As more people are self-isolating and schools and childcare settings across the world are closing, we thought we would contribute to easing the burden by providing another place you can direct parent’s /carers to for support. We are part of a wonderful, international community of Early Years practitioners who have a wealth of knowledge and a HUGE bank of ideas and activities. So, let’s gather together and share them! As a starting point I am going to use my blog to share activities that can fairly easily be done at home. I’ll gather a collection of ideas each week and post them on the website – with links from social media. If you would like to contribute please email me … Read More
Continuous Provision in Key Stage One Part 3 – Outcomes
I am really pleased that Jo from St John’s C of E Primary has agreed to write me a third blog post. You can find the others here and here. It is great to see a play based approach to learning having such a positive impact. My third blog leads to the subject I am most frequently asked about. A subject which I tend to avoid as it is often steered towards data, data, data…I like to ‘practise what I preach’; value the journey rather than the outcome’, but that is not to say that the children ‘s progress and ultimate end of Key Stage assessments are not too far from our minds as we plan the provision. Outcomes, in the … Read More
Self Service Dough Area!
Every Tuesday on my Instagram account (abcdoes) I invite an Early Years Practitioner or setting to take over my page for #TakeOverTuesday. I have had takeovers from all over the World that have shown a huge range of Early Years provision. Pop over any Tuesday and have a look for a bit of interest and inspiration! This week on #TakeOverTuesday, it was the turn of Laura and her team from Yarm School in the North East of England. As part of her takeover she posted some photos of their self service dough station, which she had made after reading one of my blog post. Her takeover photos got a lot of likes and interest, so I thought I would share … Read More
Blowing Activity to Support Speech Development (at least, that’s how it started!).
Increasingly in the settings that I work with, there are more children who are showing some signs of speech delay. This can be for a number of reasons and we should always seek professional advice if we have any concerns. There are some activities that you can do with all children, that are not only fun, but give them the opportunity to explore a range of skills and experiences that also link to the physical development that can support successful speaking. With this in mind I popped into my local packaway pre school – The Ark – (find them on Facebook here), where Sally, Nigel and Janice kindly gave up one of their Tuff Trays. The activity that I wanted … Read More