Guyana Renewed Nursery Curriculum
Nursery Year One and Nursery Year Two
Strand/Subject: Well-Being
Final Draft: JUNE 2022
STRAND: WELL-BEING (WB) | |||
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Useful Content Knowledge for the teacher about this ELO Before any learning can occur, children need to feel safe, secure, and supported. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider the physical and emotional space in the nursery classroom. The more the nursery teacher creates physical space feels like home with familiar objects, languages, experiences and people present, the more at ease the child will be. The more the nursery teacher creates an emotional space that is warm, inviting, safe, and empathetic, the more comfortable the child will feel. The more predictable the classroom routines and practices, the more the young child will be able to settle in and able to engage in learning. Children, of course, will differ in greatly in how quickly they feel safe, secure, and supported, with some children needing more time than others. The role of the nursery teacher is essential in observing children in classroom and engaging in conversation with them to notice the degree to which they feel safe, secure, and supported. Children most often tell us things through their behaviours about their level of feeling secure. A child who feels safe, secure, and supported will develop the ability to:
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ENVIRONMENTS: Sample environment #1 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Free Play time to start the day, where children may choose activities and move from one activity to another at will. Materials can be set up in centers: blocks center; water center (basin of water and objects that may sink or float); drama center with puppets and dress-up clothing (adult clothing, hats, purses) and props like fake phones, dishes, table, stuffed animals, etc.); art center with paper, paints, crayons, scraps of fabric, glue, etc. Sample environment # 2 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Circle Time (Large Group): Circle time provides opportunities for the nursery teacher and children share their ideas and learn more about each other. Circle time provides opportunities for children to develop attachments. Circle time also offers opportunities for children to share experiences and use songs, rhymes, stories to reinforce their sense of individual well-being and belonging. Sample environment #3 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Outdoor Free Play time, in sandbox, on play equipment, when building something from found (tires, blocks) and natural (logs, rocks, twigs) materials in the environment, etc. Sample environment # 4 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Group Story Time and Language Experience Time where children are invited to share stories and ideas. For this strand, stories would be centered around young children’s feelings of being safe, secure, and supported. The teacher leads a discussion about the stories or sometimes writes the story or parts of the story on paper. Later, the teacher can read the story and the children can act it out. Children may draw pictures to accompany stories. | |||
Specific Curriculum Outcomes | Inclusive Assessment Strategies | Inclusive Learning Strategies | |
1.1 Children build secure attachments with one and then more familiar educators. | Observe and record moments when children show they are building attachments with teachers. | Sample environment #1 (Free Play), #2 (Assembly and Large Group Time), #3 (Outdoor Free Play), #4 (Group Story Time and Language Experience Time): Create an atmosphere of trust and security by responding positively to each and every child’s concerns, so that children understand that they can turn to teacher if they need help. | |
1.2 Children recognize routines and predict transitions. | Observe each child’s ability to recognize and predict the classroom routines and traditions. Record and date these observations on the Class Notes Sheet. | Sample environment #2 (Assembly and Large Group Time): Following Free Play in the morning, gather the children together for assembly and registration. Begin the day with a check-in with the group. Review the overview of the day with the children so they will be aware of what is planned. Create a visual schedule to reinforce for the children the routines of the day. For example, a picture of a book could be used to show when it is group story time. Sample environment #1 (Free Play): Create rhymes or songs for transition times during the day (arriving in the morning, moving between environments, using the washroom, recess, snack time, preparing for going home). For example, when it is time to put the materials away after free play, the children could the song “It’s time to tidy up” as they clean up. | |
1.3 Children communicate their needs for comfort and assistance. | Observe children’s ability (non-verbal and verbal) to communicate their needs in the classroom environment. | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time): Use puppets to model familiar classroom situations in which one child needs to ask for help from another child or from a teacher. Highlight the words the puppets use to request help, such as: “Can you help me?” “I’m scared right now?” “I can’t do this, and I need help.” After the teacher models this using the puppets, the children may take the puppets and model some role plays for others. These puppets are available in the free play center where children may play with them further. | |
1.4 Children initiate interactions and conversations with trusted educators. | Observe children and notice when they initiate interactions and conversations with adults in the room. Use a Class Notes Sheet to record observations and capture conversations with individual children. | Sample environment #1 (Free Play) and #3 (Outdoor Free Play): Find opportunities in these less structured environments to be available for children to come and initiate interactions or conversations with the nursery teacher and other adults in the room. | |
1.5 Children confidently explore and engage in social and physical environments through relationships and play. | Observe the children and, where appropriate, ask open-ended and probing questions to children about their play such as: “Now what is the truck going to do to get over that water?” “Can you tell me where these dolls are going today?” “Your puppet sounds sad today? Can you tell me what happened to him? What might he do now?” “You three children are having some difficulty figuring out how to share these toys? What do you think can be done to make this work?”. Listen carefully to the children’s responses and where possible, extend the conversation with them. | Sample environment #1 (Free Play) and #3 (Outdoor Free Play): Recognize that free play environments offer excellent places and spaces for children to explore both relationships and ideas through play and find moments to initiate conversations with children. Ensure these environments are well-maintained, that materials are frequently updated, and that they are used daily. | |
1.6 Children initiate and join in different types of play. | Observe the kinds of play children initiate. Notice the social groups to which they belong. Notice children who are having difficulty being included into play situations and think about how to provide more support for these children. Record these observations in each child’s Individual Student Folder. | Sample environment #1 (Free Play) and #3 (Outdoor Free Play): Provide these flexible and open learning environments, continually refreshing the variety of the materials in these spaces. | |
Additional learning activities
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Inclusive Resources and Materials: puppets, puppet theater, adult clothing, mirrors, shoes, boots, bags, hats, briefcases, ties, stuffed toys, story books reflecting student interests, toys, manipulative, and outdoor spaces. |
Involving Parents: Making a welcoming space for parents and families in the nursery classroom is one of the most powerful ways to create a home-like atmosphere in the classroom, as the young children will see their parents and families involved in their education. When parents and families are invited into the nursery classroom space, they become more familiar with the nursery program and are more likely to be able to reinforce their children’s learning at home. In the informal conversations that occur when the nursery teacher and parents talk in the classroom setting, the nursery teacher can come to know more deeply their students’ interests, likes and challenge. This knowledge will help the nursery teacher better teach the student. Some ways to bring parents and families into the nursery program include:
