GDECE105 - Becoming an Early Childhood Practitioner Assignment Sample

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1. Introduction: Supporting Diverse Learners Through Play and Literacy

According to Lamrani and Abdelwahed (2020), structured consciousness to play-based learning is a good strategy in early years’ learning with a focus on the child’s cognitive and social-emotional development. This assessment, developed with professional Assignment Writing Help, focuses on creating two learning sequences tailored for different age groups: a STEM-based sequence for children below 2 years and a literacy-based sequence for children between 3–5 years. All sequences are designed to redesign the learning process based on children’s playfulness and developmental stage, while considering the needs of indigenous and disabled children. It also aligns with guiding frameworks and principles in the enhancement of early childhood facilities.

2. Sequence 1: STEM for 3-5 Year Olds

Learning Objectives

• Improve sensory exploration and cognitive development through hands-on relations with other fabrics.
• Encourage earlier problem-solving mastery and an awareness of fundamental scientific notions like cause and effect.

Learning Experience 1: Sensory Exploration with Water Play

GDECE105 - Becoming an Early Childhood Practitioner Assignment Sample

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• Aim: To promote sensory awareness and teach ideas like wet/dry and warm/cold via water play (MERCAN et al., 2021).
• Duration: 15-20 minutes.
• Materials: A shallow water tray, plastic containers, sponges, small floating toys.
• Description: Some of the activities that children will undertake include; pouring and dumping water, squashing and wringing wet sponges, and making observations on objects that float or sink in water (MERCAN et al., 2021).
• Inclusive Strategies: For children with physical disabilities, containers with handles are to be selected and sponges of different sizes are to meet the different motor functions. For children who are sensory sensitive, it is advisable to propose some other items such as dry sensory objects (for example, rice or sand) (Christopher, 2019).

Learning Experience 2: Building with Soft Blocks

• Aim: To instruct basic notions of balance, structure, and spatial cognition via block play.
• Duration: 10-15 minutes.
• Materials: Soft foam blocks in various shapes and sizes.
• Description: Kids will naturally stack, knock over, and rebuild with soft blocks as they play to understand not-so-cheerful things like balance (Kewalramani et al., 2020). This activity helps also to establish fine motor skills and it contains also the first idea of engineering.
• Inclusive Strategies: Allow for more extensive displays or help those children with poor motor coordination by placing their hands-on top of yours. For children with visual impairments, it is recommended to use, for example, blocks with different textures or make them in the form of musical instruments (Kewalramani et al., 2020).

Learning Experience 3: Light and Shadow Play

• Aim: To study the vision of light and shadow through playful exchange with light origins.
• Duration: 10-15 minutes.
• Materials: Flashlight, translucent and opaque objects, white sheet or wall.
• Description: Children will play with the flashlight and objects to make shadows, and learn about the light and the object. This activity helps the kids to observe cause-and-effect relationships safely and interestingly (Vásquez et al., 2019).
• Inclusive Strategies: This is especially true if the kids have a sensitive skin to light; switch the light in the room to ensure that it is friendly to the kids (Vásquez et al., 2019). When the child has mobility, limitations control the source of the light and objects in the way that they can maintain easy reach or use the projector to enlarge shadows on a wall.

3. Sequence 2: Literacy for 0-2 Year Olds

Learning Objectives

• Extend vocabulary and understanding skills through interactive storytelling and vocabulary play.
• Inspire originality, narrative skills, and early literacy by employing children in group storytelling and rhyming exercises.

Learning Experience 1: Interactive Storytelling with Picture Books

• Aim: To improve language development, comprehension, and narrative acquaintance through transmitted reading.
• Duration: 20-25 minutes.
• Materials: Age-appropriate picture books with repetitive and rhyming text, plush toys, or puppets to represent feelings.
• Description: The picture book will be read by the educator, and the story will be accompanied by stuffed animals or puppets. Two ways through which children will be encouraged are by guessing what happens next, echoing the words that are said, and asking questions about the story (Dinç, Özkan, & Alaca, 2021).
• Inclusive Strategies: In reaching out to children with hearing impairment, the book can best be presented in large print, the presenter or the reader could sign the words spoken aloud, or readers could present a taped version of the book accompanied by the illustrations (Dinç, Özkan, & Alaca, 2021).

