KNOWLDEGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD
Aspects of Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Knowledge and Understanding of
the World is made up of the following aspects
Exploration and Investigation – is about how children investigate objects and materials and their properties, learn about change and patterns, similarities and differences, and question how and why things work.
Treasure Baskets
Follow this link for further information about treasure baskets.......
Living Things
Provide the children with opportunities to examine living things. Trips to local woods, parks or even the garden will enable the children to look for a variety of different insects and mini beasts as well as plants and trees. Give them a magnify glass so they can see things in more detail. Encourage them to talk about what they see, hear, feel, smell etc and provide them with the vocabulary they might need. Bark rubbing and leaf painting are good ways to extend the activity. Take photographs so they can recall the outing and share it with their family. This will also enable you to show them the changes in the seasons and how this affects the natural environment.
The Built Environment
Plan trips to different environments so the children can learn about areas that are residential, commercial and natural. Talk with the children about what they like and dislike about the different environments and why we need different ones for different purposes. Extend the activity by making models from scrap boxes, brick rubbing or painting pictures. If there is any building work going on locally take the children along to see how the work is progressing, what tools are being used etc. A great opportunity to discuss health and safety issues with the children.
Why
Encourage the children to ask questions about why things happen, how things work. Encourage them to handle and explore objects to see how they work for themselves. Ask the children to come up with their own reasons as to why things might happen.
DOWNLOAD Sample Observation: Learning about the Hamster
Designing and Making – is about the ways in which children learn about the construction process and the tools and techniques that can be used to assemble materials creatively and safely.
Construction
Provide a wide variety of materials and resources that children can use for construction. They can be shop bought plastic and wooden bricks, or things from around your home, cushions from the sofa, books, toys... anything that can be piled or stacked, for example plastic beakers. Babies and young children delight in helping to build towers and knocking them down. Talk about balancing things and how to design a tower so that it won’t topple over.
Tools
Introduce a range of tools that will aid children in their construction. Teach children the correct names for the tools and how to use them safely and correctly. Help them to use a tape measure or ruler, scissors, staplers, whole punches etc. Help the children to work out which tools will be needed for which tasks.
DOWNLOAD
Sample Observation: Making A Card For Mothers Day
ICT – is about how children find out about and learn how to use appropriate information technology such as computers and programmable toys that support their learning.
Cause and effect toys
Provide babies and young children with cause and effect toys, enabling them to press buttons, open flaps etc to achieve an effect, sound, movement etc. Provide wind up ‘radios’ and ‘televisions’, toy cameras and telephones.
Using Equipment
Where possible involve the children in using ICT around the home and when out and about. Pressing the button on the pelican crossing, using the remote control for the television etc.
Computers
Provide access to a computer. If you don’t have one at home then arrange to use one at the local library. Ensure children are safe when accessing the internet. Demonstrate how to use the mouse and the keyboard and provide age appropriate programs and games for the children to practise their skills on.
DOWNLOAD Sample Observation: Using a camera
Time – is about how children find out about past and present events relevant to their own lives or those of their families.
Routines
Children have lots of routines, eating, sleeping, playing, nappy changing, school picks up and drop off etc. Spend time talking to the children about their routines and how they are sequenced. Provide photographs to remind them. The following website has lots of information on ‘making a schedule’ with downloadable art work. It is provided to support those working with children with special needs but the principle works well with all children.
Encourage the children to use the routines in their play, for example when playing mummy and feeding their baby.
Time Language
Encourage the children to learn and use ‘time’ language. For example words such as ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘past’. Introduce ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ and the different seasons.
Talk with the children about events that have happened in their past and what might
happen in the future.
Sequencing
Help the children to understand the order or sequence that things happen in. Plan activities that involve things growing or changing over time and record them using photographs. Grow plants from seeds or bulbs and record their progress. Sunflowers are great as they can be measured regularly. If you don’t have a garden then bulbs on a windowsill are just as effective. Use the photographs after to enable the children to recall and sequence the life of the plant. Other projects could be hatching eggs, tadpoles, chrysalis etc.
DOWNLOAD Sample Observation: Growing Cress
Place – is about how children become aware of and interested in the natural world, and find out about their local area, knowing what they like and dislike about it.
Using literature
Use books that take the children on journeys or explore other places to enhance their learning. Books such as ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury or ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy provide great learning opportunities.
Also introduce books that are factual about real places, the beach, zoo, atlases and information on different countries.
Provide the appropriate vocabulary that the children will need to learn about place, both in the built and natural environment, for example town, village, houses, flats, woods, park, forest etc.
Using photographs
Use photographs and maps to help the children plan routines to places they visit
regularly such as the shops, pre-
Using Toys and Resources
Provide a range of small world toys for the children to act out what they have learnt. For example a farm, garage, train or road track. Provide props for the children to do roll play of places they may have visited, for example the Doctors, shops, opticians etc.
Use a ‘Travelling Ted’ to help the children learn about different places. See Travelling Ted Page on the BCMA website
DOWNLOAD Sample Observation: Visit to the Seaside
Communities – is about how children begin to know about their own and other people’s cultures in order to understand and celebrate the similarities and differences between them in a diverse society.
Visitors
provide children with opportunities to meet with other children and adults. This
may be by having visitors to your own home (make sure they sign your visitors book!)
visiting others, attending groups such as toddlers or Childminder Drop-
Significant events and celebrations
Celebrate significant events that happen in the children’s lives, for example the birth of a sibling or a wedding. Discuss with the child how this has made them feel and help them express themselves in words. Support children to cope with the sad events that might happen in their lives, for example the death of a family pet, or a minded child moving away and leaving your care.
Celebrate religious and cultural festivals with the children so they can learn about other cultures (See below)
Cultures
Help children to learn about other communities and cultures than those that are within the group. Obtain books from the library or from book sellers such as Letterbox Library that are dual language or stories about different cultures. Arrange visits to places of worship. Provide a range of resources and activities that celebrate our diverse community, use food, cooking and eating implements, dressing up clothes and music/dance to support the children’s learning.
Knowledge and Understanding
of the World
is made up of the following aspects:
Follow link to the
relevant section or
scroll down the page.
Requirements
Children must be supported in developing the knowledge, skills and understanding
that help them to make sense of the world. Their learning must be supported through
offering opportunities for them to use a range of tools safely; encounter creatures,
people, plants and objects in their natural environments and in real-
What Knowledge and Understanding means for children
- Babies and children find out about the world through exploration and from a variety of sources, including their families and friends, the media, and through what they see and hear.
- Babies and children need regular opportunities to learn about different ways of life, to be given accurate information and to develop positive and caring attitudes towards others.
- Children should be helped to learn to respect and value all people and learn to avoid misapprehensions and negative attitudes towards others when they develop their Knowledge and Understanding of the World.
- Children should be involved in the practical applications of their knowledge and
skills which will promote self-
esteem through allowing them to make decisions about what to investigate and how to do it.- making, drawing, modelling, reading and writing. (EYFS)
Knowledge and Understanding
of the World
is made up of the following aspects:
Follow link to the
relevant section or
scroll down the page.
