Co-operative Play

What’s learned?

Working together, whether it’s block building or in the home corner, helps children learn to respect the ideas of others.

They develop their social skills, and social competence is an underlying goal of early childhood education.

Children in cooperative play learn to contribute to joint efforts. They also learn to problem solve by working together to find a solution.

Snack and Meal Time

What’s learned?

What do you remember as the highlight of your own school day - lunchtime and recess?

It’s not all that different for preschoolers. Snack time is an opportunity for children to learn social skills as they chat with a friend or staff at the table.

Again, children’s sense of competence and independence are reinforced. Healthy snacks are encouraged so as to reinforce healthy eating habits.

Outdoor Play

What’s learned?

Running, swinging, climbing, jumping, hopping and digging in the sand - outdoor fun is one of the favourite parts of any child’s day.

Outdoor play refines a child’s gross motor (large-muscle) skills. The cross-lateral movement (right arm/left leg and vice versa) involved is critical to a child’s later success in reading and writing.

Playground time is also an opportunity to explore and manipulate a different environment - they can let loose their imagination while getting physical.

Sand and Water Play

What’s learned?

Children have a practical math lesson in fractions when they pour one cup full of sand/water into a two-cup container.

It explains the concept faster and more clearly than a detailed discussion or drawing.

As anyone who has sat on a beach knows, sand and water play is soothing. It encourages children to explore and learn about cause and effect. (For example, what happens if I put a sponge in water? What happens if I then squeeze the sponge?)

There is no right or wrong way to play with sand and water (except to throw it about), so children experience success.

Manipulative activities

What’s learned?

Children enjoy playing with a variety of equipment that helps develop their fine motor control, which is a precursor to being able to write.

The equipment includes: duplo, puzzles, play dough, threading beads, peg boards, stacking and nesting equipment.

Art Projects

What’s learned?

Art projects are excellent for developing a child’s fine motor skills. It takes small-muscle control in order to manipulate clay, cut with scissors, paint with a brush and draw with markers or crayons.

As these skills are practiced, they help a child gain mastery to cut with a knife, button their own clothes and print their names.

Art projects build a child’s self esteem. It’s an opportunity for the child to say: “I can do it!”

The process, not the product, is the most important element of preschool art projects.

Books

What’s learned?

Children learn language skills from books, whether they are looking at a book individually or being read to as part of a group.

When you make books a part of a young child’s day you set the stage for a lifelong interest in reading.

Home corner and dramatic play

What’s learned?

Playing make-believe lets a child bring the complicated grown-up world down to size.

They learn empathy for others, and will often act out a whole range of emotions when playing pretend - offering sympathy to a doll that has fallen off a chair or inviting a friend to tea.

Dramatic play encourages children to think abstractly, which is an important pre-reading skill.

Children come to understand that words represent ideas.

Building with blocks

What’s learned?

Blocks help children learn scientific, mathematical, art, social studies, and language concepts. They learn about depth, height, measurement, volume, area, classification, shape and mapping.

Building with blocks fosters a feeling of competence and self-esteem, and teaches co-operation and respect for the work of others.

Building with blocks is educational and so is the cleanup. Sorting and storing blocks teaches classification.

Creative movement and music

What’s learned?

Music helps children connect the outer world of movement and sound with the inner world of feelings and observations.

Playing games or moving to music is a powerful first experience in the artistic process.

Children learn music the same way they learn language - by listening and imitating.

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