Water Play

This is a photograph of the exploration that went on in the water tray recently.  We had been to the Sealife Centre and I bought small figures of a seahorse, starfish, ray and crab.  These were the creatures that the children had been most interested in whilst we were there.  I put an inch of water in the tray, along with some smooth pebbles and shells; in this picture the children were covering all the creatures in the shells and pebbles to camouflage them as they had seen the rays doing at the centre!  The water tray is a very simple and low-cost set-up of an under bed storage box placed on two upturned milk crates.  It is easy to store, easy to clean, easy to use for something different, and with a lid to put on to keep it clean!

I later added some clear plastic fruit boxes that utterly absorbed one of the little ones as the water flowed in and out.  She made piles of stones then covered them with an upturned box, then pressed her face to the base to look as she could still see the stones and usually when something is covered with an upturned box she can't see it!  I would like to introduce clear plastic bags to extend her investigation next week (under very close supervision of course!!)

Another very simple idea that has been a bit recently is placing a deep box of water under the end of the guttering system with some cups and jugs.  All of the children experimented with pouring the water at different parts of the guttering and trying to catch it at the bottom as it trickled back into the box.  When they weren't looking I added green food colouring and the children brought out another piece of guttering so there were two tubes then flowing into the builder's tray.  Add some cardboard packing and dinosaurs and another half hours messy play was created!

Some other ideas that I would like to try are:

• Clear tubes wound round some upside down wire baskets, complemented by funnels and jugs, and coloured water so the children can see how the water moves through the tubing depending on how much they put in and where etc.
• A pump such as the ones you empty fish tanks with where you squidge the bulb in the middle and it starts the flow of water to transfer it one from place to another.
• I would also dearly love a concrete water channel in my garden with a hand-pump at one end!!!!
• For babies I have put just half a centimetre of water in a builder's tray and allowed them to crawl through it to experience it with their hands and feet, either in a nappy/nothing in warm weather or an all-in-one waterproof in colder weather!

This article has ideas for linking water play to the EYFS as a core experience and part of your continuous provision planning.  To extend children's thinking about water there is Water Splash from the charity Wateraid. The on-line booklet 'Learning Through Play in the Early Years' has a great resource list for waterplay along with what ideas the tools and materials can support children to learn.

Friday's Favourite's

This is my favourite picture of the week..... after nursing Woody the guineapig, the girls commandeered the clean syringes and set about ministering medicine to the toy animals..... it was so touching to see the care and attention that they lavished upon them!  This week I have struggled to get into my groove and have been glad to have good childminding friends to spend time with!  I'm off for our annual church weekend away in Derbyshire tonight so should come back refreshed and inspired for next week! Some fun things I came across on the web this week:

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  How about jazzing up some fabric shopping bags with bright designs simple for chilren to create and take home?
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  I thought this thumb print pendant in some form or another is a nice keepsake to go home for mums especially!
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  These curvy clay flowers made me think of doing this with leaf shapes and leaf prints in the clay

I really liked these birthday display resources to make an individualised display for each child on their special day.

Have a great weekend everyone!

How Avenues of Learning are Opened!

If, like me, you sometimes second guess yourself then you will totally be on my wavelength here.  If, unlike me, you are always totally level-headed and rational about planning for the EYFS then you will be groaning and saying well... yeah, of course!! So to get on with the story, I have been wanting to take the children to the National Sealife Centre in Birmingham for a while but putting it off because I thought it should be part of a 'theme' rather than stand alone because they would get more out of it that way.  Well yesterday I decided to make it happen and we went today.... and I have completely changed my mind!

Where do I start?

• The rays were partially hidden on the floor of the tank and the girls discussed camouflage from what they remembered from Eric Carle's 'Mr Seahorse'.
• They also remembered that the male seahorses looked after the eggs and babies, and took their own pictures of the seahorses.
• They watched a ray breathing and commented on them breathing under water so we talked about that.

• They were shown a rectangular ray 'egg' and were fascinated to discover that not all eggs are ovoids!
• They came up close with a starfish and now know that they have five eyes (one on the end of each leg), that they have legs on the arms, and that if one arm is lost, they can grow another one!!

• They discovered themselves that crabs walk sideways. not forwards like they do.
• They thought that the nautilus at the top of the page was the same as the fossils they had seen at the dinosaur museum!

It was an amazing day for them and for me!! It has opened up so many ideas to take further and to talk about again. Very well worth not over-planning it and just seeing where the children took it!

Montessori in a Minute: Independence

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From the moment a child is born s/he strives to become independent; to crawl, to feed her/himself, to walk. to talk and so on.  If nothing gets in the way, a child can be very independent but many things do get in the way....... tables and chairs too high to get up to and sit at, taps too far to reach, clothes too difficult to put on, utensils and equipment too big for her/his little hands.  It is not only the child's goal to become independent, but the adults task to enable independence.

