WHY DO WE STILL USE COINS FOR SHOP PLAY AT PIB?
Many pedagogues say that role play is ‘supposed’ to be what is familiar to children, a way for them to process their experiences. Which would mean that coins should be banished from our role play ‘shopping area’. However we recently decided to bring coins back – for these reasons:
1) We cannot think of a better way to help children understand the transaction involved in shopping. With digital payments this is hidden from children. Asking children to give us 3 coins if they would like to take away the toy cake, makes this visible and tangible for children.
2) It makes maths and number fun! Although they may no longer see this type of transaction, we find that children enjoy this game as much as they did 20 years ago. We love it as a way to teach so many maths concepts. Children continue to giggle when they sneakily give you £1, though you asked for £3 ‘ 2 more please!‘* , or when they attempt to charge you ‘fifty hundred‘ pounds for an imaginary ice cream. So many opportunities to count carefully and use mathematical language; ‘1,2 or 3 more, too many, not enough’
3) As a history lesson During shop play I had several conversations with older children along these lines – ‘a long time ago – when I was little we used to use coins to buy things in shops’. I ask them how mummy/daddy buy things, and they know they use phones or cards. The Early Years Foundation stage, asks that we talk to children about ‘differences between things in the past and now’. So we can teach history together with maths.
So coins are firmly back to stay at PIB!
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DONT ESTIMATE THE UNDER 5’s -TRY US!
Chinese New Year means lots of hands on dragon making and dancing, drumming, and stories with vivid illustrations of animal races and more dragons. We found one presentation we wanted to share with children, it had mainly text, but fascinating information about the Chinese dragon myths – how they came about because people feared natural events they didn’t understand, that dragons were composite of different animals, and that each dragon had different roles, e.g. Wood dragon, river dragon. It was equally as successful as our other ‘hands on’ activities, with children full of questions, curiosity, and then asking to draw their own composite dragon. Fascination and fear is children’s responses to dragons and monsters, and it was helpful to explain that these were myths and ‘why’. Children’s comments on their drawing showed how much they had absorbed, ‘my dragon will be in charge of protecting the nursery toys’. ‘Look my dragon has 3 heads, a clever head and an angry head’. Lesson : keep things varied, and don’t underestimate what children will absorb!
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What’s Christmas at PIB? (And why no nativity play?)
PIB in the run up to Christmas is a joyful place packed with challenge and age appropriate learning. Having to perform in front of an audience or repeatedly practise scripted parts will not be age appropriate for a few years.
We do tell children the story of Jesus’ birth and explain that this is a very special story for some families. Children help us build and decorate the Christmas tree. We act out Christmas stories and of course , we love to sing Christmas/Winter songs, adding to children’s vocabulary and musicality in the process.
Then we invite parents to a Christmas Sing-a-Long; children who like to perform to parents sit at the front and sing and dance. Others, who may be wary about the change in routine and of many adults suddenly appearing in their nursery, sit with their parents, and sing from there.
We keep our expectations high, but appropriate and so we enjoy Christmas together.
When do you start teaching children letters?
When visiting parents ask this, I first rephrase the question ‘when do we start inspiring children into becoming literate?’ And the answer is – as soon as they walk through our doors. And parents can do the same.
–And what does it look like?
– It looks like being read story after exciting story in one of our book corners. What better way to give children the impetus to become literate, than to introduce them to wonderful books.
–It looks like starting with their names – nothing inspires an early years child, like the power of being able to assert their identity and ownership of something, and that’s why we have a big focus on children’s names. Whether it is having them watch us write their names on works of art, or encouraging them to find their name card to register. During our year, we add challenge, children are currently registering under their initial letter of the alphabet, and for our rising 4 year olds, we remove identifying pictures from the name labels later in the year, to help them to look closely at the letters to be able to ‘read’ their name. It’s almost certainly the first combination of letters child will read .
