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Lesson Plan Ecd Lesson Plan: Term Paper

In accordance with relevant theoretical readings, preschool curriculum should also be objective toward the importance of the school as a bastion for health awareness. The early reinforcement of good nutritional values through the provision of healthy snacks and the regimenting of fun exercise activities proved to be a focal point of the day. According to current research, "if we do not provide adequate health care and nutrition for our youngsters, those children entering the public schools will already be behind their healthier, properly fed peers." (Bredekamp, 1) the relationship between the physical development of a child and his ability to perform to the best of his scholastic and cognitive abilities is inextricable. Therefore, the lesson plan will in general rely heavily on snacktimes and exercise times as means to provide health, education and socialization in direct simultaneity. Such activities as trivia games about healthy eating which reward children with healthy snacks and, of course, physical education activities such as kickball and dodgeball, will be important to this objective. Section IV: Moral/Character Activities and Objectives

With regard to the objective of helping children to develop the morality and character needed to enter into the educational system in a positive and constructive manner, there are a number of traits which will be sought. In particular, cultural sensitivity, a concept of rules and order, community orientation, creative ingenuity and a sense of responsibility are the objectives which direct this lesson plan.

Among the many steps which an educator may take to engage students actively in the learning process, perhaps it is most important to know that students respond when they are courted to learn in a manner which is relevant to their individual worlds and circumstances. This concerns the development of a lesson plan activity corresponding to the need for early training in cultural sensitivity. Just as children should be confident in who they are, so should they be generous to the differences of others. Particularly, this is true during this age of information, where even younger students are exposed to so much more information in so many new contexts than in generations prior. Children, as they get older, will have the choice of culling information at their own pace and within a subject and context that is of direct interest to them in ways that might not have occurred to educators just over a decade ago. Specifically, teachers must know that elements of popular culture like the internet, satellite television, mobile communication devices and interactive video gaming have all changed the way that young people are exposed to information. All of these considerations justify a sort of modern cultural show and tell activity, where children are told to go home each week and work on the internet with parents to locate interesting facts about their family's culture or ethnicity. These facts will be shared with the class.

Teaching rules and order is also important and should be engaged in both the social and academic contexts. Early linguistic education should be contextualized by game-type activities which come with defined rule and structure, just as does language.

This aspect of the lesson plan stresses the importance of engaging the child early with the rules, functions and applications of language as a means to helping him negotiate his surrounding culture through the linguistic capability of his own imagination. One of our key findings would be the revelation that "the child's mind can acquire culture at a much earlier age than is generally supposed." (172) the flaw in the traditional educational path which has prevented us from embracing this reality has been the premise that demotes the centrality of active physical engagement in the process of education. Especially within the context of the heightened ability of receptiveness available to the properly developing child between the ages of 3 and 6, with which we are directly concerned, the lesson plan presumes that culture is an accessible learning context for our children if we allow them to actually move within that culture. Such is to say that learning aptitude is clearly demonstrated to experience a sharp incline when subjects are encouraged to physically move and to engage experience that cause them to glean knowledge from real interactions. By making a game in which children might have to perform a physical activity like throwing a ball into a small basket in relation to the fulfillment of a linguistic task, we can make the important association between the two.

As regards community orientation, the use of such interactive sharing and expression as might occur during arts and crafts time can be crucial....

During arts and crafts, children are able to demonstrate the possession of a combination of moral and intellectual cognitions. We will generally find that children are eager to share with their peers and may even have the opportunity to comment positively on one another's artwork. Moreover, children will be asked to share art utensils and work space with other children.
Also, almost uniformly, we finds, children are able to use their imaginations to recognize commonly held perceptions on abstract concepts. In traditional education, "we often forget that imagination is a force for the discovery of truth. The mind is not a passive thing, but a devouring flame, never in repose, always in action." (Montessori, 177) Such is to say that even absent of direct instruction, children will begin to use imagination and observation in tandem to find comprehensive and expressive clarity. To this end, a major impetus of this lesson plan is that we must actively seek the engagement of both of these tools in order to seize the heightened opportunities presented at this point in a child's intellectual, emotional and cultural development. Therefore, an effective lesson plan should instigate an activity such as structure charades or some similar activity that requires abstract expression.

Section V: Rationale

We generally have found in our research that children are most prone to absorbing knowledge in a meaningful way if it can be connected to tactile, visual and experiential engagement of the information. Moreover, the integration of information and abstract ideas argues that the principles of any discipline must be introduced to the child by way of symbolic objects, trusted instructors and some level of personal interaction with both.

This approach urges an educational path mutually inclusive of physical and intellectual exercises. As can be seen from the lesson plans discussed here, Early Childhood Education must be distinctly integrative in its approach, allowing for socialization, moral development, intellectual growth and physical refinement all to closely interact with one another in the forging of a young student. In addition, it is most recurrently endorsed by our research that the lesson plan, for children of this particularly young age, be both structured and designed to help embrace individualism, creativity and spontaneous expression.

Where it has been traditional to 'teach' discipline by enforcing rules, stifling self-motivated action and responding to deviation from linear though or behavior with punishment as children advance in their formal education, the approach to the lesson plan which is endorsed by the objectives and activities here means for the teacher to quite literally allow children to learn discipline through genuine interaction. We may argue that, for the ECD student, integration of the core skills and characteristic we have discussed will be naturally occurring when the student finds something appealing to set his focus upon. For the teacher, this means finding ways to balance between fun and structure.

Such is to say that the opportunity to engage with enthusiasm for an experience that allows for learning, use of imagination, self-discovery and the ability to correct and improve upon one's own mistakes will inevitably channel the child's behavior to the positive prospects that are not just affiliated with early education but are more largely associated with the development of a health and functional member of society. We can see through the research and projected objectives and activities that confidence, a joy in learning and a vital quality of inner discipline will be the naturally occurring byproduct of a positive preschool experience.

It is therefore incumbent upon the instructor to embrace the creative identity of each child so that these categories of development can be learned through active outer-engagement.

In this lesson plan, overarching objectives are particularly trained on pointing to one of the most egregious failures of traditional education in the face of a child's developing emotional needs. We notes that the teacher is often one of the most intrusive obstacles to a child's free-thought and educational stimulation. Naturally, this is quite the opposite of what is intended of an Early Childhood Development instructor and of our intended plan.

The idea of creating a context in which young children can be made to enter into education and into a social context for the first time with comfort and enthusiasm should be evident throughout the execution of the lesson plan. Indeed, the teacher will have to be a catalyst for what should begin here as a lifelong affection for the institutions that are designed to help…

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Works Cited

Bredekamp, S.R.A. Knuth., L.G. Kunesh and D.D. Shulman. (1992). Early Childhood Education. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Online at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/stw_esys/5erly_ch.htm

Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University: Educational Psychology Interactive. Online at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html

Montessori, Maria. The Absorbent Mind. 5th. New York: Owl Publishing, Inc., 1995.

Montessori, Maria. The Discovery of the Child. 4th. New York: Ballantine Books
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