Learning Experience 2: Rhyming Words and Sounds Game

• Aim: To design phonemic understanding and early literacy skilfulness through playful engagement with sounds and rhymes.
• Duration: 15-20 minutes.
• Materials: Picture cards with rhyming words, a soundboard with different switches that play separate sounds.
• Description: Children will sort picture cards into those that rhyme and those that don’t (e. g. cat/hat, dog/log) and children will play an individual sound-matching game using the soundboard (Carruth & Bustos, 2019).
• Inclusive Strategies: Ensure that children with hearing impairment have signals such as gestures to go along with those given orally. Students with language delays can point or select cards instead of speaking; include them at their rate (Kazachiner & Boychuk, 2022).

Learning Experience 3: Creating a Class Story

• Aim: To encourage ideation, collaboration, and narrative mastery by co-creating a report with peers.
• Duration: 20-30 minutes.
• Materials: Extensive pieces or a whiteboard, markers, stickers, and stamps.
• Description: The educator will start a story by drawing or writing the beginning on a large paper or whiteboard (Undheim & Jernes, 2020). Each child will then write the story by providing their input in terms of more ideas in the form of drawing, telling the educator more ideas, or even writing simple words. This is also a fun and helpful activity which improves the language usage in young people.
• Inclusive Strategies: In the case of non-verbal children or children with communication impairing conditions, other means of communication should be offered to involve them in the narration, for example, picture cards, communication boards, or assistive technology devices (Undheim & Jernes, 2020).

4. Rationale for Play-Based Learning

As cited by Lamrani and Abdelwahed (2020), in Center learning, play-based learning is fundamental as it corresponds to the development milestones of young children mus, cognitive, social emotional, and physical domains. This approach implies the use of learners’ participation and interaction, which enables them to handle objects and make the necessary discoveries. Among the reasons that have been identified concerning why play-based learning is effective in teaching more knowledge is the fact that learning is contextualized in contexts that are meaningful and make learning enjoyable (UNICEF, 2020).

One of the most important points for the use of play activities in teaching is the intentional nature of these activities to enable the child of a certain age and developmental stage to meet the intended learning objectives in the course of the play while at the same time

Promoting free play. For example, according to Stephen et al. (2020) in STEM learning experiences with 0-2-year-olds, strategic play to understand problem-solving and critical thinking is used since children are confined to explore different gadgets and tools to establish cause-and-effect relationships. As with the literacy activities targeting 3-5-year-old children, the fun storytelling and creativity enhance the child’s early language development and the development of narrative abilities.

Further, as cited by Danniels and Pyle (2022), play-based learning, ensures learning occurs within the context of the diversity of students' needs and how they learn best. In this way, the activity could be adapted to the children’s ability, and the support given means they could all be safe in the class and learn and this is a good example of integrating children with disabilities in class. This broad approach to learning provides for academic success and fosters self-esteem, and imagination as well as embraces learning among children.

5. Inclusive Strategies

Inclusive education means education that aims at including every child irrespective of their disability, cultural background, gender or particulars in the regular school classroom (UNICEF, 2020).

The most important concept for children with physical disabilities is the adaptation of motor skills for the activities. For instance, changing utensils to easy-grip utensils or the height of play stations allows these children to be fully involved in the delivery of STEM (Playstation, 2024).

Some students need sign language or other forms of communication to make them understand instructions because of hearing impairments, especially during literacy instruction (Hoidn & Reusser, 2020). It is also crucial that educators include the use of such technologies as communication boards for such kids who cannot speak, stammer, or else have communication problems to be fully involved during storytelling; among other group dynamics.

