This is my last week at the paivakoti, it has been an interesting journey, and I am leaving with mixed feelings, grateful for the people I met there especially Jenni and Helena, the kids were fun to work with, i could say a lot about the personality of the 19 kids. One primary thing i learnt is the importance of play.

PLAY AS A CREATIVE WAY FO LEARNING

Play is an integral part of a child’s life, and it is used as a creative way of learning. There are different ways and approaches of how play is used in learning, promoting development and the overall wellbeing of a child. The following are methods of how we use play as a way of learning in the paivakoti:

1. Play-Based Learning: Many educational settings, such as preschools, kindergartens, and early childhood programs, utilize play-based learning approaches. In these environments, play is central to the curriculum, and children engage in hands-on, interactive activities that promote exploration, creativity, problem-solving, and social interaction. Teachers facilitate play experiences that are both fun and educational, allowing children to learn through exploration and discovery.
2. Role-Playing and Pretend Play: Role-playing and pretend play activities allow children to engage in imaginative and dramatic play scenarios, where they can take on different roles, explore various perspectives, and act out real-life situations. Through role-playing, children develop language and communication skills, empathy, social awareness, and problem-solving abilities. Teachers may provide props, costumes, and themed play areas to encourage imaginative play. I remember i acted like a blind catcher, who looks for the kids and catches them, the kids really loved the play, we had to take turns to the pretend, and they were learning how to use sound to find everyone, there were also the mother and we had to choose different dolls as our babies.
3. Outdoor Play and Physical Activity: Outdoor play is essential for children’s physical health and development. Practical work involving outdoor play provides opportunities for children to engage in active play, such as running, jumping, climbing, swinging, and exploring nature. Outdoor play promotes gross motor skills, coordination, strength, and cardiovascular fitness while encouraging a sense of adventure, risk-taking, and appreciation for the natural world. The outdoor play was the kids favourite as there were little limits to what they could do.
4. Sensory Play: Sensory play activities involve stimulating children’s senses through hands-on experiences with various materials, textures, colors, sounds, and smells. Practical work with sensory play allows children to explore and experiment with sensory materials such as sand, water, playdough, rice, beans, beads and sensory bins. Sensory play supports cognitive development, language skills, fine motor skills, self-regulation, and sensory integration.
5. Constructive Play: Constructive play activities involve building, designing, and creating with blocks, construction sets, LEGO bricks, and other building materials. Practical work with constructive play fosters creativity, spatial awareness, problem-solving, and engineering skills. Children learn concepts such as balance, symmetry, stability, and cause-and-effect relationships through hands-on construction projects.
6. Social Play and Cooperative Games: Practical work involving social play and cooperative games encourages children to interact, collaborate, negotiate, and problem-solve with their peers. Teachers facilitate group activities, team-building exercises, and cooperative games that promote communication, teamwork, and conflict resolution skills. Social play also helps children develop friendships, empathy, and social competence.

Overall, I was completely involve in the kids play at one point or the other,, from painting, to bead work, role playing, out door game, lego, puzzles, board games. Their personality shone brighter during playin, their level of emotional intelligence, social empathy,problem solving tactics, cooperation, favorite people and their level of curiosity could be obsereved through play. I participated in all their plays to fully understand the use of play as creative way of learning is reflected in pratical ways.

The goals for using play as a creative way of learning in early childhood include:

1. Promoting Holistic Development: Play-based learning aims to support the holistic development of children, encompassing their cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and creative growth. Through play, children have opportunities to develop skills and abilities across multiple domains.
2. Fostering Creativity and Imagination: Play encourages children to use their imagination, explore new ideas, and express themselves creatively. Engaging in imaginative play allows children to invent scenarios, solve problems, and think outside the box.
3. Enhancing Social Skills: Play provides opportunities for children to interact with peers, negotiate roles, share resources, and collaborate on projects. By engaging in cooperative play, children develop essential social skills such as communication, cooperation, empathy, and conflict resolution.
4. Supporting Cognitive Development: Play-based learning activities stimulate cognitive development by engaging children in hands-on exploration, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Through play, children develop cognitive skills such as decision-making, spatial awareness, cause-and-effect reasoning, and mathematical concepts.
5. Encouraging Language and Literacy Development: Play-based activities promote language development by providing opportunities for children to engage in conversations, storytelling, and vocabulary expansion. Pretend play, role-playing, and storytelling activities help children develop language skills, narrative abilities, and comprehension.
6. Cultivating Emotional Intelligence: Play allows children to explore and express their emotions in a safe and supportive environment. By engaging in imaginative play and social interactions, children learn to identify and regulate their emotions, develop empathy, and understand the perspectives of others.
7. Building Confidence and Self-Esteem: Play-based learning experiences empower children to take risks, try new things, and build confidence in their abilities. As children succeed in solving problems, mastering new skills, and achieving goals through play, they develop a sense of competence and self-esteem.
8. Promoting Physical Development: Play-based activities contribute to the development of gross motor and fine motor skills, coordination, balance, and spatial awareness. Outdoor play, active games, and manipulative activities help children develop strength, agility, and physical fitness.
9. Cultivating Curiosity and Lifelong Learning: Play fosters a natural curiosity and love of learning in children, encouraging them to explore their interests, ask questions, and seek answers. By engaging in open-ended play experiences, children develop a lifelong passion for learning and discovery.

Children most times learn faster when they are in a group and play is used as a teaching method rather when they are taught alone.The use of play has achieved the goals of development in a child, although the goal of using play as a creative way of learning is to create enriching, meaningful, and enjoyable experiences that support children’s growth and development in all areas, laying a strong foundation for future learning and success but most importantly is a creative way of learning.

EMILIA

Emilia is a four-year-old girl, who i made a play action plan for her. She is not the physically active child who wants to jump and play all around for most of the day loves staying close to people she is comfortable with and play with toys. Part of my plan was engaging her in role play to make her express herself more and enhance her social skill, which we were able to do only with her friends.

She likes to paint, I had to set a goal for her to paint, which was a way for to express her creativity. I observe that she paints what she is not able to explain. The goal was to have an idea in mind while painting and this actually brought life to her painting, she was able to paint her friend with beautiful while the sun was shining bright. Her painting got better as they represented something she was able to explain. She also got better with her bead work; her colour combination got better.

Physical Development goal, where the child is able to build her motor skill, physical balance, agility. The outdoor activities were helpful, I encouraged her to climb ropes, do backflips on them, go through the slides and run, while chasing her friends. These physical activities that we engaged in made her used lots of energy, thereby increasing her appetite during lunch hours.

Emilia like telling stories about her family, she feels sad when an adult or someone is too busy to listen to her. My goal was to encourage to tell more of her story to build her self-confidence and make her feel heard. I tried asking her about her activities each day about her previous day, she was happy talking about her dog, which is a bulldog, about her little sister and how happy she is to be a big sister and other activities she did.

I encouraged her to do more puzzles to improve her problem-solving skill, she did most of the puzzles at the paiva koti, which was quite interesting.

Emilia got better with doing more outdoor play, which improved her physical agility, her painting got better with a story to tell for each. Her story telling was heard and it improved her mood each day.

I was able to use different plays to help her learn about developing her skills that needed developing.