EP

Learning Experience for Preschool Children

Malodree Johnson

EP002: Plans Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum

Instructor: Carol Todd

July 19, 2020

Learning Experience for Preschool Children

The curriculum reflects on the principles and beliefs that the children will learn. The Preschool curriculum has been often confused due to the evolution of early childhood education (Sharon Lynn and Kristie Kauerz, 2012). The curriculum should be supportive of the behavior and skills of the children. According to an article Where we stand a curriculum should be well thought, planned, challenging, and engaging before being implemented to promote positive results for children. A study was conducted with a session with a preschool teacher. The session with the preschool teacher was sufficient to complete the assessment. The main goal of the assessment was to find the best learning experiences for the children. The content areas addressed in this assessment of the learning experiences are mathematics, English language, fine arts, science, social studies, technology, physical education, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

The learning experience went a long way in helping me understand the criteria for preschool children. The assessment involved preschool children from all backgrounds. The study categorized the ages of preschool children into three categories. These categories are infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. It depended on the age of the children when they were brought to school. Children with disabilities were also considered in my study. The willingness of the school and the preschool teacher in the study session helped me in a great way and made it easier for me to conduct the study. The learning experiences discussed in my study reflected on the indicators of an effective curriculum. These indicators include clear goals, an effective learning environment, and teacher and student motivation. There were clear goals set which were used to develop the learning experiences. The teacher discussed the goals with me during the interview. Another indicator that was used to develop learning experiences as an effective learning environment. The learning experiences were supposed to provide a conducive learning environment for the children. Teacher and student motivation was another indicator that was used to develop learning experiences. The learning experiences were supposed to improve motivation among teachers and children.

The Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards were used to develop the three learning experiences. The Illinois Learning and Development Standards are classified. The first category is mathematics which involves classifying, sorting, and tallying. This category was used to develop the first learning experience. The second category is Science which involves exploration, observation, and hypotheses. This category was used to develop a second learning experience. The final category is Arts which involves visual arts and drawing of objects. This category was used to develop the third learning experience.

During the interview session, the teacher identified various goals that were important in my assessment. The main goal was to improve the learning standard involved in early childhood school. The learning standards, I identified above helped me set goals which if achieved would give good results for this paper. The overall goal was to give the teachers and parents an understanding of the development of the child and also develop activities that would improve development and growth in the children. Another goal was to develop motor skills in preschool children which will help improve their development and growth. The knowledge gained would also enable me to give better information to my peers regarding early childhood learning. The goals of the learning experiences were the children to sort different types of rocks and count them, the children to learn about farm animals, and to create art based on their observation and hypothesis.

According to Resources for Early Learning article, assessment plays a major part in the quality of an early childhood program. Assessment of a childhood program involves observing and gathering information on the child and its work over some time. Assessment is important because it provides information about the development and growth of the child. In this assessment, I used various ways to collect data, analyze data, document, and present the information from the learning process. The materials used for this study were journals, websites, texts, interviews, technology, internet, books, articles, and observation methods. Books of alphabets and animals and also animal videos were the materials used in the learning experiences I developed. These materials were essential to the assessment been conducted because it helped reduce the workload. For the assessment of the learning experiences I developed, I proposed to use various methods of assessment. The first method of assessment was an observation which involved observing the children without interfering in the activities of the children. The other method would be to use standardized tests. These tests would test the performance of the children. The last method of assessment I proposed to assess the learning experiences I developed was teacher ratings. The teacher ratings would help assess the abilities of the children in the learning experiences developed.

In my study, I had to interview a preschool teacher from a certain school due to the pandemic which could not allow me to visit the school to see how the children learned. I interviewed the teacher through face time application and asked him to help me in knowing the learning experiences of the preschool children. The preschool teacher was collaborative in helping me identify the learning experiences he used with the children. The teacher gave me elaborate learning experiences he did with the children in the classroom. The learning experiences were great and this was contributed by the teacher’s experience of many years dealing with preschool children. This was helped me identify ways that I will use to make a connection with the children.

