Approaches To Learning: Oregon Early Childhood Foundations - Ages Three to Five

Overview

A young child grows and learns through personal experiences and understanding the relationship of self to home and family. Their lives expand to include people they meet through early childhood education and care environments, the neighborhood and the community in which they live. Cultural values and norms also influence development and the way a child interacts with new ideas and events. Family and teachers can share information about a community that can assist each child’s strengths and style of learning.

Adults need to identify children’s current knowledge and understanding of their world and use it as a basis for making new experiences and ideas meaningful. Learning needs to be incorporated into real every day events and be promoted through encouragement when the child tries new things.

Oregon K-12 Standards: There are no Oregon Standards for this Foundation Area.

Head Start Child Outcomes Framework: Approaches to Learning

Early Childhood Foundation: Initiative and Curiosity

Children use initiative, curiosity and persistence to learn about the world by:

• Exploring ways to use new materials
• Carrying out complex and varied sequences of activities
• Engaging in dramatic play
• Using conversation to ask questions and seek answers

Indicators: Observable Behaviors

The Child

• Asks an adult to read stories.
• Asks an adult to explain an event.
• Tries alternative methods to solve a problem. 
• Notices changes in routines and asks adult about them, or comments on change.
• Discusses familiar and new topics and continues discussions by asking questions or making comments.

The Adult

• Allows time for exploring and making choices.
• Models and demonstrates personal enthusiasm for new ideas, materials and experiences.
• Uses the outside world to promote discovery. 
• Encourages children’s questions and curiosity with positive responses. 
• Encourages creative thinking by asking open-ended questions (questions that require more than one word as an answer).

Supportive Learning Environments Include

• A safe, natural environment for children to visit and explore, see new things and try new ideas.
• Opportunities to explore, play with and learn from varying items in the environment: dirt, leaves, water, clay, blocks, paper tubes.

Early Childhood Foundation: Engagement and Persistence

Children are actively engaged and focus on self-directed activities by:

• Showing willingness to try new tasks
• Asking questions, seeking and giving answers
• Planning his/her own project and working independently in the creation of the work
• Knowing when problem solving works until a satisfactory solution is reached

Indicators: Observable Behaviors

The Child

• Maintains concentration over time on a task, question, set of directions or interactions.
• Completes a variety of tasks, activities, projects and experiences (finishes painting before moving to next activity, puts toy away before leaving the area, etc.).
• Asks for and accepts help and/or suggestions from teacher or peers for problem solving (putting larger or more blocks at the base will make the tower stronger).
• Demonstrates ability to set goals and follow through on plans (identifies what he/she wants to paint, build, explore, defines how he/she wants to do it and is able to follow through to completion).

The Adult

• Ensures that there are multiple opportunities for choice throughout the day.
• Encourages children to try new activities and follow through.
• Asks open-ended questions to encourage independent problem solving and exploration of new ideas.
• Helps children find answers to their questions through “trying new solutions” and through hands-on explorations.

Supportive Learning Environments Include

• A safe and adequate space for exploring, choice and project work.
• Opportunities for children to return to their work if they have not completed it.
• Displays of children’s work and discoveries placed at their eye level.
• Changes in play materials, equipment and activities on a regular schedule to encourage exploring, discovering and interest in new things.

Early Childhood Foundation: Reasoning and Problem Solving

Children use reasoning and problem solving skills to find solutions to a question, task or problem by:

• Making comparisons among objects, events and experiences
• Sorting objects by similar qualities
• Using active exploration and trial and error to solve a problem
• Predicting and finding more than a single solution
• Reflecting on their experiences to interpret and reach conclusions

Indicators: Observable Behaviors

The Child

• Makes comparisons regarding observations (“There are more kittens than puppies.”).
• Makes predictions when observing events (“When I put the big block on the top the tower falls.”).
• Draws simple conclusions based on prior experiences and information (“We have snack before we go play; we read books before bed”).
• Offers simple, age appropriate reasons and ideas for tasks and problem solving (how to keep the book area in order, what to do if we have 2 paint stations and 3 people want to paint, etc.).

The Adult

• Models language and helps children identify challenges in the environment (If I put this last block on top will the tower topple?).
• Provides time and opportunities for children to make independent choices.
• Provides materials that allow for a variety of sensory experiences.
• Provides time for children to problem solve without intervention.

Supportive Learning Environments Include

• Opportunities for children to observe and make predictions about natural events (growing seeds, charting weather, hatching eggs, etc.).
• A variety of tools for exploring and investigating (magnifiers, binoculars, rain gauge, thermometer, measuring tools, etc.).

Resources

A Mind at a Time; Mel Levine

Boys and Girls Learn Differently; Michael Gurian

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ; Daniel Goleman

Engaging Children’s Minds: The Project Apporach; Lillian G. Katz and Sylvia C. Chard

Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn-and-Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less; Kathy Kirsch and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

Group Games in Early Education: Implications of Piaget’s Theory; Constance Kamii and Rheta Deevries

The Growth of the Mind: And the Endangered Origins of Intelligence; Stanley Greenspan, M.D.

Making Friends: The Influences of Culture and Development; Luanna H. Meyer, Hyun- Sook Park, Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, Ilene S. Schwartz and Beth Harry

Pathways to Play: Developing Play Skills in Young Children; Sandra Heidemann, Deborah Hewitt, Don Franklin, Michael Siluk, F. Wardle

Planning Around Children’s Interest: The Teacher’s Idea Book 2; Michelle Graves

Reconsidering Children’s Early Development and Learning Toward Common Views and Vocabulary: draft report to the National Education Goals Panel; U.S. Department of Education

Your Child’s Growing Mind: A Practical Guide to Brain Development and Learning From Birth to Adolescence; Jane M. Healy, Ph.D.

Books for Children

•  Alphabet Under Construction; Denise Fleming 
• The Art Lesson; Tomie dePaola 
• The Curious George Stories; H.A. Rey 
• From Head to Toe; Eric Carle 
• Is your Mama a Lama? ; Deborah Guarino 
• The Little Engine That Could; Watty Piper 
• Margaret and Margarita/Margariita y Margaret; Lynn Reiser 
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel; Virginia Lee Burton
• Snow Play; Kate Spohn