| Teaching strategy | Example |
| Role modelling the ethic of environmental responsibility and practical sustainability practices | Be gentle observing animals, insects in the garden |
| Play-based learning | Encourage children to play in the garden, go for a walk to the park or bushland, provide natural resources, such as rocks, sticks, clay, non-toxic plants |
| Small group projects on sustainability concepts or practices | Rubbish time capsule; visiting recycling facility, learning about food waste through worm farm or composting |
| Incidental learning | Support spontaneous moments of connecting with nature |
| Use open – ended questions and sustained – share thinking to extend understanding of concepts | Talk about sun energy, water pollution, animal rights in a developmentally appropriate way |
Category: STEAM
Process art and it’s benefits
Process art is an approach to art-making that emphasizes the creative process rather than the end result. In early childhood education and care, process art can have many benefits for young children, including:
- Encouraging creativity: Process art allows children to experiment with different materials, colours, and textures, and encourages them to express themselves in their own unique way.
- Building fine motor skills: in process-oriented art, the act of painting, drawing, and manipulating materials is more important than the product; it can help develop a child’s fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and dexterity.
- Fostering independence and a sense of agency: Process art allows children to explore their own ideas and make their own choices, which can help build their confidence and independence.
- Developing problem-solving skills: When children engage in process art, they are often faced with challenges and obstacles that require problem-solving skills and critical thinking.
- Enhancing sensory awareness: A lot of children may manifest sensory processing disorders early on. Exposing them to a lot of new sensory experiences can be very helpful. Process art can engage all of the senses, from the feel of the materials to the smell of the paint, which can enhance a child’s sensory awareness and help them understand the world around them.
- Building social skills: When children work on art projects together, they learn to collaborate, share materials, and communicate their ideas, which can help build their social skills and foster a sense of community.
Here are some examples of process art I have done with children.
What are your favourite process art experiences and tools?
And more examples on my FB book page
How to enhance block play area?
Have you ever wondered how to make the block play area more appealing and interesting for children?
Typically, the block area is set up in a spacious area that can be bordered on three sides by sturdy cabinets or dividers and blocks can be stored in baskets, containers or those cabinets.
The block centre is active and is usually located next to other noisy areas, away from the quieter play and learning spaces, like the reading or meditation corner.
One of the easiest ways to make the block centre more interesting is to use different types of blocks, such as large wooden blocks, smaller table blocks, connecting blocks, wooden cookies and other loose parts.
Basic blocks are essential for any preschool classroom, while supplementary building materials add flavour to the main blocks, like unit blocks, hollow blocks and table blocks.
While there are many types of blocks, including:
- Unit Blocks
- Architectural unit blocks – hardwood columns, domes and spires that are used with the unit blocks
- alphabet blocks
- Marble runs
- Pipe construction sets
- Tree blocks and tree cookies
- bristle blocks
- Lego, Duplo and other connecting blocks
- Lincoln Logs
- plastic stackable blocks
- shaped sorting blocks with container
- waffle blocks
- wooden building blocks
- K’NEX
- Flexiblocks
- Coloured see-through blocks
- and many more
So… the easy way to add interest to the block area and materials children have been using and are a little bored with them, is to add pictures of famous landmarks, such as the tower bridge, sphinx, San Fransisco Bridge and other local landmarks. I have created them using Canva; you can see it is pretty easy to find online and add the title in any language.
