Benefits of Playgroup

How will your children benefit from playgroup?

A safe and nurturing environment where children can play and learn.

Enhance healthy early brain development through play.

Opportunities for children to create, invent, reason and problem solve.

Opportunities to build attachment between adults and children as they play together, and share time and experiences.

Learn social skills as they negotiate with peers, resolve conflict, take turns, share and make friends.

Build resilience to enable them to cope with new situations and manage stress and adapt to change.

How will families benefit from playgroup?

A space where families can create their own locally based friends and social networks.

A place where parents and caregivers can support each other through sharing ideas, parenting experiences, concerns and information.

Build family capacity through peer support.

A place where families can build long-term friendships as their children grow and transition to school.

An affordable and regular opportunities for families to enjoy a shared outing.

Ten ways to impress parents

Keep the updates about their child’s performance by writing diary regularly and maintaining assessment cards for all the students.

Conduct events like sports day, annual day, nutrition day, arts and crafts exhibition and other events which include parents’ participation Grandparents day is another event which is conducted in some schools.

Celebrate special events like festivals, fancy dress where children get ready with parental participation.

Prepare ‘take-away’ activities for kids.

Conduct parents’ orientation classes where parents get a know how about positive parenting.

Regular online update about the events is a good way of keeping parents updated about various celebrations at school. Their links will be forwarded to their friends and neighbors and a good publicity for the school is gained.

Conduct parent-teachers meetings at least once in a month where student’s progress can be reported.

Conduct regular health check-ups for students.

Make a child psychologist available for parents to discuss everyday problems they face with their kids and help them resolve such issues.

Last but not the least,care well for the kids by giving individual attention.

Early Intervention and Early Childhood

The cumulative deficit, shown here, represents the idea that the later the investment in improved caring for a child , the wider the gap that has to be closed. This is illustrated by showing the top curve, which represents the normal course of development, and the bottom curve, which shows the course of development for a child who is “developmentally delayed” - in other words, has a slower rate of development, and may be at risk for mental retardation.
The key message is that the later you intervene, the greater the gap that has to be closed.

The Y axis (vertical) is the child’s developmental level - both cognitive and social. The X axis (horizontal) is the age period. The list of factors on the right side of the graph represent all of the factors that may affect the magnitude of the developmental delay. Some of these are characteristics of the individual, such as responsiveness, and others are characteristics of the situation (timing, intensity of the intervention, breadth of the intervention), and a third refer to cultural and developmental appropriateness.

Economics of Early Childhood

On a purely economic basis, it makes a lot of sense to invest in the young… Early learning begets later learning. And early success breeds later success.

--James J. Heckman, Ph.D., Nobel Prize Laureate,Economist

Creative Activities of Kids...

PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF KIDS

This area of learning is of the utmost importance for young children in all aspects of their lives. It is about children’s emotional well-being, them understanding who they are, respecting others and their environment, forming and sustaining relationships, beginning to understand emotions and about developing positive dispositions to learn. Good personal, social and emotional development gives children the best opportunity for success in other areas of learning.

Upon entering pre-school education, children bring with them a variety of personal and social skills, values and attitudes. They acquire these relationships and experiences within the home and the immediate environment. It is important that these are recognized. Children should be given the time that they need to settle into their new surroundings. It is important that, at this stage, staff establish good relationships with both the children and their parents.

Help children gain confidence in what they do. This can be achieved through simple gestures like allowing them to make choices and help each other; encouraging them to organise their own play, including tidying up; giving them independence at snack time; and having them put on their own coats. Fostering confidence and self-esteem in children will help them to feel valued as individuals and develop independence. Pre-school staff can also help children progress by nurturing their motivation, perseverance, curiosity and creativity; encouraging them to problem solve; and by giving them time for reflection.

Children are individuals in their own right and have their own personalities. They have their own likes and dislikes. Some are timid while others are extroverted. Some are protective and at other times aggressive; some prefer to lead, others to follow. Young children also have difficulty understanding their feelings and the needs and feelings of others.

Staff can help children understand these difficult concepts by having them take part in role-play, listen to stories and by introducing them to different emotions using puppets or pictures. Through activities like these, and as friendships between particular children develop, they will become aware of both their needs and feelings and those of others. Finally, the staff’s actions and words should reflect a sense of caring, giving children encouragement and positive reinforcement as they play, interact with others and try to behave appropriately.

