Learning Observation and Reflection

This paper discusses the use of visual art play activities like water play, sand play, and colour mixing to promote early childhood development. The Reggio Emilia approach is highlighted as a guiding principle for child-specific educational approaches. The paper analyzes how each activity promotes cognitive, emotional, and motor skill development, and suggests ways to refine the activities based on children's needs. The subject is early childhood development, and the course code, name, and college/university are not mentioned.

Running head: LEARNING OBSERVATION AND REFLECTION
Learning Observation and Reflection
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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LEARNING OBSERVATION AND REFLECTION
Introduction
Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), as highlighted by the Department of
Education and Training by the Australian Government (2018) mainly emphasize the
belonging, being and becoming as three important aspects of childhood learning and
development. According to EYLF (2018) the main learning outcomes for children from birth
till 5 years guided by strong sense of identity, connection and contribution to the world,
strong sense of well-being, child being an involved learner and effective communication with
children. This approach mainly upholds the importance of drafting children-specific
educational approaches as proposed by Reggio Emilia. According to Edwards and Gandini
(2018) Reggio Emilia approach is mainly driven by collaborative environment where the
preferences of the children is taken into consideration while drafting the educational approach
or learning activity.
The following paper mainly aims to analyze how art-learning activities among the
children between the age group of 3 to 5 years under primary classroom settings help in the
promotion of cognitive development, emotional development and development of motor
skills. The activity will be designed in such a way that it will also help in the promotion of
aesthetics and expressive quality among the children.
Activity 1
The first visual art play that I have selected for the development of the child during
the early childhood is water play. According to Worth and Grollman (2013), water play is an
important way to keep the child occupied during the summer months. Harms, Clifford and
Cryer (2014) argued that water play helps in the development of problem solving skills of a
child along with the promotion of physical development, cognitive development, language

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development, social and emotional development and learning about the basic mathematics
skills (like measurement of volume). I have erected the entire experience of the water play
with a bucket full of water along with plastic made reptiles (frogs and snakes which are
commonly seen in water) which will float over the water along with the use of pebbles. Toy
reptiles and fancy colourful pebbles were used to provide attractive and realistic feeling. The
activity was organised under outdoor settings. What I realised that water play is acting as
therapeutic activity which is helping the child to feel relaxed. According to Worth and
Grollman (2013), repetitive nature of water play make the overall experience calming which
help the children to collect their thoughts. I also notice that water is aiming to developing
problem solving skills among the children. Simple activities like floating and sinking help to
develop problem solving skills and also promote hand eye co-ordination (Worth and
Grollman 2013). If I arrange this type of activity in future, I will also include sponge which
soaks water and squeezing and dipping the sponge will help to increase the hand grip thereby
promotion development of motor skills. I also notice that children are splashing water on
each other, so next time I will use water proof jackets in order to prevent the children from
getting cold and cough. Splashing of water in the wall will promote the art element further.

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Figure: Water Play

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LEARNING OBSERVATION AND REFLECTION
Activity 2
The second activity devised by me was sand play. I staged this activity under the
primary classroom environment. The main tools or the equipments used by me in this activity
include a large bucket, sand, small wooden sticks to beet through the sand, small toy cars and
woollen ropes and digging brush. Two main rescources were bucket to fill the tub with and
sticks to dig through the sand. According to McClintic and Petty (2015), sand play promotes
physical development like the development of large muscle skills. This is mainly facilitated
as the child dig, pour, sift, scoop and clean up spills with the help of dustpan or brush. Sand
play also helps in the promotion of hand-eye coordination and improvement of the small
muscle control. Trawick-Smith et al. (2015) are of the opinion that sand play promotes social
development of the child along with the increase in the problem solving skills. The main art
element that is highlighted in the play is use of sand in erecting specific structures like house
(Trawick-Smith et al. 2015). This helps in the promotion of the creating thinking skills of the
children. The main outcome of this play is increase in bonding among the children as it is
played in group, promotion of creative thinking skills and motor skill development. In order
to improvise this activity further, I will make use of colour sand buckets and sand trays. This
is because, I found the children are keen in erecting structures over the sand than that of using
the wooden sticks to dig the sand and paint over its surface. Use of colourful buckets will
increase promote proper education of the child about different shades of colours.

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Figure: Sand Play
Activity 3
The third activity selected was colour mixing. I myself found this activity very
interesting and yet engaging. I have selected this art skill because; colour mixing helps the
child to get acquainted with different colours and evolution of new colours via mixture of two
colours. According to Fleer, Gomes and March (2014) mixing of colours and creating new
images through it helps in the developing of creative thinking skills of the child. EYLF
(2018) highlighted that children are connected to the world and respond with the diversity
with respect and use of different colours will help in the increase in the sense of diversity
among children. The main resources used were water colours and while craft papers. The
water colours are easy to mix and can amalgamate to unique colours hence were given

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preference, art papers were selected as basic painting equipment. Next time when I will plan
to stage the colour mixing activity under primary classroom settings, I will use colour
brushes. This is because, EYLF (2018) promote that the children are confident and involved
learners. I found that they are using hands to make painting or to mix colours and thus if I
help with brushes it will help them to learn and adapt under a new concept. The main
provocations or opportunities of learning in colour mixing activity will be increase in the
creating thinking skills and knowledge about colours (Freier, Cooper and Mareschal 2017).

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Figure: Colour mixing
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that use of visual art play helps
in the development of motor skills, cognitive skills, emotional development, physical
development and along with the creation of supportive learning. However, the refinement of
the art play technique must be undertaken based on the requirement and need of the children.
This will help in the promotion of the Reggio Emilia approach of early childhood care. Since
child is aware of his or her own health and well-being, development of the activity as per
their requirement will help in the promotion of better early childhood development.

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References
Department of Education and Training by the Australian Government. (2018). Early Years
Learning Framework (EYLF). Access date: 1st October 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.education.gov.au/early-years-learning-framework-0
Department of Education and Training by the Australian Government. (2018). Early Years
Learning Framework (EYLF). Access date: 1st October 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_
early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
Edwards, C.P. and Gandini, L., 2018. The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood
education. In Handbook of international perspectives on early childhood education (pp. 365-
378). Routledge.
Fleer, M., Gomes, J. and March, S., 2014. Science learning affordances
Freier, L., Cooper, R.P. and Mareschal, D., 2017. Preschool children's control of action
outcomes. Developmental science, 20(2), p.e12354. in preschool environments. Australasian
Journal of Early Childhood, 39(1), p.38.
Harms, T., Clifford, R.M. and Cryer, D., 2014. Early childhood environment rating scale.
Teachers College Press.
McClintic, S. and Petty, K., 2015. Exploring early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices
about preschool outdoor play: A qualitative study. Journal of early childhood teacher
education, 36(1), pp.24-43.

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Trawick-Smith, J., Wolff, J., Koschel, M. and Vallarelli, J., 2015. Effects of toys on the play
quality of preschool children: Influence of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Early
childhood education journal, 43(4), pp.249-256.
Worth, K. and Grollman, S., 2013. Science in the early childhood classroom. Learning from
Head Start: A Teacher's Guide to School Readiness, p.117.