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
We All Have A Story – A Guest Post from Trisha Lee
This weekend I have got a guest post from Trisha Lee who uses ‘helicopter stories’ to promote creativity and story telling. Over to you Trisha… We All Have A Story By Trisha Lee Helicopter Stories is in theory a simple approach, the practitioner sits with the child and scribes their story verbatim. Then the whole class gather to act these stories out. The complexity of this model lies in its child-centred foundations. Based on the work and ethos of Vivian Gussin Paley, Helicopter Stories creates a non-judgemental environment for children to share their narratives, a place where nothing they do is wrong. Used regularly, Storytelling and Story Acting quickly becomes an activity that all children want to engage with, regardless … Read More
I hope that’s not a gun!
When I first trained to teach in Early Years, gun play was definitely off limits. We were told that there should be a zero tolerance to it as it encouraged children to be rough and aggressive. Any sign of a child wielding any thing that might have even been slightly mistaken for a gun had to be dealt with quickly and sternly. I remember being left worth the feeling that if I ignored this behavior then I would be turning all of my gun making children into thugs in later life. It occurred to me after a few years that no matter what sort of cohort the children were, no matter which school I was teaching in, superhero and weapon … Read More
Trip to The Ark – Pack Away Play Group
Last week I had the great pleasure to get to go and just play at The Ark pack away play group in my local village. The Ark is run by Sally, Nigel and Janice who some of you will know better from Facebook as ‘Early Years Mathematics and Literacy’. If you haven’t come across their page before, have a look here. As is often the tradition with a pack away, the play group is held in the church hall and all the resources have to be put out and then packed away again every session. Resourcing can be a huge issue for pack aways, often they have a limited budget therefore the buying of the resources can be a stretch, … Read More