Childcare

Unit 6 – Play, Curriculum and Early Learning
  E2
The age range I have been given is 3-4 years.

E3   Creative play is a type of play that helps children to learn in a variety of ways. It helps to promote learning by allowing the children to express what they are thinking or feeling, especially if the child is insecure or embarrassed about talking to somebody. By involving children in activities and allowing access to creative resources the children will be able to use their imagination and explore as creative thinking is promoted. Creative play doesn’t always necessary mean using arts and crafts it can be role play that may create a story about things they have seen or things they like to think about. Some children enjoy getting messy and using materials to investigate and express their feelings and ideas where as some are more precise and are creative in other ways such as singing and making noise. Being creative can allow the children to develop and make connections between all of the areas of learning as well as learning new techniques and using new tools. It also allows the children to socialize and interact with others when doing group work through a creative activity. Different language skills maybe learnt and children begin to talk about what they’re doing in detail whilst learning new words, mostly through others around them. Intellectually children can learn colours, shapes and numbers when making paintings, drawing pictures or colouring by numbers etc. The environment that surrounds us all today is very cultural and there are many cultural celebrations that the children will pick up on and learn about when working on topics such as Chinese New Year etc, in this they could make and decorate a dragon styled prop to use in a dance which will then link into physical play. Children aged 3-4 may learn lots of new ways to socialise because this is the age “they now play with other children rather than just near them, and are making their first friends”...