Qualification: NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Educator
Unit: Unit 3.4: Contribute to enabling play environments
Learning outcome: Be able to plan and lead opportunities which support children’s understanding of the world
Assessment criteria: Lead opportunities which support children’s understanding of the world
In the previous section, we looked at how you might plan learning opportunities that support children’s understanding of the world.
For this assessment, you will be required to lead opportunities that support a child’s understanding of the world.
This could be achieved by implementing some of the activities you planned in the previous section; however, on a day-to-day basis, you can use your knowledge and experience to develop children’s understanding in a less structured way.
If children come from diverse backgrounds, you might encourage them to discuss their home lives and explore their similarities and differences. For example, one child might live with their mum and dad, whilst another child’s parents are separated, and they move between households. Some children may celebrate different festivals, such as Divali or Christmas.
Practitioners can help children understand their natural environment by providing the correct names or labels for things. For example, they might point out a ‘cloud’ or a ‘tree’. During a visit to a farm, practitioners might say the names of the animals they see.
Similarly, practitioners can draw children’s attention to changes in the weather and season. For example, they might explain that leaves fall off the trees in Autumn and explore all the different colours (browns, reds, yellows etc.) of the different leaves.
Practitioners might also draw upon their own experiences. For example, they might explain how different their childhood was without the Internet or mobile phones. Reading books can also help children to put things into historical context.