Introduction
As a YMCA Group Leader working with children aged between five and thirteen, I utilize the gym, cafeteria, hallway, and playground before and after school. These are spaces where the students can engage in specific entertaining activities, communicate, socialize, and have a safe setting for the play. The objective of the setting changes depending on how it is being utilized. The YMCA’s official documents define the gym as an area where children engage in physical activity, play, and socialize with each other.
Hence, the selected setting is considered from the perspective of its social utility and opportunities to enhance the child’s experience beyond sports. The playground is typically solely associated with unstructured play, while the hallway and cafeteria serve direct needs. The purpose of the spaces is to enhance one’s activity levels, generate a space for communication with peers, and be a play area for school-aged children. The current paper will further exemplify how a school gym, cafeteria, hallway, and playground can be integrated into an emergent curriculum serving early childhood education through play.
Description and Analysis
The gym, designed to fulfill the physical activity needs of school-aged children, constitutes a dynamic environment with various options for activities that can be performed in the environment. Similarly, the cafeteria and hallway can be transformed into an appropriate setting. The playground is an additional setting explicitly designed to entertain children. Furthermore, it is versatile as it can accommodate individuals of different ages. For the setting to be analyzed from the lens of emergent curriculum, its characteristics, flexibility, and ability to assist students with their developmental requirements depending on age will be highlighted.
Characteristics
The YMCA gym, cafeteria, playground, and hallway are open-layout spaces. The gym contains equipment and props specifically intended to be used during physical activity. Specifically, the presence of mats, basketball hoops, cones, and balls for soccer, basketball, and football all serve a purpose. The cafeteria has tables and chairs, which can be utilized for team art projects and activities that do not require activity. The hallway can serve as a display platform. The outside play area is open and generates multiple possibilities for use.
Furthermore, depending on the exact age, students can engage in activities that align with their current potential. The concept resembles a classroom with shelves containing books for different ages (Espiritu et al., 2002). The equipment is applied during physical activity and exercise and constitutes props that can be used for imaginative play.
For example, a safari jungle experience can be approached using mats representing rivers and jump ropes as snakes. In an outdoor area, the swings can take the roles of lianas. For cafeterias, tables can divide rivers or continents if a geographical theme is applied. It is also helpful that the aforementioned environments’ size and the open-space format inspire movement and activity. This implies that children are more likely to be active when an emergent curriculum is applied.
Flexibility
For the emergent curriculum to be effectively employed, the space must be adaptive to any activity or idea in which the children can engage. The gym is one of the most adaptable school settings due to its design and ample space, allowing multiple scenarios to be applied. Furthermore, the equipment is often movable and can be placed in carts from which children will select goods to use as props.
Cafeterias are less adaptable, yet they can be decorated or only used for initiatives that do not imply physical exercise. The hallway and especially the playground are incredibly spacious and flexible. Their spaciousness also allows family members and communities to participate in the activities if designed for such circumstances (Parnell et al., 2018). If the previous example is to be applied to the flexibility aspect, creating a game set as a safari jungle adventure, it would be efficient to create small decorations resembling tall grass and trees and place them in the environment.
As mentioned earlier, the space in all environments allows for creatively implementing equipment and props. This is because gyms and playgrounds are specifically designed to serve multiple purposes. For example, children are not limited to basketball; instead, they can play football, volleyball, and softball.
Hence, it is an open-ended space that enhances the opportunities when it comes to the implementation of an emergent curriculum. Another element of the adaptable nature of the selected space is the opportunity to apply seasonal-based scenarios. Hence, a fall activity involving decorative tree branches, leaves, and autumnal colors can easily be employed.
Developmental Characteristics
Emergent curriculum principles are highly intertwined with children’s developmental needs and traits based on their ages. For example, an intervention for younger children aged between three and five can be a pottery or sculpting class due to combining creativity with motor skills (Wien et al., 2008). Different ages can benefit differently from engaging in an activity designed to fit the previously highlighted environments.
