cognitive: Enhances visual discrimination, classification, and problem-solving.

• Language: Builds vocabulary and descriptive language.

• Physical: Encourages movement and coordination.

• Social-emotional: Promotes teamwork, excitement, and confidence through discovery.

Cognitive: Recognizing patterns, categorizing, and logical thinking.

Language: Naming colors, shapes, and describing their choices.

Social-Emotional: Sharing blocks, taking turns, cooperating with peers.

Physical: Fine motor skills

Domains of development-

1.cognitive- problem solving,critical thinking,shapes,size

2.Socio-emotional-teamwork,taking turns, turn taking,confidence,collaborative skills

3. Language - communication skills,vocabulary

Play-Based Technique: “Number Hunt” Game – Hide number cards or objects around the classroom/play area. Children search for them, then match the numbers to a number line or count corresponding objects (like blocks or beads).

Domains of Development Supported:

• Cognitive: Number recognition, counting, problem-solving

• Physical: Gross motor (moving, running) and fine motor (picking cards/objects) skills

• Social-Emotional: Turn-taking, teamwork, confidence in participation

• Language: Using number words, describing what they find

Play-based technique: Create an “Emotion Charades” game where children pick a card with an emotion (happy, sad, surprised, frustrated) and act it out while others guess.

Domains of development supported:

• Social-Emotional: Recognizing emotions in self and others, practicing empathy.

• Language: Naming and describing feelings, discussing situations that cause these emotions.

• Cognitive: Connecting emotions to scenarios, predicting how others might feel.

• Physical: Using facial expressions and body language to convey feelings.

Color Treasure Hunt – Hide objects of different colors around the classroom or playground. Ask children to find items of a specific color and bring them back to a collection basket.

Domains of Development

• Cognitive: Identifying and sorting colors.

• Physical (Motor Skills): Walking, bending, and picking up objects.

• Social-Emotional: Working together, sharing, and celebrating each other’s finds.

• Language: Naming colors, describing objects, and following instructions.

This activity makes learning colors fun, active, and interactive while supporting multiple areas of development.

• Play-based Technique: Children sit in a circle with a basket of picture cards (animals, objects, actions). Each child picks a card, names it, and then uses it in a simple sentence or sound-play (e.g., “The cat says meow”).

• Domains Supported:

  • Language: Expands vocabulary, sentence building, and sound recognition.

  • Social-Emotional: Builds confidence in speaking and listening.

  • Cognitive: Improves memory and categorization skills.

2. EVS Concept – Parts of a Plant (Garden Role Play)

• Play-based Technique: Children pretend to be different parts of a plant—roots, stem, leaves, flower—while the teacher narrates how each part works. Props like scarves or paper leaves can make it fun.

• Domains Supported:

  • Cognitive: Enhances understanding of nature and science.

  • Physical: Involves body movement and coordination.

  • Social-Emotional: Fosters group participation and cooperative play.

  • Language: Introduces descriptive words and scientific vocabulary in simple ways.

Telling a story having that particular phonics sound and children are asked to clap whenever they that phonic sound.

Listening skills

Concentration

New vocabulary words from that phonic sound

Recall

Other words related to that phonic sounds they have heard before.

Concept: Numbers (1–10)
Number Treasure Hunt

– Hide number cards or objects with numbers written on them around the classroom/play area. Children search for them, and once they find a number, they match it to a group of objects (e.g., 3 blocks, 5 toy animals).

Domains of Development Supported:

• Cognitive Development: Recognizing and understanding numbers, counting, problem-solving.

• Language Development: Talking about what they found, describing quantities, using number words.

• Social-Emotional Development: Taking turns, cooperating, celebrating success together.

Technique: Using soft toys or puppets for role play and enactment of an open-ended story narration.

Some of the domains that get supported:

a. Socio emotional development: emotional regulation, appropriate emotional expression, empathy, etc.

b. Language development

c. Problem solving skills

d.  Imagination and creativity

e.  Physical development

- Play-based technique: Act out emotions with puppets.

- Supports: Social-Emotional, Language, and Cognitive Development.

Numbers (1-10) (Number Treasure Hunt)

- Play-based technique: Hide number cards, search, count, and match.

- Supports: Cognitive, Physical, and Language Development.

I teach new words through stories. After reading, I ask children to act out parts of the story. This helps with language, imagination, and working in groups.

Play-based method: Emotion Charades or Puppet Show.

Emotion Charades: Kids enact various feelings (happy, sad, angry, surprised, etc.) and others have to guess. This makes them understand and express emotions in an enjoyable, interactive manner.

Puppet Show: Through puppets, present a brief story with characters having different emotions and engaging with one another. This enables children to see and talk through emotional reactions and develop empathy through knowing others' views.

Development domains addressed:

Socio-emotional development: Children learn to recognize, acknowledge, and regulate their own emotions, as well as recognize and respond to others' emotions, developing empathy and social competence.

Language and communication development: Kids increase their vocabulary of emotion-related words, rehearse verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and discuss feelings and social interactions.

Cognitive development: Kids build their fantasy thinking, problem-solving abilities (e.g., determining how to perform an emotion on stage), and knowledge of social cues and situations.

