Understanding the World
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them –from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their
understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening
children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
We aim to:
- Plan activities based on first hand experiences that encourage exploration, experimentation, observation, problem solving, prediction, critical thinking, decision making and discussion.
- Base learning around both developing the interests of the children and activities that focus on offering them new experiences.
- Teach skills and knowledge in the context of practical activities, for example, learning about the characteristics of liquids and solids by involving children in melting chocolate, cooking eggs and observing ice.
- Encourage children to tell each other what they have found out, to speculate on future findings or to describe their experiences. This enables them to rehearse and reflect upon their knowledge and to practice new vocabulary.
- Encourage the use of mark making to record what children observe, think and predict.
- Support children in using a range of ICT to include cameras, photocopiers, CD players, tape recorders and programmable toys in addition to computers and tablets.
- Give children accurate information that challenges cultural, racial, social and gender stereotypes.
