Play and Learning Methods

Play and Learning Methods at TLS

The philosophy of Play and Learn is to provide the best possible environment for fostering self-esteem, social awareness and adjustment, interpersonal relationships, self-discipline, and a feeling of security. Our children blossom into confident, capable individuals by providing a loving, fun-filled, and stimulating environment. We take each child as they are and strive to enhance their unique qualities. Our teachers thoroughly enjoy working with children and possess the training and experience to support individual child development.

We emphasize and blend physical activities in our curriculum in both co and extracurricular routines. We ensure that children regularly develop and acquire skills and techniques to excel in physical sports.

In May 2006, our faculty members attended a one-week Training Workshop at Dev Samaj College of Education, Chandigarh (India), and learned several techniques, including attracting the students that include puppet making, understanding the magical mystery of accepting etc. Same time we visited Small Wonders School at Chandigarh (India) and got a lot of new ideas.

On return from India, our staff members prepared a PLAY & LEARN area during summer vacations that include the home environment like bedroom, living area, dress rooms, ironing, kitchen and then road structure to learn road sense, crossing the signals, petrol pump station to learn different formats of energy being used in our vehicles etc. Through this environment, students learn to sleep, eat, work, and enjoy habits simultaneously, and they are getting new vocabulary for learning a lot of new words.

Same time we prepared a room where the teacher taught through the puppet. Teachers herself designed the means according to the situation, sat behind the screen, and then talked through instruments that are more effective and exciting techniques for children.

At the Learning School, we teach the kids to tag their shoes and unlock the windows and doors. Even we teach the children how to clean your teach and how to brush your hear.

We also prepared a Swimming poll for small children who enjoy and learn to bathe.

We have Multimedia, Televisions, DVD Player, VCR, Audio Recorder/Player, and overhead projectors in our Multi-media room. Teachers play a video or audio for some minutes, and then a question-answer session starts. Students also learn new vocabulary through audio and video, and their listening, understanding, and learning process improve.

Students are given further opportunities to develop their skills and extend their experiences in various ways through a well-organized activities calendar. Choice of activities in the form of clubs varies according to the demand and ability of students. However, the following are usually included Art, Handicrafts, Calligraphy, Book Reading, Computer, Creative Collage, Fun and Drama, Stamps and Coins collection, Painting, Craft, Photography, Sciences, Music, Debates, Qiraat, General Knowledge, Quiz and Badminton etc. Besides the above, regular educational excursion trips are arranged for students at The Learning School.

Our 'Hands On' activities and toys, a range of brightly coloured wooden toys give hours of fun whilst enhancing motor skills, colour recognition, touch, feel and sound.

Now coming to particular activities to incorporate Play with learning process, The Learning School involves its students in following activities (starting from primary classes):-

