From our partner Kide Science, who provides playful science lessons under the motto "Science is child's play".

Today, we’re tackling: How can I be sure that children have learned how to make an observation if they can’t or won’t verbalize it?

We need to create the space for children to share their observations, and it shouldn’t be done only at the end of the activity.

Let’s start with the basics.

If you’re asking this question, you’re interested in assessing skill growth in your classroom. That’s a great start, and play-based learning absolutely does not mean that you should not assess skill growth.

It also seems like you’re not sure that what you’re teaching is having the intended effect. At the very least, you’re not sure how to make sure that other people (ex. administrators, parents) know that the children are learning.

This is why fact-based learning is so easy to grasp. You can teach facts, and see how many facts a student remembers over time with a traditional test. It doesn’t yield good results, but it does yield clear results.

But skill-based learning can yield clear results, too. And, it can do so in a way that’s more beneficial for your students.

It seems reasonable to assume that if a child has made an observation, that they’ll communicate it in some way. This isn't true, though.

We need to create the space for children to share their observations, and it shouldn’t be done only at the end of the activity.

Basing your assessment of how a child has learned on their summary after the activity is no different than doing so via a test -- it’s one way to do it, but it’s not the only, or even the best way. It’s a limited way.

We recommend creating opportunities for communication and prediction within the activity.

Asking while the students are in the middle of play can help them communicate observations with less pressure.

Let’s face it. The better you have planned your day with the children – the better children will learn and you will do your job more efficiently. Surely there are days when things do not go according to the plan, but without a plan and preparations the teacher is like a meteorite floating in the space without a direction.

Planning takes lots of teachers’ time upfront, but with ready made lesson plans created by professionals, you get up to speed in no time. To support children's holistic learning, lesson plans should include activities from all the learning areas. They should also be linked to the curriculum’s learning objectives to secure a consistent pedagogical approach. Then you are well prepared for the children's learning moments.

Kindiedays Lesson Plans - holistic approach towards the whole learning process

Kindiedays has together with Huippu Education designed a package that includes a broad set of lesson plans aligned with the Finnish Curriculum. The lesson plans follow a holistic approach and theme based learning. They are already linked to the learning objectives to help your planning.

Scroll down and get your free sample!

The Kindiedays Lesson Plans package has a card for each activity, over 100 cards in total. These will take you through the year if you use two cards in a week! The themes of the activities are 'Space', 'Ocean' and 'I am Me & I am Special'.

These lesson plans are available as a ready-to-use package for Kindiedays. You save teachers’ planning time and guarantee that your activities are based on the Finnish playful pedagogy!

When you use Kindiedays for making observations of the learning moments, you automatically share the learning with families, collect the learning into the Childs's Portfolio and Learning Reports as well as the center's Curriculum Reports. You really stay on top of the whole learning process! Naturally the Lesson Plans can be freely used together with your curriculum of choice.

How long does one session take?

A session/activity is conducted together with the children and takes 30-45 min. A project consists of two or more sessions, that are closely related with each other. A project allows more in-depth learning of the content.

The card for each activity defines:

• What are the children practicing in the session
• Learning objectives aligned with the Finnish curriculum
• Materials and preparations
• Session steps: Raise interest -> Experiment -> Apply learnings

The lesson plans follow a holistic approach and theme-based learning. Each lesson plan lists which primary learning objectives from the Finnish curriculum the children practice in each session.

The lesson plans are stored in Kindiedays Google Drive, to which you get access for 12 months. You can also copy them to your own archives.

We are really excited about the new Lesson Plans and how nicely they work with the whole Kindiedays learning process, so we want to give you a free sample.

→ Get immediate access to 6 Free Lesson Plans Samples !

I hope you got interested and want to explore the Lesson Plans and how Kindiedays supports the whole leaning process even more. Please check Kindiedays webpage and contact us to know more!

Happy learning!

Early years are very important in terms of child’s holistic development, growth, learning and future. Therefore, it truly matters how you and your team care for the children, as well as what kind of learning opportunities and environments you offer them.

1. Refresh your knowledge about ECEC

People working with children need to have a profound understanding of childhood as early years are the foundation for later life. When was the last time you read a book or study related to ECEC?

New studies and research are produced constantly, so it is recommendable for everyone to stay up to date. If you feel like you need to refresh some parts of your basic knowledge about early childhood education and child development, do it.

Lifelong learning is the new black!

2. Define your pedagogy

Having a well thought pedagogy improves the quality of teaching. Pedagogy in ECEC is involved in everyday actions that becomes alive in different situations during the day and in communication between staff and children. Pedagogy is tied in individual educator’s, as well as the whole staff’s work.

Some of the most important corner stones of pedagogy are:

• Knowledge about ECEC
• Creating diverse and adaptable learning environments
• Sensitive interaction and ability to take children’s opinions and ideas into account

Pedagogical activities are meant to be goal-oriented, but you should remember to be open for changes in your plans.

Child is the center of pedagogical activities and skilful educator can modify teaching accordingly if the plans change. When you pay attention to the way you teach, you also learn important things from the children and how they learn.

Think of your own prejudices, views and opinions about children and ECEC and ponder do they have an affect on your working methods (subconsciously)? What are your pedagogical corner stones?

