MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. ACTIVITIES FOR HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT

MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. Holistic? Holistic development simply means looking at development as a whole and the way the different areas of development affect and are affected by each other. When you see the word “holistic” think of “whole”.

MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. A familiar scene A practitioner is planning an activity for a group of children. She gets out the water tray, four identical buckets and a mat for the floor. Before the children arrive, the mat is laid under the water tray, the tray is half-filled with water and the buckets placed in the water. What areas of development might this cover?

MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. Aspects of development ●Group activities can encourage turn-taking. ●Pouring the water could introduce the idea of waterfalls. Although you may have thought of others, the choice of resources and setting it out before the children arrive may limit the learning opportunities.

MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. Widening the activity Activities can focus on one area of development but can easily be made more holistic though the use of a little imagination. Buckets of different sizes and colours could encourage measuring and colour language. Letting the children put the mat under the tray could introduce health and safety.

MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. Listening to the child Although an activity has been planned to develop one (but hopefully more than one) area of development, often it is the child themselves that may broaden the learning. If the child decides that the buckets are boats, talk about that. Have they been on a boat? What should boats be made out of? Can they find other things to be boats?

MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. Missed opportunities Being aware of all areas of development means that practitioners can try to ensure that opportunities for learning are not missed. This can be as simple as counting children as they line up, but it does not mean constantly asking the children questions.

MU 2.2 Contribute to the support of child and young person development © Laser Learning Limited under licence to Pearson Education Limited Printing and photocopying permitted. Activity Look at some of the resources in your setting and ask yourself… ●What area of development is this mainly for? ●What other areas of development might it be useful for? ●Does the setting consider other uses when choosing which resources to buy?