After collaborating with the teacher, I developed three learning experiences. The first learning experience developed involves mathematics where children were involved in sorting and tallying. The activity involved the children writing alphabets on rocks which turned out to be a fun activity because it involved outdoor activities. The activity involved going out to the compound of the school collect small rocks and write alphabets on them. First, I will ask the children if they know how to write alphabets. Next, I will divide the children into three groups. One group will be responsible for collecting the rocks and bring them to the class. The children together sort the rocks to identify the rocks which would be good to paint alphabets on them. The children will then count the rocks they collected to twenty-six. This will help the children develop mathematical skills that are important in their growth. The second group will be responsible for washing the rocks with water to remove dirt to enable them to write alphabets on them. The last group will be responsible for writing the alphabets on the rocks. The children then paint both the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabets on both sides of the rock. I arrange the rocks to allow them to dry. While children are waiting for the painting to dry up, I give them toys to play with. After the painting was dry, I ask the children to read out aloud the alphabets written on the rocks. This learning experience will help develop mathematical and literacy skills in children.

The second learning experience involves the category of science. First, I will ask the children if they have an animal farm or if any of their family members have an animal farm. The children were involved in an activity that involved exploration and observation. For this learning experience, I decided to take the children to a local animal farm where they could see and learn about the farm animals. The activity at the animal farm involves the children exploring the farm animals they learned in previous classes and observe the physical features of the farm animals. I also help the children to identify the animals and answer any questions they had about the animals. For the children who had difficulty with understanding the features of the animals, I provided them with books that describe the animals on the farm. This learning experience will help the children develop observation and exploration skills.

The third learning experience involved the category of arts. The children were involved in drawing activities. After the field trip to the animal farm, I first ask the children if they enjoyed the trip to the animal farm. Next, I ask the children to draw the animals they saw at the farm. I then give crayons to the children to color their drawings. For the children who had a problem with motor skills during the art session, I provided them with a picture book where they could cut out a picture of the animal they saw at the farm. This learning experience will help develop motor and art skills in the children. After collaborating with the teacher, I identified that many children lived in poor backgrounds. I also identified a few children who had fine motor skills and some families of the children spoke other languages other than English at home.

The learning experiences promoted the content areas of the learning standards used. The first learning experience promoted language and literacy where the children were asked to read out the alphabets painted on the rocks. The involvement of the children reading the alphabets also improved their pronunciation. The first and second learning experiences promoted learning in mathematics and science. The children used sorting and tallying skills where the sorted and counted the rocks they collected. The children also used exploration and observation skills on the field trip to learn about farm animals. In the third learning experience, the children were asked to draw pictures of the animals they saw. This promoted learning in arts. In general, all the learning experiences promoted social, emotional, and physical development. Play is incorporated where children are allowed to play with toys or outside the classrooms. This is important because it helps improve the physical development and motor and cognitive skills of the children.

The learning activities I developed involved all the students actively. Although, all children are the same some have exceptionalities and need to be handled individually. The major exceptionality the teacher identified is that the children are abled differently according to their intelligence. Some children responded slowly to the activities given to them by the teacher. Others were quite sharp and responded quickly to the activities given to them by the teacher. Another exceptionality the teacher identified was others carried themselves confidently while others were shy. All children should be treated equally including those with exceptionalities. The teacher can change the setting of the activities given to the children to increase the levels of concentration for the children. The teacher can also give breaks to the children when they seem to lose concentration, this will help get their attention back. The teacher can also organize outdoor activities for the children. These outdoor activities will help develop the motor and physical skills for the children. The preschool teacher can also organize outdoor activities in a way that children with exceptionalities will learn. The teacher can give separate outdoor activities to children with exceptionalities different from other children so they do not feel left out.

The learning experiences given in this paper were all based on assessment. According to the Utah Education Network article, the functions of assessment are to identify the knowledge and skills of children, evaluate the growth of the child, evaluate the effectiveness of the educational program and provide information to parents about their children’s progress. Assessment is a good way to look at the learning and development of a child (Neaum, 2016). It is mainly done through observation and analysis to understand the development of children. Learning is observed when children play and their interaction.

In this study, I preferred to use various methods of assessment. These include observation, portfolios, parent ratings, teacher ratings, and standardized tests. All these methods help inform the teachers and parents about the development and growth of a child. Observation is a great way of assessment because it does not intrude on the activities of the children. It can be used to observe all the areas of development of a child over time. I will use the observation method to assess if the children could count up to 26 rocks.