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STRAND: WELL-BEING |
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Useful Content Knowledge for the teacher about this ELO Emotional intelligence involves being aware of one’s own feelings and then managing one’s behaviour. As young children become aware of the feelings of others, they can learn how to manage interactions with others. Emotional development and acquiring social skills build a child’s ability to self-regulate (manage themselves). Self-regulation is important for school readiness and will help nursery children transition successfully into primary school. Increasingly, we know that high quality free play settings and play-based learning provide important settings in which emotional and social skills development can occur, under the guidance of observant and skilled nursery teachers. Young children learn a lot by observing so when children see adults or other children in the class modelling sharing, expressing gratitude, sharing feelings in the classroom, they are gaining an understanding of how to interact with people in the wider world outside of their home. Increasingly early childhood educators understand the important and central role of social emotional learning (SEL) in the nursery curriculum. Being able to identify, name, understand and manage emotions is some of the most important learning children on their learning journey. This provides the foundation from which young children can form and sustain positive relationships with others outside the home. Emotions are always present. Emotions are complex and there is rarely a time in our lives that we are not dealing with our own emotions or the emotions of people around us. As children grow and develop, they can also go through stages that will see them struggle to regulate or understand why they feel a particular way. Creating a nursery classroom climate where young children can talk openly and frequently about their emotions and behaviour which will help build the emotional intelligence of young children. This article published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (2017) a good overview as to why emotional intelligences is so important in early childhood education. It is a curriculum that needs to be revisited many times and in many different contexts as children grow and develop. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2017/teaching-emotional-intelligence |
ENVIRONMENTS Sample environment #1 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Free Play time to start the day, where children may choose activities and move from one activity to another at will. Play environments offer an excellent environment for children to build their social skills. Materials can be set up in centers: blocks center; water center (basin of water and objects that may sink or float); drama center with puppets and dress-up clothing (may be adult clothing, hats) and props like fake phones, dishes, table, stuffed animals, etc.); art center with paper, paints, crayons, scraps of fabric, glue, etc. Sample environment # 2 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Circle Time (Large Group): Circle time provides opportunities for the nursery teacher and children share and name their feelings and learn about how other children might be feeling. Circle time provides opportunities for children to talk openly about feelings and importantly, what they might do when they feel certain emotions. Sample environment #3 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Outdoor Free Play time, in sandbox, on play equipment, when building something from found (tires, blocks) and natural (logs, rocks, twigs) materials in the environment. Play environments offer an excellent environment for children to build their social skills. Sample environment # 4 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Group Story Time and Language Experience Time where children are invited to share stories and ideas. For this strand, stories would be centered around young children’s feelings and how children learn to express their feelings in more appropriate ways. The teacher leads a discussion about the stories or sometimes writes the story or parts of the story on paper. Later, the teacher can read the story and the children can act it out. Children may draw pictures to accompany stories. |
Specific Curriculum Outcomes | Inclusive Assessment Strategies | Inclusive Learning Strategies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.1 Children show an increasing capacity to understand, self-regulate and manage their emotions* in ways that reflect the feelings and needs of others. (*angry, sad, scared, confused, frustrated, happy, tired, excited, jealous, shy, sick, confident, determined, shocked, tired, strong, etc.) | Observe children’s growing ability to a) recognize and name basic emotions, and b) manage that emotion in acceptable ways. For example, when a child struggling in complex or noisy group activities, they may choose to remove themselves to a quiet space in the classroom and return when they are ready. Or a child who is upset/sad on arrival at school may sit quietly by themselves for a few minutes. Using an Observation Checklist make frequent observations on the emotions which children are expressing. From time to time, ask individual children if they can identify and name how they are feelings and describe what evoked that feeling. | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time): Choose an emotion to teach about for a few lessons. Let’s choose the emotion anger. Use pictures of people with angry faces to help children be able to identify the emotion and be able to verbalize how it feels. Build a T-chart (see below) to describe each (looks like, sounds like, feels like). Record on the chart what the children say about anger. What does anger look like (eyes pinched, frown, red face, stomping feet), sound like (raised voice, yelling) and feel like (heart racing, hot, sweaty)? A different emotion would be explored throughout at whole week and revisited many times during the week or two and continually throughout the nursery years. Write their descriptions on the chart. My Emotions T-chart
Children will role play a variety of emotions (using their faces and their bodies) so that they can recognize the emotions in themselves and in others. Compile the T charts (one per week) into a class made book which can be reviewed at circle time. Drama is an excellent way for children to build up their emotional intelligence. Demonstrate, using puppets, ways that the puppets can name, identity and manage their emotions. Create familiar situations in which the puppets feel an emotion, name the emotion, and express that emotion in acceptable ways (using words, using self-calming techniques, moving to another environment). Allow children time to work in partners with their puppets. The teacher can also little role plays where children pretend being angry about something that happened, and then they show how they can manage (regulate) their anger. Children can present these little role plays to the group. Role playing is an excellent way for children to learn social skills. Sample environment # 3 (Group Story Time): In this lesson, the emotion being explored would be ‘sad’. Read an anchor text such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears or Jack and the Beanstalk which talk about the emotions in the story. For example, in the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears, in the beginning of the story the bears were all happy. Baby Bear felt sad after Goldilocks ate his porridge and broke his chair. Invite children to talk about how Baby Bear shows he is sad. Ask them to show what Baby Bear’s face might look like (frowning, possibly tears). Ask them to show what might his whole body look like (head down, shoulders down). What might he feel? (tummy might hurt, holding back tears, hard to talk). Ask them to think about what Baby Bear might say “I’m really sad” or “I don’t like how she broke my things.” Then invite the children to talk about situations in which they have felt sad or encountered a friend who was feeling this way. For each emotion that is being taught, repeat the lesson format above, of trying to find a suitable story in which the emotion is present and talking about that emotion in that story and how the character felt and behaved. Use the story as a jumping off point for children to connect that emotion to their own lives. This opens the space for children to name emotions and the feelings and behaviors associated with emotions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.2 Children demonstrate trust and confidence in themselves, peers and caregivers. | Observe and record instances when children show confidence in themselves, their peers and teachers. Notice the child’s ability to organize and locate their belongings. Observe and acknowledge when a child willingly offers to assist a classmate or the teacher. | All classroom environments: Ensure that each child has their own personal space for their belongings. Reviewing the daily schedule and routines helps create a sense of predictability for the children. This will enable children to have a sense of what is expected of them throughout the day and build their trust and confidence. