You are a Kindergarten One (5 yr old) teacher. During the mid-year parent-teacher conference, the parents give their feedback that whenever they asked the children about what they did in school, the children would reply “eat, sleep, play”. Parents raised their concern over the suitability of the Project Approach used in the school curriculum. They remind you that the children will be in Kindergarten two the following year. They are not confident that their children will be school ready for Primary one if they are only playing in your class. To reassure and help the parents understand that the children are learning through play, you have decided to organize a 2-hour workshop on your school’s Project Approach. The following will be covered in the workshop.
(a) Describe how preschoolers learn and develop through play. Please use 3 references to support. (4marks) (roughly 140-200 words)
>> Eleborate on: physical (gross and fine motor skills) development, intellectual (cognitive) development, social-emotional development and how it can be developed through play.
>> Characteristics of play that I’ve found is 1. intrinsically motivated, 2. freely chosen by the participants, 3. must be pleasurable and children must enjoy the experience, 4. play is non-literal as it involves a certain amount of make-believe, 5. it is actively engaged in by the player as the child must be involved.
>> I have attached one of my readings that you might find useful. HOWEVER, that resource cannot be used as a reference.
(c)Analyse the roles of the teacher, during the various phases of the Project Approach Framework based on a topic of the child’s interest, in supporting children’s play, learning and development. Please use 3 references to support. (12marks) (roughly 420 words)
>> What is the various of Project Approach?
>> What are the roles of the teacher during the various phases? (This is mentioned briefly in the guide I’ve attached)
(d) Show how teachers can make children’s learning more visible to parents in order to help them see how the Project approach can help children to develop school readiness skills; give examples based on a selected topic (eg, learning about money, animals, or plants, etc etc). Examine ONE (1) contemporary constructivist theory and its implication on incorporating play into the curriculum and apply this to your communication with parents to help raise their awareness and understanding of how children learn. Please use 3 references to support. (20 marks) (roughly 700 words)
Answer preview
Parallel play is another stage of play that kids get involved in and helps in their development. It involves two or more children playing adjacent to each other although not the same game or play. This type of play is most experienced with kids within three years although this climbs up to those kid at preschool. It involves one kid watching what the other kid is doing and starting an activity similar to what he saw beside the other kid. One characteristic of play that goes along with parallel play among children is intrinsic motivation (Bergen, 2015). What one kid does is what motivates the other kid to start doing the same thing but separately. Parallel play helps kids especially those that are in pre-school in various ways. An example of this is whereby teachers in the kindergarten gives the kids tasks like drawing pictures of animals. In this task, the kids draw the picture separately to their satisfaction. This helps them in getting involved in the day’s activity and no one kid is left out in the participation.