-Reading is much more than just phonics –
–It looks like purposefully finding reasons to write that are meaningful to the children in their play – “Well if you are running a cake shop from the wendy house – do you need a sign? What should it say, and shall I write ‘open’ or closed’?
–It looks like spotting text in the environment – on our way to forest school we never pass the road sign without children excitedly spotting their initial letter. Or reading signs with your child – just running a finger from left to right as you are reading if you are reading in English!) reinforces text direction.
–It looks like scribing children’s own stories What better way to show children the power of the written word than its ability to record the ‘the stories in our heads’. It’s a long time before children’s writing is able to catch up with their ability to create wonderful imaginative narrations but story scribing enables them to see the power of having their thoughts on paper.
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We Don’t or Won’t say what children will learn – here’s why
This week we had planned to provide the foam ’look-a-like’ bricks. Our thinking was to offer a new construction tool to our creative building -crazy cohort, – on a large scale, and to provide a challenge as the constructions are wobbly. We also know that time spent building increases spatial awareness which has a proven positive impact on numeracy skills.
Once children approached the area here’s the learning that unfolded:
Independence, confidence and gross motor skills – a child carried the box of bricks to the building area, super proud of his strength.
Literacy, and Understanding the World- Children’s towers resembled lighthouses, children shared what they knew about lighthouses, and one child ran for a book in our book corner that day, which, sure enough, had a story about a lighthouse in a storm, which we read through together as a pause from building. Children teaching each other, as well as learning.
Managing behaviour – When a child knocked down another’s tower, the injured child understandably protested and the teacher reinforced our ‘you make it, you break it’ rule. If you want to collapse a tower (and there’s learning in that too!) then you have to build it first (or ask permission). With 4 children working in a space, we worked out how to kick our towers (part of the fun of the foam bricks!) ,so as not to topple our neighbour’s tower.
Imagination, self expression, lateral thinking – Having tried various tower arrangements, children tried different ways to balance the bricks – putting two together at a slant ‘to make a roof’ They also added different coloured foam blocks as the ‘lights’ in their lighthouses.
This proliferation of different types of learning in one activity, is so typical of our activities at PIB that we gave up years ago telling parents ‘what your child will learn this week’. Instead we explain the stimuli we plan to offer the children, and why – then inevitably the children’s own drive to learn deepens our original plan, takes it in directions we could never have predicted.
Isn’t it obvious?
This week our teaching and learning snapshot details the children’s investigations around the helium balloon that is currently stuck on our 25 foot (ish) high ceiling. Children were excited to suggest ways we could try to get it down. “Can we do big jumps, what about the trampoline, or the climbing frame? “Maybe a rope?’ We encouraged children to work with us to investigate all these suggestions – dragging our climbing frame and trampoline into position, providing ropes, and even demonstrating some high jumping. It might seem ridiculous and obvious to us that these things were not going to ‘work’ but it is important to remember that children’s spatial awareness is still developing, and they need to learn by ‘doing’ and ‘experiencing’. That’s why it is so important to let them try. Other children made imaginative ‘pretend’ suggestions – ‘ Maybe we need dragon wings, or fairy wings – or a rescue helicopter’ Similarly we encouraged them to try making and drawing those things, as they enjoy, and puzzle out the cross-over of their ‘real’ and ‘pretend’ worlds.
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Something for the ‘grown-ups’ Why do we share Initial Planning IDEAS and not just ‘Planning’?