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.3 Children remain accessible to others at times of anger, distress, confusion, and frustration. | Observe children’s ability to manage the emotions they are feeling in socially acceptable ways. Engage children in conversations about their efforts to remain accessible (manage themselves) during these moments. Some examples of this could be when: •a child is happy and observes his peer is sad and shows empathy for his/her peers •a child is sad but still communicates with peers • a child is frustrated at a task, but still helps another complete their task | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time): Demonstrate the ways that children can manage the emotions they feel. Discuss different ways that people can express emotions. For example, if a child is feeling angry, they could: • use their words (“I feel angry” or “When you push me, I feel angry”.) • using self-calming techniques (give themselves a hug, take several deep breaths) • remove themselves from the situation and find an adult or peer to talk to. Give the children small role plays to act out so they can rehearse responses to the emotions they feel. For example, a child could show how when someone or something upsets them, they can go to the “sit out chair” a chair set up in a separate corner of the room). Or they could put their head down on the table for a few minutes instead of lashing out at others. Role plays or ‘role rehearsals’ are important because they help children practice and acquire social behaviours. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.4 Children share humor, happiness, and satisfaction. | Using an Observation Checklist make frequent observations on the emotions which children are expressing. From time to time, ask individual children if they can identify and name how their feelings and describe what evoked that feeling. For example, when a child is smiling, the teacher can ask the child to explain the facial expressing and ask the child “Why are you smiling?” or “How are you feeling?”. Or when children find something funny and share it with teacher and peers in a burst of laughter, the teacher can ask them to talk about it out loud. | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time). Use circle time as a place for children to share their humor, happiness, and satisfaction on a daily basis, noting the positive energy these feeling generate. Sample environment #3 (Group Story Time): Use an anchor text such as Pink Pig’s Party which has humor, happiness, or satisfaction as a theme. Invite the children to talk about the situations in which they have experience these emotions at home or in the community. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.5 Children seek out and accept new challenges, make new discoveries, and celebrate their own efforts and achievements and those of others. | During free play, continuously be a ‘child watcher,’ looking carefully at children’s growth over time. Make notes of the different activities children choose, the levels of challenge in the activities, their social interactions, and increasing awareness of other children. Date these observations and place in the Individual Child’s Folder. Some things a nursery teacher could notice would be: •when a child chooses to fix a new puzzle or discovers a new pattern of stringing or sorting and is eager about his/her discoveries • when a child found out that when you pull back a toy car and let go, it goes a far distance • when Mary cuts out a circle all by herself and then showed it to Mark with excitement in her voice | Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #4 (Outdoor Free Play): Free play offers multiple opportunities every day for children to explore, discover, test new ideas, and set challenges for themselves. Circulate during free play time to various centers and observe or engage in conversation with individual or small groups of children. For example, a child may try to build a truck using blocks, and when asked might point out all the intended parts on the truck and talk about the function of the parts. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.6 Children increasingly co-operate and work together with others. | Observe children during play time and note when they cooperate and work together. Notice, for example, when children offer to help and allow others to help in completing a task or when a child willingly helps who perhaps spilled their drink at snack time. | All sample environments: Choose Cooperative Activities such as making a puzzle together, adding ideas to a big class mural, of building a fort outside out of old tires. These activities have cooperation built into them. Role plays, based on familiar classroom situations, help children practice strategies for cooperating and working together. Try and find activities that focus on cooperation, rather than competition. Activities like playing at the drama center, singing together, playing clapping games, helping clean up after snack, building a big play structure, and skipping together are example of activities that promote cooperative behaviors. Sample environment #2 (Circle Time): Use Talking Sticks, Talking Stones or Yarn Balls are tools that can help children learn to be more aware of others, share, and take turns during circle time. Sample environments #1 (Free Play) #4 (Outdoor Free Play): Free play creates space and time for children to learn to navigate the world of social relationships so ensure that there is quality time each day devoted to free play. Provide and encourage many group activity choices as well as individual choices. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.7 Children recognize their individual achievement. | Maintain a Portfolio Folder for each child in the class. Every month, plan to find opportunities to have short, individual conversations with each child about what they notice about their own learning. For example, if a child said to the teacher while packing up the books “I am good at this, aren’t I?” and the teacher said, “Yes you are,” the teacher could write this down on a note, commenting that the child shows a level of self-confidence, put the date on it and put it in their file. At regular intervals, the teacher will sit with an individual child and ask children to talk about the things they have done that are in their Individual Folder they are proud of (projects, drawings, crafts) or experiences that they feel are achievements for them. These can be then put into the Portfolio Folder with a note as to why the child felt they were achievements. Every item should be dated to show continuing growth over time. | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time): Use closing time at the end of the day to reflect with children the things they are learning - about themselves, each other, and the world inside and outside the classroom. The teacher can pass the Talking Stick around the circle and ask each child to reflect on their day. Prompting questions will help focus the children and the questions should vary from day to day: What something interesting that happened today? Did someone help you today? Did you help someone today? What surprised you today? Can you remember something happy or sad from today? Do you have question from today? What do you think you did well today? Providing reflection time at the end of the busy nursery day allows children to stop, review their day, and pay more attention to their learning. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.8 Children make choices, accept challenges, take considered risks, manage change and cope with frustrations and the unexpected. | Notice how children in these various situations manage themselves. Engage in conversations with them to try to capture their thinking. Use prompting questions such as “What do you think you’ll do right now?” or “What do you think might work? For example, when a child is trying to build a tall tower, but the blocks keep falling off as he goes higher, the teacher can ask “What could you do to make the tower stronger?” or “What will you do now?”. | Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #4 (Outdoor Free Play): Spending daily time in these environments allows children to make choices, take considered risks, manage change and cope with frustrations and the unexpected. Within these experiences there are many opportunities to engage individual children in talking about their experiences out loud. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2.9 Children recognize the contributions they make to shared projects and experiences. | Reflect with children on what part they each contributed to the completion of the project. For example, while the class was building a mural, a child might eagerly announce to the teacher, “I made a flower!”. | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time), #4 (Outdoor Free Play): Design activities which require children to cooperate over several days. If the children were learning about sea animals, they each could add something to the big class mural. The class could be building towers or trains using blocks or empty boxes. They could be creating sculptures made from empty cans and boxes. These activities provide them with opportunities to work on a group project. |
