School Trip Safety and Play Dynamics

Topic: Pedagogy
Words: 403 Pages: 1

Regarding licensing a school trip to the zoo, there may be concerns about how the trip will qualify. It can be organized at the expense of the lesson time if the teachers have included a trip in the program. In such a case, licensing problems cannot arise if all parents consent for their children to travel. From a safety point of view, teachers should consider how they will protect children who may be careless from injury. In addition, since children with allergies and asthma are in the group, it is essential to foresee all possible risk options and take allergy and asthma medicines on the trip. Teachers should oblige parents to supply children with these medicines and not to take children who have not been given pills. This will help to avoid dangerous situations and protect the health of children. All of the above actions are related to risk management since caregivers’ responsibility is to protect children and prevent dangerous situations. I had a similar experience, and to ensure safety, two parents could be asked to go on a tour with the group. Thus, the chances of looking after all the children are significantly increased.

All children play differently, some are more comfortable doing it independently, and others with their peers. The video talked about four categories of games unsocial activity, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play. Unsocial activity implies that the child does not want to contact other peers and prefers to play alone. Parallel play means that children play the side of their game by the side but do not interact. Associative play means the child acting chaotically without playing something specific but simply having fun. Cooperative play involves the interaction of several children in one game. While practicing in the classroom, I could observe how children play cooperative games and participate in unsocial activities. The first category of children has always been together, preferring to choose games that require the participation of several people. At the same time, they communicated with each other, argued, proved who was right, and thus developed their social skills. Children from the second observed category preferred to act independently and rarely shared their games with others. In these examples, the social environment enhanced play when the children played together as they communicated (McArdle et al., 2019). In the second case, physical space played a significant role since the child was focused only on toys.

Reference

McArdle, F., Grieshaber, S., & Sumsion, J. (2019). Play meets early childhood teacher education. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46, 155-175. Web.