Each week, in ‘something for the ‘grown ups’ we share either a tip for something to do at home with the children, or what we hope is a useful insight into the rationale for the way things work at PIB. Why do you share Initial Planning IDEAS and not just ‘Planning’? Good teachers in any sector, know that the best teaching starts from where the students are – from our knowledge and observations of their developmental stage. It keys into their current interests, fascinations, and learning drives. We start the week having observed our children the previous week and we ask ourselves, “what might inspire this group, what hypothesis might they enjoy investigating or continue investigating this week (how to make the water wheels spin faster, What is a HUGE number, what might a monster eat, how to build a rescue helicopter…) We then plan the resources and teaching to offer, some for independent investigation, and some that involve direct teaching by an adult of new skills or knowledge. This we share with you. BUT.. although we may have an idea of where this will go, this pre-planning never fills our week. Superior teaching and learning responds to the children’s responses. Only once we have offered the resources or enquiries to the children, do we know whether this has led to deep-level learning, or perhaps children took the project in a different but equally valuable direction. Perhaps the project is too challenging, or not enough. During the week we observe, discuss, and tweak, and plan accordingly. That is why naming this section ‘ Initial Planning Ideas’ reflects more accurately the way we work. For more information on this come to our Parent Information Session ‘The Way we Work’ on on Zoom – Midday November 3rd
Something for over the Summer – scroll through ideas below ⇓⇓⇓⇓
Wooden Blocks – why we love them
Some parents or carers get rid of simple wooden blocks quickly, viewing these as ‘babyish’, to be replaced with brightly coloured resources like Duplo or Magnetic tiles. At PIB some of our favourite construction materials are simple wooden blocks and bricks, of different sizes. These are completely open ended, and can be anything the children imagine. Stacking and balancing blocks offers a different challenge, and with some sets, children can also be hands on with different geometric shapes. Hang on to those blocks and get them out from time to time. You may be surprised at the engagement and learning they inspire!
Why Draw?
At Puss In Boots we want to inspire children to draw for all sorts of purposes -They can draw to express their imagination – crazy monsters, maps of journeys to find treasure. We also help children to combine shapes to create symbols – (spot some butterflies and bees from this week.) Then, there’s drawing from close observation – a giant toy spider and a huge allium we planted provided great starting points this week. If you are trying something at home – start with drawing to express imagination – these focus on the process, and not the outcome. Your child will show you when they are ready to start combining shapes to draw symbols, and from observation.
Why take risks?
Learning something new is full of RISK. You might get it wrong, your friend might be better at it than you. We encourage our children to take risks though they might end in a bump, a spill or frustration. Because the risk of not taking a risk…is learning nothing at all.
CLOCKS – Where are yours?– – Where are the clocks on your walls? If they are all at adult eye level, then why not move one down to child eye level, somewhere you spend a lot of time. Probably the kitchen for many families.
At Puss In Boots we use the clock a great deal to help our older 3 and 4 year olds make sense of the day, and it is great to reinforce numeral recognition. We point to the clock if children ask whether it is time to get ready, or to tell them when something is happening. We might say, “when the long and short hand points to the 12, then it will be lunch time, but not yet”, or “It’s too early to leave the lunch table now, only when the long hand points to the 3″ . For even younger children, we can still point to the clock and simply say, ” look its not time for lunch yet, there’s time for playing now”. This helps to develop a sense of ordering of events, and time, we lay some helpful foundations of the understanding of time and number by talking in this way.
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A Messy noisy playdate, is it worth it?
Once the children have left for the day we ask teachers to share significant teaching and learning moments from that day. Often, staff will recognise a significant learning moment but say, “Well it wasn’t really me doing the teaching in this example, but ..” This week the notes on these discussions give 2 examples where the teacher was not the adult. One child, after looking left and right before crossing a road to forest school, that noticed that her friend was looking the wrong way as he said left. Once safely across the road, she used her hands to demonstrate left and right to the others. Another note recalls how a younger child told his peers that although he hadn’t been physically hurt by a friend, his ‘ feelings were hurt‘ which then sparked a discussion between children and teachers about different ways we can be hurt. Loris Malaguzzi, who developed the Reggio Emilia educational approach, said that children had three teachers, the adults, the environment, and the other children. At PIB we don’t underestimate how much children learn from their peers. But what can you do about this at home? If you aren’t sure about whether organising a playdate is worth the noise or the extra tidying up, remember that you are also inviting another teacher into your home!
