Unlock Children's Full Potential with Playful Learning and Best Practices from Finland
For decades Finland has been a research hotbed and front-runner in early childhood education.
Now, preschools around the globe embrace proven standards for playful learning, portfolios, and formative assessment.
Get inspired the The Finnish Way
Video by the Ministry of Education and Culture
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1. Playful learning is a game changer
Leverage children’s interests, needs, and capabilities:
- Learning through play stimulates a child's natural curiosity, creativity, and motivation to learn.
- Play engages multiple areas of the brain simultaneously, such as motor skills, language, and problem-solving capabilities.
- Play supports children's social and emotional ability to understand who they are and how to interact with others.
2. What is the strength of Finnish early education?
Play, free discovery, collaboration, interaction, initiative, concentration, and learning to take responsibility for one’s actions are key methods. Balanced growth and taking others into account are also emphasized, over quantifiable metrics.
All preschools have an action plan, based on the national curriculum. The learning areas and objectives define the main goals and content of
the pedagogical activities. They guide the staff when planning and implementing diverse and playful activities together with the children.
Watch Video The Finnish Way – Early Childhood Education and Care
Learn more from a webinar presentation by Kindiedays CEO Milla:
The Secrets of Early Education in Finland. How to adapt them to your local market?
Download the E-book "What is Finnish ECEC?"
Explore our workshops to learn more
3. Align your curriculum and experiential lesson plans
Educators are creative, so coming up with activities is not the issue. The issue is: Can educators justify the chosen activity pedagogically? Why is that activity useful for the children? What do the children learn from this?
The learning areas of the curriculum help to structure teaching, documentation, and assessments. The pedagogical objectives of the curriculum are the starting point for creating activities.
Read more about "How to plan pedagogical and holistic activities for children?"
Kindiedays Lesson Plan Package
is designed to guide and support educators to provide lessons based on experiential learning. Each lesson plan is carefully planned to match the learning goals outlined in the Finnish National Curriculum for Early Childhood and Care.The lesson plans can also be used with any other curriculum, as long as playful learning is close to your heart.
Explore and select your lesson plans
4. Engage parents and show evidence of children's learning
Most modern education policies and curriculums prescribe parent engagement as one of the cornerstones of education and care. The daily face-to-face meetings between educators and parents are very important but too hectic. There is simply so little time and so much to tell and discuss. A better approach is needed.
Parents know their children best, therefore their input, knowledge, and views concerning their children are crucial. Parents want to engage in their child's learning. See evidence of learning and be sure their child is developing well. Parents also want to handle all the daily practicalities smoothly and efficiently. Both educators and the family are interested in the best of the child. The efficient use of technology like Kindiedays Portfolio makes a big difference for the parents.
The Lego Foundation Playful Learning and Joyful Parenting
5. Assess children's learning to secure quality education
Assessment practices are evolving away from the examination of physical products of learning, such as worksheets and standardized assessments toward examining the process of learning.
In early childhood education learning happens mostly through play. Play is a continuum of activities including child-initiated free play, play with adult guidance, and teacher-directed play. Play often does not produce concrete documents to be assessed by educators.
So how to assess play? How to assess children's learning?
This is based on collecting portfolios and pedagogical documentation of children’s individual growth and how learning unfolds within different classroom activities. Observations are done during the learning moments to provide an authentic understanding of children’s learning progress. With the help of portfolios, reports, and statistics you can assess the learning and develop high-quality education.
6. Manage your preschool's playful learning environment with ease
Kindiedays Digital Tools enable the best learning environment for your early education center. Kindiedays facilitates curriculum planning, documentation, assessment, and communication of children’s learning experiences.
Educators, children, and parents can now communicate and work together toward children's learning, development, and well-being.
- Share information over time about a child’s progress, strengths, and needs.
- Assess children’s learning outcomes and identify areas of development.
- Reflect on the teaching practices and identify areas of improvement.
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Our customers tend to quickly become the most reputable and valued preschools in their local areas. Read about their Success Stories.
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Planning to reinvent your preschool or start a new one?
Staying competitive is crucial in today's dynamic educational landscape. We understand the many challenges you face in providing the best learning environment for young minds.
Kindiedays Pro is an affordable and interactive program tailored for preschools with the ambition to grow and be successful.
With our comprehensive program, you will establish a new Finnish-style learning environment based on 3 cornerstones:
- Interactive online Workshop Program for teachers
- Full set of Kindiedays Themes-based Lesson Plans
- Kindiedays Digital Tools to track and support children's learning
Transform your preschool for next term
