Curriculum Planning: Play’s the Thing
"We give children's minds and hearts wings to fly."
- Tracy Doyle
The early childhood education settings of this year's Prime Minister's Award recipients follow every model possible. Despite these differences, the children entrusted to these exemplary early childhood educators have at least one thing in common.
They play.
Here's an idea…
"Our building has an attic with a pull-down staircase. I store toys in boxes up there and rotate them in and out of the playrooms regularly. After a month or so, it's a brand new toy for the younger ones! The older children remember the toy, but seeing it again are able to find new ways to play with it."
- Tracy Doyle
They ride tricycles, build castles, climb, play catch, paint pictures, dress up, squish clay, sand and soap between their fingers, listen to stories and sing their hearts out.
But there is more to their play than meets the eye. Through carefully and thoughtfully designed activities, children are learning positive social behaviours, developing large and small motor control and problem-solving skills, and practising good eating habits, cleanliness, safety, and much, much more.
"We give children's minds and hearts wings to fly," says a smiling Tracy Doyle, the owner-operator of Magic Moments Child Care Centre in Tignish, Prince Edward Island. "We strive to give them the confidence and vision to do what their heart tells them to do."
A Curriculum Built on Play
Play-based learning is the main feature that distinguishes early childhood education from what many in the general public call "babysitting," explains Donna Huyber. A member, along with Tammy Gingras and Rosemarie Klein, of the Childcare Family Access Network (C-FAN) team from Manitoba, Huyber runs a full-day early childhood education centre in the small town of Langruth for children ages 6 months to 12 years.
In designing the curriculum, "we involve the children in deciding what theme we'll explore in the coming week," explains Huyber, who is in charge of the art activities. While a few themes may be related to the season, such as spring or Hallowe'en, most themes speak to the children's interests, such as ice cream, thunderstorms or baby animals (a popular feature of many of these farm children's lives). Another regular theme is farm safety, which is also a founding principle of the C-FAN network (see "Farm Safety Through Early Childhood Education").
Building on Learning
Children derive a tremendous amount of self-esteem and satisfaction from being able to create or build something, says Tammy Gingras, a member of the Childcare Family Access Network team from Manitoba. She has developed some innovative craft projects for the children at the Parkside Children's Centre in McCreary, Manitoba. "The children build birdhouses from pre-cut and pre-drilled wood pieces," she explains. "With adult supervision, cordless drills are safe and easy for children to use, and the children feel so grown-up and powerful using them!" Gingras also supplies the children with ceramic clay to create cups and plates, and takes the finished objects to a local potter for firing.
"Then I plan art activities in different media that complement the theme and challenge the children to explore both the theme and the medium." Each day of the week has a different art activity, she says. For example, when the theme is ice cream, the children cut out ice cream cone shapes one day, glue together a sundae made out of Styrofoam and other materials the next, and draw or paint ice cream items on other days. The fifth day of the week, devoted to "messy play," does not necessarily fit a theme, but the children love it. (See also, "Fun With Paint.") Huyber's fellow educators design science, manipulation, imagination and other play-based learning activities around the theme as well.
"To me, the curriculum is my plan of what I want the children to learn in a specific time period," says Pamela Blanchfield of the Boys and Girls Club of Niagara in Niagara Falls.
"What do I want them to walk away with today?" This could be as simple as ensuring that they have a sensory experience every day, she continues, or as important as their first steps toward developing empathy and concern for others. Blanchfield also uses weekly themes, designing daily flexible schedules or programs around that theme. "Then I provide lots of choices for the children on what they can do and how they'll spend their time."
Geneviève Provençal, who works at the Centre de la petite enfance À tire d'aile in Drummondville, Quebec, ensures her curriculum turns around pleasant experiences for the children. "I play with the children rather than watching them at play." She chooses games, jokes and songs that make children laugh and learn at the same time. (See also "Putting on a Performance.")
