Learning by playing is an essential element in the Finnish Early Childhood Education Care and Pre-primary Education. Play is the natural way for children to explore and make sense of the world around us and different phenomena in it. And playing is fun! The LeaDo Learning Centre enables new kind of playful activities and physical activities that come with it, even in small spaces.
In addition to teacher-led, pedagogically planned playful elements and motor skills exercises, children come up with endless of their own ideas for play with different parts of the Learning Centre. And because children learn with imitation, repetition and modeling, they often adapt ideas and themes from teacher-led activities into their playworlds. For example, they might use the LeaDo pocket compartment to hide their toys or arrange their building block by colour.
In Paula’s classroom, the gymnastic rings have been children’s favourite – someone is hanging from them all the time. The air yoga hammock transforms from a swing to a squirrel nest and again to a flying car in no time, the only limit being children’s imagination. A current favourite for the children are the colourful mega blocks and constructing with them. The blocks are heavy enough to strengthen children’s arm when carried around. Children also need to work together and practise cooperation, because they need help from each other to move and lift the blocks.
Children’s activities are enriched with physical activity almost unnoticed by using the miscellaneous LeaDo equipment: blocks to jump on, balance beams to climb over and so on. Children have incredible ideas and from time to time we should stop and observe how creatively they use the equipment around them in play!
