Reference no: EM133648904

Homework: Child Development

Introduction

It is extremely important for Early Childhood educators to understand the importance of creating developmentally appropriate activity plans. This homework will assist you in gaining knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices as it applies to our work with children birth to age five in early childhood environments.

For this Key Assessment you will be reviewing and implementing Developmentally Appropriate Practices. You will analyze DIP practices as well as create a DAP activity for preschool children.

Part I: Shifting Activities from DIP to DAP

You will analyze developmentally inappropriate practices for which you will be asked to provide a developmentally appropriate alternative. Using the list of developmentally inappropriate activities (DIP) below, explain (in a Word document) how you could shift the DIP activity to a developmentally appropriate activity (DAP). Tell me why each activity is developmentally inappropriate and how you would specifically change it to make it a developmentally appropriate activity. You might choose to change the materials used, the instructions given to children, the group size, or the time and length of activity, etc. *Each scenario should be discussed in a minimum of 5 sentences

Developmentally INAPPROPRIATE Activities for you to change:

A. Children are given a photocopied worksheet of letters to practice their alphabetic knowledge. They must copy the letters using a pencil while sitting at the table as a group.

B. The teacher has pre-cut out all the pieces of rabbit ears, noses, eyes, and tails.These precut items are given to children to glue onto a paper bag to make a puppet. Children must follow directions given by the teacher and put each piece exactly where she tells them to on the paper bag.

C. Children are taught their numbers through drilling using flashcards. Children are expected to get the right answer quickly and without the help of anyone else.

D. The theme of the week is set by the teacher even though the children have expressed a great deal of interest and fascination with the building being built next door.

E. During circle time the teacher has chosen the book and the children are expected to sit quietly and listen to the book. Towards the end of the book the children have become restless. The teacher expects that the children will sit still and quiet to the end of the book.

Part II: DAP Activities

You will develop a written activity plan for Preschool/ Pre-Kindergarten. Your plans will be written out on the attached document listed under resources.

Create a developmentally appropriate activity plan for preschool/pre-kindergarten age children. The activities MUST be developmentally appropriate and encourage active exploration of materials and ideas. For the most part, the children should be able to do the activity with minimal guidance from their teachers, although teachers should interact with children, asking questions to encourage exploration, curiosity, problem solving, language development and deeper thinking.

For this homework dittos/coloring sheets, flash cards, product oriented projects (crafts), etc. will not be considered developmentally appropriate activities. The activities should be open-ended, encourage exploration, discovery, creativity and allow the children to build their own knowledge. These should be planned for centers or small groups, not the entire class (whole group). They can also take place outside.

Your activity plan should include the following:

A. Title of the Activity, age of the children participating and a brief description

B. Area of Development (Domain) (Emotional and Social Development, Health and Physical Development, Approaches to Learning, Language Development and Communication, or Cognitive Development) PLEASE CHOOSE ONLY ONE AREA.

C. Goals addressed: If you do not have a goal listed you cannot get full credit for other sections. The goal is what you want the children to learn from the activity. Be sure to list the goal (with letters and numbers included) EXACTLY as it is worded in the original NCFELD document. Example: Goal APL-1: Children show curiosity and express interest in the world around them

D. Materials: List all of the materials you will need to do the activity. Pretend that you are planning an activity for a substitute to do in your classroom. He or she will not be familiar with the activity, so you will have to state everything for them.

E. Related Literature: Choose a children's book that is age appropriate that ties into the content and reflects the goal and activity. Include a photo of the book and a 5 sentence paragraph summarizing the book.

F. Procedures: Step-by-step instructions for doing the activity. Also include how many children will be doing the activity with you. These should always be for a center or small group of children (ex-5 preschoolers, 3 toddlers). You will need to discuss where the activity will take place. Be sure to include what THE CHILDREN will do in the activity. Watching you do an activity is not an open-ended activity for the children. Again, think of that substitute. If you don't tell him or her the procedures, your goal for the activity may not be accomplished. Write down everything! (Crafts are not acceptable for this Key Assessment)

G. Higher Level Questioning- What open ended questions will you ask the children to encourage them to think about their activity and guide them toward meeting the standard? What questions can you ask to identify if the goal has been mastered? (minimum of 5) I have attached a resource below to assist with open ended questions.

Part III: In addition to your activity, you will need to focus on an aspect of the activity that you can present in a hands-on fashion.

You will actually create/make your chosen activity and have a child/children complete it. (this can be your children, children of family members, children in a childcare, etc) Photo documentation will be required of this component (minimum of 5 photos)

Part IV: You will create a video in Padlet that discusses your chosen activity. For your video you will walk us through each piece from your write up.

For the video presentation:

A. Tell us the name of the activity, age group, goal you chose, etc.

B. Walk us through the activity- how you made it, what the children will be doing, etc. Here you can video yourself or children actually completing the hands on activity if you choose to.

C. What literature did you choose to tie in that relates to the chosen activity?

D. Discuss some of your open ended questions and how they reflect the goal you want the children to master

E. What was the goal of your activity? What content did you want the children to master?

F. Finally, what worked well, what would you change?