Learning through play has been a big journey for me in my role as a junior teacher. It started in 2016 and now we are 2022, I am still learning and reflecting on my learning through play practice.
This journey has not been without its learning pit moments and I have always come out with more learning than I went in with. This year it has been no different.
I started this year in the New Entrant - Year 2 room with a new colleague who had done different training to myself. We had to spend a lot of time talking and problem solving to get to the right place, but I felt that we were there before I moved over.
She taught me new practices and answered a lot of questions that I had around what types of play there were and how we recorded what we had covered. The kaiako taught me about these different types of play:
- Sensory play
- Literacy play
- Numeracy play
- Science and Nature play
- Collage (art)
- Construction
- Dramatic play
- Reading Area
From my first training I understood schema's and what they children want to do, but never really understood how to plan this correctly and make sense of the areas. I instead tried to lump them under the NZC, to which they never quite fit. Also I always separated these things in their own activity.
This was a turning point in my thinking and my teaching of Play. It made me really stop and think...do I really make these things readily available to my tamariki and how can I change it to make it better? The answer was to shift my planning and making more time to represent these ideas and set up the play in a way that is interesting and draws the children to it.
My next steps on my journey are to take what I have learned and help my new colleague to understand the true meaning of play, the different areas and make an environment that draws that tamariki into their learning without them knowing. To enhance the literacy and numeracy skills of the tamariki through play and have engaging, interesting activities that are open ended.
I am looking forward to taking my learning further and to take those tamariki with me on my journey.
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