I’m not an RECE so what does How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years look like for me? How Does Learning Happen? Is a pedagogical resource developed for early learning professionals that promotes a shared understanding of what children need and what can be done to help them grow and flourish. The early learning field is moving away from prescribed checklists of tasks to complete or a template for a “one-size-fits-all” approach which recognizes the uniqueness of programs, children, families, and educators. How Does Learning Happen? is meant to promote deeper reflection on how to create places and experiences where children, families, and educators explore, question, and learn together in quality early years programs. This session has been designed to introduce non RECEs to the ideas and theories within How Does Learning Happen? and offers opportunities for reflection, discussion, and exploration of the document.

Step into the magical world of emergent planning – where children are the key! The way we plan play experiences for children is changing as we focus on the interests and abilities of the children as the core concept behind planning classroom experiences and co-learn, co-create, and co-imagine with the children. What is emergent planning? Is it effective? Will the children still enjoy the experiences and learn? How does it work with the Ontario Framework? Discover the answers to these questions and more as we look at key tips and strategies for implementing an emergent curriculum approach to children’s learning. This workshop is designed to reveal the mystery and magic of the well-known emergent curriculum concept and put it into practice in your early learning environment. Remember! Not all environments and planning are the same – just like not all children or educators are the same. So, let’s figure out how to do it so it works for everyone! 

Playful learning experiences promote a sense of curiosity, exploration, and confidence, which are what we all strive to achieve when we plan for our early childhood environment and our children’s experiences. The emergent curriculum approach is one of the most popular and best approaches to achieve this. This approach lets the child lead the playful experiences and follow their own learning path. As early childhood educators, our job is to observe their interests and plan to complement or extend them. Being intentional about preparing a responsive environment is a key element to emergent planning. How we plan activities, play experiences, provocations and invitations and make changes to our environment all depends on the dynamics of our group of children and our ability to really listen, observe, and learn about the children’s deeper interests and abilities. Let us walk alongside the children and join them in their journeys of wonder, play and curiosity.