Words that make me slow down and just be!

WHAT is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

WH Davies

Friday's Favourites!

I have had a busy and fun week..... lots of outdoor play in the Sunshine and lots of shared activities with friends! On Thursday I took my own children to the Education Show at the NEC, I was a bit unsure how well we would be recived but everyone was delighted to have two little ones scampering all over their equipment and testing it all out! There was messy play and soft play and outdoor equipment and puppets and play houses and all kinds of things.... we had a wonderful time and came home with a bag full of freebies.  One of the messy play activities particularly caught my eye and I'm going to try it out this weekend and let you know how it goes!  Another very exciting thing that happened was that I had a letter from the LEA to say that my grant proposal had been accepted and I will be receiving the money for resources that I had applied for!!  I will blog about them as and when they arrive!  And finally, the trees from the Woodland Trust arrived to be unpacked and tucked away in a sheltered corner ready for planting at the nature reserve next week!  It's all go..... no change there then!!  Have a great weekend!

• I really like this idea from 'The Snail Trail' - you could make it really simple for a child that was just beginning to rhyme or read some words.
• Make very simple but very effective finger puppets.
• 'Dig-in' - The BBC campaign for people to grow more vegetables at home.  You can't apply for the free seeds yet but there are plenty of tips for what you can do to prepare!

Making Baking About Process, not Product!

Or rather.... having a deliciously slow and messy baking process that the children LOVE!  It covers soooo many areas of the EYFS, the children control their behaviour, sharing and taking turns, encouraging eachother and chatting socially, they wash their hands and help clean up afterwards(PSED), they talk about what they are doing, describing how it feels, recalling the last time they cooked, discussing favourites, likes and dislikes, sequencing the ingredients (CLL), they use number language "how many" "A bit more" "8oz" "200 grams" "That eight there" "half the butter" "a whole egg" "weigh it" "measure it" (PSRN), they explore the materials as they mix, observing how the ingredients change as they add egg, milk or butter, if you are cooking a recipe from another country then they can learn about new and unusual ingredients or other cultures and celebrations, they observe the passing of time as they wait for it to bake in the oven (KUW), they stir, mix, pour, tip, roll, knead, whisk, beat, squeeze, carry (PD) and they respond wonderfully to the experience, expressing their ideas and then using the experience later in imaginative play(CD).  I would encourage you to write these down in a spider diagram or another way, and keep in your planning...... they are evidence that you meet the learning and development requirements in the veryday life of your setting, (especially when you cook regularly!).

These pictures were taken on Wednesday when we had childminding friends round to make the welsh cakes that we didn't get round to making on Monday!  it took the children the best part of an hour to rub in the butter, measure and mix, it would have taken me five minutes but they got so much out of it! There was flour on all of us, the table, the floor and the children loved it!  Happily enough the product turned out as yummy as the process and they were devoured almost before they hit the plate!!

Welsh Cake Recipe

After putting this out to the lovely ladies on the childminding forum (see websites on the sidebar) there are some more things to add:

• Miffy suggested comparing the volumes of weighed items as they will be different, e.g 4oz butter will look different to 4oz flour etc! (PSRN)
• Christine suggested including decorating cakes and biscuits in CD and reading the recipe (CLL), listening for the timer, the smell of the cooking, comparing textures of the ingredients and taste testing (yeah!) (KUW).

Thanks everyone!!! Happy Baking!

Incy Wincy Week!

Next week, around other things, we are supporting Chatterbox Challenge by having 'Incy Wincy week'.  My planning is below, I present it in a spider diragram (no pun intended!!!) with the title in the middle and one box for each area of the EYFS.  Many of the links for this have come from a website that requires a membership payment, called kidssoup.com.  I find it value for money as the materials are high quality and I use it a lot, but there is a free trial you can use to download these resources and see if you like it!

CLL

• I love spiders – first facts and pictures (I had my copy from The Works in a four for £5 deal)
• Incy Wincy Spider - Kate Toms (from Dobbies garden centre)
• Story sack with drain pipe, floaty blue fabric, paper plate sunshine and spider finger puppet.
• make a 'word web' of new spider words that can be used to enhacne the children's vocabulary

PSRN

• Spider web dot-to-dot
• Matching Spiders
• Spider counting

 PSED

• Create a big web by giving each child a piece of string/wool and some blue tack/tape and letting them fix one piece at a time, so a community web builds up.

PD

• Teach the actions to ‘Incy Wincy Spider’
• Making a big web – indoors or outdoors.
• Water play – different sized holes in bottles to make the rain that washed incy away!
• Cutting skills – the spider’s legs

CD

• Paper plate spider web

KUW

• Life cycle sequencing
• Spider anatomy

I'm looking forwards to this one... lots of fun things to slot rounf what we are already doing!

Labelling Resources - opinions please!

I want to re-label all my baskets with pictures and words as over the last year i have moved them around and the pictures now bear little resemblance to the contents of most of them!!  I am not sure whether I should use pictures like the ones below, or set the toys up in a little scene and take a photo of them!!!  All advice and opinions greatfully received!! Either leave a comment or e-mail me! Thank you!

Basking in Gorgeous Spring Sunshine!!

This is a row of Spring paintings flapping gently in the sunshine!!  We spent hours out of doors today and the children loved it, but boy were they exhausted at the end of the day!  We planted some Spring bulbs back in February and they are looking really pretty so we brought them out of doors and painted them!  I mixed up some green, brown and purple and let them loose one at a time.  For a change we used pieces of craft foam to paint on which changed the texture completely!!  As usual my youngest changed it to a 'study in brown' (her favourite colour!) and spread brown paint over brown foam then sandwiched them together and inspected it at regular intervals to see what was happening!!!!

                                    

Here are some little feet helping me sweep the patio!!  We also explored the thick ice in the children's wheelbarrows, broke out the new supply of patio chalks (strictly rationed - I know what they're like!), tested all the trikes/bikes/cars, ate our lunch at the picnic bench, built a den, practiced sharing the outdoor pushchairs, kicked a ball round and more!  It was wonderful!  My patio had been vandalised with chalk by the end of the day.... the children tested them on EVERYTHING..... whilst I applaud exploration and discovery, me thinks I need to get me some groundrules for out there!!!!

Hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!!!

ICT in the Early Years

At the childminding group, one of the things that came up that minders felt they needed to plan for was the use of ICT.  I spent Sunday working my way through this fantastic site and pulled lots of information off into a word document that we can use as a wall-chart to view how ICT can be used across the EYFS.  If you would like a copy (bear in mind that you will have to cut it up and sellotape it into a chart if you want it like that!) please e-mail me.  I check it every few days and respond to all e-mails then!

I have also compiled a list of equipment that can be used to support ICT:

• projector and screen
• light box
• overhead projector
• digital camera
• camcorder
• microscope
• talking tin
• talking photo album
• beebot
• funky feet sound mat
• electronic keyboard
• metal detector
• walkie talkies
• CD player

In role-play, cameras, mobile phones, telephones, television remotes, computer keyboards, CD players, all defunct with the cords cut off carefully can enrich the play scenarios that children create.

There is lots more information but too much to digest all in one go.  I will post again once I have read up some more and compiled information about ICt can be used to support children in all six areas of learning and development!

Jenni x