Additional Learning Activities: Activities to Help Students Explore Emotions Research shows that there is a strong relationship between social-emotional learning and cognitive development. But, just like math and reading, students must be taught social and emotional skills. Emotional regulation is a particularly important skill for students to learn as it affects students’ ability to make decisions, persist in goal-oriented activities, and seek help when needed. Some of these additional activities will help students learn how to explore and regulate their emotions. It is important for the nursery teacher to create space after the children have engaged in the activities below, for the children to talk out loud and listen to others talk out loud about the activities they have participated in. The nursery teacher is essential in creating these learning conversations with children as they participate in these activities. 1. Character Education Videos (https://www.charactertree.com/) The Character Tree is FREE character education video subscription series designed for first and second grade students. Every episode combines character education and social studies by focusing on one positive character trait and a prominent/historical figure. Best of all, they’re offering it free for the 2019-2020 school year. You can sign up here: The Character Tree 2. Emotions Sorting Game ( https://www.momendeavors.com/printable-emotions-sorting-game-disney-pixar-inside-out/) This website includes free downloads for an Inside Out-themed game where students match various reactions, facial expressions, etc. to the correct emotion. 3. Robot Flashcards(https://mrprintables.com/emotion-flashcards.html) These cute cards will help your students learn how to identify and recognize a range of different emotions. The fun robot theme is sure to capture their interest and attention. 4. Emotion Volcano(https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Behaviour-Support-Emotion-Feelings-Anger-Regulation-Volcano-Visual-1830870) Anger is often the emotion that erupts when a child is dealing with unregulated secondary emotions. In this activity, students learn about these emotions and what happens when they build up. 5. Calm Down Yoga(https://childhood101.com/yoga-for-kids/) Calm Down Yoga reinforces these concepts while teaching how to regulate emotions through calming yoga poses. 7. Teaching Feeling Words (http://www.upcyclededucation.com/2012/10/nurturing-emotional-intelligence.html) Too often, the emotions we focus on teaching are happy, sad, mad, etc. Students will benefit greatly in their social emotional development by learning about a wide range of emotions. 7. HALTED (http://www.upcyclededucation.com/2011/04/halted.html) This helpful acronym will help students pinpoint their emotions when they are feeling less-than-prefect. H – Hungry, A – Angry , L- Lonely, T – Tired, E – Embarrassed, D - Disappointed 8. Books About Feelings( https://www.apperson.com/classroom-management/10-book-to-help-kids-understand-their-feelings) Reading to your students is one of the best ways to teach them about their feelings and emotions. There are many wonderful books that teach children how to identify their emotions. Visit our previous post to see our top ten book recommendations. 9. Other Anchor Texts related to emotional and social development that Nursery Teachers might use: The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood. |
Inclusive Resources and Materials: Today I feel chart, story books, stuff toys, my emotions chart, paint, paper, crayons, modelling clay, sand, sticks, role play corner/ puppet area/ dress up corner, plastic eggs, feeling bags. |
Involving Parents. Parents and families are the first teachers of children, and the home environment provides a wonderful environment in which parents and other adults model many social behaviours: •When a young child observes adults and older siblings around them sharing, sharing, expressing gratitude, being helpful, and sharing feelings, s/he is learning how to interact with other people. •Adults who model simple phrases like "please" or "thank you," are demonstrating how they would like their children to behave. Importantly, parents and families can notice and comment when young children demonstrate good social behaviors. •When parents and family members can help their young child to feel good about themselves, they are helping the developing a sense of empathy and emotional competence within the child. •Young children who are encouraged share their feelings by talking with the adults around them will naturally begin to become more generous and thoughtful. •Nursery teachers can help families understand the importance of taking time every day to talk with and listen to their young children without distraction. •When nursery teachers make the surroundings welcoming for all children and families, they create possibilities for nursery teachers to share with families the important roles families play in helping develop and support the social and emotional growth on their children. In this way the home and the school can be working together to support building strong emotional intelligence in their young children. |
STRAND: WELL-BEING | ||
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Useful Content Knowledge for the teacher about the ELO. This ELO builds upon nursery children’s’ ability to increase their awareness of themselves: their bodies, how their bodies move, how to take care of the bodies, their emotions; and about others: how to be together with others in the world in a safe and respectful way. These are some the most important skills that young children need to acquire. Creating lots of opportunities to have conversations with children (individually and with the whole group) about these topics will help children develop their ability to become increasingly independent and aware of others in their environment.The Nursery Teacher provides an important model to help young children be aware of and take care of their physical and emotional needs. Teachers can do this in everyday interactions with children:
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ENVIRONMENTS Sample environment # 2 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Large Group Time/ Circle Time: Circle time provides opportunities for the nursery teacher and children share their ideas and learn more about each other. Circle time provides many informal opportunities to talk with children about health and wellness and how they can take responsibility for those things. Circle time also offers opportunities for children to share their experiences about how they take personal responsibility in these areas. Young children learn a great deal from hearing the ideas of other young children. The teacher plays an important role in facilitating these discussions so many children can share their ideas in the circle. Sample environment # 3 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Group Story Time (Language Experience), where children are invited to make up a story, imagine what comes next, etc. while teacher writes the story on paper. These stories could be centered on ways that children take responsibility for their health and wellness. Later, the teacher can read the story and children can act it out. Stories may be collected in a notebook to use again in future. Children may draw pictures to accompany stories, and these can be added to the notebook for students to enjoy with teacher later. Sample environment #4 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Outdoor Free Play time, in sandbox, on play equipment, playing low organized games, building structures from found (tires, blocks), and natural (logs, rocks, twigs) materials in the environment allows for larger spaces in which children can move their bodies freely and play with others. Plan many occasions to take the class outside to play in the outdoors as being outside and in nature contributes to good health and wellness. Sample environment # 5 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Field Trips: The teacher leads children on short trips to fields, parks, or other outdoor environments nearby where they can explore and discuss what they find. These can be frequent and informal field trips, and do not need to be highly structured. These excursions help increase children’s physical movement as they walk together. Sample environment # 6 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Snack Time: Snack time provides lots opportunity for informal learning conversations and community building time. Food is strongly associated health and wellness and can be an excellent time to talk about good foods help build strong bodies. Snack times provides a good opportunity for children to practice turn taking, using table manners and personal hygiene. The nursery teacher can learn about their children by observing and listening to children at the snack table. The teacher must remember that they are a guest at the table. | ||
Specific Curriculum Outcomes | Inclusive Assessment Strategies | Inclusive Learning Strategies |
3.1 Children recognize and communicate their physical needs, such as thirst, hunger, rest, comfort, and physical activity. | Listen carefully as children recognize and express basic needs. For example, “I feel tired after playing soccer,” or “I am thirsty after running.” Notice and record their ability to communicate what they need “Can I get a drink?” or “Can I sit down for a few minutes? “or “Can I use the bathroom?”. Record anecdotal comments and remarks regularly. | Sample environments #2 (Circle Time): Teach children the song All I Really Need (by Raffi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eerjiaH8dRE which talks about basic human needs. Find/draw pictures that express basic needs such as thirst, hunger, rest, comfort and physical activity. At morning check in time, choose a few children each day to reflect on the state of their basic needs as they start the day. This is called doing a ‘body and mind scan’ and it a great technique for helping children bring awareness to their body and their mind. Sample environments #5 (Field Trips): Encourage children to plan ahead about their physical needs by having them use the washroom before and after field trips. Include proper hand washing as part of regular hygiene. |
3.2 Children are happy, healthy, safe, and connected to others. | Engage in ‘child watching’, observing carefully how children act individually and with peers in various environments. Make teacher notes to help capture children’s growth and learning and put it into words. Record and date these notes in children’s Individual Student Files. Notice if and when children able to express themselves freely and share love and affection with their peers. Record anecdotal comments and remarks regularly. | Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #2 (Circle Time), #3 (Group Story Time), #4 (Outdoor Free Play), #5 (Field Trip), #6 (Snack Time): Provide rich diverse and safe learning environments in which children can explore and learn about themselves, others, and the world around them. |
3.3 Children engage in increasingly complex sensory-motor skills and movement patterns, such as clapping, jumping and turning around. | Observe children’s ability to use increasingly complex sensory-motor skills and movement patterns. Observe children and record and date anecdotal comments about their sensory motor skills remarks regularly. Notice if the children able to coordinate body movements. Observe is they can use more than one movement at the same time. For example, see if they can they clap and jump at the same time. | Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #2 (Circle Time), #3 (Group Story Time), #4 (Outdoor Free Play), #5 (Field Trip): Provide daily opportunities for energetic physical activity using dance, movement, and outdoor games. Encourage children to take part in activities. Be sure to include some cooperative physical opportunities. Cooperative activities do not focus on competition and making some children be “out”. Rather, cooperative play activities focus on including all the children. Cooperative activities help young children feel safe, secure, and motivated to join activities. |
3.4 Children combine gross and fine motor movement and balance to achieve increasingly complex patterns of activity. | Notice children’s ability to combine gross and fine motor movement and balance. Using an Observation Checklist observe and note each child’s • gross motor ability • fine motor ability • sense of balance • ability to combine and movements • level of confidence | Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #2 (Circle Time) , #3 (Group Story Time), #4 (Outdoor Free Play), #5 (Field Trip): Provide daily opportunities for energetic physical activity using action songs, finger plays, and dances which combine gross and fine motor movements. Provide opportunities for children to develop eye-hand coordination, eye-hand-foot coordination, hand-ear-foot coordination, body balance, loco motor and non-loco motor skill individually, with a partner, or in a group. |
3.5 Children use their sensory capabilities and dispositions with increasing integration, skill, and purpose to explore and respond to their world. | Invite children to record through drawings the things they experienced on each outing. Ask the children to explain what is in their picture and write at the bottom of the picture what the child says. Display these pictures around the class. Observe and note children’s reaction to sense of sight, hearing, touch, smell & taste.
| Sample environments #2 (Circle Time), #4 (Outdoor Free Play), #5 (Field Trip): Using the outdoor environments, encourage the children to focus on different senses. For example, go on a walk and invite the children to listen carefully to all the different sounds they hear. On another outing, ask them to walk and notice the smells around them. Repeat for the senses of touch, sight. In circle time, encouraging listening and observation by playing games such as ‘Pass the Message Around’ in which one child hides a toy. Their friends look for it based on the cues, fire, water, and smoke. Those children who are closest to the hidden object will be fire, those farthest will be water and in between will be smoke. The child who hid the objects will give these cues to other children and they will try to find the object. Sample environments #6 (Snack Time): Snack time allows children the opportunity to be involved in real experiences that use their sense of taste, touch and smell. Children can make salads, sandwiches, use a feely bag, and explore and taste different foods (sour, sweet, salt and bitter). |
3.6 Children demonstrate spatial awareness and orient themselves, moving around and through their environments confidently and safely. | Using an Observation Checklist, observe each children’s different abilities to be •spatially aware • move through their environments safely • motivated • confident | Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #4 (Outdoor Free Play), #5 (Field Trip): These environments provide rich diverse learning environments in which children can explore and learn about themselves, others, and the world around them. For example, the outdoor free play area will provide natural opportunities for children to climb, balance, slide, and swing. The free play area could include a hopscotch area and indoor balance activities such as walking along a straight line without stepping off. Having children dance to different music is a wonderful activity that helps children locate their body in space will developing music appreciation. |
3.7 Children manipulate equipment and manage tools with increasing competence and skill. | Notice children’s fine motor skills and ability to manipulate building materials, art materials and other simple tools. Observe the degree to which the children can: • manipulate and managed basic classroom tools • manage their fine muscle activities • be confident using the materials | Sample environments # 1 (Free Play) and #6 (Snack Time): Provide many diverse materials at the art center and building centers which children can explore and manipulate. For example, at the art center there can be materials for children to etch around template, weave cards, lace cards/templates, and cut around templates. The tools used will include scissors, tweezers, pencils, crayons and markers.