Why are you so excited about planting?
A thought for at Home – As we return after the holidays to working with the children on our planting beds, I wanted to share this thought from last year when we first used the new beds. One of the many wonderful reasons to work with pre-school age children is their brutal honesty. 3 and 4 year olds have not learnt resigned acceptance that this week’s ‘ theme ’ will be what they need to sit and listen (or feign listening!) to that week. At PIB it is our role to offer children exciting, developmentally appropriate projects. Our aim is that these will engage and inspire, but we accept that can’t be the case with all children all the time. This past half term PIB staff and children have been working on planting up the new beds. One boy, sensing the enthusiasm of the teachers, asked us directly ‘ Why are the teachers so excited about the planting?’ We want our children to think for themselves and to think creatively and critically, and this question demonstrates those attributes perfectly. The question asked for a thoughtful and honest answer, not all of which could be given at that moment; Because we wanted to show the children how exciting it is to grow vegetables from seeds. Because we wanted to encourage bees and other bugs to visit by planting flowers. Because we wanted to teach children how to grow and care for plants, so if you want to do it at home, you will know how. Because it makes the nursery look beautiful!
Then there are the things we might not share with the children, but are still true, Because we know this project provokes almost limitless learning across the curriculum, children develop fine and gross motor physical skills whilst digging and sowing, spatial awareness, counting and size, literacy skills ( Come and write some labels for our vegetable beds) and huge amounts of vocabulary.
Whilst we hope that even the doubtful ‘gardeners’ will be convinced of the joys of Springtime planting, if that’s not the case, then there’s learning in the observing and questioning too!
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This week we tasked one of the children with using the Ipad to film the others doing their dragon dance . At PIB we view it as our responsibility to introduce the children to digital literacy; digital literacy as a tool which they can use to discover their world, and to express themselves. The activities we do encourage children to be active, and to create, rather than being passive ( even if they can’t be completely independent yet) . So, for example, we avoid programmes that focus on children getting ‘ right answers’, rather we write emails with children, or search for pictures of favourite things, or take videos of memorable moments. In short – we are far from ‘anti-screen’, but we are careful about the ways we use technology. For more information see our Digital education policy using this link.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JTUH-X_yrdV1-hPruXfp3DDmiBN0whqDYuENpdY6nas/edit?usp=share_link
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Inappropriate Behaviour at nursery – can parents help?
This past week the staff reviewed the PIB Behaviour policy together. They found the policy to be comprehensive, relevant and helpful, but one aspect sparked discussion which ended in an addition to the policy. The policy had lacked mention of parents’ role when staff report significant or repeated inappropriate behaviour. When and why will staff share this with parents? How can parents respond? We have added a section to our policy to answer these questions and we hope you find it useful.
A PARENT’S ROLE FOLLOWING INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR AT NURSERY – How you can help
- Staff will share significant or repeated inappropriate behaviour with you, often by email, message in order to avoid doing this in earshot of other children or parents.
- We share this because : You have a right to know, and because you may be able to help us understand this behaviour, and how we can respond best.
- We share this because: it may help older children to know that the important adults in their lives work together to support them to manage and control their behaviour.
- We will advise if we think it would help for you to mention this to your child – some children will be too young to remember the event, in which case it will not be helpful
- How to address your child’s recent inappropriate behaviour at nursery: We suggest you pick a calm moment that evening to say something like ‘“Viv told me that you broke 2 toys on purpose today – you know that you need to ‘look after the nursery’. It makes me disappointed/sad that you did that. Do you want to say something about it?” Keep it simple and brief so children can take it in. The less words (from you!) the better.
- Please do not punish your child – we will already have responded in the moment and sometimes given a ‘real consequence’ which we will share with you.
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Do what YOU enjoy!
22.12.23
With some time at home together – you may be asking yourself, what are the best activities or play to be doing with my child?