To Indigenous learners and other children from culturally diverse backgrounds, the use of culturally appropriate literacy and other prompts in teaching helps the children feel valued and ensures that cultural differences are valued as well (Perso, 2020). Teachers should also develop contexts that enable the learning process to be student-centered so that all children feel that they are important in the learning process (Hoidn & Reusser, 2020).

6. Conclusion

Enriching the program with the use of planned learning through play to meet the developmental age of 0-2 and 3-5 years has greatly enhanced cognition, language, and social development. The rationale of the sequences cited above aligns with the objectives of GDECE105 - Becoming an Early Childhood Practitioner, focusing on improving areas such as STEM and literacy through meaningful and appealing activities. Inclusive practices safeguard that each child with a disability has a fair chance of success, made possible by putting these principles into practice. Embracing an integrated approach to learning in early childhood helps children love learning, be creative, and gain confidence to face future educational challenges.

References

• Carruth, L., & Bustos, C. (2019). Phonemic Awareness: It’s All in the Sounds of Language. Texas Association for Literacy Education Yearbook, 6, 55–58. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1291358
• Christopher, S. (2019). Touch hypersensitivity in children with autism -An analysis. IJRAR-International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 6(2). http://ijrar.com/upload_issue/ijrar_issue_20543588.pdf
• Danniels, E., & Pyle, A. (2022). Inclusive Play-Based Learning: Approaches from Enacting Kindergarten Teachers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 51(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01369-4
• Dinç, B. G., Özkan, B., & Alaca, I. V. (2021). Interactive storytelling through LEDs and paper circuits: Tapping into materials and technology in children’s literature education. Journal of Literary Education, (4), 266-288. https://turia.uv.es/index.php/JLE/article/view/21021
• Hoidn, S., & Reusser, K. (2020). Foundations of Student-Centered Learning and Teaching. Routledge EBooks, 17–46. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429259371-3
• Kazachiner, E., & Boychuk, Y. (2022). Teaching Language and Speech Skills to Children with Special Needs. In dspace.hnpu.edu.ua. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. https://dspace.hnpu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/8829
• Kewalramani, S., Palaiologou, I., & Dardanou, M. (2020). Children’s Engineering Design Thinking Processes: The Magic of the ROBOTS and the Power of BLOCKS (Electronics). Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(3), em1830. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/113247
• Lamrani, R., & Abdelwahed, E. H. (2020). Game-based learning and gamification to improve skills in early years education. Computer Science and Information Systems, 17(1), 339–356. https://doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=1820-02141900043L
• MERCAN, Z., BİLİR, B., & DARICA, N. (2021). Analysis of the Physical Structure of School Gardens as Learning Environments. Cukurova University Faculty of Education Journal, 50(2), 1210–1240. https://doi.org/10.14812/cuefd.938581
• Perso, T. (2020). Teaching Indigenous students: Cultural awareness and classroom strategies for improving learning outcomes. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003117728/teaching-indigenous-students-thelma-perso
• Playstation. (2024). Default Parental Controls on PS4 systems. Playstation.com. https://www.playstation.com/en-in/support/account/prevent-parental-control-change/
• Stephen, C., Brooker, L., Oberhuemer, P., & Parker-Rees, R. (Eds.). (2020). Digital play and technologies in the early years. Routledge. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7jDgDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT5&dq=n+STEM+learning+experiences+with+0-2-year-olds,+strategic+play+to+understand+problem-solving+and+critical+thinking+is+used+since+children+&ots=dYdLrE1S7K&sig=vIiZpv6DtyzkzhznoYbOEexWS4c
• Undheim, M., & Jernes, M. (2020). Teachers’ pedagogical strategies when creating digital stories with young children. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2020.1735743
• UNICEF. (2020). Inclusive education. Www.unicef.org; UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/education/inclusive-education#:~:text=Inclusive%20education%20means%20all%20children
• Vásquez, N. G., Felippe, M. L., Pereira, F. O. R., & Kuhnen, A. (2019). Luminous and visual preferences of young children in their classrooms: Curtain use, artificial lighting and window views. Building and Environment, 152, 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.01.049