An adventure scenario is appropriate for students in elementary school. Lighter balls can be used compared to the scenarios appropriated for an older demographic. Another element is the educational one. Hence, if the safari scenario is implemented more entertainingly for elementary school students, 12-13-year-olds can participate in a more productive session with more information being employed. They may need to identify poisonous insects and snakes as an incorporation of biology or reenact survival scenarios by discussing how they would make a fire in the wild or acquire drinking water.
Materials
Both existing and additional materials can be applied in an emergent curriculum initiative. For example, mats, balls, cones, and jump ropes, besides an athletic benefit, can be employed for a scenario where children emulate exploring space, an island, or ancient ruins. Tables can be used in a cafeteria for their primary purpose or as imaginary territories as children discuss geography or history. Various wall displays can be showcased in a hallway due to the existing materials that include lockers, boards, maps, seasonal announcements, and exhibits.
Regarding playgrounds, natural elements, insects, sand, and play structures can all serve a purpose that aligns with curriculum initiatives. Each element can be effectively integrated, and it can be more beneficial for the student to use their imagination to determine the context for every item. Researchers mention that children learn about the world and themselves via manipulating objects and their application in games and play time (Reifel, 2011). Concerning an alignment with the emergent curriculum, sports and activities involving the existing materials are effective in physical development, imaginative engagement, improvement of motor skills, cooperation, and creativity enhancement.
Space
Space alterations are sometimes not required, especially regarding team sports, for which the spaces are already designed. As suggested, team sports correlate with emergent curriculum principles such as physical development, collaboration, and the enhancement of skills. In other cases, however, additional measures are needed for the playtime to generate more engagement and for the students to emerge in the sessions.
For example, the hallway is more challenging to address as decorations and additional materials are required to transform it into a setting where children will be comfortable creating and engaging in playtime. One way this can be addressed is by inquiring about the students themselves. The method aligns with the evidence-based approach to student activities, as highlighted in the example in which educators ask teachers about their view on sculpting before designing the class (Wien et al., 2008).
Another example is designing the space for thematic connotations. Hence, if the teacher seeks to implement a lesson on wilderness, children can contribute feedback on decorating the setting. This can include the addition of fake grass and trees, specific zones for the campground, and objects that will play the role of wild animals.
Besides themed spaces, adaptive layouts can be employed. The selected spaces are, by definition, adaptive, as moving mats, cones, tables, and similar equipment are not complex. For example, if the activity requires a collective dance lesson and the children need space, the gym can easily be transformed into a dancefloor. In addition, the nature of specific items in the setting is similarly adaptive. Mats can be used during games such as obstacle courses and imaginative sessions and are tools for flexibility exercises.
Educators can take the roles of observers while the space is adaptive enough to provide a variety of settings in which student behavior can be assessed (Reifel, 2011). Once again, the connotation indicates the principles of an emergent curriculum. A similar notion correlates with modular equipment. For example, if the seats are easily foldable, creating an open space for a play session becomes more advantageous.
The environments are efficient because their typical and alternative uses can be integrated into educational emergent situations. On the one hand, the children can be divided into teams and play soccer, which will teach them about being cooperative and collaborative when it comes to reaching common goals. On the other hand, the environment can be applied to art-related activities. In a cafeteria, children may learn to cook and have a meal together afterward or draw and paint as the tables are comfortable enough for such engagements. Suppose the children are to create a bigger installation that resembles their family members. The hallway setting is adequate due to its layout and the vast space.
For an exploration of the natural world, the playground offers opportunities to play and assess existing insects and plants. The teacher can allow children to adapt to the environment based on creativity (Reifel, 2011). For example, the task may be to divide the gym into separate areas, and each team will decorate it according to one type of climate. Specific teams may choose an arctic scenario and thread paper resembling snow, while another can select the desert and cut out a cardboard cactus.
