The Importance Of Play On The Learning Environment And The Benefits It Has For Children

Explain the role of play in literacy learning and examine its position in relation to society, the National Curriculum, and cultural issues. In what ways should early playful learning encounters be built upon in the context of schooling?

Understand the concepts of creativity and creative learning and how these affect all aspects of young children’s learning and development.

The relationship between play and learning seems obvious to many child professionals and parents, and yet there are still lack of understanding surrounding the importance of children's play. Some people believe that children need to "work" not play, and that playing serves no useful purpose in a learning and development environment. This is surprising considering that play, with its high levels of motivation and potential enjoyment empowers children (as well as people

3. Critically analyse how creativity and creative learning can support young children’s emotional, social, intellectual, communication and physical development.

Children’s creativity must be extended by the provision of support for their curiosity, exploration and play. They must be provided with opportunities to explore and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings, for example, through a variety of art, music, movement, dance, imaginative and role-play activities, mathematics, and design and technology.

Creative learning is about how children are actively involved in their own learning and their ability to make choices and decisions. This can be achieved by providing a creative environment, allowing exploration through play and praising the child’s creative efforts. Creative learning is about helping children develop imaginative thinking through exploration of materials, objects and problem solving skills like ICT. It is also about giving children opportunities to make connections between different areas and to relate to them. Some creative learning activities may be goal orientated like the

Creative development is important to a child’s learning because it helps them to use their mind and imagination and express their own ideas, and through playing with their friends it also helps them to understand that all family’s and cultures can be different. It helps them to make connections in their thinking and the way in which they problem solve, by doing things over and over again they reinforce their thinking and learning, they develop self-esteem, confidence, imagination & learning to work together in groups. It puts down the foundations for more

This assignment is all about play and learning for children and young people. Play is engaging in an activity for enjoyment and pleasure however can also be used for learning purposes and development in children and young people. Play activities can be planned by practitioners within the setting or can be free-play, when a child goes off and plays by themselves. Play can be carried out individually or in groups and can also be carried out in different environments such as indoors and outdoors. ‘Research confirms the importance of play for infants in developing children’s brains and minds.’ (http://playtherapy.org.uk/ChildrensEmotionalWellBeing/AboutPlayTherapy/MainPrinciples/PlayDefinition) this is why practitioners encourage young children

Understand the concepts of creativity and creative learning and how these affect all aspects of young children’s learning and development.

Creative learning is about how children are actively involved in their own learning, where they are given the opportunity to make choices and decisions which develops their problem solving skills and imaginative thinking.  It can be achieved through providing a creative environment allowing exploration through play.  For example the construction area, where children are given the opportunity to build with different objects and materials, using their imagination.

You as parents (including children) can see how we have activities targeting their creativity with a lot of open end material and natural nature’s material through intentional teaching; children are given open end material to come up with their own imagination and develop new ideas. Our activities are spread over the whole day, giving children time to think and enjoy the activity. They are encouraged

Play is inevitable when it comes to children. Given the right environment and objects (of any sort), children will find a way to play. Jarvis, et al state that educators must offer inspiring, playful environments which include hands-on activities and interesting resources. This will empower children to educate themselves (2009). Along the same line, Wood and Attfield consider that an environment inclusive of varied resources will provide room for growth in their learning and will support the child’s “creativity, inventiveness and originally” (2005, p.231).

In this artifact, Creative Curriculum It refers to a curriculum in which program fosters learning through hand-on, exploration, active thinking, and experimenting to better understand the world, and how things work. The teachers use their own knowledge and other resources to design, implement, and evaluate meaningful, challenging curriculum that promotes comprehensive developmental and learning outcomes for every young child. Children are given the opportunity to be creative and active explorers. The creative curriculum also focuses on four areas of development: Social, emotional, physical, and cognitive. It also assesses children based on their age and stage of development. The creative Curriculum also encourages play. It is believed that children learn though play. For example, in the block area they learn about sizes, shapes and other mathematical problems.

Play is the foundation stone of children’s healthy and productive lives (Oliver & Klugman, 2002) and is also a significant means of child’s learning and development (Zigler, Singer & Bishop-

Children by nature are curious, innovative, explorative and experimental. They tend to see the world differently with endless possibilities and opportunities. They are less hesitant to try new ideas and are also experts in expressing themselves in the form of art. In short, children are creative by birth. Since the early childhood setting is a hub for fostering these creative minds, expanding horizons, and creating future geniuses, creativity in early childhood development and curriculum provision holds utmost importance. As a result, creativity is important for Early Childhood development and therefore, creative experiences should be incorporated within the curriculum. This will be discussed in relation to current perspectives within the role and importance of creativity in Early Childhood education.