The building center might include simple tools such as screws and screw drivers or small hammers and nails for building structures. At snack time encourage children to lay out their snacks, open and close bottles and containers themselves and pack up their things neatly. |
3.8 Children respond through movement to traditional and contemporary music, dance, and storytelling. | Observe children’s ability to use movement to express their learning. Notice: a) if a child moved alone or coordinated their movements with others b) the level of interest and enjoyment the child showed in responding through movement. | Sample environments # 2 (Circle Time), #3 (Group Story time), #1 (Free Play): Provide environments in which children can listen to Guyanese music, watch musical videos of Guyanese music and dances. Encourage children to move along with the music and become engrossed in dancing activities. Provide many opportunities for children to listen to Guyanese oral stories. Knowing that many children need to move their bodies to keep their brains engage, provide the children with choice to lie, sit, or stand during the story telling or reading. Children can use movement to respond to the ideas expresses in these different media. |
3.9 Children show an increasing awareness of healthy lifestyles and good nutrition. | Observe the snack children have during snack time. Notice and record on an Observation Checklist •their food preferences, •how slowly/quickly they eat, •their level of enjoyment at snack time. •their ability to manage their snack (avoid spilling, able to unpack and pack up their snack) • their awareness of how healthy foods are good for their bodies | Sample environments #6 (Snack Time): Provide opportunities for children to eat their own snacks and use the breakfast provided by the GOG. As they are eating, reflect with the children on how healthy foods build strong bodies. Name the foods that builds strong bodies. Name, food grown in the local community or within Guyana. Snack time also provides an opportunity for children to socialize while enjoying the comfort of sharing food together. Encourage conversation among the children. Snack time can also create a space for children to learn basic food etiquette and table manners (e.g. chew with mouth closed, using “please”, “excuse me” and “thank you” when necessary). |
3.10 Children show increasing independence and competence in personal hygiene and care. | Observe children attending to personal hygiene needs. Note on an Observation Checklist each child’s performance and progress. Notice if the child can • integrate different personal hygiene into their daily life activities (washing hands, toileting, brushing teeth) • put away personal belongings in their respective places | Sample environments #2 (Circle Time), #6 (Snack Time), #1 (Free Play): When young children learn a new behaviour, it is best if there is a demonstration in which the steps of the behaviour are broken down in parts. Follow this with a session to practice the behaviour. Then create a chart with simple pictures to review and remind the children of the steps. For example, if the children are learning how to wash their hands properly, at circle time bring a basin of water, some soap and a towel. Show the children the proper procedure for washing hands and talk about each step (e.g. wet the whole hand, wash the hands, rub between the fingers vigorously, lift the hands out and dry them with a towel or paper towel). Talk about when we should wash our hands (before eating, after toileting, and after using a tissue). Repeat the demonstration with the children doing the actions – pretend you are putting your hands in the water, pretend you are washing your hands, rubbing your fingers together, and drying hands with a towel. Take a piece of chart paper and ask the children to tell you the steps for hand washing and write down each step and put a picture beside the step. With the teacher leading and pointing to the words and the pictures, the children can read chorally with the teacher. This chart can then be placed around the classroom and reviewed on a regular basis. This lesson can be repeated with other self-care behaviours such as brushing teeth, toileting, tying shoes, and zipping and unzipping zippers. The Dress Up Center at Free Play Time can provide natural opportunities for children to practice dressing independently by having clothes that they have to zip and unzip clothes and shoes that they must tie. The Doll Center can also provide a place to practice these skills. |
3.11 Children show enthusiasm for participating in physical play and negotiate play spaces to ensure the safety and well-being of themselves and others. | Note children’s awareness of safe play behaviours in the different learning environments. Notice and record • each child’s confidence level to try new tasks • how often they try new tasks. | Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #2 (Circle Time), #3 (Group Story Time), #4 (Outdoor Free Play), #5 (Field Trip), #6 (Snack Time): Over several days at the beginning of the year, introduce children to (or review with them in Year 2) the various environments within the classroom, around the school, and on the playground. Discuss with children the possibilities for play and exploration in each environment. Ensure children are aware of safe behaviors for each environment and help them to identify any hazardous objects. |
3.12 Children show increasing independence and competence in personal safety. | Observe each child’s level of independence in the following areas:
Observe each child’s level of competence in personal safety. •Are they able to follow safety rules in the classroom (and avoid unsafe actions)? • Are they able to engage in behaviours that contribute to a safe (social and emotional) place of learning for others? | Sample environments #2 (Circle Time): Use circle time as an opportunity to demonstrate and encourage children to increase in their ability to manage their daily routines such as dressing themselves, using the toilet alone, and manage their learning and eating utensils. Simple role plays and modelling the steps involves will help children to acquire these competencies over time. On a regular basis, review with the children the need for everyone to feel safe, physically and emotionally, in the nursery classroom. At the end of the day, make it a point in circle time to point out the behaviours you as the teacher noticed children exhibit throughout the day that created safety in the classroom. Look for examples of when you noticed a child •using their words to express their upset feelings instead of hitting someone •helping their friends • comforting a friend who was upset • moving dangerous objects away from play areas • taking turns Comments like “I noticed Patrick was really helpful when Timmy fell on the sticks when playing. Patrick moved those sticks away so no one else would trip. That was a great way to make the play area safer for everyone”, help to show what safety looks like and it encourages children to help others. Sample environments #1 (Free Play), #3 (Group Story Time), #4 (Outdoor Free Play), #5 (Field Trip), #6 (Snack Time): Provide rich diverse learning opportunities in these environments in which children can explore and learn about themselves, others and the world around them. |
Additional Learning Activities:
Indoor Gross Motor Activities: Muscle-moving play doesn't have to take up a ton of room. Given just a little floor space, children can enjoy these skill-building activities inside.
