Terminology
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Curriculum and Environment 2
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1. Emergent Curriculum is developed in response to children’s ideas, play, needs, passion, questions based on educators’ observation of children’s action and saying. In this curriculum, educators value the importance of children’s play and encourage children to have meaningful experience and learning. It is framed by teacher but child initiated, therefore curriculum is a collaboration.
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Ex: When a child buys a small bee hive in the market and bring it to the child care centre and a few children show their interest in how bees live in the beehive. Some children draw the shape of beehive and ask some questions. Educators observe children’s saying and action, then think about thoughtful responses, plan and organize activities with flexible framework to encourage children to stretch their interests and enrich their learning such as displaying appealing materials or pictures, starting group project, visiting honey farm, place beehive in the garden, etc.
2. Learning outcomes state knowledge and skills that children are expected to demonstrate. It describes clearly children’s abilities and performance in the 4 development facets; cognitive, physical, language, social and emotional.
Ex:
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Physical: Children will demonstrate basic locomotor skills by running, jumping, hopping, galloping.
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Cognitive: Children will recognize patterns and can repeat them
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Language: Children will increase vocabulary related to movement such as “munch”, "spread", "crawl" and "creep" by following the sequence and verbalizing them.
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Social & emotional: Children will share their joy with peers by giggling or talking to each other with a smile or excitement.
3. Documentation Board (Panel) makes the children’s learning visible with photographs, samples, comments, portfolio. This shows children’s developmental progress and gives updated information about children’s learning to other ECEs, children, administrators, and parents. This presents the journey of learning not a completed task. Children can revisit their activity and learning and recalling what they did through Documentation Board.
Ex: https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/pubs/seitz.pdf
4. Sensory Experience is feeling and hands on experiment by physical senses
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Ex:
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Looking – the stimulation of light receptors in our eye that our brains then interpret into
visual images.
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Listening – the reception of sound, via mechanics in our inner ear.
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Touching – the stimulation that comes from touch receptors in our skin that reacts to pressure, heat/cold or vibration.
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Smelling – the stimulation of chemical receptors in the upper airway.
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Tasting – the stimulation that comes when our taste receptors react to chemicals in our mouth.
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Body awareness – the feedback our brain receives from stretch receptors in our muscles and pressure receptors on joints which enables us to gain a sense of where our bodies are in space.
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Balance – the stimulation of the vestibular system of the inner ear to tell us our body position in relation to gravity.
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5. Sensory Motor Integration is communicating and coordinating between sensory system and motor system. Sensory Motor Activities promote the brain to process sensory information more effectively, helping the child respond more appropriately to the environment.
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Ex: Heavy work activities help children to really “feel” their muscles and joints working, and the information sent to the brain supports your child's brain to better integrate the sensory information.
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6. Sensory Exploration: When children have opportunities for sensory play, children examine, discover, categorize, and make sense of the world.
Ex: Children use all senses in the exploration of properties and functions of objects and materials. When children deflate air in the balloon into their face, they experience air is moving
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7. Sensory Discrimination: when sensory information coming in, the individual should be able to differentiate various characteristics of the stimuli. Competent sensory discrimination allows the individual to recognize the details both the sensory input and different senses such as smell, taste, vision, and hearing. Identifying and differentiating properties and materials by all senses.
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Ex) auditory: discriminate “fork” and “pork”
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Visual: recognizing face,
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Tactile: touching the object and feel it (quarter vs dime)
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olfactory: recognizing the smell
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Taste: recognize different tastes
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8. Sensory processing disorder (SPD): a state in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses.
Ex) Some people with sensory processing disorder are oversensitive to things in their environment. Common sound maybe painful or overwhelming to them.
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9. Psychomotor development: development of movement or muscular activity associated with mental processes Ex) As child get taller and bigger, their skills and ability increase
10. Potpourri song: one of musical form, structured, same as medley. It is popular, easy going, and light music Ex) It consists of favourite tune such as the song “wheels on the bus”.
11. Imaginative song: playful and silly song, more focused on melody than content of lyric.
Ex) Willoughby Wallaby Woo, Baby Shark
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12. Narrative songs have a plot with characters such as fairy tales. The song is told a story by a narrator.
Ex) Puff the magic dragon, Ten little monkeys jumping on the bed, Little bunny foo foo
13. Dramatic play: a type of play that children choose and take roles, and then act them out away from reality. Children pretend to be someone or something different from themselves, and dramatize situations along with the roles they choose.
Ex) Construction, Ice cream parlor, Airport, Cleaning, Grocery Store, Hospital, Restaurant, Mechanics.