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Teachers are creative, so coming up with fun activities is not the issue.
👉 The issue is: Can teachers justify the chosen activity pedagogically? Why is that activity useful for the children? What do the children learn from this?
Start from the National Curriculum Framework
The starting point in most countries is the National Education Policy and National Curriculum Framework, which defines the desired teaching and learning approach and important terms that are the basis of quality educational activities:
📖 CURRICULUM = The main guide for teachers. The curriculum defines the essential contents for teaching so that every child has opportunities for diverse learning experiences. Teachers should use all the areas in their teaching equally. Curriculum = learning areas + learning objectives.
☘️ LEARNING AREAS = Guide teachers when planning and implementing activities together with the children. Choose the learning area you want to focus on during the specific activity or project.
🎯 LEARNING OBJECTIVES = The starting point for creating activities. Choose the learning objectives you want to go for in this specific activity or project. 1-3 learning objectives per activity are enough.
🥰 CHILD-CENTERED ACTIVITIES = Children are the starting point and the ultimate reason for creating activities. The activities should be based on children's interests, capabilities, needs, and/or developmental stages.
Know your curriculum & identify the learning goals - case Helsinki
The City of Helsinki has created a complete curriculum for its teachers, Helsinki's curriculum for early childhood education and care 2024. The document is based on Finland's National Curriculum and explains Finland's overall approach in practical terms.
Helsinki’s curriculum includes learning areas and learning objectives. The areas of learning describe the main goals and content of the pedagogical activities. They guide the staff in planning and implementing diverse, playful pedagogical activities together with the children.
The areas of learning have been divided into five groups:
- Rich World of Languages
- Diverse Forms of Expression
- Me and Our Community
- Exploring and Interacting with My Environment
- I Grow, Move, and Develop
Curriculum areas and examples of learning objectives
Planning pedagogically competent learning activities
Doing nice activities one after the other is fun and makes the days go by. Children probably enjoy them, and families get to see nice crafts – but these activities lack a pedagogical basis.
Teachers should focus on planning activities that:
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Have a reason: we paint because children are interested in learning about colors, children need to learn to name them correctly, and they are eager to try new art techniques
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Fall in one or more pre-planned learning areas e.g., Diverse forms of expression + Diverse world of languages
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Contain pre-planned learning objective(s): I learn different art techniques, I take part in planned activities, I learn new vocabulary – names of the colors
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Support the children’s development: color recognition, hand-eye coordination, language development, and fine motor skills
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Interest children
👉 Kindiedays Lesson Plans are designed to guide and support teachers in delivering lessons. Each lesson plan is carefully designed to align with the learning areas and pedagogical learning objectives outlined in the Finnish National Curriculum for Early Childhood and Care. The lesson plans can also be used with any other curriculum, as long as playful learning is close to your heart.
Get your free lesson plan sample from here!
Click to watch Kindiedays Video "Creating Engaging Lesson Plans"
Learning objectives in Kindiedays Educator app
The curriculum should be actively used in early childhood education. If the curriculum is stored in an office folder, how many staff members read it on a daily/weekly/monthly basis? I guess not that many. If the curriculum travels around daily on every educator’s phone, the chances of reading it increase by 100%.
When using the Kindiedays Learning System, all the learning areas, learning objectives, and lesson plans are already available in the app. The teachers have them available on the Kindiedays Educator App whenever needed:
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When teachers plan activities, the aim is to align each activity with the curriculum and children’s developmental stages and needs. The curriculum (including all the learning areas, objectives, and lesson plans) is available in the app, making planning easier, more professional, and goal-oriented.
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While the children are participating in a guided activity, teachers make notes, take pictures, and tap the learning objectives to record which skills and areas of learning developed during the activity.
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These observations are automatically compiled into the child's individual portfolio and used in assessment and parent meetings. This ensures alignment with the curriculum goals across the whole learning process.
🎯 Book a FREE Demo Today
In just 30 minutes, we’ll show you how your preschool can start using Kindiedays – easily and affordably. Discover how Kindiedays can transform your preschool into a center of excellence.
👉 Click here to schedule a demo on Zoom or contact me on WhatsApp!
I look forward to meeting you.
Milla van der Burgh
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