How Can Play Promote the Learning of Science in the Foundation Stage Essay

How Can Play Promote the Learning of Science in the Foundation Stage - Essay Example The outdoor environment especially offers a wide and unrestrained range of possibilities to kindle children's inherent inquisitiveness. As the word foundation implies the foundation stage, as a statutory phase of the national curriculum for the United Kingdom, is vitally invested in the process of creating a solid basis for later learning skills as it operates to foster in children an enthusiastic commitment to the entire learning process. The heart of educational success is to inculcate in the child the lasting incentive for really wanting to listen, to figure out, to reflect, to go on questioning, and to work constructively and respectfully with peers. Carefully designed and engaging activity affords the best occasion for learning, whether indoors or outdoors (Hurst, V. 1997:76). For children to have rich and stimulating experiences, the learning environment must be well-planned and well-ordered. The curriculum suggests the ideal framework within which children are drawn to explore, test, devise, question, and reach decisions for themselves, enabling them to authentically learn, grow and expand their horizons. (Cu rriculum Guidance 2000:12) A competent practitioner understands how to design fully adaptable resources and settings that arouse children's inquisitiveness and then make the most of each child's individual show of interest by asking challenging questions, stimulating reflection and fostering investigation. Young children can be guided to quite thoroughly explore the natural world by making broad use of their fives senses, smelling things, feeling textures, listening to and identifying sounds, noting shapes and materials, and talking about and sharing their discoveries, as well as asking more questions and recording or illustrating their findings using a variety of skills (Wood, E. and Attfield, J. 1996:104). Well-thought-out play can be a strategic means by which children catch on delightedly and engage in the learning process with enthusiasm. The foundation stage also proposes to develop a sound early basis for future reading, writing, and math proficiency in preparation for key stage one of the national curriculum (Curriculum Guidance 2000:8-9) Some experienced practitioners are inclined to feel that, often enough, precious little play can be incorporated into early years settings when an undue amount of attention must be invested in the task of introducing and nurturing basic reading, writing and math skills (Wood, E. and Attfield, J. 1996:11). In extensive studies of early years practice, a number of educators have put forward serious concerns that the premature initiation of very young children to basic skills is not only liable to, but actually does, disaffect slower learners who find themselves struggling mightily with the effort. In fact, some practitioners assert that such undue demands on certain susceptible youngsters may result in significant harm to their self-esteem and future incentives to learn at all (Fish er, J. 1996:37). Ultimately, the actual mastery of required basics must depend not only on the practitioner's success in awakening children's interest in learning but in the added competence of being able to make each subject accessible with respect to a multiplicity of