10 Exciting Ways to Engage Children into Learning using Active Learning Approach

Early years and primary school students learn best by experimenting and exploring the environments (Active Learning/ Experiential Learning), and to do so they will want to make full use of their senses (Multi-Sensory Learning). They will always need lots of positive feedback to boost their confidence and to encourage them to explore their interests further (Positive Pedagogy). They also require enough space and freedom to satisfy their individual needs and preferences (Personalised Learning).

Here’s 10 tips how to provide interesting learning opportunities for your students/children:

1. Creative Experiments

Organise work and play space in your classroom/home in a way your students/children can experiment with whatever they find inspiring, e.g. dismantling an old CD player or a radio, constructing a vehicle from spare parts, making new fashion from dress-up costumes, sand & water play space, reading corner, etc. Let children decide how and when they want to use the space, and ideally do not ask them to tidy it up right away. Some projects may take longer.

2. Reading Corner

It has to be functional and super exciting, especially now in the era of mobile devices. Ideally the designated reading area would be carpeted to let your students read and play on the floor. You may also want to add some bean bags, a small table, and some chairs or a sofa. Make sure the reading space is a private area free from noise and other distractors. Organise the books in boxes or on shelves making sure they are at children’s eye level, and that your students/children can access them easily at all times. Every few days display 4-5 books as ‘Books of the Day / Week’ putting them in a visible place to attract children’s extra attention.

3. Apps and AppBooks

Both offer excellent opportunities for Multi-Sensory Learning. There are apps that will foster your students’/children’s Literacy and Numeracy skills, support their Creativity, or help them extend their Knowledge and Understanding of the World. School children are always expected to demonstrate their knowledge within limited timeframes, and their skills will be tested regularly. So, to help them reduce the stress and offer some extra practice that is definitely more fun than just regular pen and pencil exercises, consider offering a bunch of apps that combine an element of fun with learning or/and gentle testing/evaluation.

4. Role Plays

A fantastic way to help your children express themselves creatively by pretending they are their favourite movie heroes, book characters, or even real life people. By providing some dress-up costumes, a few everyday objects, some cardboard boxes and coloured pens and pencils should be enough to keep your students happily busy. And besides knights and princesses other popular choices are firefighters, actors, singers, cooks, vets, shop assistants, doctors or police officers. It’s quite easy to support children’s learning about the world and jobs by smuggling some objects that reflect the profession of their choosing. Then playing becomes more meaningful and provides excellent opportunities for practicing social and communication skills.

5. Exploring Nature

Let your students/children spend more time outdoors whether it’s a local park, the school playground, a nearby beach or woods. Not only will your they have a chance to make new friends but also learn more about the world by playing with natural toys (such as sticks, pebbles, pine cones, sand, mud, water) and sneak-peaking on animals and insects. As they interact with the world around it is always a great lesson on safety and managing risks.

6. Photo Hunt

One of the best ways to support children’s creativity is to work with photographs. Just grab a camera or two and go explore the world together. Children are usually more observant than adults and they see beyond the obvious, which may be a great starting point for classroom discussions. You can start with a no-topic session allowing your students/children to spontaneously capture whatever they find intriguing. Then, you can extend your photo hunts to regular themed outings and add an element of a mission to it.

7. Growing plants

Encourage your students to grow their own plants and observe the growing process. It will be one of the most meaningful experiences related to time. Preparation time is always very exciting for children – they can gather resources, find the best place to plant, choose seeds or seedlings, pots, tools – it’s a very hands-on experience with high level of personalised learning. At first it will be observing, taking care of the plant, watering, removing weeds. When a plant finally starts to emerge, it will be easier for children to notice how much time is needed for the plant to grow through its different stages and what kind of care should be offered. Then, as a follow up, it may be interesting to watch a documentary about plants, which often show the growing process in a fast motion.

8. Play tents

Children of all ages love them, they are very flexible and offer endless opportunities for exciting play time. Apart from pure fun, play tents can support the development of your students’ motor skills and creativity, and foster their Knowledge and Understanding of the World. They are also perfect for role plays and play-pretend games in which your students can become medieval knights, pirates or princesses where the tent is their castle, a ship or a fortress.

9. Word Hunt

One of the most effective ways to naturally support early literacy is by helping your students/children notice words around them. All children sooner or later realise that letters and then words form a useful coding system. Draw your students’ attention to various funnily shaped letters that they see around every day (e.g. in shop windows, on food products or toys, etc.) and simply read them out loud. You may do the same while reading stories to your students/children. Let them pick the most funny looking, the biggest, the smallest or the weirdest letters or words they can find on the pages of their favourite books. Turn it into an exciting letter/word hunt and make it a regular activity.

10. Library visits

A very exciting adventure time with plenty of new books to choose from. Modern libraries are child-friendly places where your students/children can feel free to explore the world of books the way they like it. There is usually a comfortable carpeted reading area with soft beanbags, funny cushions, great book displays, and play spaces. Children can socialise and play with other kids, take part in educational workshops, or join story time sessions.

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Some Images published with this article were sourced from Pinterest and belong to their respective authors. They have been used under the law of fair use to illustrate best practices, offer commentary, to contrast and review exemplary and non exemplary practices. No copyright infringement intended.

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