Ten tips for circletime in the preschool classroom

A Community Experience
In my classroom, circletime is a time when our students come together as a community of learners. As a community, we share our thoughts, listen to one another, actively participate together, introduce new concepts and ideas, read together, sing together, and build a sense of respect and support for one another…
Circletime Tip #1: Think of circletime as a way to foster a sense of community where everyone is a valued member of that community.

An Interactive Experience
When planning for circletime, I am always thinking of ways I can invite the kids to actively participate in the experience and not just be passive observers of the experience. An interactive experience means that the children are being invited to actively get involved. Whether it is simply passing an object around the circle to take a closer look, singing a song together, playing a game, or retelling a story the children are constantly being invited to interact with me, with one another, and with the materials I bring to the circletime experience…
Circletime tip #2: Make circletime an interactive experience by seeking out ways to keep your students actively involved in the circletime experience rather than passively sitting while you do all the talking.

A Hands-On Experience
When planning for circletime, I also spend time gathering tools and materials that the children can physically touch and manipulate to further their understanding of a concept I hope to promote or introduce. By spending a few minutes working with simple tools and materials as a whole group, I am able to give guidance and insight to the children about the tools or materials and then confidently send them off to the centers later to work with the tools or materials in their own way…
Circletime tip #3:
Gather tools and materials for the children to physically touch and manipulate during circletime. Make circletime a hands-on-and-do experience rather than just a hands-in-your-lap experience.

A Movement Experience
Throughout my circletime experiences, I make sure to integrate time for physical movement as well as time for sitting. To get the children moving, I tend to rely on lots of music and movement which means I have spent a lot of time learning songs and action rhymes that I can whip out anytime I need them. Some of the music and movement actions may fit along with a book I am reading or a theme we are exploring and some of them may just be something the children love. Don’t get stuck on the idea that every music and movement activity has to be related to a letter of the week or some kind of theme. The better you and your students know the movements to a familiar song or action rhyme, the more confident you will be and the more engaged your students will be…
Circletime tip #4:
Keep circletime fun and engaging by adding movement into the mix of your experience. Focus on developing your own rich library of music and movement songs or action rhymes that you can pull out and use anytime you need to get the children up and moving…

A Read-Aloud Experience
The books we choose to read to our students is an absolute critical part of our circletime experience. Mrs. Courtney and I spend more time than I can express carefully reviewing the books we will share with our students. We are always considering whether the books will be engaging, interesting, age appropriate, and a bridge to other types of learning in our classroom. We also read the books on our own time and ahead of time so that we can be effective in how we read aloud to our students…
Circletime tip #5:
Be selective and purposeful in the books you choose to read aloud to your students during circletime. Make sure the books you choose are a right fit for the age of children you are reading to and will be a book your students will enjoy. Spend time getting to know each book before reading it – you should have a good grasp on each page of the book and what approach you will take to reading the book well before you sit down to read it with your students.

A Touching Experience
For just about every book we read, I try to find a simple way to put the story into the hands of the children. In other words, I look for something that the children can touch or feel or smell that takes the story from the page and puts it into the hands of the children. My goal is to give the children something that will help them connect with the story or remember the story…
Circletime tip #6:
Make the circletime story more meaningful by giving the children something they can touch and hold. Choose simple objects that will spark conversation and help the children draw connections between the story and real life.

A Visual Experience
Not only do I want to provide objects for my students to touch but I want to also create a visual experience so that my students have something they can look at as we build on concepts or hold group discussions. To create a visual experience, I pull from a variety of materials or tools like a large group graph, flannel board, magnetic board, big books, and charts on a wall. For every visual, I am also visualizing how my students can participate or interact with the visual rather than just look at it. Perhaps they will guide me through a process or perhaps my students will participate by adding something to the visual but in any case, the challenge is to make the visual more than just a poster on the wall but instead an engaging part of the circletime experience.
Circletime tip #7:
Keep preschoolers engaged in circletime by having different kinds of visuals that promote conversation and invite interaction.