Regarding exploration, the principle can be touched upon via pre-installed decoration. For instance, the students can be tasked to look for a plant that does not correspond to the environment in which the setting is decorated. Last but not least, autonomy is implied when the space becomes an open-play area where every participant can engage in any creative outlet. Family and community participation is critical in childhood development (Parnell et al., 2018). However, autonomy is similarly significant as it assists in establishing personal empowerment and intrinsic motivation, as well as enhancing artistic creativity.
Time
The gym can be used for the initiative before and after school classes. A similar context can be applied to a cafeteria, playground, and hallway. In this case, there are no disruptions from the direct learning process, and, instead, it is an excellent addition to existing conditions for studying and acquiring information. Moreover, children can implement what they learned during classes in interactive plays.
For example, counting balls in the gym, lockers in the hallways, or tables in the cafeteria can maximize information retention after a math lesson. The methodology is similarly effective as it allows for more in-depth explorations of singular topics rather than multiple ones in an unstructured manner (Seitz, 2008). A scheduled activity is more likely to be productive and successfully assist in achieving the goals to assist students in their developmental needs.
Even though there is a schedule for emergent activities, flexibility will be applied. However, the exception is in case skill-enhancing activities are employed. For example, suppose the goal is to address athleticism and coordination via a soccer lesson. In that case, it is to be more organized and timed in a structured way via the engagement-trained instructions and specific rules. The methodology aligns with the recommendation of combining time-specific and non-specific activities within emergent curriculum contexts.
On the one hand, directions are provided to avoid risks. On the other hand, children can apply their creativity and changes to self-develop and discover aspects of the game that keep them entertained and interested. According to researchers, the curriculum implies that children develop questions about various topics and a deeper understanding of them (Verwy, 2007). Hence, a hybrid notion of scheduling activities can encourage such inquiries due to opportunities to discover new things yet have structure to not deviate from the topic. Based on the information above, the following schedule can be applied before classes:
- 07:00-08:00 – unstructured play;
- 08:00-08:30 –warm-up and stretching based on a pre-designed plan.
Additionally, the following implementation can be applied to children after classes:
- 03:00-04:00 – unstructured plat;
- 04:00-05:00 – soccer/basketball/baseball session;
- 05:00-06:00 – adventure play (scenario can involve jungle, space, or historical play);
- 06:00-06:15 – recap (recalling all the activities, reflecting upon new information, discussing positive outcomes).
Conclusion
The integration of certain environment-specific activities, materials, and time resources in a school setting can be effective in the employment of emergent curriculum principles. The gym can be the place used to address such notions as skill-building and self-regulation. Additionally, the cafeteria can be integrated as a space in which creativity is enhanced via drawing, sculpting, painting, and writing. On the other hand, the hallway can be the setting in which children express themselves artistically by displaying their art on the walls. Last but not least, the principle of multidimensional knowledge can be approached via the playground as it allows for a hybrid activity involving games and exploring natural habitats.
References
Espiritu, E., Meier, D. R., Villazana-Price, N., & Wong, M. K. (2002). A collaborative project on language and literacy learning: Promoting teacher research in early childhood education. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 57(5), 71–78. Web.
Parnell, W., Justice, E., & Patrick, L. P. (2018). Engaging extended family and friends in young children’s education. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 73(4), 20–27. Web.
Reifel, S. (2011). Observation and early childhood teaching: Evolving fundamentals. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 66(2), 62–65.
Seitz, H. (2008). The power of documentation in the early childhood classroom. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 63(2), 88–93. Web.
Verwy, S. K. V. K. (2007). “Teacher, teacher, tell us about the brain!” Sharing decision-making about curriculum in preschool. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 62(4), 97–100.
Wien, C. A., Keating, B.-L., Coates, A., & Bigelow, B. (2008). Moving into uncertainty: Sculpture with three-to-five-year-olds. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 63(4), 78–83. Web.