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Fiji Dawasamu Hub

Achievement Report
September 2014
Education Enrichment

Learning and Development through Play














The GVI Education Enrichment program aims to promote holistic learning experiences
through the provision of interactive and open-ended play resources designed to enrich the
education experience of pupils.

Summary

The concept of open-ended play is usually defined by interaction with the types of objects
and environments that children can interface with in in various ways, for various lengths of
time, without having to rely on a specific structure to define the interaction.

With this concept in mind the GVI education team created an outstanding interactive learn-
ing area for class 1 at Navunisea District Primary School. The area was designed to facilitate
and introduce open-ended play. The home-corner was designed to be multi-functional; it
provides a selection of fancy dress clothes and a space which can be used as a shop, cafe
and puppet theatre.

Report
Interactive play has been proven to have an important role in children's intellectual and so-
cial development. Role play and other less conventional learning techniques encourage pu-
pils to use their imagination and targets the three primary areas of learning development,
namely:
Communication and language
Physical development
Personal, social and emotional development



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Communication language development involves giving the children opportunities to develop
and experience key language skills, develop confidence in expressing themselves, and learn
to listen to others. The opportunities encourage children to use past, present and future
forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the fu-
ture. Children learn to develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas
or events. Through play they are presented with challenges and questions which are fo-
cused, open ended and not closed questions: role play does not have a right answer.
Interactive play also enables children to explore and experiment with a wide range of media
and materials. Through picking up, fastening buttons, building and drama, young children
develop their co-ordination, control, and fine and major motor skills.
Most importantly, during play, children develop key social and emotional skills, and an un-
derstanding of the world. Through cooperative play, they learn how to take turns, share re-
sponsibility, and creatively problem-solve. Role play creates a space for children to experi-
ment with the social and emotional elements of life, they learn to manage their feelings and
understand different behavioral situations.

When first interacting with the new variety of items and environments offered by this new
play area the pupils were delighted and volunteers observed the children carefully tearing
paper as if it was food, stirring 'pancake batter' and frying 'cassava' before serving it up to
their class mates. Due to the positive reception from teachers and pupils the GVI team will
continue to develop further holistic and sensory learning experiences which can be inte-
grated into the early learning resources for class 1 students.


GVI Fiji

For more information on GVI projects in Fiji please visit www.gvi.co.uk
For more information on our global impact visit www.gviworld.com
To make a donation to our Education Enrichment projects in Fiji please visit
www.gvi.org for more details