It is important to take into consideration the physical environment when planning for children’s learning and to create an enabling environment, this is because Health and Safety and Risk Assessments will need to be carried out, in order to ensure it’s safe for the children. For example an outdoor environment, will need to be Risk Assessed to make sure there are enough staff to Children for the ratio and whether the outdoor equipment is suitable for the age range.
Having an outdoor environment is essential for children to learn and play.“Playing outdoors is a form of exercise that promotes well-being and wholesome physical development.” [http://www.fisher-price.com] Having an enabled environment for children is key for children to thrive and develop to the best of their ability.
An enabled environment will help the children make relationships with one, building their confidence and developing their social and emotional skills.Forest school supports Early Years practice in many ways, to ensure ‘Healthier Bodies, Healthier Minds, Healthier environment and Healthier Future’, linking with the EYFS in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Knowledge and Understanding the World, and Creative Development, these are all essential development areas for children at a young age, giving them confidence and building their self esteem. This is beneficial for the children getting them outdoors and understanding the world around them and the community, understanding how things grow, and how it all fits together and a general understanding of life.The Planning Cycle is key during the planning process as it will help adults identify any issues with the child, this makes sure that they are developing at the correct page and stage, and if this isn’t apparent they the setting will be able to all in other members of the multi-agency team in order to help aid the children in their development.
Helping practitioner learn what style of learning the child works best in, for example kinaesthetic, creative or visual. Seeing and observing what activities the child likes helps indicate what type is best for the child. Parents’ wishes and the child’s individual needs need to be taken into consideration (E10) when the practitioner creates plans.Working with parents is a key in order to help plan activities and care plans for the child, for example the practitioner can find out what activities and recourses the child likes to play with at home, and have them incorporated within the setting. This will boost the children’s confidence and self-esteem as there will be things that are interesting them.
It is also key for practitioners to work with parents if any children have any allergies or special educational needs, (E10) working with the parents to find out information about the children will help the practitioner care for the child better suited to the children’s needs. This is from the EYFS, clearly identifying to the professionals how to plan effectively and correctly, to benefit the child. (E10)There are many theories that offer explanation on how children learn. These are Social, Behaviour and Constructivist methods. Social learning states that children have role models, and copy the behaviour that they see from other children and adults. This links to Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment, where the children mimic the behaviour that the adult inflicted towards the Bobo Doll.
Behaviourists believe that children are clean slates that can be moulded, changed and conditioned based on the environment they are within.They believe that you can fill children with information as they are an ‘empty pint glass’. Positive reinforcement comes from this type of theory, as the children learn what is acceptable and what is not by the outcome that they receive, this is not prior knowledge that the children have it is something that they learn. However negative reinforcement works in the same way, if a child is acting inappropriately or negatively and the parents rewards the child ie with a sweet or a cuddle, the child will know that if they behave negatively they will be rewarded with a gift.Theorists that proved and worked on this theory is Skinner and Pavlov. Constructivist theorists believe in child led play and learning, where they learn from guidance from adults, and also through exploration and experimentation.
Piaget believed that children learn naturally and that they have the information stored in them, and they need to find it within themselves. Whereas Vygotsky believed that the environment shapes the child’s learning (a more nurturing style)Planning is essential to a child’s learning as practitioners can ‘consider ways to support the child to strengthen and deepen their current learning and development’ reflecting on the headings in Development Matters in the EYFS, which are ‘Positive Relationships and ‘Enabled Environments’. Enabling Environments is where the practitioners can plan to create an environment which is suitable for the children, and help with planning of the activities and supporting the children’s learning. In order to plan professionally for a children settin it is key for the practitioners to be able to research well, identifying different possibilities and keeping the information they have update, which is where the planning cycle would be essential, and children develop and grow and different stages, so observations would be key in order to know and understand where children are developmentally.
The practitioner can use their research to find interesting and suitable activities for the children to do, for example not just being outside, but doing gardening and specific things that could link with their development stages, such as gross motor skills and understanding the world. “Carrying out regular observations is vital because it ensures that we put the child at the center of our practice”.Planning is essential to aid the learning and play of children. Froebel’s theory of outdoor play and learning is used within many settings; this is because an outdoor environment is encouraged to help their physical and social development. Practitioners need to aim to incorporate the outdoor environment into their planning, allowing children to play and learn outside.
Froebel’s theory supports practitioners in their planning as it gives evidence of children benefiting from an outdoor learning environment. Froebel wanted children to apply their knowledge and what they have learnt by physically completing an activity, and learning by doing. (E10) Being outside allows children to communicate with each other over common ground and likes and dislikes, enabling their social and emotional development, and also their confidence and self-esteem.It is key for practitioners to consult and speak to parents to make sure that the practitioner knows and understand all the information about the child. This includes health and safety information, but also their likes and dislikes and allows the practitioners to build relationships with the parents.
Within many nurseries the child’s Key Worker will visit the child at their home in order to get the know the child, many practitioners create conversations with the parent about the child’s likes and dislikes. These can include what games the child likes to play, whether the child prefers to indoor or outdoor etc. It also builds a relationship between the practitioner and the child, but also allows a relationship to be built with the child before they start attending nursery.A practitioner needs to understand and know the child in order to plan and provide activities best suited to their care and learning needs.
A child will be more interested within an activity if it is something that they enjoy and like, so a practitioner will plan an activity specifically suited to each individual child to ensure they are engaged and interested. The practitioner knows and understands the child dislikes by talking to the child’s previous setting and also to the child’s parent. This is apparent within primary schools and settings, private and statutory