Outdoor Gross Motor Activities: Children have plenty of room outside to play hard and challenge their muscles. Here are a few activities they can try:
Gross Motor Skills Games: Some activities for developing gross motor skills work best outside, but others can be done indoors. Motivate major movement with games such as:
Find Motor Skills: These skills are crucial to their ability to perform tasks like holding a pencil, cutting with scissors, and using utensils to eat. Here are some activities that can help children strengthen and learn to use the small muscles in their fingers and hands.
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Inclusive Resources and Materials: • For gross motor (ropes, balls, balances, obstacle courses, large spaces inside and outside for moving bodies). • For fine motor (beads, small blocks, a variety of writing drawing tools such as large paint brushes, large crayons, writing tools with a three-point finger grip, scissors, lace and lacing boards, salt trays) | ||
Involving Parents: There are many ways that parents and families can reinforce the concepts CHILDREN TAKE INCREASING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING being taught in the Nursery Program in the home and community environment.
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STRAND: WELL-BEING | ||
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Useful content knowledge for Teachers about the ELO CHILDREN DEVELOP KNOWLEDGEABLE AND CONFIDENT IDENTITIES The concept of mirrors and windows can be very helpful in thinking about representing diversity in a classroom. Mirrors: When a child arrives in a nursery classroom, they immediately look around to see if they see themselves and their families in the classroom. Do they hear language and expressions that are familiar to them? Do they see images and pictures in the books they read and videos they watch that look like the people in their world? Do they see their holidays on the school calendar and are these holidays talked about in class? If these things are present, it is like there is a mirror for that child and they immediately develop confidence in their identity and who they are. If they don’t see any mirrors, because they speak a different language or they are a different race, or from a minority religious group, they can feel unsure if they belong in the classroom. A responsive nursery teacher aims to ensure that the diverse home cultures and languages of the children are made visible inside the classroom. Windows: Just as every child needs to have mirrors that reflect back to them their home language and culture, children benefit from looking into windows of children who have culture and language different than theirs. By looking into the windows of other children, young children learn about the diversity in the community – that not all families have the same culture and language. Young children become curious and accepting of family, cultural and linguistic diversity. When setting up the nursery classroom, the teacher aims to create mirrors and windows for all the children, and this will help them become confident in their identities.
To help children develop knowledge and confidence in their identities, teachers can be mindful of these points:
Supporting and affirming children whose home language is different from the school language Increasingly, many children in Guyana join pre-primary and primary school with a very limited understanding of the school language that is used as the Medium of Instruction (MoI). At the preschool and primary level, the MoI should be the children’s home language. This ensures meaningful participation of children and creates a focus on communication and expression in using language. Additionally, this requires a change in the attitudes of teachers along with others in the education system. Children could be exposed to the school language in oral forms. Appropriate strategies should be used to help children acquire an understanding of the school language over time beginning with oral comprehension. The school system (curriculum, teacher education, teaching-learning process) needs to adapt to the backgrounds and contexts of children. It is inappropriate to brand their families or home contexts as ‘deficient’ and think that certain groups of children from certain families or communities are incapable of learning. Using children’s home languages as a resource in the classroom Language is an integral part of a child’s social and cultural identity. Children’s languages, dialects, and prior knowledge and experiences should be valued as an affirmation of their identities. Including children’s languages in the classroom, particularly those children whose home language is not English, helps in promoting an equitable learning environment and provides a strong scaffold for learning the school language. It also makes visible to all the other children in the class that there are many different languages and dialects in the community and that they all have value and richness. Meaningful use of language in contexts familiar to children Children’s burden of language and literacy learning is greatly reduced by using contexts and themes that are very familiar to them and promoting a communicative and conversation-oriented use of language where meaning and relevance for children and their participation is a priority. For many years, schools around the world did not value home languages and felt that all children should learn the dominant language of the country (e.g. English, French, Spanish). Many home and community languages were/are lost or being seriously eroded by English-only or Spanish-only schooling. Research has shown the benefits of bilingual or multilingual schooling. We now recognize that home and community languages are part of the richness children bring into school with them and should be honored and seen as a learning asset. This UNICEF study on Multilingual Education shows the benefits of multilingual schooling in South Asia. | ||
ENVIRONMENTS Sample environment #1 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Free Play time to start the day, where children may choose activities and move from one activity to another at will. Free play is an excellent place for children to both use their home languages and listen to other children speak their languages. Materials can be set up in centers: blocks center; water center (basin of water and objects that may sink or float); drama center with puppets and dress-up clothing (may be adult clothing, hats) and props like fake phones, dishes, table, stuffed animals, etc.); art center with paper, paints, crayons, scraps of fabric, and glue. The many materials at the free play centers support language learning. Sample environment # 2 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Circle Time: Circle time provides opportunities for the nursery teacher and children share their ideas and learn more about each other’s identities. Circle time provides opportunities for children to share aspects of their home language and culture and learn about the home language and culture of other children in the class. Circle time also offers opportunities for children to share experiences and use songs, rhymes, stories to reinforce their sense of curiosity about and affirmation for diverse identities within the classroom. Sample environment #3 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Outdoor Free Play time, in sandbox, on play equipment, when building something from found (tires, blocks) and natural (logs, rocks, twigs) materials in the environment. Outdoor free play is an excellent place for children to both use their home languages and listen to other children speak their languages. Sample environment # 4 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Group Story Time, where children are invited to share stories. For this strand, stories would be centered around the different identities in the classroom. The teacher leads a discussion about the stories or sometimes writes the story or parts of the story on paper. Later, the teacher can read the story and the children can act it out. Children may draw pictures to accompany stories. Sample environment # 5 in which this ELO can be addressed and assessed: Field Trips: The teacher leads children on short trips to different parts of the community to explore and discuss what they find. These can be frequent and informal field trips, and do not need to be highly structured. Such trips help children see the many assets (strengths) that are present in their home community. | ||
Specific Curriculum Outcomes | Inclusive Assessment Strategies* | Inclusive Learning Strategies |