Learning on Two Levels
"Lots of times when I develop an art activity for the children, I'll offer it in two versions at once," says Liz Reid, who runs the Little People's Parent Participation Preschool in Vancouver. The same or similar art projects are presented on the art table and on the floor. This addresses the needs of her more energetic charges, she explains. "They may not want - or be able right then - to sit or stand at a table. If I let them crawl all over the floor, they get to have fun, do the art and burn off some steam at the same time."
Multilevel learning experiences also come about when Reid provides encouragement and props to turn physical activities into an extensive imagination game. Play with plastic ride-on cars in the playground is expanded into "working at the garage" with the addition of cardboard box fuel pumps and buckets, water and soap for the car wash.
What Play Can Teach
While these early childhood educators agree on the importance of designed and guided play-based learning, they do not necessarily agree on what the goals of that learning should be. Are early childhood educators preparing children for school or for life? Should an activity have an identifiable end result, or is the learning process what is important? (See also "More Than Fun: Evaluation in a Play-based Curriculum.")
"If a child spends an hour cutting a piece of construction paper into tiny scraps, that's fine with me," says Huyber. Liz Reid of the Little People's Parent Participation Preschool in Vancouver agrees: "Who knows what's going on in that little head? They may be quietly organizing ideas, learning about spatial and material relationships, or simply enjoying the feel of the paper and their control of the scissors."
But perhaps the learning should be more systematic than that, suggests Doyle. "We're setting the foundation for school." Activities should be planned to encourage children to reach their age-appropriate developmental goals, she believes, adding that research has shown that children with early childhood education experience have better success at school.
Blanchfield has a similar view. While play, flexibility and choices are important elements of her program, literacy is a cornerstone. "I probably spend more time focussing on literacy and pre-literacy than anything else." Children at her centre have many opportunities to read and be read to, to write and draw, and to count and sort, she explains. (See also, "Stay SHARP! Learn to Read.")
On the other hand, says Provençal, "It's learning but it isn't school." She encourages children to share souvenirs from their family experiences. If they have been on vacation with their parents and have a collection of rocks or seashells, she likes to use these to stir the children's imagination and creativity. "One day a father was all apologetic because his son wanted to bring a bucket of frogs with him. I said, 'Bring them on!'"
Make It Magical!
The learning centres at Magic Moments Child Care Centre in Tignish, Prince Edward Island, do more than encourage children to learn through play. From January's "cave" in the cozy corner where children can "hibernate" with a book to July's tropical-themed playground with music, games and customs from around the world, Tracy Doyle's theme-based learning centres are designed and stocked to stimulate the children's imagination and make every moment magical. "I take a big idea - like our theme, Summer Fiesta - and break it down, remembering the child's point of view. What would seem amazing or magical to them?" Wonderful experiences and learning follow.
Provençal also likes to introduce a healthy dose of the "essential" childhood experiences that she says risk getting lost in today's rushed and structured world. "For example, I take my group out and we play in the mud or in the rain," she explains. "We may look pretty silly to some … but every child should get to play in the mud and the rain."
Looking Beyond the Play-based Curriculum
At the heart of early childhood education - before and beyond curriculum, school readiness, outcomes or expectations - are the fundamental traditions, beliefs and morals transmitted to the children, says Blanchfield, speaking for the group. "We begin with the foundation and building blocks of roots, vision, values, heritage, love and respect."
Educators also model positive behaviours, and choose books, songs and stories that encourage children to explore themes of empathy and kindness, at the same time demonstrating to each child that he or she is unique, special and valued. "We teach and encourage children to use their hearts and their common sense to guide them in life, to make choices instead of simply following rules," Blanchfield says.
"We give them peace and victory," concludes Marie-Josée Portelance, who, with her husband, Denis Archambault, runs Au Jardin d'Alexandre in Gatineau, Quebec, holding up two fingers to demonstrate the victory we achieve over life's obstacles when we find inner peace. "We could give them all the answers they need to survive in the world, but it is better to teach them that the answers are all around them; they need only to listen to the little voice inside of them to find the answers they need."