Lora's Practicum Journey

Today, we had two children: B & P, we went on a walk, and played Nature Bingo. We searched for different textures, colors, and objects in nature. Willa pointed out leaves in various colors, while B found rocks, sticks, and even something “strange” or didn’t “belong” in nature.

This game encouraged us to look more closely at our environment, showing the ability to make creative links between the natural world and their lived experiences. For example, P proudly pointed out a weed that got stuck on stroller wheel, and B excitedly shouted when they spotted something shiny.

✨ This activity supports their observation skills, language development, and social interaction. Also encourages their curiosity, problem-solving, and collaboration. It connected us to the land and seasons, helping the children understand the variety and cycles of nature while also supporting their physical development through movement and exploration.

B is using his imagination and creativity, by pretending to eat the toy food and then pushing the baby doll in the shopping cart. They’re taking on familiar roles they may see in their everyday environment.

Encouraging pretend play supported their social-emotional development as they explored caregiving behaviours and daily routines, and makes sense of their world through play.
This type of dramatic play provides valuable opportunities for children to practice real-life scenarios while developing empathy and independence.

EVER-LEE

Learning to control their grip and movement. I believe the action with the tiles connecting and separating helps strengthen the muscles in their finger and hands.

Great for writing later on.

Next time I’ll ask E or B  “ What happens if you add a tile here?” or “ how could you make this structure taller?” A fantastic way to practice their fine motor skills, creativity, and social interaction for future learning.

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BEEG

As I observed B building with Lego, he proudly pointed to the pieces he stacked and named the colors one by one. This showed his growing ability to identify and label colors, as well as his confidence in sharing what he knows.

His engagement in the activity also reflected fine motor development as he carefully placed each Lego block on top of the other, creating balance and structure. By naming the colors aloud, he demonstrated both language development and cognitive skills, making connections between objects and their attributes. 

This moment highlights how play provides rich opportunities for learning across multiple developmental areas.

B is engaging in imaginative play by using sounds (“choo, choo”) to represent the train. He showed an awareness of others by looking to see if I was watching, demonstrating his desire for social connection and acknowledgment.

His train kept increasing speed and then eventual crash highlighting his curiosity with cause and effect, as well as his ability to control and test the movement of objects through play.

I plan to follow up on this activity

E is engaging in peer interaction, by passing a tile, is a gesture of sharing and invitation to play.The tile itself suggests an opportunity to explore basic concepts of shapes, colors, and spatial awareness, which is crucial at this age for cognitive development.

Holding and manipulating the tile, contributes to the development of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. These tiles, are also great for problem-solving skills, by understanding how pieces fit together, and experimenting with design and structure.

To extend E’s learning, we can challenge her to build a tall tower using only the red tiles!” This may encourage E to use her creative problem-solving and thinking about structures. Also I’ll see if there a story on structures building. I know she loves storytelling and songs.

2) Demonstrate skills working with groups of children; maintaining children’s interest, promoting interaction and providing children with a choice about their involvement when appropriate.

3. Demonstrate an ability to to plan, implement, revisit, extend, document and evaluate learning environments that are sensitive to to, developmentally appropriate for young children and reflect current educational planning theory.

4 Demonstrates an ability to effective member of the educator team taking on assigned roles and assigning roles.

5. Demonstrate an ability to accept and act on constructive feedback

6. Demonstrate an ability to engage in on going self-evaluation

7. Engage in ongoing reflection of personal practice and to demonstrate the personal and professional attributes related to conduct and professional communication as guided by the ECEBC Code of Ethics and TRU ECE program.

ECED 2024-25 -Practicum 3 – Xwisten Daycare (Sept 8th- Oct 7th 2025)