Philosophy and Planning
Details of the Setting
V attends a preschool within the area of Casula. The setting caters for up to 20 children daily. The indoor setting consists of a small art room, limited small areas around the group time area such
as dramatic play, playdough, puzzles, writing and block corner. The outdoor environment allows the children to run around freely between the sand pit and the obstacle course. The centre is
located within short distance of the local library and shopping mall. The diverse languages and cultures identified and spoken within the community and centre include English, Lebanese, Indian,
Chinese, Spanish and so on. Based upon conversations with staff, the children’s current interests are pirates or oceans, bugs, sea animals and cooking. Creative arts is implemented daily within
the art room based on the program but is very limited in ways as there isn’t much continuity or range for the children to engage with as the staff always set up paint with paint brushes and an
easel. In addition, the centre’s program focuses upon the use of natural resources and implements this with creative art experiences, however the purpose behind the activity is unclear as staff
tend to take over and encourage the children to make decorations for the indoor and outdoor environment. The children respond to these creative art experiences with enthusiasm and
patience.
Details of Focus Child
V is the youngest of her large family as it consists of two parents, two older brothers and two older sisters. V comes from a Spanish background and has close contact with her extended family
within her everyday life. V demonstrates an interest within the creative arts such as drawing, writing and painting. However, the program provides a limited range of experiences within the
creative arts domain and there are few group-based activities with the focus of dancing or opportunities for the children to engage with musical instruments. At group times the same songs are
sung and at numerous times throughout the day. V displays an interest in animals as she brings from home some of her favourite toy animals. V engages with visual art based experiences in the
art room daily, with the interest and goal of drawing pictures for her family to take home upon departure from the centre. In regards to creative arts, V displays her development with the
inclusion of creative dispositions as she begins to draw circle like figures in her drawings to represent people, movements are controlled, attempts to follow and repeat the actions used in
songs implemented during group times, can recite songs verbally and verbalises the events on the weekend in detail like a story (Shirrmacher & Fox, 2009). V’s dispositions include enthusiasm,
commitment, curiosity, confidence and persistent (Arthur, 2010).
Planned Experience 1- Dramatic Play (Drama
Learning Focus
This experience focuses upon the children using their imaginative skills in their creative development as they use their creativity to visualise themselves in situations such as out at sea or within
the water with dangerous animals. This experience will incorporate a dramatic elements such as contrast, focus and tension, as the children engage, create, present and respond to their
understanding of this natural world, how this world relates to them and identify the possible experiences they can participate in within this environment (Dunn & Stinson, 2014, cited in Wright,
2014).
Rationale
I will be implementing an experience relating to dramatic play as the children will be given hand’s on resources such as snorkels, goggles, and life jackets. I am implementing this experience as
the children like to imagine they are out at sea in a rocking boat, this is based upon the children’s emerging interests in sea animals. This experience will be implemented within the outdoor
environment within the boat as the children can use the life jackets as a safety measure. It is essential for the children to learn about these safety pro-cautions if they are ever at sea or in a
boat. The teaching strategies that will be integrated throughout this experience is a modelling and scaffolding technique as I will model the correct safety procedures when in the boat and
asking the children questions by encouraging them to correct me and others speculations.
Resources
• Snorkels
• Goggles
• Life Jackets
• A blue tarp
• A boat
• Flippers
• Books
How will I interact with the children to support their learning?
The important aspect of this experience will be the setup as it needs to stimulate and entice the children’s creative development based on their current interests in sea animals, pirates and
oceans. The staffs have informed me that they would like a learning centre nearby for the children to refer to with the focus of enhancing their interest and engagement within the experience.
This learning centre will include books of sea animals with several images of the animals, story books based upon going to the beach, adventures of swimming in the ocean, toy animals, sand and
so on. The experience will also incorporate a strategy or technique as the children begin to view things differently as they don’t need to be at the beach to swim in the ocean or see sea animals,
this all relates to being creative and extending upon our creativity (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). As an educator, I will provide opportunities for the children to guide the experience based upon
their interests and creativity rather than me telling them what to do as this will not be very beneficial for their learning within the area of creative arts. The children will also be encourage to
engage in a discussion about safety procedures and the dangerous animals living within this natural environment.
Evaluation Questions
? Was the experience age or developmentally appropriate?
? Was the resources age appropriate?
? Did the children engage successfully or demonstrate any drama elements during their engagement? If so, which ones? (Wright, 2014, Edwards, 2002 & Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009)
? Did the children role play or improvise any scenarios?
? Did the setup stimulate the children’s engagement within this experience?
? How did the children respond to the experience?
? What could be improved or changed if implemented again?
? Were the resources useful to foster the children’s creative development?
? Were the teaching strategies effective? If so why?
? Was locomotor and non-locomotor movement used? If so how?
? Did the educator support children’s learning throughout the experience?
? What did the children learn about drama or the creative arts?
? Did the resources assist the children to engage and stimulate their interests?
? Were the children provided with time to engage with the resources effectively?
? Did the experience extend upon their current interests?
? Was the experience flexible?
? Did the educator engage or scaffold within the experience? If so how?
? Did the resources meet health and safety requirements?
? Was the learning centre an effective addition to the experience?
? Did the children learn anything about safety procedures?
? Were the teaching strategies of scaffolding and modelling effective? If so how?
? What follow up experiences can be relevant to extend upon the children’s interests?
? Did the experience relate to any of the children’s funds of knowledge or prior experiences?
? What did the stakeholders say?
PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT 🙂