3. Invest in your staff

In a child care center you need trustworthy, educated and caring staff around the children. Good and dedicated staff keeps your center going and an inspiring team spirit leads you forward. Children and families sense your good drive, so it is worth investing in.

According to the National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care in Finland, the educators’ goal-oriented and systematic self-assessment is essential for maintaining and developing the quality of early childhood education and care.

Is your staff assessing their teaching and professional development regularly? Have you set professional development objectives for your staff? How are these objectives followed on a personal and center’s management level?

Keep staff meetings regularly and make sure everyone gets to participate.

Every now and then, chat with your staff members one by one and ask for example:

• What are their professional dreams and goals?
• How would they like to develop their professional skills?
• What are their strengths?

By discussing about professional development, you motivate your staff to perform better at work. You can also suggest your staff to keep notes of their teaching and see, what truly are their strengths and weaknesses, and assess those in the next meeting.

Download Kindiedays' Staff Appraisals template →

4. Check your center’s curriculum

Every child care center needs guidelines about how to work and guarantee children the best learning possibilities and developmental opportunities possible. Probably, you have a national curriculum to follow and also your kindergarten’s local curriculum – that’s great!

The curriculums and plans include good practices and approaches to teaching, which make ECEC in everyday work successful and goal-oriented. Update your center’s curriculum once a year together with your staff. Modern curriculums can be demanding and following children’s learning challenging.

Your curriculum should have answers for example to these questions:

• What are your centre’s values, principles, goals and areas of learning?
• How is your curriculum used in the center?
• What kind of possibilities are the children getting to participate in pedagogical activities?  

5. Create child’s individual curriculum

It is meaningful to have individual learning plans where each child’s strengths, needs and interests are listed on.

The plan guides the child’s learning and the educators’ planning.  The plan helps to find ways to promote each child’s individual development, learning and wellbeing.

The ECEC plan consists of the staff’s, child’s and the family’s observations and views about:

• Child’s wellbeing
• Child’s development
• Child’s learning
• Child’s interaction in a group

A new ECEC plan is drawn up once a year. When assessing the previous plan, think of how did the planned activities, arrangements, learning environments and pedagogy support the child’s learning?

Download Kindiedays’ Individual Child Curriculum template →

With the help of holistic reports and statistics you can reveal a lot of children's learning and your center's way of tackling the curriculum!

With Kindiedays reports you can:

• illustrate children's progress
• make learning visible
• see the child's progress in the curriculum’s learning objectives
• locate possible needs for learning
• guarantee holistic learning in the center
• review statistics on how efficiently the curriculum has been applied to
• guarantee that all the learning areas are in balance
• plan future learning

Now you can show evidence of learning to parents as well as provide a competitive and profitable pedagogical service.

See below and learn which reports reveal you the issues you have been thinking about.

Child Portfolio

Portfolio is a purposeful collection of child's work that makes learning visible and illustrates progress.

Use automatically collected Child Portfolios to view and store the child’s learning journey, including pictures, videos, notes and learning objectives.

Share with families and involve them in their child’s education!

Already using Kindiedays? Here are specific instructions on how to download Child Portfolios (Journal Report) through Kindiedays!

Child’s Learning Report

Learning report shows child’s progress in each learning area

Use automatically collected Learning Reports to get feedback on the child’s engagement and progress in the curriculum’s learning objectives. Locate possible needs and guarantee a chance for holistic learning.

Share with families to strenghten their confidence in their child’s learning and in your center!

Already using Kindiedays? Here are specific instructions on how to download Learning Reports through Kindiedays!

Curriculum report

Curriculum report quarantees a holistic education in your center

Use automatically collected Curriculum Reports to review statistics on how efficiently the curriculum has been applied, to guarantee that all the learning areas are in balance and to plan future learning.

Share with the head management, groups’ supervisors or teachers to guarantee quality in your center!

Already using Kindiedays? Here are specific instructions on how to download Curriculum Reports through Kindiedays!

Get Kindiedays Portfolio Learning solution to support your center's learning process!

Kindiedays Homepage

How to use a Curriculum to guarantee a holistic education in your center?

Curriculum is the red thread or the road map in early childhood education. Curriculum holds all the action together: it shows the framework, guides how to work, what kind of learning environments and challenges to offer, how to move forward, what to teach and so on.

It is important to have a Curriculum in early childhood education as it makes teaching purposeful and children’s progress visible. Curriculum includes multiple learning areas and even more small learning goals inside itself. Little by little children achieve these little learning goals guided by the teacher. Curriculum is the map and teacher navigates the right way through it, so that as many children learn as many aspects of the curriculum as possible.

Once you have a curriculum it is not going to be the same for good. Curriculum must and does change regularly, according to the children, teacher, terrains, environment. “By effectively using curriculum, you’ll be helping your students stay on top of the latest in-demand skills and to have a more coherent learning path” says Classcraft.

How to use a Curriculum Report with Kindiedays?

Use automatically collected Curriculum Reports to review statistics on how efficiently the curriculum has been applied, to guarantee that all the learning areas are in balance and to plan future learning. 

Share with the head management, groups’ supervisors or teachers to guarantee quality in your center!

Here are specific instructions on how to download Curriculum Reports through Kindiedays: