Educators are creative, so coming up with activities is not the issue. The issue is: Can educators justify the chosen activity pedagogically? What do the children learn from this?

First of all, before anything else, I would like to remind you about some important terms. These terms are the base of quality educational activities.

CURRICULUM = The main guide for educators. The curriculum shows the essential contents for teaching so that every child has opportunities for diverse learning experiences. Educators should use all the areas in their teaching equally. Curriculum = learning areas + learning objectives.

LEARNING AREAS = Guide educators when planning and implementing activities together with the children. Wide entities. 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 is 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.

Why do the activities need a pedagogical base?

Advance lesson planning is the main step in securing quality learning. Every educator can come up with nice activities for children – for example, “Let’s take finger paints and paint! That is fun!”.

Educators are creative, so coming up with activities is not the issue. The issue is: Can educators justify the chosen activity pedagogically? Why is that activity useful for the children? What do the children learn from this?

Doing nice activities one after the other is fun and makes the days go by. Children probably enjoy and families get to see nice crafts – but these types of activities do not have a pedagogical base behind them. These nice little activities come and go, but they serve no real purpose if the educator does not think of the reason why she or he is organizing that activity.

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It is okay to organize nice activities just for fun sometimes. The main focus should anyway be on pedagogically planned activities. It is also important that educators keep in mind to plan activities from all the learning areas - that is what makes teaching and learning holistic and fair for the children.

Educators should focus on planning activities that:

Last but not least! After this, fifth learning area, we have gone through all five learning areas that Finnish early childhood education follows in their curriculum. Yay!

The learning area of I grow, move, and develop includes learning goals that include physical activity, food education, health, and safety. The purpose is to create a stable foundation for children so that they learn to value health and overall well-being. Another aim of this learning area connects to children's physical activity. Improving children’s physical activity, body awareness as well as control over their bodies. Also, the development of gross and fine motor skills is important.

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Children are naturally curious to move in different ways and try different things. The level of courage, self-confidence, and speed varies according to the child's temperament and character. Some children are fearless; they ride a bicycle at 100km/h even though they fall every other minute! Other children take it easy; they observe, test a little, practice carefully, refuse to go on the bike, observe a bit more, try once or twice, and take a break...they learn little by little once they have the courage and confidence to do it!

Whatever the style, character, temperament, speed, or level of confidence is - the goal is that every child gets to experience the joy of moving! Moving can happen inside or outside, in winter or summer, with adult guidance or freely without it.

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Three subareas: physical activity, food education & safety

Moving and being physically active gives a boost to a child's self-confidence and self-knowledge. Group activities like football, dancing in a group, or playing tag gives children a feeling of belonging and improves also skills of interaction.

Food education gives children knowledge about healthy and nutritious foods. Eating should always be a nice and easygoing event, without rushing or pressuring. Children learn about the daily mealtimes, eating together, discussing over the lunch table, and good table manners.

The area of safety is also important. It means, for example, explaining to children the dangers of traffic, teaching some traffic rules, and showing them how to move safely in traffic. Also encouraging children to ask for help in case of danger or getting lost is a good one.

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Learning subareas one by one

Our journey taking a look at all the learning areas of early childhood education goes forward! This week we focus on the fourth area, Exploring and interacting with my environment.

This learning area is important for children's development as it gives children various tools for thinking and operating in our environment. The learning area "Exploring and interacting in my environment" includes also specific learning objectives that are listed below. It makes it easier for educators to plan activities when the specific learning objectives are listed clearly.

Exploring and interacting with my environment

This learning area focuses on mathematical thinking, technology, nature, and the environment. Children are encouraged to analyze, think and apply their knowledge. These are important skills in today's world and those skills are enhanced through playful exploration and experimentation. Children are encouraged to be curious, ask questions, look for answers, and make conclusions together in a team. Of course, children do this also spontaneously and it is part of their development, sometimes it seems that children's questions are never-ending and super tricky!

With mathematical thinking, children are encouraged to pay attention, especially to shapes and numbers. Children are helped to learn about numbers and quantities. Also measuring, comparing, building and causalities are part of this learning area.

Learning about the environment includes learning in the environment, learning about the environment + sustainable development, and doing good things for the environment. Nature (such as forests or beaches) and nearby built environments (such as parks or marketplaces) can be used as learning areas.

Technology education is a must in today's world. Children's relationship with technology starts developing quite early. As simple as observing a parent who is pressing buttons on the laundry machine or changing tv channels is part of technology education. Children can also, for example, practice simple coding and search for information from iPad.

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Learning objectives one by one

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 for "Exploring and interacting with my environment".

Numbers

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:

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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: