This week on my travels I was working with the Nursery team at Church Drive Primary. We were looking at lots of aspects of F1 practice including environment and set up for this time of the year. The F1 space there is small, but perfectly formed! Kathryn and her team have worked really hard to make the space feel as purposeful and linked to children’s learning and interests as possible. Even though the Point of Entry data is nowhere near complete yet, Kathryn is using her ongoing observation and assessment to make sure that the space is addressing any of the primary needs that have been identified. One of the big areas that they are already working on is talk, language, social skill and interaction. … Read More
Make a Mud/Texture Kitchen – It’s a must!
As more and more settings are setting up a ‘mud’ or ‘texture’ kitchen in their outdoor space, I find myself spending more and more happy hours sampling mud pies and mud soups that have been ‘specially’ made – just for me! Expectant children offering me plates of slop and goo – usually accompanied with the whispered phrase: ‘Don’t really eat it!’ To be fair, that is mainly the girls who say that. The boys really want to see you eat it – probably in the hope that you will die (or at least be sick) on the spot! Haven Nursery What I am also finding a lot is that people are getting a bit stuck with what to do with … Read More
Imaginative Play and the Overhead Projector
In the days before every classroom had a computer, never mind an iPad per child, schools were full of weird and wonderful contraptions to help to make your life more simple. When none of us had even heard of a photocopier we relied on the services of the Banda Generator. A spirit based printing machine that required you to write out your worksheets in special ink, load up a large drum with your master copy and then turn a handle like your life depended on it. Sheet after sheet of purple stained paper would then land in a pile – still wet and reeking of alcohol. Many a morning was spent in ‘the Banda queue’ observing some quite unnerving ‘jiggling’ … Read More
Mini-Me!
I know that I have written about these before but they are great and a perfect ‘start of the year’ activity. Hamstel Infant School The idea of a Mini-Me is that you create your class or group in miniature. The children can then use these miniatures in their play. There is nothing more powerful for your self esteem than having a little ‘you’ that you can take around with you or create fabulous fantasy small worlds to play in. Hamstel Infant School Mini-Me’s can be really effective in helping children to develop language and communication skills as well as personal social skills and positive behaviours. Hamstel Infant School How to do it What You Need : Digital camera Printer Laminator … Read More