So how can we support the child the become independent? Well, I see three main ways:

1. Attitude (including the way you see the child and your patience!)
2. Environment- does it allow the child to do things for her/himself?
3. Toolkit - you need to demonstrate and give the child 'tools' to be able to take a task on and become skilled at completing it.

As regards attitude, you really have to believe that the child is strong and capable.  You have to be prepared to slow things down and go at the child's pace and you have to be willing to put in the effort and thought required to make it happen!  Toddlers want to walk, but very often find themselves strapped into buggies or car seats.  It takes longer to walk, holding a hand, yes, but planning for them to have at least some time a day walking on the school run or the shopping trip is invaluable as they see such a different perspective on their own two feet!!  I hope that the days of plonking toddlers in a playpen with a handful of toys are long-gone, but if you still do that, consider how much you are restricting that child's movement, and development of walking, muscles, balance and co-ordination!

Some of the effort and thought goes into the environment. Think about how easy it is for the child to be able to do the things that s/he needs to do every day.  Consider:

• Child-sized coat pegs.
• Small tables and chairs rather than highchairs for toddlers.
• Small jugs and cups for them to pour their own drinks.
• Step for the toilet.
• Press on wall lights where the switch is too high to reach.
• A sink at child height or a hand-washing station.
• Child-sized gardening tools; watering can, hoe, spade, wheelbarrow.
• Child-sized cleaning equipment; broom, dustpan and brush, spray bottle filled with water and cloths/sponges.
• Toys stored in way that helps children to find what they want and return it after use.

Making as many changes to the environment as possible and finding ways around things that cannot be changed helps to make daily tasks achievable for young children - a vital ingredient for them to become self-motivated learners and contributors to the community (community can be the childminding setting, toddler group, home or the wider world eventually!).

Once these changes are in place, you model how to do things to the child and then allow her/him to try it her/himself, providing a 'toolkit'.  The child will make the actions their own and that is great, you are simply introducing them to a way of doing things!  S/he will need lots of practice to master each skill and will delight in repeating the actions over and over, refining and perfecting the skill; once achieved it is really important that the child has opportunity to use that skill in everyday life:

• Put out small jug and cups for the children to pour their own drink.
• Put bread, butter and filling son the table and allow the children to make their own sandwich.
• Encourage them to brush teeth and hair, wash faces and hands after meals.
• Keep cleaning equipment in the same place and children can clean up their own spills and messes (within reason!!).
• Chat with parents to make sure that children come in clothes that they can manage themselves, such as trousers that aren't too tight to pull up after using the toilet!!

Allowing children to take responsibility for themselves in this way builds their self-esteem and confidence which will spill over into building relationships with other children and trying new activities.

If you want to read more about Montessori, try Montessori From the Start by Paula Polk-Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen.  It isn't rated by all Montessorians but I personally have found it clear and understandable and very readable which is worth a lot if you have ever ploughed through Montessori's original writing translated from Italian!

Making Books With Children

I first realised the power of making books with children when I made some laminated pages with photographs of the farm visit we had made and the words of 'Old Macdonald' linked to them, with the children's writing and marks and pictures alongside.  Bound with wool this book is now dog-eared and well-loved, having been looked at every day since we made it!  I used to think it was difficult but it isn't - you can make a book about anything, or just notebooks to write in.  I have gathered together lots of inspiration and ideas here, as well as step-by step instructions for you to jump in and have a go!

So why make books with children? Well...... you can:

• capture and record meaningful experiences
• demonstrate that you value their thoughts, ideas and abilities
• provide opportunities for children to express themselves
• provide a way for the child to use many fine motor skills
• provide thechild with many opportunities for problem solving
• all contribute to a shared effort 

What can we write books about? Well....... you could write about:

• A trip to the shops and what happens there.
• What the children do at the park.
• A special trip out to the zoo or farm.
• A favourite recipe.
• What we do during the day as a welcome book for new children.

And now we've decided what to write about, how do we set it out? Here are some ideas

• Once upon a time… stories
• Repetitive stories (I was walking down the road. Then I saw a….)
• Cumulative stories (On Monday I…On Tuesday I)
• Rhyme/Rhythm (change the words of songs and nursery rhymes )
• Opposites (In and Out; Up and Down)
• Counting Books
• Alphabet Books (My Food Alphabet, An Alphabet of Pets)
• Time Sequence (time of day, days of the week, months of the year)

Information taken from this Canadian resource.


I have so far bound my books very simply with ribbon or wool, but you don't have to make books that open in the traditional way; try this fold out version for an 'all about me' book.

This tactile book from http://www.alljoinin.net/ is absolutely stunning and would be such fun to make!