4.1 Children’s home languages are accepted and valued in the classroom and they use their home language to construct meaning. | Observe and listen to children’s willingness and ability to use home language in the classroom. | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time/ Large Group Discussion): Build upon the knowledge, language, and experiences that each child brings. Affirm children’s home languages and culture as they make contributions. Model acceptance of language diversity in the classroom and community so that children learn to expect and appreciate language and dialect differences as a natural part of human difference. Create a language tree for the classroom which shows that there can be many words to describe the same idea. Throughout the year words can be added to the tree. For example, on the “Greetings” section of the tree the teacher could write “Hello” “Good morning”, “Marnin”, “Kaimen”. Categories on the tree could be ways of saying “thank you”, “I love you”, “What’s your name?” Sample environment #4 (Group Story Time): Create hand-made big books with the children. When children offer contributions to the book in their home language include those in the book so children can see that different home languages are valued. Invite parents, other family members, or children to tell traditional and cultural stories in their home languages. Provide opportunities for children to role play these stories using dress-up costumes or puppets and telling them in their own language. The nursery teacher can capture these stories by writing them down into a class-made book and then the stories can be told or reread with expression. The nursery teacher may also capture the telling of the story on video recording so it can be replayed. |
4.2 Children feel recognized and respected for who they are. | Observe children in different environments and make notes about their individual accomplishments and attributes. | Sample environments #2 (Circle Time/ Large Group Discussion Time): Recognize and value children’s involvement and accomplishments inside and outside the classroom. Make efforts to given feedback on the positive things they are accomplishing individually and collectively. Comments such as: • “I appreciated the way that Joseph and Mary cleaned up all the block table today” • “When James was feeling sad today because of his grandpa being sick, I noticed that Mark offered to play a game of ‘ketcha’ with him” • “I appreciated how many of you were helping to paint our mural today” give children important feedback about how they are valued individually and collectively. Invite children to participate in Heritage Day and display their culture and traditions of diverse ethnic families during special events. Make a note of these days on the class calendar so the children can have a visual record of the diverse cultural celebrations in the class. Create a cultural wall which show the stories, songs, poems, pictures, posters, pamphlets, family photographs and brochures of children’s individual families. Invite parents and families to help contribute to the wall throughout the year. Sample environments #1 (Free Play): Plan to find moments each day to have short conversations in free play with a couple of individuals to give them positive feedback on their accomplishments. Sample environments #4 (Group Story Time”): Work with families to create a family book for each child that contains pictures of family members. These books can be placed in the reading center and they also can be read by the teacher to the whole class. |
4.3 Children explore different identities and points of view through dramatic play. | During free play notice moments when children build upon their home and community knowledge, experiences and languages. | Sample environments #1 (Free Play): Build on the knowledge and identities of the diverse children in the room by including props in the dramatic play and building center that reflect the cultures in the local community. For example, there may be tools, clothing, costumes of community helpers and people in the local community placed in the drama center. |
4.4 Children share aspects of their culture with other children and educators. | Listen carefully for moments when children share their cultural experiences in class and note them in the Individual Student’s File. | Sample environments #4 (Group Story Time): Ensure the children’s literature include books and pictures reflect the cultures of children in the nursery class and depicts children from many different backgrounds. Some of these books will be simple hand-made books to best suit the local community. There may be some secondary school students who might want to volunteer to help create some simple hand-made books about the local community that could be used in the nursery program. |
4.5 Children develop strong foundations in both the culture and language(s) of their family and broader community without compromising their culture identities. | Observe children’s • level of awareness in local, regional and national culture. • level of pride in local, regional and national culture. | All sample environments: Build upon the knowledge, language, and experiences that each child brings into the class. Build up local, regional and national Guyanese culture whenever possible. This includes using music, dance, games, stories, rhymes, language, foods that are reflective of the diversity in the classroom so that home and community languages and cultures are visible in the classroom environments. |
4.6 Children develop social and cultural knowledge of their heritage through engagement with community members. | Listen and write down what children share from presentations with community members. | Sample environment #2 (Circle Time) and #5 (Field Trips/ Language Experience Time): Invite community members (parents, Elders, community helpers) as guest speakers in the class to talk about different aspects of their social and community lives. Or take the children on a field trip to a community place to visit these guest speakers. Following each presentation reflect with the children what they have learned. Capture the children’s word on a chart and have children draw an idea from the presentation. These charts and pictures (created after each guest speaker) can later be assembled into a class-made big book for shared reading. |
Additional Learning Activities:
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Inclusive Resources and materials: •Use the story books that were written in the different Indigenous languages which will assist in children’s participation during story time. • Create a print rich cultural and traditional environment with a variety of materials such as stories, songs and poems books, pictures, posters, videos, pamphlets and brochures of children’s families with short and long stories and back ground that can be read with expression. | ||
Involving parents, caregivers and families The involvement of parents and families is this ELO is essential as it is families that best know their own cultural and linguistic background. Inviting parents, grandparents and adults in the children’s environment to tell traditional and cultural stories in their home languages is wonderful way to show that nursery school values diversity in the community. It is an authentic way to create partnerships with families. All children in the class will benefit from learning about different cultures and learning how to appreciate and respect cultural and linguistic diversity. There are multiple ways to create nursery school and family partnerships: •Create an environment with materials of the children’s home languages where stories are told or read with expression. •Plan evening campfire with parents where children, parents and teachers can sit around the fire as stories are told. •Plan concerts with parents and have children, parents and teachers roll play stories in costumes with puppets •Encourage parents and caregivers to work together and communicating often to understand and build development of each child. •Invite parents, grandparents and adults whose first Language is not English to share cultural and traditional languages in schools. •Encourage parents, grandparents and adults participate in Heritage Day to display cultures and traditions of the various ethnic families during special events. •Invite parents and grandparents to share stories of memories of their childhood. • Bilingual parents can be invited and asked to translate stories and share with children. • Encourage parents to bring cultural artifacts, foods, pictures, video, music, clothes, stories, songs, poems and games into the nursery environment. | ||
