Incorporating videos into the curriculum helps young children understand abstract ideas by making them easier to see and explore. High-quality resources enrich learning happening in early childhood education programs and child care centers.
An integration between Procare Solutions and MarcoPolo Learning, the award-winning global developer of educational products and instructional resources, offers educators a way to improve teaching practices and support quality teacher-child interactions in the classroom.
“We see teachers spending seven hours per week gathering resources such as videos and photocards for visuals, often ending up on websites like Pinterest searching for activities to supplement their curriculum,” said Nermeen Dashoush, chief learning officer of MarcoPolo Learning and clinical associate professor of early childhood education at Boston University.
Most of this content is not created by ECE experts and often is not developmentally appropriate. Plus, it’s time-consuming to find.
MarcoPolo uses short, two-minute videos as a launching point for a lesson. For example, if a teacher is doing a lesson on music, the video doesn’t replace playing instruments. Rather, MarcoPolo provides a video showing what’s inside a piano to enrich the lesson.
“That’s where we elevate the curriculum, providing teachers with quality resources that save time, and include embedded supports for instruction,” said Dr. Dashoush.
Let’s look at how the Procare Solutions-MarcoPolo Learning integration builds foundational math skills and enhances children’s mathematical development with easy, effective methods.
Enhancing Mathematics
When children learn math outside of a context, they are less likely to apply it in a context, Dr. Dashoush said.
“We use math stories to show that numbers are not an abstract concept,” she said.
For example, one MarcoPolo video shows a duck with her 10 ducklings. Then she’s suddenly being followed by more ducklings As the children count the ducklings on the screen, the learning is interactive and the numbers are meaningful.
They are invested in the story and there is a reason for them to count. Does she have more ducklings? How many does she have now? Where did they come from?
It’s a way to teach within the context so children can apply it in their lives, and outside the video.
“We have curriculum-aligned videos that focus on bringing learning to life and helping teachers teach in context,” Dr. Dashoush said.
For Procare users, it’s easy to integrate MarcoPolo learning into lessons. And all MarcoPolo content is easily viewed from within the lesson under the MarcoPolo Learning section,
Check out this great mathematics video about ducklings:
Learn more about how the MarcoPolo Learning integration with Procare works and get started today!
