Learning is made easier if it is mixed with fun and play, especially for children. Playing takes a vital role in the growth and development of a child starting from infancy to early and late childhood.
During the first months, the behavior of an infant is purely reflexive, but as he becomes acquainted with the objects and activities outside his body, he starts to react by reaching out to grasp, feel, and manipulate whatever it is that catches his attention. The more they play, the more they become aware of their environment. At this stage, parents can help their children’s learning process through games that can be done simply by showing or holding out a toy for the child to reach out and grasp. This helps the child to develop and control his motor responses, sensory impressions, and physical motions.
Early childhood refers to the first two to seven years in the lifespan of a child. At these ages, children show an increased ability to assimilate new pieces of information from which the foundation of conceptual thinking is laid. They find enjoyment and fun in educational games and activities that involve grouping of things or objects into same or different categories, playing of roles, interacting with fellow children, building blocks and puzzles, and other types of activities that can develop his mental and social skills.
Educational games are commonly used in schools as a teaching tool for easier learning. The child learns to adjust and control his responses since rules are set for the games. He learns the value of sharing, courage, patience, and self control as he mingles with other children who may be far too different from him. With parents and teachers around to give proper assistance during games and plays, learning, growth, and development can surely be successfully attained.
By: Eddie Tobey
Posts Tagged ‘Teaching Tool’
Educational Games
March 10th, 2010Educational Bingo
March 8th, 2010
The majority of people probably know how to play bingo – it’s a game that most of us have encountered, and perhaps even played, at some point in our lives. One thing that you may not however be aware of, is that bingo is growing in popularity as an educational and teaching tool.
More and more teachers are adapting the game for their classrooms. The game is well-suited to educational because, while it’s very easy for students to learn, it’s also highly adaptable. Moreover, since no specialist or expensive resources or materials are needed to play bingo, it fits in with financial constraints that students work under.
The game is particularly popular for teaching English (both K-12 and English as a Second Language), math, and foreign languages such as French, German, Italian or Spanish.
Most variants of the game, do require special bingo cards printed with items other than the numbers that you usually find on bingo cards. For example, in a math lesson, the cards may be printed with math questions, and in a Spanish or French lesson, the cards would be printed with words in that language. Of course, teachers won’t want to spend money on buying preprinted cards, especially considering they’ll need different cards for different lessons – so the best option is for the computer to prepare the cards themselves. Creating bingo cards manually is possible, but extremely time consuming – better to get some bingo card maker software and print off the cards for your computer. Simply enter a list of the items you want on the cards, click a button, and you’re done!
By: Sunil Tanna