Portfolios are collections of children’s works over some time. Portfolios show the progress of the development of a child. It helps bring the teacher and parents closer and form a partnership. I will use portfolios to assess the artworks of the children. Parents' ratings can also be a good method of assessment of the development and growth of children. Parents observe their children and get to know their behaviors. Teacher ratings are also a good way of assessing the development and growth of children. Teachers base their ratings on tests and other tools of assessment. Teacher ratings help assess the abilities of the children. Standardized tests are usually given to the children and marked in a standard way. The performance of the children is assessed by these tests. I will use the standardized test to assess the knowledge the children gained about the farm animals.

In conclusion, I can say this study was informative and gave me a good experience in early childhood development. The learning standards from the study were helpful to identify the learning experiences of children in preschool. The learning standards also helped me realize the goals of the study that I set at the beginning of the study. The various activities that the children carried out helped in the development of motor skills, language, physical health, and general development. From my interview with the preschool teacher, I can recommend to parents to be involved in the activities of the children and learn their behaviors. This helps them participate in the growth and development of their children.

References

Sharon Lynn, Kristie Kauerz, December 2012. Preschool Programs: Effective Curricula. Retrieved from http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/preschool-programs/according-experts/preschool-programs-effective-curricula

Where We Stand on Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Development. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/StandCurrAss.pdf

Early Childhood Assessment. Retrieved from http://resourcesforearlylearning.org/fm/early-childhood-assessment/

Assessment in the Early Childhood Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.uen.org/k-2educator/assessment.shtml

Neaum S, 2016. Observing and assessing children’s learning and development. Retrieved from https://study.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/Neaum%2C%20S.%20%282016%29%20Observing%20and%20Assessing%20Children%27s%20Learning%20and%20Development.%20London%2C%20Sage._.pdf

Appendix

Learning Experience 1.

As per the rubric, in one learning experience you must also include technology, social emotional skills and play. Refer to the rubric.

Foundations of Lesson Plan

Content Areas and Developmental Domains The content areas of the first learning experience are mathematics and language arts and art. The developmental domains are motor and cognitive skills.

State/District/Professional Standards The Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards were used to develop the three learning experiences. The Illinois Learning and Development Standards are classified. Learning Standard 8. A was used to develop the first learning experience which involves sorting, order, compare, and describing objects. Learning Standard 5. A was also used to develop the first learning experience which involves language arts. Ok

Learning Goals The math goal of the learning experience is the children to sort different types of rocks and count them. The literacy goals are the children will learn about the letters of the alphabet and the children to learn how to recognize letters. Ok

Materials/Technology/Equipment/Resources The materials used for this lesson are books and other materials. In the first learning experience, I will use books about alphabets, paint, paintbrushes, and rocks. Name the books.

Lesson Sequence Align all activities with the standard(s), goal(s), and context.

Introduction/Anticipatory Set

.. How will you introduce the lesson to the students? Will you read a book, view a video, etc.?

Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills

For the first learning experience, I will give the children three activities. In the first activity, I will ask the children to collect rocks and bring them to the class. The children together will classify the rocks according to their sizes and sort them from the smoothest to the roughest. Ok The children will then count the rocks they collected. This will help the children develop mathematical skills that are important in their growth. In the second activity, the children will then wash the rocks with water to remove dirt to enable them to write their names on them. In the third activity, I will ask the children to paint their names on the rocks . Ok I will then ask the children to arrange the rocks alphabetically based on the first letter of their names and allow them to dry. Ok While children are waiting for the painting to dry up, I give them toys to play with. After the painting was dry, I ask the children to read out aloud the alphabets written on the rocks. This learning experience will help develop mathematical and literacy skills in children. For the children having difficulty in arranging the rocks alphabetically, I will give them books with alphabets to recognize the order of the alphabet. OK For children having difficulty in writing their names on the rocks I will ask them to spell their names and I will write them on the rocks. OK

Assessment

In this study, I preferred to use the observation checklist method of assessment for the first learning experience. I will use the observation checklist to assess if the children could arrange the rock alphabetically based on the first letter of their first names. I will also use the checklist to assess if the children recognize the letters of the alphabets when painting and reading them. OK

Closure

In conclusion, this learning experience helped me achieve the goals set for the lesson. The learning experience helps the children to develop mathematics and literacy skills. The incorporation of such a lesson plan will help in the development of preschool children.

Learning Experience 2.

