Jai is sitting on the sandpit holding a shovel in his right hand. He is digging the sand and pouring it into the old cooking pot. He excavates once more groaning and raises the spade, dropping half of the sand, and put it in the pot. He hollow out once again, scoops the wet sand and pours it in the pot. This time around, his hands were wobbling, but he does not drop the sand. Jai shoves the soil, groaning, with his rightward side but throws down the shovel, use the left arm to pat and then the right hand. He collects the shovel with his leftward side and takes huge amount of sand, wobbling and dropping some sand, and pours it into his pot. He shovels the sand again with his left hand and pats the sand once more with the right arm.
(9:20 am)
Jai looks up to watch his friend Liam stirring his pot at the toy stove.
(9:25 am)
Jai asks Liam if he can bake his cake. He then picks up his pot and carries it to Liam. Liam looks at Jai smiling and tells him to wait for a minute because his cake is yet to be cooked. Jai drops his pot on the table sighing heavily. Jai walk on his tippy toes to the stove to have a look in Liam’s pot. Liam points to the mix and tells Jai that his cake has chocolate in it. Jai says “can I see?” he then scoops some of the mixture jiggling “yum” and walk three strides away from the pot pretending to eat it. Jai steps back as the sand mix falls to the ground. He smiles and takes his hand forward to scoop the mix again, but Liam smiles and walks in front of his pot warning Jai not to do that until the mix is done.
Interpretation of developmental domains: Strength, Preference and opportunity arising
There is a good friendship developed between Jai and Liam that makes them interact very well. They seem to enjoy this activity of dramatic pretend play which shows that it could be an activity they have observed at home. Jai uses his right hand/arm to show a preference but experiments with the left hand. Strength: To build muscle in the left hand of Jai by the support of other gross motor activities. To leverage Liam and Jai’s interests of dramatic pretend play for weighing and counting ingredients into mathematical cooking experience or other events, they have not observed such as art.
Learning and development linkage to:
Theoretical perspectives
Early years learning framework
Children are active learners that build their skills on prior knowledge, explore and discover a new concept on their own. They spend time learning in social and cultural context with others in negotiating rules and engaging roles in playing (Bern, 2013). Children are great talkers that like to explain, persuade and convince through words. They can make friends quickly, relate well, talk and love to influence others. Pre-schoolers are full of idea. They begin to become responsible and try out social roles with peer yet need support with their effort.
The relationship between the early years learning framework and content knowledge is determined by the position of a child and a teacher about the experience that restrains the capacity for active learning and teaching in the early years (DET, 2015).
Learning possibilities for inclusion in the curriculum
Objectives for future learning and development
Provides an option for the learner to learn, create and share what he/ she knows. The learner develop an organisation and processing skills, present content, material and information in a different way to support understanding and increases participation (Allen, 2014)
Children will be able to contribute and connect with their world and find an opportunity to build confidence by creating interaction with a larger group.
References
Allen, E. K. (2014). The exceptional child: Inclusion in early childhood education. Nelson Education.
Berk, L. E. (2013). The Role of Make-Believe Play in the Development of Executive Function: Status of Research and Future Directions. American Journal of Play, 6(1), 98-110.
Department of Education and Training. (2015). Becoming, Being and Belonging: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Accessed from , www.dss.gov.au/sites/files/documents/belonging-being-becoming
