Prescribed Learning Outcomes
It is expected that students will:
- describe changes in growth and development from conception through infancy
- describe how growth and development from conception through infancy can be nurtured
- explain the implications and responsibilities of parenting
- propose a plan to provide care giving and nurturing for an infant
- analyse factors that affect family and professional care giving within their community
To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Nurturing Growth and Development in other grades click on an icon below.
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Suggested Instructional Strategies
- Have students in small groups conduct research to create timelines that show human development from conception through infancy. Ask them to use various media to represent their knowledge of nurturing skills for each stage.
- Have students make up 3.5 kg infant-size dolls. Assign students to care for their "infants" for a three-day period, simulating real child care. Ask them to keep detailed records of their nurturing practices (their own and those of "baby-sitters"). After the simulation, have students create two-page essays on the implications and responsibilities of parenting, based on their records.
- Instruct students to interview parents in different family circumstances (e.g., single parent, parent from blended family, those with adopted children or children with special needs) to find out about the special challenges they encounter in parenting. Students use this information to complete a project (e.g., booklet, video) on "How to Be a Parent." Invite local parenting groups to offer feedback.
- Take students on a field trip to a day-care centre, maternity ward, or pediatric ward. Then ask the class to create a list of responsible care-giving attitudes and behaviours observed and to indicate how these met the sociological needs and wants of the recipients. Encourage students to volunteer at such facilities.
- Ask four students (two per team) to debate the resolution: "Babies between the ages of six weeks and four years thrive best when their mother is the primary care giver." Afterward, have the rest of the class assess the debate. Assign each student to propose a care-giving plan for an infant.
Suggested Assessment Strategies
- Have groups display their timelines showing human development from conception through infancy. Then ask students in pairs to move from one display to another, offering at least one comment about the information presented at each display. When students finish viewing and commenting, they collect and summarize the comments about their work.
- Assess students' essays on the implications and responsibilities of parenting in terms of criteria such as:
- identifies key wants and needs of infants
- describes nurturing and care-giving behaviours that address these wants and needs and that support healthy growth and development
- offers appropriate ways of dealing with the challenges associated with parenting
- explains the implications of parents' own wants and needs
- offers logical conclusions or generalizations about parenting infants
- Look for evidence that students' projects on parenting are:
- focussed on important issues in parenting
- respectful of cultural and social diversity
- objective and non-judgmental
- thorough and detailed
- After students have visited a community care-giving site and identified the care-giving behaviours they observed, ask them to write about situations in which they have demonstrated these behaviours. Assess their work in terms of how well they are able to recognize nurturing and care-giving behaviours.
Recommended Learning Resources
Print Materials
- Building Blocks to Better Relationships: Case Studies, Simulations and Learning Activities
- The Issues Collection
- The Living Family: A Canadian Perspective
- Parents and Their Children
- Preventing Family Violence: Strategies for Stopping Abuse Before it Starts
Video
- Child Development: Prenatal to Birth
- Miracle of Life
- Ouchless House
(Note: It is anticipated that existing classroom and school materials will also be used to support the learning outcomes until additional learning resources are identified as part of Continuous Submission.)
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