‘Play to Learn’
Introduction
By the end of this session practitioners should be
aware of:
• ‘Play to Learn’ background
Purpose
• To increase practitioners confidence,
knowledge, skills and understanding in order
to enhance children’s physical and creative
movement skills
Outcomes
By the end of this course participants will have an increased
awareness of:
• the ‘Play to Learn’ Resource
• how the ‘Play to Learn’ resource can
– enhance existing practice
– contribute to children’s health, fitness and well-being
– complement Foundation Phase planning and philosophy
They should also be able to:
• improve children’s physical skills
• begin to identify effective strategies for cascading this information
to others
• begin to compile a ‘Play to Learn implementation plan
The bigger picture
• ‘Play to Learn’ is part of the Physical Education and
School Sport (PESS) Initiative, funded by the Welsh
Assembly Government and managed by the Sports
Council for Wales
• The PESS project has a developed a suite of CPD
courses and resources to support practitioners
working with 3 to 19-year-olds.
Physical Development and
Creative Movement are important because:
• young children are active learners who enjoy learning through play and
physical activities
• children’s physical skills are developed holistically across all Areas of
Learning. There are many opportunities for children to develop skills,
knowledge and understanding within the Areas of Learning
• problems with/concerns over a child’s physical development can be an
indication that the child may have some learning difficulties
• some children will be physically more skilful before others it is
important to observe children’s skills and consider individual needs
• as children progress through the Foundation phase and become more
confident, improvement in coordination of gross and fine movements
will continue and new skills will be learned
• of their contribution to a child’s health, fitness and safety
Background
• Introduction of the Foundation Phase and the revised National
Curriculum in 2008
• Foundation Phase Report 2007
• National Consultation
• Foundation Phase Action Plan devised
• Research into existing resources
• Pilot
• Production of resources
• New partnerships
• Awareness training
• Roll Out training
Why start with…
…story books?
What’s in the box?
By the end of this session practitioners
should be aware of:
• the components of ‘Play to Learn’
What’s in the box?
• In pairs complete the ‘What’s in the box?’
activity.
Exploring continuous provision
By the end of this session practitioners
should be aware of:
• how they might use the components of ‘Play to
Learn’ within continuous provision
Exploring continuous provision
• Work in fours an as two pairs: pair A and pair B
• Each group of four work in a ‘Garden’, collect
‘Your Garden’ card and A and B prompt cards
• Observe and plan
• Discussion
Hierarchy of Gross Motor Skills
By the end of this session practitioners should
be aware of:
• the hierarchy of Gross Motor Skills, Locomotor
skills, Body Management Skills and
Manipulative Skills plus ‘as they develop’, ‘as
they progress’ and ‘as they become more
skilful’ stages
Hierarchy of Gross Motor Skills
• In groups of four
• Card Sort Activity - You will have several skills
and the titles ‘as they develop’, ‘as they
progress’ and ‘as they become more skilful’, as
a group you must place the skills in hierarchical
order under the appropriate heading
• Compare
• Discuss
Exploring focused tasks
By the end of this session practitioners should
be aware of:
• how they might use the components of ‘Play to
Learn’ to support focused tasks
• how the resources can be used to enhance
children’s health, fitness and well-being
Exploring focused tasks
• Engage in a focused task for physical development
using an ‘Activity Card’
• Discuss Health, fitness and well-being
• Engage in a focused task for creative movement
developed from the same ‘Activity Card’
• Discuss
• Plan
Cue Cards
By the end of this session practitioners should be
aware of:
• how the components of ‘Play to Learn’ can be used
to support continuous, enhanced and focused
provision
• the ‘Play to Learn’ Cue Cards
Cue Cards
• Planning in the Foundation Phase
• Compare
• Discuss
Learning Opportunities
By the end of this session practitioners should
be aware of:
• the holistic nature of ‘Play to Learn’
• the principles of drawing movement content
from other texts
Learning Opportunities
• ‘Rich Opportunities’
from the stories
• Movement content
from other texts
• Using resources to
support these ideas
• Discuss
Out of School Hours Learning
By the end of this session practitioners should be
aware of:
• the importance of providing ’Out of School
Hours Learning’ (OSHL) to this age group
• The issues surrounding this provision
• The network of individuals who can contribute
to this provision
Out of School Hours Learning
• Complete the children’s health quiz in
groups of four
• Undertake the ‘OSHL’ placemat activity
• Who can help?
Cascading to others
By the end of this session practitioners should be
aware of:
• Effective strategies for cascading this information
to others
• The network of individuals in each Local Authority
that can support practitioners cascade and
implement ‘Play to Learn’
Action Planning
By the end of this session practitioners should be able to
compile:
• short and medium term actions as a result of attending the
‘Play to Learn’ training
• the success criteria they will use to measure the impact of
the course on the Foundation Phase outcomes
• what evidence they will collect to confirm this impact has
been achieved
• how and to whom they will report progress/good practice
Resource Review
By the end of this session practitioners should be
able to:
• begin to navigate their way around the ‘Play to
Learn’ CD-ROM and discuss how it can be used
to support planning and delivery in the
Foundation Phase
Plenary
By the end of this session practitioners
should be aware of:
• other courses available to them
By the end of this session practitioners should be:
• make reflective comments on the value of the course
to them as an individual, their school/setting and
their children