PIB gives you permission to do what you enjoy!
Parents sometimes tell me they feel they ‘should’ play in a certain way, with their child, even if they themselves find it boring. Not all parents like pretend play for example. Others find Duplo tedious. I would suggest that you find something that you and your children both enjoy and feel free to focus on it. Remember that through this, whether you are reading non-fiction books, building Lego structures, drawing, or balancing on walls, your child will be learning about learning from you, an enthusiastic teacher. They can take this and apply it to every other area (including the ones that you are less interested in) And if you have signed up to PIB, there is a whole team of adults with varied interests ready to play with your child. That’s the advantage of having your child exposed to multiple caring adults, all with something different to teach – you don’t need to do it all!
‘My’ Christmas card? 15.12.23
Each Christmas/Winter time, Early Years teacher sites and feeds are full of wonderful ideas for making cards for the holidays with the children. At PIB we remain committed to ‘process’ over product. Our aim, whatever the time of year, is to introduce the children to an exciting variety of art materials and techniques, and encourage them to ‘ have a go’. The Early Years Foundation Stage requires that children are inspired to express their ideas using different media. Christmas time in this way, is ‘business as usual’. This year we offered the children a basket of triangles they could use on their cards as well as glue and the obligatory sequins. We modelled a few ways children could arrange the triangles, to make Christmas trees, presents or stars. Then we stood back and let children try. Our goals for this project were twofold. First to develop children’s spatial awareness and an understanding of shape , and two, to encourage children to think creatively and make choices. The card a child comes home proudly clutching, should reflect their own thinking and their developmental stage, and should have been a creative learning process for the child. A perfect card can be purchased from a shop – that’s not our goal at PIB!
Celebrating, and celebrating differences
8.12.23 The winter season offers so many ways to celebrate difference with the children at PIB. We ask parents to send us a photo of what their celebrations look like inside their home. Most years we have many families celebrating Christmas and others who are celebrating other festivals of light such as Chanukah and Diwali. However, even between families celebrating the same festival, there is an opportunity to celebrate difference. Different Christmas traditions can look very different. No two Christmas trees look the same, families often have traditions surrounding decorations, or lighting or opening advent calendars. Young children are only beginning to learn that what goes on in their house, is not identical to what is happening in their friend’s house. Children are proud to share their photos of their celebrations, and by displaying these photos we show children that we are interested in, and value all of their traditions. It’s a crucial message to offer children; we hope that all our children will leave PIB curious and excited to learn more about different traditions, religions and cultures.
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Who should I follow re: Early Years Education and parenting?
I ‘d start with these:
Try Teacher Tom (Advocate of child centred early years education) Laura Markham’s site aha parenting ( behaviour focussed) and finally Early Childhood Maths group (aimed at teachers but some great fun, research based ideas for activities you can do at home)
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20.10.2023 Want children to learn from their mistakes?
Then think about how and when you learn from your own mistakes… and pick your moment. It can help to leave things to cool and return to the subject. I was reminded of this a few times this week. The first was when I was stung with a parking ticket I had forgotten to appeal. My initial response was to rail against the injustice, blame others and generally be unpleasant. Only once I had cooled off was I able to see it more clearly, take responsibility and pledge not to repeat it.
So when a group of children in the nursery had not been able to resist destroying someone else’s tower, (against our ‘you make it you break it rule’) I told them that it was not okay and asked them to move away but I could see they wouldn’t be receptive to any longer discussion about why. Instead I concentrated on comforting the ‘victim’. When they returned from playing in the garden, I asked the ‘perpetrators’ to return and help build again. Whilst they were involved and engaged, I asked them how they would feel if someone knocked their building down. They looked a little worried and unanimously agreed that this would not be okay. I gently reminded them how upset the children had been before, and we went on to discuss how they would need to agree ‘as a team’ if this new construction could be destroyed, as it had been built as a team.
