It is time to take a look at all the learning areas one by one. This week we focus on the third one, Me and my community!

Find out why this learning area is important for children's development and what learning objectives are included in this learning area.

As a surprise gift, you will get one free lesson plan that includes an activity based on experimental learning. The activity is planned by Kindiedays lesson plan expert Stella Giota to match this learning area's objectives.

Learning about diversity and equality

Starting early childhood education is a big change for small children. Earlier in their life children have mostly been around familiar people and familiar traditions, but in preschool/kindergarten, children meet many new people and learn many new ways of doing things.

Therefore, according to Helsinki city curriculum, the purpose of ECEC is to develop the children’s abilities in understanding the diversity of their community and practice being a member of the community.

The world where we live is very rich, diverse, and multifarious. It is important that children learn to respect all cultures, heritages, diversities, abilities, and genders. All people are equal no matter what.

Me and my community learning area prepares children to act in their communities with diverse people. It also helps children to understand how their community has been in the past, and what it is going to look like in the future. Children can also ponder what kind of actions are good for our community and the world we live in. Also, media education and ethical thinking are part of this important learning area.

Learning objectives

Each Learning Area has its own objectives that work as a tool for educators' planning and assessment process. Below, you can find all the learning objectives (35) of the Me and my community learning area:

A new child starting at the ECEC center? Download a free child resume!

Ethical thinking

• I think about ethical questions
• I practice reflecting on ethical questions that concern children
• I discuss ethical questions with the group of children and the teacher
• I take part in making the rules of the group

The presence of the local community

It is time to take a look at all the learning areas one by one. This week we focus on the second one, Diverse forms of expression! In this post, you will find out why this learning area is important for children's development and what learning objectives are included in this learning area.

As a surprise gift, you will get one free lesson plan that includes an activity based on experimental learning. The activity is planned by Kindiedays lesson plan expert Stella Giota to match this learning area's objectives.

Freedom of expressing oneself

The purpose of early childhood education is to support children in expressing themselves holistically and in a goal-oriented way. When children are comfortable with expressing themselves it also shows and keeps on developing in their play. Self-expression is a wide topic, children are encouraged to express themselves
verbally, bodily, visually, musically, artistically...

According to Helsinki City's curriculum in early childhood education, self-expression and learning are processes that include: experimentation, exploration, practicing different stages of creating things, and documenting those stages. Every child’s personal expression is supported with sufficient time and space.

The expression can be anything from painting to dancing or playing an instrument - and many more things! In this learning area, children can learn for example about colors, shapes, materials, art techniques, creativity, fine motor skills, moving to music,
playing with (body) instruments, singing, crafts, sculpting, and sewing.

By practicing all these amazing and practical expressional skills, children also learn about the process of doing things; what it means to plan, work, assess, and develop their own ideas.

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Learning objectives

Each Learning Area has its own objectives that work as a tool for educators' planning and assessment process. Below, you can find all the Learning Objectives (32) of the Diverse forms of expression learning area:

It is time to take a look at all the learning areas one by one. The first one is Rich World of Languages! In this post, you will find out why this learning area is important for children's development and what learning objectives are included in this learning area.

As a surprise gift, you will get one free lesson plan that includes an activity based on experimental learning. The activity is planned by Kindiedays lesson plan expert Stella Giota to match this learning area's objectives.

Children learn more and more about language all the time, but at the same time, it is also a vital tool for interaction, self-expression, and participation. Even when the language is not yet fully developed, children can interact in many other ways! The most important skills for linguistic development are interaction, understanding, speaking, extending vocabulary, and using language. 

The purpose of early childhood education is to strengthen children’s language skills by offering interesting activities related to the theme. Educators should give positive, encouraging feedback to children about their language skills (and for trying) regularly.

Children develop at their individual pace

All children are unique individuals. Children come from different backgrounds and families, therefore they have linguistically different growth environments. The way of using language and interacting differs between families.

It is also good to keep in mind, that some families might be bilingual or have even three or four languages in use. When providing support for children's linguistic development also this should be taken into account.

Lesson plans for playful learning!

How can educators support children's linguistic development?

Children are eager, open-minded, interested and their developing brain is hungry for new experiences! Children need as many and varied experiences as possible in order to develop and grow to their best potential.

For example, if Matt is interested in sports and he gets learning experiences only in sports and motor skills, his exceptional talent in music might stay unnoticed. Or if Lucy's kindergarten activities are mostly arts and crafts, she may not be able to practice her language and interaction skills to the extent she would need to, in order to become a self-confident speaker. It is sad if children do not get a chance to learn and practice their skills equally.

Kindiedays Lesson Plans

Therefore it is vitally important to take notice of children's strengths and also their developmental needs. Children should not just play along with what they choose, but they deserve also new, rich and inspirational learning experiences from different areas of learning.

How is it possible to teach children in a diverse and rich manner, covering all subjects and giving enough possibilities for learning? The answer is planning activities in early childhood education according to all learning areas.

In other words, children need free play (when they get to choose their play themselves), but they also need guided pedagogical activities (when the teacher plans and takes all the learning areas into consideration).

Kindiedays Lesson Plans

How to include all learning areas in lesson plans?

For quality education, teaching activities must be goal-oriented and systematic.

That is why Kindiedays Lesson Plans combine the pedagogical objectives from the Finnish curriculum with hands on experience from the classrooms.

Launched now

Kindiedays Lesson Plan Package is designed to guide and support educators to provide lessons based on experiential and playful learning. 

Kindiedays Lesson Plans includes:

• 300 experiential lesson plans divided between 3 levels for children aged 1 to 6
• 5 Learning areas including a total of 152 pedagogical objectives, derived from the Finnish National Curriculum for Early Childhood and Care
• Lessons for Special Occasions

Watch video to see how it works

Our web shop offers subscriptions for individual teachers and centers. Go to the web shop and discover the joy for learning!

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Team Kindiedays

PS The lesson plans can be used with any curriculum, as long as playful learning is close to your heart.