Activity Plan And Essay Assignment Sample

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Introduction

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Physical play in the early childhood setting includes the activities using physical movements to allow the children to utilize their energy. It also offers the children the opportunity to develop gross as well as fine motor skills, socialize as well as learning of new things. Physical play is helpful in improving the health of a child. It is very important to understand the value of physical play in a child’s development. There are 3 “I”s of education which has been derived from the Ofsted inspection framework. These include the Intent, Implementation, and Impact. Intent includes what is taught within the educational setting and why is it taught. Implementation is about applying such a framework within an institutional context in order to help those children thrive. IN the end, the impact shows the results of such activities and how such activities are going to make a difference. In this paper, the activity plan using these Intent, Implementation, and Impact has been prepared for the children in an early childhood setting to support their learning through physical play. 

Activity Plan

Below are presented these three “I”s for the physical play activities of children in early childhood educational settings: 

Intent 

This curriculum is planned to organize each day as well as methods to be used by the practitioners and teachers to help the young children learn in the best way. The intention behind developing an active approval of learning and teaching is to enable the practitioners to respond to the need of children as they move from reception and then to year 1 and year 2. Physical education and sports play a very important role in the early childhood settings for the social, physical, intellectual as well as emotional development of the children in their early years of learning (Suzuki, 2020). 

This activity plan is aimed to deliver high-quality learning opportunities for the children to inspire them all and succeed in the physical activities at school. The intention of this activity plan is to teach the children to corporate as well as collaborate with other children, as part of a team, understanding the equity as well as the fairness of play which will help in developing life-long values. The aim of this physical play education curriculum is for the children to develop their physical competencies and their mental health along with their developed love of physical activities. It is the duty of practitioners to educate such children about the value of physical play and activities along with the healthy lifestyle choices by offering such children the understanding, knowledge as well as the resources required to make the informed choices in relation to the healthy living (Cordts, et al., 2020). 

This curriculum is designed in such a way that it will offer the children opportunities of expressing themselves physically, challenge themselves as well as other children, experience various environments as well as activities, work together and release energy which will help the children in remaining calm, lower the levels of anxiety as well as regulation of their emotions. According to the research, there is a positive relationship between physical activities as well as the improved emotional and mental health of children. Thus, offering the children with these learning experiences through a physical education curriculum will leave a positive influence on the physical as well as mental health of children and their well-being. Consequently, the children will have a longer healthier, and more fulfilling life. The aim of this activity plan is to enable all the children, despite their race, gender, abilities as well as age, to access as well as enjoy their physical education lessons. It will be ensured that the children are experiencing their physical play and education in a secure and safe environment and that the activities planned to stimulate as well as engage these children to fully participate in these lessons (Gibbons and Nikolai, 2019). 

In a nutshell, this activity is aimed to develop a love of physical activity and sport in all the children and motivate them to be lifelong active after being the adults. It is intended for all the children to develop as well as improve the key skills required to access all the physical activities such as dance, gymnastics as well as invasion games. The children will develop their understanding regarding the value of an action as well as healthier competition either with themselves or with other children of the group, the value of an active and healthier lifestyle as well as the role of these physical activities in the achievement of such objectives. The key values and skills to be developed in children through learning with physical play include independence, teamwork as well as resilience (Subhash, 2022). 

Implementation

Teaching and Learning: This physical education curriculum is designed to ensure that all the children participating develop their fundamental skills, knowledge as well as competence to perform better in different ranges of physical activities by offering a balanced and broad curriculum. There are various resources and activities involved in the curriculum such as gymnastics, dance, outdoor adventures as well as games (Obee, et al., 2021). The practitioners utilize the Progression of Skills document of the school in order to ensure that there has been clear progress in the skills as well as knowledge taught to these children within the school. These practitioners also ensure that the objectives are covered by Early Year Foundation Stage Statutory Framework and Key Stage One National Curriculum. The children are required to participate in high-quality physical education for at least two hours each week. This also involves structured physical activities for children at lunchtime (Mak, et al., 2021). 

Physical development is one of the crucial areas within the EYFS curriculum and the children will get the opportunities to be interactive, collaborative, active, and highly coordinated. They will develop their knowledge regarding the value and importance of physical activities and the ways to make healthier life choices from the very first day of their education. Physical play is helpful in facilitating the supporting the learning of these children in their early childhood. The children will have access to the well-planned as well as stimulating learning activities offering a balance of both child and adult lead initiated (Carson, et al., 2019). 