Foundations of Lesson Plan

Content Areas and Developmental Domains The content area of the second learning experience in science. The developmental domains are physical and cognitive skills.

State/District/Professional Standards The Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards were used to develop the three learning experiences. The Illinois Learning and Development Standards are classified. The Learning Standard 12.A.ECa was used to develop the second learning experience which involves exploration, observation, and describing living things.

Learning Goals The science goal was the children will identify different farm animals and plants. Another goal the children will learn about the physical features of the different farm animals. The other goal of the second learning experience is the children will identify the different structures of plants at the farm. Ok

Materials/Technology/Equipment/Resources The materials used for this lesson are books and videos. Books and videos about animals and plants were the materials used in the second learning experiences I developed. Name the specific books and videos.

Lesson Sequence Align all activities with the standard(s), goal(s), and context.

Introduction/Anticipatory Set

I will ask the children if they have visited an animal farm or if any of their family members have an animal farm. I will show them books and videos of plants and farm animals and if they can name them. Name the books and videos. Be sure these are also included in the Materials/Technology/Equipment/Resources section.

Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills

For the second learning experience, I will take the children to a local animal farm where they will see and learn about different farm animals and plants. The activity at the animal farm involves the children exploring the farm animals they saw in the books and videos of farm animals. I will also help the children to identify the features of the animals and answer any questions they have about the animals. The activity will also help the children identify different features of the plants on the farm and observe their stages of growth over time . For the children who have difficulty in understanding the features of the animals, I will provide them with books that describe the animals on the farm. For children having difficulty in identifying the growth stages of plants, I will provide them with books that show the growth stages of familiar plants. This learning experience will help the children develop observation and exploration skills.

Assessment

In this study, I preferred to use a standardized test method of assessment. I will use standardized tests to assess the children’s recognition of farm animals they saw at the farm. I will also use standardized tests to assess the children’s recognition of animal physical features and sounds.

Closure

In conclusion, this learning experience helped me achieve the goals set for the lesson. The learning experience helps the children to develop science skills. The incorporation of such a lesson plan will help in the development of preschool children.

Learning Experience 3.

Foundations of Lesson Plan

Content Areas and Developmental Domains The content area of the third learning experience is the arts. The developmental domain is visual art skills. As per the rubric, in one learning experience you must also include technology, social emotional skills and play. Refer to the rubric.

State/District/Professional Standards The Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards were used to develop the three learning experiences. The Illinois Learning and Development Standards are classified. The Learning Standard 25.A.ECd was used to develop the third learning experience which involves visual arts and drawing of objects.

Learning Goals The art goal of the third learning experience is the children will create art of animals based on their observation and hypothesis from visitng the animal farm?. Another goal is the children will understand the features of different farm animals. The other goal is the children will develop visual art skills. How?

Materials/Technology/Equipment/Resources The materials used for this lesson are books, pencils, crayons, and articles. Books about animals and drawing books were the main materials used in the third learning experience I developed. Name the books.

Lesson Sequence Align all activities with the standard(s), goal(s), and context.

Introduction/Anticipatory Set

During the third learning experience, I will ask the children if they enjoyed the trip to the animal farm. I will ask them if they can remember the animals they saw on the farm and draw them. I will also ask them if they can imitate the sounds of the animals they saw at the farm. OK

Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills

For the third learning experience, I will ask the children to draw the animals they saw at the farm. I will provide drawing books and pencils for the children to draw the animals based on their hypothesis. I will give crayons to the children to color their drawings. For the children who have a problem drawing during the art session, I will provide them with a picture book and articles with farm animals where they will cut out a picture of the animal they saw at the farm. I will provide them with glue to stick the pictures they have cut out on a book. This learning experience will help develop visual art skills in the children.

Assessment

In this study, I preferred to use the portfolio method of assessment . I will use the portfolio method to assess the art drawn by the children. This will help assess the art skills of the children.

Closure

In conclusion, this learning experience helped me achieve the goals set for the lesson. The learning experience helps the children to develop visual arts skills. The incorporation of such a lesson plan will help in the development of preschool children.

�Add art to the content area above.

�What kind of toys? To align with the lesson the toys should teach the ABCs, sorting, etc.

�OK

�You will also need a book or video on plants.

�How will you teach this concept?

�Name the test.

�OK