Early Childhood Curriculum Assignment: Exploring Play-Based Learning through Sinéad & Seán’s Zoo Episode

Early Childhood Curriculum Assignment

This is an Assignment for students repeating this Continuous Assessment (CA). It is worth 100% and is the full assignment for this module.

The CA is split into 2 parts, Part 1, and Part 2

Part 1: Play Episode (1800 words)

Part 2: Reflection (700 words)

The student will:

Part 1: Episode of Play

Read the Episodes of Play below. Choose ONE of the play episodes and
a) Describe the episode of play.
b) Identify and include the learning that took place within this episode.
c) Describe why the events are significant to the children and reflect on what learning took place.
d) Discuss why the experience was important for the children involved.
e) In your discussion include an Extension of Learning describing how you would encourage and extend on the interests, abilities, understandings and play that have been demonstrated throughout the play episode.
f) Link to at least two Aistear themes and learning goals. Explain why you have chosen these aims and goals.

Part 2: Reflection

Taking from your selected play episode and using the Gibbs Reflection Model, write a reflection on how you would document and extend the children’s learning.

Play Episode Number 1

Sinéad and Seán (age 3 and 4) were playing with blocks and a station.

Sinéad had animals and was playing zoo.

Seán had cars and was making a car park. ‘Will we play zoo together’ says Sinéad. ‘Yeah’ says Seán ‘I’ll get more animals’

They build the perimeter of the zoo and then divide the space into smaller sections with the blocks. ‘Let’s put the giraffe in this space near the trees’ says Seán – ‘cos he has a long neck and he’ll reach the high leaves’ ‘Yeah, and we can put the tigers here’ says Sinéad, ‘they can’t be near the giraffes ‘cos they might hurt them’.

The two children continue to build the zoo and house the animals.

The Educator calls for dinner time. Seán is upset – he doesn’t want to leave the game. The educator assures him that it will be there when he comes back, and he can continue to play.

At dinner, he eats quickly and wants to save some food for the animals.

Important Notes:

• Please use headings to signpost your assignment.
• Please read and edit your work prior to submission – seek extra support if necessary.
• Use spell check.
• Follow reference guidelines.
• Use Times New Roman size 12 font, 1.5