In the Key Stage One, it will be the responsibility of the practitioners to ensure that the lessons involve the key 4 strands of the physical education such as gaining and developing skills, selecting as well as applying the skill, assessing and improving the performances and possessing the right knowledge and understanding about health and fitness. These children will also be educated regarding a healthy lifestyle through different collaborations and resources such as Healthy Schools, Move and Play Home Pack, Circle Time activities as well as different other events that the children participate in throughout their learning year (Dankiw, et al., 2020). 

The skills and knowledge related to the PE curriculum will be taught as well as revised in each of the terms in order to encourage as well as promote a higher level of understanding, development of the skills, use of these skills as well as the capability to perform such activities reflectively. The children will be asked to spend the right amount of time in such areas of the curriculum in order to secure their learning as well as their understanding. There will be utilized the documents related to the School's Progression of Skills to be assured that the new skills, as well as knowledge, build on what has previously been learned. 

Assessment: In the Early Year Foundation Stage Curriculum, the children will be examined or assessed against the Foundation Stage Profile as well as in the Key Stage One; the progress of the children will be monitored with the help of the Progression of Skills document of the school. The key assessment tools to be utilized by the practitioners for the evaluation of the children will include the observations, learning journeys as well as videos. Through these assessments, the progress of skills and knowledge developed by the children will be monitored (Wong, et al., 2022). 

Extra-Curricular Opportunities: The children in their early year settings are offered a wide range of opportunities to develop their experience related to physical education. There is various lunchtime as well as After School Clubs where the students can participate. These include the Ballet, Football, B Active, Fencing as well as Acrobats. These extra-curricular activities are helpful in the overall development of a child. With the help of such activities, the children learn about various new skills, concepts, and competencies that help them in their growing years. They learn about collaboration as well as coordination. 

Competitive Sports: With the help of a higher quality physical education curriculum, it is possible to encourage the children to perform better in competitive sports as well as other physical play activities. For each year group, the competitive sport will be included during the lunchtime sports sessions at least once, and twice weekly for the years 1 as well as 2. The Sports Day and Runathon will be held annually within the school where the children will participate in different competitive activities to showcase their skills and competencies (Storli and Hansen Sandseter, 2019). There will also be held a multi-skills event within the school annually for years 1 as well as 2. There will be taken support from the sports coaches as well as sports leaders from the senior classes within the school. These competitive sports activities will help the children in understanding the value of healthy competition in their lives and they will also understand the feeling of losing and winning in such an early year setting. 

Celebrate Achievements: In order to celebrate the achievements of these children, the parents will be informed about their child's progress in physical play and education through reports. The celebrations will be made in the celebration assemblies (Tucker, et al., 2022). 

The above-presented activities will be used to implement the learning through physical play and education in the early years settings for the children. With the implementation of such activities, it will be easier to fulfill the intentions identified within the previous section (Mak, et al., 2021). 

Impact 

With the help of this physical play curriculum within the schools, the fitness, as well as the well-being of children, will be improved and it will not only possible through the sporting skills taught to them but also through the underpinning disciplines and values promoted by the physical play and educational activities. Within the lessons, the children will be taught to develop resilience and self-discipline. The understanding will also be developed among them that in order to be successful, they are required to take responsibility and ownership of their health. Therefore, such children in their early stages are encouraged to use these underpinning knowledge and skills effectively and independently to live happier as well as healthier lives. These activities will also have a positive influence on their academic performances and achievements along with their well-being and mental health (Wong, et al., 2022). 

With the help of effective implementation of this activity plan, the children will leave their schools having a love for the physical and sports activities both in and out of the school. They will also work on their aspirations regarding physical education and will participate in competitive sports activities. The key skills and competencies to be developed by children through physical play include self-motivation, discipline, sportsmanship, teamwork, coordination, independence as well as resilience. 

