Learning Activities – Outside the Box Ideas

Using a Slow Cooker for Teaching Children about Cooking and Preparing Kai As a responsible teacher or educator you role model and pass on good

Multi-Cultural Activities.

Most early childhood education services include bi-cultural elements in their teaching and learning, but with New Zealand becoming an increasingly multicultural country it can be interesting for children to learn about other cultures as well, particularly if there are children from these cultures within their communi

Farm Visit with Children.

While the animals may not be as exotic as the ones you find in a zoo, going to a farm can still be a great day out.

It can be especially good for smaller children as they can usually get closer to the animals.

Try these ideas to increase the learning potential of your visit.

Talk about the animals you might

Library Trip with Children.

Going to the library is a great activity to do either on your own with a child or small group of children, or as a group visit with your early childhood service.

Maybe you will walk there. Or take the bus? It might be something that you do weekly or monthly to take out and return books.

The most obvious thing y

Winter and Rainy Day Children’s Activities.

When the children are getting restless and the noise levels are going up and up and you are thinking about how to get through the day, it’s time to bring in some new ideas and fresh activities.

Here’s help. Below are lots of teacher ideas of experiences you can give to children and activities t

Plane Spotting at the ECE Service.

Going plane spotting is easy. You can do this now without leaving home or your early childhood service.

There are thousands of learning possibilities…

Technology – tracking planes, use of real timeGeography – different countriesMaths – comparing land masses, number of planes, altitude, speed, di

The Type of Books Young Children Like Best.

Books are an integral part of a child’s education but getting them to sit down and look at books can be difficult when there are so many other things competing for a child’s attention.

Often books are chosen by adults, particularly for younger children and babies, but even young children

Colouring-in Books in ECE.

Back in the 80s and 90s the use of colouring-in books was hotly debated amongst early childhood professionals and a consensus developed that drawing templates and colouring-in books were bad for children.

But today, colouring-in books for adults have become fashionable. Such books are promoted as supporting mind

Learning languages in early childhood education is important – whether it is connecting with parts of our own kiwi culture or embracing other languages.

With families coming to New Zealand from all over the world it is also important to recognise that English and/ or Māori may not be the main language/s in the home of some families.

Sig

Rhythm Ribbons and Physical Movement. By Bronwyn Norman.

Bursting out in the beautiful sunny Autumn/Ngahuru afternoon our tamariki were ready to embrace their environment and interact with each other by choosing materials and playing games.

Fuelled by eating a healthy afternoon tea their bodies were ready to move. Tamariki were walking, ru

Sports in the Early Childhood Curriculum.

Have you ever heard a sports coach or commentator describe something good a player did saying, “that is natural talent, you can’t teach that”.  This article argues that through the artistry of teaching there is a way it can be taught… the early childhood educator’s way!

Sports are a huge p

Children Indoor Plant Growing Activities.

Here are 7 ideas for how to do some fun growing activities and keep children busy.  Activities include an onion person, a Humpty Dumpty potato or swede, an egg shell garden, wheat people and more. 

Young children will be able to do many of these growing activities themselves – they ju

Edible gardens in early childhood centres and homes provide a valuable resource for teaching many aspects of the early childhood curriculum while also creating and sustaining a regular growth and supply of fruits and vegetables.

One of the joys of encouraging children into gardening is the pleasure of seeing, tasting and sharing the results of the effort.  Dispositions such as perseverance and curiosity are nurtured through the experience of growing and tending to plants.

Gardening provides a real, as opposed to an artificial, context for the learning of natural science, maths, and language. 

On this page we present information and guidance on: purposes of an edible garden, what size and structure works well, produce use, and which plants are most suitable to grown in ECE for speed, fun, and for children to eat.

Motivations and reasons for an edible garden include

Playing with playdough is an everyday occurrence at many ECE services, but the humble activity is subject to frequent debate with suggestions that playdough and other food based play ideas are culturally insensitive.

The debate is not new – it is revived every few years and has been around for at least the past 30 years.  

One debate was