The physical education and health learning corner in preschools

Shu Sing Paul WONG

Research output: Contribution to conferencePapers

Abstract

Early childhood education has already become an accepted Chinese culture in Hong Kong. Nowadays, most parents send their children to a preschool at the age of three. To a certain extent, they understand the significant values of pre-primary education to the total development of young children. However, due to the unhealthy and keen academic pressure in primary education , both parents and teachers always emphasize children's cognitive development and neglect children's physical, social and emotional development in early childhood. In fact, the ultimate goals of preschool education are to educate young children wholly through various plays and stimulating activities in the formal and informal curriculum; and to offer comprehensive care to young children in a preschool. Movement (physical play / physical education) is the essence of young children's lives. It influences and is influenced by all aspects of development, consisting of physical, cognitive and affective domains of children behaviors. In Hong Kong, preschool curriculum has integrated movement in the form of structured physical education, unstructured physical education / physical free play, spontaneous physical activities and rhythmic movement. No doubt, apart from the daily movement programs, it is crucial to create a stimulating learning environment including play-areas and learning corner to arouse children's interest for self-discovery and individual learning. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to introduce a Physical Education and Health Learning Corner in preschools with special focus on the rationale, objectives, contents and equipment. In this paper, a strategic implementation plan is recommended to preschool educators too. It is hoped that the set up of this newly introduced learning corner will provide an attractive, interesting and useful learning opportunity to all preschool children through pleasurable experience.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 1997

Citation

Wong, S. S. P. (1997, November). The physical education and health learning corner in preschools. Paper presented at the Hong Kong Educational Research Association (HKERA) 14th Annual Conference: Compulsory Education and Beyond, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The physical education and health learning corner in preschools'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.