Conclusion

In this paper, the activity plan for physical play has been prepared for the children in their early childhood. The framework given by Ofsted has been used to present such an activity plan which includes the three "I"s such as Intent, Implementation, and Impact of such activity plan. The plan has provided the intention of developing the skills and competencies among the children regarding physical play such as resilience, teamworking, coordination as well as sportsmanship. In the implementation part, the assessment, teaching, and learning, a celebration of achievement as well as participation in competitive sport are included. In the impact section, there has been indicated the positive influence of such activities on the emotional, social, intellectual as well as physical development of the children. 

Part 2 Essay 

Introduction 

This essay is aimed to present a detailed rationale of the activity plan prepared in part one. Play is considered a natural and enjoyable way for the children to remain active, happy as well as stay well. The playful activities help the children in their social, emotional, intellectual as well as physical development. To have good mental and physical health and to learn about various life skills, there is a need for different unstructured play opportunities in their early childhood years. This essay will provide the rationale for the activity plan prepared using the Ofsted Framework on intent, implementation, and impact. The focus of this essay will be on physical play activities and their support to the child learning in their early educational settings. There will be utilized different theories, curricula, the value of play, national and international policies as well as the role of adults in the implementation of such activity plans for the children. The activity plan was prepared to help the children develop their resilience, communication, teamworking, coordination as well as self-development skills at an early age. These skills will help them in their adulthood and the values will be embedded for their lifetime. 

Area of learning

There are different areas of learning such as physical development, literacy, mathematics, personal, social, and emotional development as well as expressive art and design. With the help of the activity plan, support for the personal, social, and emotional development of the children is provided. Play is not only related to fun and games, it is also considered an important teaching tool by the teachers for the students. Through play, the children learn about interacting and coordinating with each other and also develop life-long critical skills. The play has a very important role in the development of well-rounded children. Personal, social as well as emotional development is facilitated through the physical play activities among the children. Considering the personal development of the children, active play helps the children in coordinating with each other, balancing, developing the motor skills as well as spending their natural energy on gaming activities. It further promotes better sleeping and eating habits among the children (Cappelen, et al., 2020). 

Considering the emotional development of children through play helps the children in coping with their emotions such as anger, frustration, fear as well as aggression in a situation that they control. Through play, the children also develop and practice understanding as well as empathy. These activities are supposed to help the children in their emotional development. The play also facilitates and supports the emotional development of the children. Playing with other children helps the kids in negotiating with each other in relation to group dynamics, collaborating, compromising as well as dealing with others' feelings. The emotional, social, as well as personal development of a child, is very important in earlier stages as it helps them in embedding the key values and competencies for lifelong (Wilkins and Antonopoulou, 2020).

Theoretical Underpinning 

The activity plan prepared is based on the physical play activities and the learning through such play for a better future. This activity plan is influenced by the Anticipatory Theory of Play propounded by Karl Groos in his two works “The Play of Animals” and “The Play of Man”. This theory is also known as Practice Theory which presents the observation that play is a kind of preparation done by the children for their adulthood. The future activities are anticipated by the children and then they prepare themselves to address the problems associated with life in anticipation. The Theorist Karl Groos has also presented various illustrations of the behavior of animals to prove this theory. The animals play, practicing an art that will be helpful for them in the future (Bradbury, 2019). 

As per this theorist, the children play various roles as rehearsals while playing such as king, soldier, mother, or teacher. They unconsciously prepare themselves for their future vocation as well as for serious incidents associated with life. Karl Groos has presented his explanation on the basis of some specific observations. It is identified that every child remains helpless at the time of birth. He passes through the period of incubation where he attains the maturity of an adult. Play is considered the mode of education by the nature during the period of incubation, for adaptation to the environment. There are also some critiques presented by the researchers of this Anticipatory Theory. Although Groos’s approach is convincing and explains certain aspects of play, however, it remains to be known why adults have the tendency to play when they already have entered into the serious business of life. The activity plan prepared is based on the physical play of children which somehow relates to this anticipatory theory by Karl regarding the play of a child. 

National Curricula 

The activity plan was based on the physical play and education of the children in their early ages where the key stage one was discussed as well as utilized in the implementation stage to help the child is growing and learning through play (Cappelen, et al., 2020). This activity plan is influenced by the National Curricula of Physical Education within the United Kingdom. This high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all the children in the classroom to succeed as well as excel in competitive sports activities as well as other health and fitness-related activities. The activity plan was mainly influenced by the Key Stage One which is related to the development of the fundamental movement skills in order to be highly competent as well as confident so that they can get the access to various opportunities to extend their balance, agility, coordination as well as the resilience (Kim, 2020). 