Sometimes we attempt to deal with transgressions in the moment, either because other parents are watching, or because we feel that if we don’t we are ‘letting children get away with things’. It can be hard to resist the temptation to say ‘well, that’s what happens…’’ to an upset/angry child who has thrown a toy and broken it.
Instead make a mental note, and then don’t be afraid to come back to addressing this with your child, ideally when they are relaxed and calm, and relations between you are positive. ‘Do you remember when you threw that toy and it broke? That upset you didn’t it?’ They are far more likely to respond in a rationale way – it works for adults too!
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Teaching reading – Don’t rush in…
– Parents and teachers can be in a rush to teach the mechanics of reading, before some of the building blocks are in place. One of these blocks, is the understanding that text carries meaning and that the meaning is fixed. This understanding does not come naturally, it comes from lots of exposure. At PIB we take every opportunity to teach this explicitly. Examples might be:
-children identifying their names on the registration board, when they mis ‘read’ a name we might say, “no that isn’t Teya… look its a e for Emilia..it says Emilia” and as we do that running a finger along the letters from left to right ( another essential building block for reading) . You can do the same with any text around the house and outside; always best to start with the children’s favourite things – “look, this is your favourite yoghurt flavour, it says strawberry here”
-children deciding that the Wendy house is an ice-cream shop. Teachers would use this ‘ teachable moment’ to offer to write a sign, encouraging children to watch as they write, and involving children in the process. “So shall I write ice-cream shop, or is it a chocolate ice-cream shop? Okay then, I will write 3 words, ch..o..c..o.late…i..ce…c..rea..m sh..o…p. Of course this also teaches phonic sounds, and letter formation, but for some children at an earlier stage of understanding, this will teach that text carries a specific meaning. Find any excuse at home for writing. The more meaningful for your child, the more effective your teaching will be; – what would you like for your birthday? If you tell me, then I can write it down. ” or “you don’t want your baby brother to play with your power ranger? Let’s put a label on it that says it’s yours”
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STAND BACK 2.10.23 Our tip for this week – stand back. Sometimes when adults have precious time to play with their children they jump in, suggest, offer and talk. At PIB we remind ourselves to use some time simply to watch children at play (a huge privilege of the job!) This often reminds us of the enormous amount of learning in play, and also helps us tune in to what this play/learning is really about. A child ‘ just playing’ with cars, might actually be systematically testing each car to see which can fit under the sofa, or perhaps telling a quiet story as s/he plays, that you otherwise might have missed. In the process they are reinforcing mathematics, language and story telling skills You might get an invitation to join, but if you don’t it may be that that is independent play and learning, and is better left uninterrupted by an adult. Watch first; if you make a habit of it you will learn a lot about your child!
PS – if you watch and are confused about your child’s play, or unsure of the learning, please come and chat to me or one of the staff.
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PACKING BAGS: The educational benefits : 22.9.23 At nursery we always have a stock of bags of different sizes and sorts for children to use. You might want to offer your child something similar at home. To find out why, keep reading…
Piaget identified that children’s play follows ‘schemas’ and one of these schemas is ‘transporting’ i.e. packing bags/containers to move objects elsewhere. Many children are simply driven to do this, we see it as part of their ‘hands on’ learning about many things: ‘Capacity’ – you need experience of what ‘full’ and ‘empty’ look like before you can talk about the theory, ‘quantity’, gaining experience of adding one more’ and understanding ‘lots’ and ‘more’. There’s little point in giving a child a worksheet to complete about weight unless they have experienced a bag getting heavier and then felt the weight as they tried to drag it somewhere else! (Okay – this is not the only way children can experience heavy and light, but you’ll get the message.) Our current nursery children are also using this play to re-enact and make sense of their recent holidays and moving house experiences, so also learning and applying vocabulary and conversation skills. We believe it is well worth the effort of unpacking these bags every evening; if this is your child’s current passion – go with it!
