Knowledge and Understanding of the World relates to children’s everyday lives, their homes, families, other people, the local environment and community, and the wider world.
Through different types of play, active, and experiential learning opportunities as well as practical activities, children will be provided with meaningful experiences. These will stimulate their senses as well as encourage them to ask questions, explore and wonder at their environment. They will undertake investigations that engage their interests, and develop awareness of the beliefs and views of others.
The spiral curriculum reflects a belief in children’s learning as a process of revisiting and building on previous experiences, skills, knowledge and understanding as children develop.
This model is particularly appropriate to children’s learning and development between the ages of 2 and 5 years and supports the ethos of the Foundation Phase. Some topics or themes may be pursued by children across the age range at their own level; for example the cross-curricular theme of ‘Where I live’ could be undertaken by any age group and would involve different learning activities depending on prior knowledge.
Children will learn through the process of experiential learning, which:
The following skills are essential to this Area of Learning and can also be developed across the curriculum.
To support the development of children’s skills and knowledge of ‘Places and people’ the following are key areas and experiences that could be planned for.
To support the development of children’s skills and knowledge of ‘Time and people’ the following are key areas and experiences that could be planned for:
To support the development of children’s skills and knowledge of ‘Myself and other living things’, the following are key areas and experiences that could be planned for.
To support the development of children’s skills and knowledge of ‘Myself and non-living things’ the following are key areas and experiences that could be planned for.
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