Another of Bea's creations "We Went for a Walk" is a golden idea too!

How about making a fabric book that represents you setting? This resource talks you through the process; a big time investment to be sure but worth the effort!

On a simpler note, I have found downloadable books to complete with the children that have worked very successfully as a collaborative effort that is well-used afterwards, a couple of examples are this 'sing a rainbow' colours book and a version of 'The Mitten'.

'Lapbooks' are popular with some home educating families; the idea is that a simple cardboard folder is adorned with many little 'books' containing information about a topic or theme that the children are learning about.  This idea lends itself to a childminding setting beautifully as each child can make a little book at her/his level and add them together to make a collection. Find a big collection of 'folds' for lapbooks here and try some yourself!


I hope that you have found this inspiring and make some books yourself, please let me know how you get on!!

 

 

Curly Cursive Writing!

This is a subject close to my heart... a strange topic maybe but my daughter didn't get along with print so we tried cursive and she loves it.  Cursive is 'old style' lettering that is curly and has a flick to lead into it and a flick to lead out of it.  All children will learn a version of it eventually, when they need to join up their handwriting, but most schools teach print to begin with.  Print is the type of lettering that you will see in books, newspapers etc.  The problem my daughter had with print is that all of the letters start in different places, consider 's' and 'e' and 'l', they all begin at a different place, with cursive, this doesn't happen, as all letters begin at the bottom left, with a lead-in stroke to the letter.  This particularly helps when children get muddled up with 'b' and 'd' and 'p'!  Cursive also supports children to form the letters properly as they are less likely to draw a ball and a stick for 'p' for example as they understand that it must flow from the left, so bad habits are less likely to be picked up. 

Lots of schools are beginning to go back to teaching cursive as a starting point, and this may affect you as  a childminder if you find yourself supporting a child with homework that is in cursive, or looking after them in the holidays.  Whilst it is accepted that children who learn letters in cursive usually have no problem in reading in print, it is great to be able to meet the needs of all children by differentiating what you do.  I searched high and low for cursive resources for two years and then I found this site which is well worth a read as it details soooo eloquently all the best bits about cursive!!!! I am biased I know, but my point is that if you care for children whose school teach cursive (even if those children have yet to begin nursery and you know that they will be going there, you can use one of the fonts from this site to produce titles, captions for paintings, headers for your displays, name tags for the child's coat peg and so much more)  The fonts are so affordable and make individualising your planning so easy that it is well worth writing off against tax!!

There will be more to come from this talented lady, as I will hopefully be interviewing her soon!!

Emotionally and Socially Capable Children

I have been looking into aspects of social and emotional development and how best to support it as part of my February planning, and I read an article that talked about helping children who were experiencing domestic violence at home, and how to help them develop resilience to cope with it.  It occurred to me that being resilient was important for all children as they all face challenges at different times.  The main points from the article were:

• Maintain a strong one-to-one relationship with each child.
• Provide safe ways to communicate worries other than by talking about them.  This could be through mark-making, puppetry or making up stories.
• Model a rich 'feelings' vocabulary; anxious, afraid, confused, embarrassed. Putting them with facial expressions helps children to learn that everyone has feelings.
• Encourage toddlers to empathise by 'translating' the body language and feelings of other children.
• Ensure that children see both men and women engaging in caring and helping roles and getting along well.
• Be a good role model and always show the behaviour that you expect.
• Identify unique and special traits in each child and tell them about it. (see the 'I love you the purplest' activity in Febraury planning.)
• Display delight and wonder at the little things in life, like a sunny day.
• Provide sensory actvities indoors and out to aid stress relief.
• Connect children to nature whenever possible - resarch has shown that experiencing the natural rythms build a sense of attachment and security in children.
• Have a pet - they provide unconditional love for children!
• Make plenty of time for free play - children use play to make sense of he world around them.
• Give children choices to provide them with a sense of control.
• Let children help with preparing food, serving drinks, watering plants etc - this makes them realise that they do make a positive difference.
• Maintain a predictable routine - this doesn't mean always having lunch bang on twelve o clock, but does mean always setting the same table and serving in the same way; recognisbale routines help children to feel safe and secure.
• Provide an uncluttered learning space to help children concentrate.
• Provide fewer resoures at any one time by rotating them, to avoid over-stimulating children.
• Create small cosy spaces indoors and out.
• Use postitive discipline; work on resolving conflicts with the children.

Adapted from Nursery World Article, Feb 11 2010

There are many elements that I do already, but some that I would like to introduce and some I am tussling a little with to think of ways that I could incorporate the ideas into a home-setting. 

One thing that I do well already is: delight and wonder at little things.
One thing to start tomorrow is: provide fewer resources out at one time.
One thing to think and plan for is: making cosy spaces indoors and out.