Impact: Makes learning fun, builds real-life math skills, improves focus and teamwork.

• In this technique, children act out real-life situations, such as running a shop, being a doctor, or cooking in a kitchen setup. Teachers can guide the play by introducing learning goals, like counting objects, using new words, or following simple instructions.

How it uses the ECCE concept:

• Regular teaching in an ECCE classroom emphasizes learning through daily structured activities, routines, and repetition. Role play can be adapted as a daily or frequent activity, linking imagination with learning concepts like numbers, language, or social skills.

Domain of development supported:

• Cognitive Development: Enhances thinking, problem-solving, and memory.

• Language Development: Encourages speaking, vocabulary, and communication.

• Social-Emotional Development: Teaches cooperation, sharing, and understanding emotions.

Play-based Technique:
I set up a “grocery store” corner in the classroom with toy fruits, vegetables, and play money. Children take turns being shopkeepers and customers, counting out items and money during each transaction.

Domains of Development Supported:

• Cognitive: Improves counting, problem-solving, and understanding of basic math concepts.

• Language: Encourages communication, vocabulary building, and sentence formation.

• Social-Emotional: Promotes cooperation, sharing, and confidence through role play.

• Physical: Enhances fine motor skills through handling small objects and play money.

I hide number cards around the classroom and ask children to find them in order. As they search, they count out loud and match the numbers with objects (e.g., “Find number 4 and bring me 4 blocks”).

This activity supports:

• Cognitive Development: Recognising numbers, counting, and problem-solving

• Physical Development: Moving, bending, and coordination during the hunt

• Language Development: Using number words and following instructions

• Social-Emotional Development: Working together, taking turns, and celebrating small successes

It’s fun, engaging, and helps children learn through movement and play!

Play-based Technique: Colour Sorting Treasure Hunt

Description of the Activity:
Children are encouraged to go on a “colour treasure hunt” around the classroom or outdoor area. They will be given colour baskets (e.g., red, blue, yellow) and asked to collect objects matching the colour of their basket. For example, a child with a red basket will find red toys, blocks, or paper pieces. After collecting, the group will sit together to sort and talk about their treasures.

Domains of Development Supported:

• Cognitive Development: Children learn to identify, match, and categorize colours, which strengthens observation and problem-solving skills.

• Language Development: As they describe their findings (“I found a red car!”), children enhance vocabulary and expressive language.

• Physical Development: Gross and fine motor skills are built through walking, picking, and sorting objects.

• Social-Emotional Development: Working in groups encourages sharing, cooperation, and confidence in participating.

Play based technique: Sort objects into categories9animals,stationery,books)

Noun Hunt -Children will find objects in the classroom that match noun categories.

Children will also sort pictures into noun categories.

Bingo game of numbers and Ganit mala

Musical chair game

Children will enjoy music and side by side learn the concept of "taking off".

They will also learn to have patience and focus on the purpose.

For this we make a number train on the floor and jump forward for addition and jump backward for subtraction.

Students are encouraged to share information regarding the responsibilities of each family member.

An appropriate number of students are assigned different roles and the teacher suggests a situation.

The children perform as they see their family members react.

They feel so confident while doing shopping.

Domains of development supported:

• Social–emotional: empathy, emotion recognition, self-regulation

• Language: vocabulary building and communication

• Cognitive: understanding cause–effect and problem-solving

• Physical: fine motor skills while handling puppets and cards

I would hide number cards and small objects (like blocks or shells) around the classroom or outdoor area. Children search for a number card, then collect and count the matching number of objects. For example, if they find the number 5, they gather five stones and place them in a basket. We can extend the activity by asking them to compare quantities (more/less) or group items by colour or size.

The activity supports cognitive development as children observe and think about changes, language development as they describe the process, social-emotional development through teamwork, and physical development by using their fine motor skills while mixing and arranging ingredients.

Storytelling supports multiple domains of development. It promotes language development by improving vocabulary, listening skills, and expression. It also supports cognitive development as children use imagination, memory, and comprehension while understanding the story. Additionally, it enhances socio-emotional development by helping children understand feelings, empathy, and social situations through characters and events.

We listen to a story which begins with discussions on pre-reading questions where we look at the front page of the book and guess the storyline etc. After the story, we discuss and reflect on the characters, the learnings.

Then the children are divided into groups. Each group gets a chit which has words that they weave into a story. This is enacted through a role play with their group.

Cognitive development : There is curiosity, imagination, memory and comprehension during the story telling. Usage of language helps their vocabulary and articulation.

Socio-Emotional development : There is perspective taking, understanding feelings, fostering empathy and learning social skills such as teamwork, golden words etiquette etc.

There is a huge learning as well as a lot of fun !!

This activity supports multiple domains:

• Cognitive development by identifying and sorting colours and shapes

• Physical development through movement and coordination while searching

• Language development as children name and describe their findings

• Social-emotional development by working in groups, sharing, and building teamwork

It turns learning into an active and engaging experience.

Domains of Development Supported:

• Cognitive Development – children learn to identify and sort colours.

• Physical Development – moving around and picking objects improves motor skills.

• Social Development – children work and play together with friends.

• Language Development – children learn and use colour names while speaking.