15.9.23 Question: How do we talk to young children about different religious/cultural festivals? It is really important to ensure that messages are age appropriate and also have a context. We always start with the celebrations of staff and children we have in the nursery, as this has meaning for the others. Teaching festivals in the abstract is unlikely to make much sense for young children. We usually use language like ‘ So and so had a special day yesterday’ ‘The special day was called x. We might well teach even tricky names in other languages, children like to have a go with new sounds, we might clap out longer words ‘ Di…wa…li…”. If there is an age appropriate story that is told at that festival we may share it (Diwali and Chinese New Year stories are always popular!) or we may focus instead on sharing customs, traditions and symbols which can be really powerful. Apple and honey are coming up next week for Rosh Hashanah, and listening to the sound of the rams horn is usually a hit. Even our youngest children can join in these sensory experiences, and as they mature they will be ready to attach some meaning.
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July 2023 CHILDREN’S DRAWING: This week our advisor from Camden visited, she was (of course!) pleased with what she saw, but she likes to leave us with a challenge; to think about how much children were using mark making as a tool to express their thinking. Whilst there is certainly a place for showing children who are interested, how to draw or write specific symbols or letters, we do children a disservice if we don’t show just as much interest in their use of drawing as a free form of self expression. Many children are keen to draw as they talk, a vertical line represents a ‘mummy’, rapid circular movements show the ‘monster’ and a horizontal line shows the monster running away. This is a world away from neat symbols for ‘a house’ and ‘a person’ but, if adults show that they value this type of painting or drawing, then not only will children be encouraged to develop skills in this area, we may also be nurturing the next Picasso or Kandinsky.
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TALKING ABOUT TRANSITIONS – WHAT TO AVOID It is of course important to prepare children for change, whether they are leaving nursery for big school, or staying but saying goodbye to friends and familiar faces. Three well-meaning mistakes that parents and carers should avoid:
1) DON’T START TOO EARLY. At PIB we begin focusing on moving on, two weeks before the end of school. It will be another 6/7 weeks before children start their new school, and in the life of a 4 year old that is an eternity.
2) KEEP TALKING ABOUT OTHER THINGS! If all the adults around children are excited about their move to ‘big school’ or the next group, then there can be too much focus on something which is, to a large extent, an unknown for a child. This focus may actually serve to increase children’s anxiety. Make sure it doesn’t dominate conversations
3) KEEP IT POSITIVE – please, please keep all discussion positive. As tempting as it may be when faced with an uncooperative child, to say ‘you won’t get away with this at big school’ please resist. Children will quickly absorb this and ‘big school’ will loom as a threat, rather than an exciting next step.
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SCISSORS AND CUTTING 30.6.23 – For many nursery age children, one handed cutting is tricky, but practice does help so children who have had lots of access will develop skills faster. We’d recommend that you have child scissors accessible at home, our ‘risk/benefit assessment’ of these, is that the benefits of development of fine motor skills far outweighs the low risk of a small cut. And being able to cut opens up whole worlds of design and making. Children generally love to ‘snip’ before they move onto cutting things out which is much harder. Try providing smaller strips of paper they can chop up, also scissors and playdough, and even leave out some of your (safe) cuttings from the garden – leaves and stems are great sustainable way to get some cutting practice ( give children exciting things they can cut, and explain that there are other things around the house that they can’t cut!)
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MAKING A BUG HOTEL 23.6. 23 Can you find something at home that your child can bring in to contribute to our garden bug hotel? Whilst you are collecting you could take the opportunity to talk about how important minibeasts are for us, and the jobs they do – worms churning up the soil to help our plants grow, bees and butterflies pollinating, providing food for larger animals, eating waste leaves.
WHAT WE NEED FOR OUR BUG HOTEL :
For the structure:
- Smallish wooden crates
- Old planks of wood
- Few old bricks if you can carry!
Inside:
- Old ceramic plant pots, insides of kitchen rolls, almost anything with holes but avoiding plastic.