The activity plan prepared relates to the targets associated with this key stage one of the physical education curricula of England such as getting mastery in the basic movements like jumping, running, throwing, and catching along with developing the balance, coordination as well as agility to apply them in a different range of activities. This stage of the curriculum also included participation in the team games and learning to attack as well as defend using simple tactics. The activities like dancing and swimming were also involved in the activity plan which relates to the key stage 2 of the national curriculum for physical education (Cascio, 2021). 

Value of Play 

As the above-presented activity plan is based on the physical play definition, it is clearly evident that it is influenced by the value of play. Play is an important activity that promotes healthy child development and also maintains b parent and child relationships. The importance of play has also been recognized by the United Nations High Commission of the Human Rights as a right of every child to play (Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol, 2018). The activity plan is influenced by the value of play as it allows the children to utilize their creativity while developing their imagination along with their emotional and physical strength. The children, with the help of play, engage with the world and interact with the other children which reflects their social development at a very early stage. Play also allows the children to create and explore a world that they can master while playing the adult roles during games and conquering their fears as well (Wilkins and Antonopoulou, 2020). 

Play is also considered an integral part of the academic environment for a child as it facilitates the learning of such children. It ensures that the schools are able to facilitate the social, emotional as well as cognitive development of the child. As identified in the implementation stage of the activity plan, the assessments, as well as competitive sports activities, are helpful for a child in his social and emotional development (Bradbury, 2019). 

National Policy used in the development of activity plan

As the activity plan is based on the physical play and education of the children, the national policy related National Curriculum is followed in order to prepare such a plan. In the year 2010, the coalition government made the announcement to revise the physical education curriculum in order to focus more on competitive sports. As per the revised national curriculum, the PE remains compulsory for all the Key Stages from one to four. In the activity plan, more emphasis on the key stage one is given. As per this policy, all the schools are required to add the PE course to promote the moral, physical, spiritual, mental as well as cultural development of the children. Moreover, the policy has put the emphasis on including the two hours target to participate in physical activities within a week. Such guidelines have also been followed within the activity plan by providing a fixed time of 2 hours once a week for physical activities and competitive sports. Moreover, there has also been discussed about the annual arrangements for competitive sports and other physical activities for the growth of children (Hood, et al., 2019). 

The activity plan has been prepared after following all the guidelines stated in the national policy for physical education from the time to be engaged in such activities as well as the number of competitive sports activities to be held within the school every year. Moreover, the activities associated with the emotional, cognitive, physical as well as social development of the child are also involved in the activity plan developed for children (Correia, et al., 2019). 

Role of Adult

As per the opinion of Cascio (2021), quality play experiences for the children can be created as well as nurtured with the help of adults if they are involved in such processes. The adults can play important roles in leading as well as supporting the children during their play. It is important that the more beneficial and important role of the adults here can be to support the children in their learning through play. By just being engaged as well as presented and not taking over the process of the game, the children can be allowed to engage themselves in the learning as well as exploration. 

In the given activity plan, the role of adults in their physical play activities is to just support the child’s play by being engaged with them during the play. The adults can talk to such children about their play as well as their excitement while playing. Bu being involved with them, the child learns that those adults are investing their time with him and respecting his play decisions. While being involved with a child in his play, the adults can help in extending the current knowledge of such child and also help him in making new connections. The adults need to intervene in the play when there is any conflict or any problem which can be solved by the child himself. Therefore, adults play an important role in child development activities through play (Kim, 2020). 

Conclusion

This essay presented the rationale behind the activity plan prepared for the previous task. The plan prepared for the children was mainly focused on the physical play and physical education of the children in their early childhood education settings. Such activity plan was supported by the theorist Karl Groos and his practice theory which explains the value of play for children for their development as an adult. It has been identified that the activity plan as supporting the emotional, social as well as personal development of the children through physical play. The key stage one of the national curricula was mentioned in the implementation step of the activity plan to facilitate the learning of children through competitive sports as well as the gaming activities. In the end, the role of the adult in the play was identified. The adults play a very critical role during a child’s play as they help in solving the conflicts among the children and also extend their knowledge.