Play-Based Learning
Our students in Kindergarten to Year 2 engage in play-based sessions called 'Learning Through Investigation' four mornings per week. Following these sessions, students receive formal, explicit, and differentiated instruction in literacy, numeracy, and other areas as required by the Western Australia Curriculum, linking their morning experiences to structured learning.
The key elements of the Walker Learning framework focus on building strong relationships with the students and creating stimulating learning environments with rich provocations, open-ended experiences, and well-defined areas for children to investigate within. Teaching is intentional and acknowledges that not all children are ready to learn the same thing at the same time.
The key elements of this process of teaching & learning are:
- Investigation sessions
- Tuning In / Reflection
- Focus Children
- Reporter
- Photographer
- Formal explicit, differentiated teaching
Learning Through Investigation
Four mornings each week, our Kindergarten to Year 2 (K-2) classes begin the day with a hands-on, play-based session called 'Learning Through Investigation'.
There are a minimum of nine learning areas on offer in each K-2 classroom:
- Literacy Resource
- Numeracy Resource
- Construction
- Collage
- Dramatic Play
- Reading
- Science and Nature
- Sensory
- Tinkering
These different learning areas provide our students with many opportunities to pursue their interests and practice their fortnightly learning intentions through different open-ended experiences, which are intentionally linked to the Western Australian Curriculum and the children’s social and emotional development.
During each Investigation session, there are Focus Children, a Reporter, and a Photographer. The morning starts and ends with the teacher scaffolding the student's learning and linking to the current learning intentions, making connections between the student's experiences and the current learning.
Formal, Explicit, Differentiated Teaching
Every day after Investigations, students have formal explicit and differentiated instruction in literacy, numeracy, and other learning areas as required by the Western Australian curriculum.
The student's experiences from Investigations are used to springboard from the morning's Investigation experiences to this formal, explicit teaching.
