This week the blog has been written for me by Clare Thompson. Clare is an illustrator and visual story teller, and like me, is based up here in the North West of England. She uses a mixture of handmade techniques and digital media to create pieces of art that also translate into picture books for children. You might have seen Clare’s work on my Facebook and Instagram pages as from 2016 she has been working with Naturally Creative Early Years Consultancy and has created books like Junk DNA that I often see popping up in people’s Loose Parts and Transient Art Areas. I have made the images nice and big in the blog this week so that we can really … Read More
When Children Suffer Loss – Ideas and Resources
I first posted this blog in response to some of the work that I had done supporting the intergenerational project – Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds. It seemed poignant then because one of the children taking part had recently lost her mum. It struck me then that even though death is one of the only inevitable things in life, it is rarely discussed as part of our Early Years curriculum. Now, in the midst of Covid19, it is even more likely that the children that we work with will experience bereavement of a close family member or someone connected to their family. It is really important that we ensure that we are prepared if that eventuality should happen … Read More
Continuous Provision in Year One at St John’s, Bradford – Curriculum Coverage
This is the second blog post from Jo at St Johns Church of England School in Bradford. After the first one here I got lots of questions about curriculum coverage and play. So, I asked Jo to write me another blog post to talk me through how they approach it. Over to you Jo…. One question I am repeatedly asked… ‘How do you ensure you teach all the aspects of the curriculum within a provision based setting?’ The response isn’t always the answer they expect… ‘We don’t!’ Well, when I say we don’t, what I actually mean is that we don’t ‘teach’ it all, in the usual sense of the word. Do we manage to manage to ‘cover’ the curriculum? The … Read More
What To Do In Your Outdoor Texture Kitchen – A Week of Ideas…
Over the course of the next week I will be posting some ideas for things that you can do to extend the play in you texture/mud kitchen. Today I just wanted to give you a quick overview of the set up and some of the items and enhancements that we used. On Monday I will be posting about setting up the Transient Art Station On Tuesday, the Clay Station On Wednesday, making Berry Paint and Potions On Thursday, making Mud Paint and Mud Pies and on Friday I will be doing a GIVEAWAY from Cool Canvas of these gorgeous wooden lockers. To be honest, wouldn’t mind them in my house! So, worth checking back for on Friday for all of the giveaway details… When … Read More