2D Shapes Naming the most common 2D shapes is just the start. Sorting the shapes into two groups; those that have a specified feature and the rest that don't. You can opt to sort by: number of sides (circle has one side for simplicity); whether the shapes have any right-angles, acute angles, obtuse or reflex angles; are they symmetrical or have a certain number of lines of symmetry; all of the above and rotational symmetry. To offer a challenge to more advanced children you can also opt to have two sort criteria to form complex questions with AND or OR, for example: Which shapes have 4 or more sides AND have an acute angle?	Abacus Use a four-stick abacus with color-coded beads to read numbers from it, make numbers on it, add and subtract with various number limits.	Area Find the area and perimeter of rectangles and triangles. Includes higher level finding hypotenuse using Pythagoras' theorem (with a calculator built in).
Colors (MS clip art) Match and name colors and simple shapes.	Conversion Convert between different units of length, weight, money e.g. rupees to paisas. Also, multiply and divide by 10 and 100.	Count An introduction to counting objects from 5 to 20.
Dice Investigate the probability of dice totals. Choose the number of dice to roll, the number of faces on each die, and how many throws to perform. You can see the results as a car race using one or two standard dice. The game does not explain how the probabilities occur.	Division A formal method of long division. Select the number limit and the divisor.	Estimation Estimate points on a number line where only the ends are labeled. The end numbers can be set up to a million, positive and negative. Correct answers are within 10%. Other estimates are also marked onto the number line to improve subsequent estimates. Three chances are allowed before moving on.
Flower A science simulation on the growing of plants. The variables are water, temperature, light intensity, plant food, salt and soil depth. Children practice trial and improvement and that altering one variable at a time is the best method for discovering optimum growing conditions for each of the four plants on test (they are not real-life values!). Fractions Colouring fractions of grids, identifying fractions of grids. Like wise with percentages. Also, finding fractions of numbers and percentages of amounts of money.	Guess Children in pairs see a set of pictures. One secretly chooses a picture. The other asks questions that have a yes or no answer (Is it alive? Does it have wheels? Can you eat it?). By removing pictures that cannot be the answer, the secret picture is eventually the only one left. Both players have then succeeded and swap roles on the next game.	Grid Multiplication Help children to use the grid multiplication method for larger numbers. One fault with the program is the numbers don't align to the right in the text boxes. Users need to be aware when adding up!
Key Words Learn to match visually and aurally the key literacy words for reception (45) and Year 1 & 2 (158). Also practise spelling them. Listen for the phonics that begin and end those words.	Length Simulate measuring using a school rule. Options for accuracy include nearest whole cm, nearest half cm and mm.	Logic Work out the colours and sequence of the hidden pegs using trial, improvement and logical reasoning. Can be addictive! A large range of levels can be set.
Letters Learn the letter sounds and names and find them on the screen or keyboard. Spelling word writing activities Using spelling words in sentences and word games can reinforce correct spelling and ensure that children understand the correct definition and/or usage of a word. Suffixes - list the spelling words down one side of the page. On each line, rewrite the spelling word with any possible suffixes (endings). Common suffixes include -s, -es, -ed, -er, -ly, -ing, -ment, -able, -ible, -ing, -tion, -ive, ance, -ence, -ous, -less, -ness, -est, -ful. Some words can have two suffixes, such as reasonably (-able and -ly), refreshingly (-ing and -ly) and regretfully (-ful and -ly). Prefixes - list spelling words down one side of a page. On each line, rewrite the spelling word with any possible prefixes (beginnings). Common prefixes include un-, dis-, anti-, ir-, bi-, tri-, sub-, im-, co-, auto-, tele-, photo- Write a paragraph using all spelling words from the list. Underline the spelling words.
Money Using limits from 1 Rs to Rs 100, use the coins and notes to count money, pay the correct amount and give the correct change.	Multiply Aids the learning of multiplication tables from zero to ten. Pictures illustrating the repeated additions can be turned on or off depending on whether the children need to see what multiplication means or to count the sets of dots to find some answers.	Number Bonds Mental addition and subtraction with a range of limits.
Numbers Write numbers in numerals or words having seen them, heard them or both in the other form.	Ordering Numbers Arrange five numbers in numerical order. Number limits, negatives, and decimals are all options.	Clock Tell the analogue and digital times shown on the clock face. Time intervals can be set to hours, half hours, quarter hours, five minutes and 1 minute. The hour or minute hand can be hidden to concentrate on reading either on their own. The seconds hand can also be shown. Digital and analogue clocks can be viewed at the same time and set to show the 'real' time
Decomposition A formal step by step method of subtraction for numbers up to a hundred or thousand.	Round It Rounding to the neatest 10, 100 and 1000.	Scales Weighing with bathroom scales up to 100kg.
Sea Rescue Rescue drowning people in the sea using a variety of rescue vehicles. They must be sent to the right 4 or 6 figure grid references in all four quadrants. Officially level 5 this but Year 4 pupils cope well enough.	Time Read the bus timetable and work out the journey times to get the bus from one stop to the next. Five levels of difficulty.	Volume Finding the volume of cuboids in cubic cm. Cm cubes can be placed inside the cuboid to aid visualisation and understanding. Also includes measuring and making amounts of water (ml) in calibrated cylinders.
Weight A balance is simulated that weighs in grams at various limits up to 5000g. Because the number of each type of weight is limited to five, children have to use a variety. Hopefully this leads to an understanding of why it is best to start with larger weights and work down to smaller ones for fine balance.	Fish What might it be like to make your living catching fish? This is a sophisticated simulation which can be used to explore probability, risk taking, making money, investing in the future, making choices and of course mental calculations. There are help screens to explain it all.	Paint Mix Satisfy the customer by mixing the colour they want from red, blue and yellow dyes - as they do in shops except you only have your eyes and experience to guide your own efforts. Also try creating colours with red, green and blue light as your computer screen does.