Always keen to add to our teaching strategies and practice the kaiako at BestStart Te Whāriki have been involved in learning about the ENGAGE programme.
ENGAGE is focused on fostering children’s skills, attitudes, learning dispositions, and working theories within a fun play-based framework.
The framework has a strong focus on relationships, working together, and belonging all done through playing games together. It is a NZ based programme developed to support all adults, kaiako and whānau to help the children learn self-regulation skills for everyday life situations. https://engageinfo.co.nz/
The programme is primarily aimed at ages 3+ but with our strong belief that the learning of the Foundation Skills that set children up for successful lifelong learning starts in the Nursery, the Nursery teaching team joined in the learning and found ways to support this valuable learning with Infants and Toddlers. This helps set our children up with skills and strategies and language to support successful social and emotional competency and play alongside others.
Some of the ways we do this include:
- Yoga and dance where children are supported to develop an awareness of their own body in the space around them and how they move affects those alongside them, as well as finding ways to support emotional regulation through body movement.
- Small group games where children are supported to wait for their turn, acknowledge others attempts and celebrate success together, such as memory, choose the cup which is hiding something.
- Group times that provide interactive board stories, books and songs which are used to promote turn taking, waiting, celebrating success, sharing of ideas, research skills, numeracy and literacy and best of all lots of fun.
These learning opportunities are successful when the adults are engaged with and play alongside the children, providing the language and role modelling of skills. Learning really is Child's Play at BestStart Te Whāriki!