Week 7 (Day 14)

The day started with morning tea, during which I talked with the children about their favourite things to do and what they had planned for the day. In addition to offering a chance to examine their social interactions and communication abilities, this casual encounter aided in creating a feeling of community. The children were engaged in unstructured outside play after breakfast. They played creative role-playing games, rode bicycles, and investigated climbing equipment.   Theorists like Froebel, who promoted play as a fundamental component of learning, highlighted the value of play in holistic child development, and this unstructured time aided in their physical development, creativity, and self-regulation (Bruce, 2022). 

Following lunch, I introduced an activity intended to improve fine motor skills and cognitive growth. The children were given blue, red, and yellow coloured papers along with stickers that matched, like green leaves, red jackets, and yellow sunflowers. They were urged to glue the relevant stickers to the matching piece of paper, which called for concentration, classification, and problem-solving skills. I used scaffolding to support children in their zone of proximal development, providing indications and encouragement when necessary, in accordance with Vygotsky's theory of sociocultural development (Berk, 2022). As children worked together and celebrated their accomplishments, the activity also promoted traits like curiosity and perseverance.

This showed how integrating guided learning activities with unstructured play promotes a child's overall development in the social, cognitive, and physical domains. While sorting activity improved fine motor and cognitive abilities, outdoor play fostered independence and physical exploration. Using the theories of Vygotsky and Froebel, I saw how play and scaffolding may complement each other to improve children's learning and dispositions. I intend to create more activities in the future that incorporate these ideas, encouraging both self-reliance and chances for supervised learning (Berk, 2022; Bruce, 2022). 

References 

Berk, L. E. (2022). Development through the lifespan (8th ed.). Pearson Education.

Bruce, T. (2022). Early Childhood Education (5th ed.). Hodder Education.