A Responsive Experience
No matter what agenda I may have for circletime each day, I have to remain responsive to the needs and interests of my students. Taking a responsive approach to leading circletime can be challenging but it is by being responsive that I can tell when it is time to move on, slow down, do more, do less, get up an move, or sit down and listen. I try to be aware of how often I am telling my students to listen and wait versus how often I am reminding myself to be the one who needs to listen and wait. I try to balance what my own agenda actually is versus what my agenda should actually be…
Circletime tip #8:
Be responsive to your students by being willing to modify your agenda to meet their needs and interests.

A Routine Experience
We have a circletime routine that we pretty much follow which gives our students an order of the things we will do during circletime. However, within our routine – the books, materials, tools, games, and other experiences (as described above) change each day. An example of our typical morning circletime routine would be…

Hello Song

Helper of the Day

Weather

Action Letters (phonics)

Book (along with any additional materials or tools for extending the book)

Interactive graphing, storytelling, music and movement, and other experiences as already mentioned above.

Circletime tip #9:
Having a circletime routine that the children can become familiar with helps the children to know what to expect and to be a more confident participant in the process. However, within any routine it is important to be responsive to the needs and interests of the children. If a routine is not working well, then it will be necessary to adapt, change, shorten, rearrange, or somehow modify the routine.

A Sensitive Experience
Above all else during circletime, I try to be sensitive of my students’ needs to have their ideas respected, heard, understood, and acted upon. Finding a balance between what I believe is best for the whole group experience versus taking the time out to listen to one child tell me a rather lengthy story about going to the beach isn’t easy to do. But I have learned that my role in the preschool classroom is to build my students’ confidence to share their ideas, seek understanding, and build knowledge. I have learned that to play the teaching role successfully, I have to remain sensitive to the needs of my students and stay aware of how my own responses affect their little hearts and minds.
Circletime tip #10:
Make sure that your approach to circletime and your handling of the children during circletime leads young children towards feeling confident in their knowledge and abilities.

A Successful Experience
Ultimately, I want circletime to be a successful experience for my students. It is for this reason that I use the word experience in connection with the word circletime. After years of teaching, I have learned that circletime is more engaging to young children if it is built around simple, brief, interesting, and engaging experiences that invite conversation and interaction rather than being nothing but a sit-still-and-listen experience. There are times during circletime that I ask the children to give me their very best attention but this is balanced with making my own effort to give them my very best effort and attention in return.

Why playgroups are required for KIDS in current environment?

Playgroups provide an informal session where mums, dads, grandparents, caregivers, children and babies can meet in a relaxed and friendly environment while providing child care. Usually the adults stay at the session to interact with other adults and to play and support their children. Playgroups give children an opportunity to have fun, make new friends and develop new skills through informal play. Playgroup also allows parents and cares to spend quality time with their children, encouraging, helping and learning about their child’s development or simply playing with their children.

Why playgroups are good for children Playgroups are great fun! Your young child will get to sing, dance, try new art and craft activities, share experiences, and mix with other young children. While your child is busy scrabbling in the sandpit or painting a masterpiece, your child will also be picking up valuable new skills and experiences. These include:

learning to play with other children

experiencing new play and art opportunities

finding out more about the world and other people

experiencing books and music

improving problem-solving abilities.

Why playgroups are good for parents Parents can share a cup of coffee and chat about their experiences while children play. Playgroups are a good opportunity for parents to:

make new friends

reduce isolation

share concerns, ideas and experiences

learn from other parents.

What are the benefits of playgroup?

It is important for children to meet and play with their peers on their own terms without the support of their parents, this develops their confidence and social skills and, hopefully, is an enjoyable experience and will stand them in good stead, teaching them life skills that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Our role is to prepare all children for school and so at Playgroup we encourage young children to be more independent, however these occur as the children are ready to take them, and happen at different times in differing ways, and whilst children are in Playgroup we are able to fully support children as they take these first steps. Whilst our Playgroup is smaller than the local council run nursery, the size of the building allows us to fully support all children within the establishment, at all times. Staff are constantly aware of all the children, what they are doing and what and who they are playing with, not only does this mean that Playgroup staff can extend the children's learning it also means that staff are aware of the children's behaviour and we can usually deflect situations before they occur, meaning that we have very little negative behaviour our Playgroup.