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, 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). They 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 in 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 many 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 their prepare and brush their ears.

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

We have Multimedia, Televisions, DVD players, VCR, Audio Recorder/Players, and overhead projectors in our Multimedia 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 processes improve.

Students are given further opportunities to develop their skills and extend their experiences in various ways through a well-organized activities calendar. The 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 the learning process, The Learning School involves its students in the following activities (starting from primary classes):-

2D Shapes Naming the most common 2D shapes is just the start. Next, sorting the shapes into two groups; those with a specified feature and those without a selected part. You can opt to sort by: several sides (the circle has one side for simplicity); whether the shapes have any right-angles, acute angles, obtuse or reflex angles; are 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 four or more sides AND have an acute angle?	Abacus Use a four-stick abacus with colour-coded beads to read numbers from it, make numbers on it, and 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 built-in calculator).
Colours (MS clip art) Match and name colours and simple shapes.	Conversion Convert between different units of length, weight, and 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. Unfortunately, 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 labelled. The end numbers can be set up to a million, positive and negative. Correct answers are within 10%. Other estimates are also marked on the number line to improve subsequent forecasts. Three chances are allowed before moving on.
Flower A science simulation on the growing of plants. Water, temperature, light intensity, plant food, salt, and soil depth are variables. 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 the test (they are not real-life values!). Fractions Colouring fractions of grids, identifying fractions of grids. Likewise, with percentages. I am also finding bits of numbers and rates of amounts of money.	Guess Children in pairs see a set of pictures. One secretly chooses an image. The other asks questions with 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 image is eventually the only one left. Both players then succeeded and swapped roles in the next game.	Grid Multiplication Help children to use the grid multiplication method for more significant numbers. One fault with the program is the numbers don't align to the right in the text boxes. So users need to be aware when adding up!
Key Words Learn to match visually and aurally the key literacy words for reception (45) and Years 1 & 2 (158). Also, practise spelling them. Listen for the phonics that begins 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. It can be addictive! An extensive 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 children understand a word's definition and usage. 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 valid 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 independently. The second hand can also be shown. Digital and analogue clocks can be viewed simultaneously and set to offer 'real-time.
Decomposition A formal step-by-step subtraction method 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 proper four or 6-figure grid references in all four quadrants. Officially level 5 is this, but Year 4 pupils cope well enough.	Time Read the bus timetable and determine the journey times to get the bus from one stop to the following—five difficulty levels.	Volume They are finding the volume of cuboids in cubic cm. Cm cubes can be placed inside the cuboid to aid visualization and understanding. It also includes measuring and making amounts of water (ml) in calibrated cylinders.
Weight A simulated balance 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 understanding why it is best to start with larger weights and work down to smaller ones for acceptable balance.	Fish What might it be like to make your living catching fish? This sophisticated simulation can explore probability, risk-taking, making money, investing in the future, making choices and 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 in shops, except you only have your eyes and experience to guide your efforts. Also, try creating colours with red, green and blue light as your computer screen does.