- Almost any Natural materials – cones, twigs, leaves, stones,- (These are the easy bits to collect with your child over the weekend)
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BEING SILLY WITH SOUNDS
You may have already noticed that your child loves being silly with sounds, maybe they love made up words like ‘bdoink’ or they enjoy stories with made up words. Playing with sounds, changing the sounds in words, is fantastic for developing listening skills and sound discrimination, all of which children will need for hearing and using phonemes for reading. Children loved this week’s game when we changed everyone’s names to begin with ‘s’ and then ‘t’. Here’s a link to a silly song that does the same kind of thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4AOHOdJ1Bk. It can drive adults mad, but its perfect for that kind of learning!
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This week our maths focus was ‘ 2D shape’. At Puss in Boots this means much more than simply pointing at a paper triangle and naming it. That is relatively easy, and perhaps not the most interesting things to teach children about shape. At PIB we count the sides of each shape, running our fingers from corner to corner, and we love asking children how many sides a circle has! We show children what a corner is, and talk about curved and straight sides, and draw shapes in the air. Really importantly, we teach children that shape is everywhere, and we spot similar shapes in the environment – luckily our tables, our trapezoids and hexagons which adds challenge. But just as importantly, and arguably more so, to gain a real understanding of shape, we PLAY with shape, we BUILD with shapes, and we put shapes together. It is this ‘hands on’ practical experience that is so essential for this age and stage. It’s certainly not just naming the shape that counts. Old fashioned wooden blocks for building are great for this, and can be found in almost any charity shop. If you don’t have, then it’s worth investing in a set!
Why are you so excited about planting?
One of the many wonderful reasons to work with pre-school age children is their brutal honesty. 3 and 4 year olds have not learnt resigned acceptance that this week’s ‘ theme ’ will be what they need to sit and listen (or feign listening!) to that week. At PIB it is our role to offer children exciting, developmentally appropriate projects. Our aim is that these will engage and inspire, but we accept that can’t be the case with all children all the time. This past half term PIB staff and children have been working on planting up the new beds. One boy, sensing the enthusiasm of the teachers, asked us directly ‘ Why are the teachers so excited about the planting?’ We want our children to think for themselves and to think creatively and critically, and this question demonstrates those attributes perfectly. The question asked for a thoughtful and honest answer, not all of which could be given at that moment; Because we wanted to show the children how exciting it is to grow vegetables from seeds. Because we wanted to encourage bees and other bugs to visit by planting flowers. Because we wanted to teach children how to grow and care for plants, so if you want to do it at home, you will know how. Because it makes the nursery look beautiful!
Then there are the things we might not share with the children, but are still true, Because we know this project provokes almost limitless learning across the curriculum, children develop fine and gross motor physical skills whilst digging and sowing, spatial awareness, counting and size, literacy skills ( Come and write some labels for our vegetable beds) and huge amounts of vocabulary.
Whilst we hope that even the doubtful ‘gardeners’ will be convinced of the joys of Springtime planting, if that’s not the case, then there’s learning in the observing and questioning too!
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Looking After The Forest at PIB
When we take children to the Heath, there are many exciting natural materials they can collect from the ground. These vary with the seasons but include conkers, leaves, wood, seeds. However, we ask that they do not pick any living flowers, or plants, or break off sticks from living trees. This is part of our ‘ We Look after the forest’ rule. Whilst we appreciate that families make their own rules, I would suggest that you might want to adopt the same policy.
We tell the children that the animals need the plants to keep growing (and so do we) , and if everyone took something home, there would be nothing left. This is an important part of beginning to teach children about looking after their world.
We also tell children that if you would like to pick flowers or plants, then you can plant and grow them yourself, in a pot or in a garden if you have one. Then you can choose whether you leave them in the soil, or pick them. We are looking forward to demonstrating this with the produce of our planting over the next few weeks.
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