How do Plants Grow?

I am doing a Montessori Early Years Teaching Qualification and my latest assignment requires that I write a planning web for a topic before choosing one of the 'cultural activities' and doing it with the children.  As it is currently a 'hot topic' with the children here, I decided to plan for 'How do Plants Grow?'I thought of lots of things to extend children's knowledge about plants and their growth and decided to share them here as I'd like to do lots of them and post about them and then you will all know what I am talking about!  I have combined Montessori curriculum headings with EYFS to suit all interested parties!!

Literacy (Communication, Language and Literacy)

• Booklets or spinning books (i-dials) on the life cycles of seeds.
• Sequencing cards on stages of growth.
• Books and stories
• Language tray with initial sounds that relate to seeds and plants (b-bean, p-pot, c-compost, s-sun, w-water, g-grow, l-leaf)
• Word wall - new vocabulary relating

Mathematics (Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy)

• Measuring the plants as they grow.
• Ordering seeds and beans from largest to smallest.
• Making bird cake from seeds - following a recipe card.
• Volumes of compost in pots.
• Measuring rainfall.

Creative (Creative Development)

• Make bean collages.
• Sunflowers - Van Goch painting, pallet of colours mixed to match and paint sunflowers.
• Natural paints using mud, dandelions, other flowers, leaves.
• Maracas with dried beans/rainmakers.
• Music and Movement - growing as plants grow.
• Songs and poems about growing.

Activities of daily living (Physical Development - fine motor)

• Sorting beans.
• Transferring with tweezers or tongs.
• Spooning beans/seeds.
• Pouring dried beans and seeds.
• Matching seed packets to seeds.

Cultural (Knowledge and Understanding of the World)

• Cooking and tasting recipes from around the world that use beans.
• Biology - set up a wormery and put leftovers from the children's fruit into it.
• Botany - parts of a plant/ what parts of a plant do we eat?/ life cycle of a bean
• Science - what plants need to grow/ celery stalks and food colouring/ dark box for plant to grow to the light.
• Leaf shapes/types.

Sensorial (CD, PSRN)

• Paint colour swatches in green to match to leaves of plants as they grow.
• Matching herbs by their smell.
• Leaf skeletons in the nature basket.
• Matching shapes to plant related items - cone (pot) seed(ovoid) etc.

Although Montessori curricula don't specifically have a section for Personal, Social and Emotional Development, by the approach that Montessori setting take, PSED is supported through all other activities, so you can look for aspects of this as the children take part in activities, just as you would normally.  I'm hoping to post about these activities as we go along, and will link them back to this plan as I go to make it easier to find them.  I'm anticipating that we will spend all summer investigating the way things grow though, so don't be disappointed if it isn't all here in the next couple of weeks.... if you want more information about any of these activities now, please leave a comment and ask and i will do my best to help you out!

What to Buy?

I notice on the childminding forum that I go on that there are often questions about what resources should be bought when child minders are setting up for the first time.  There are usually a range of responses but often they focus on large scale and very commercial items.  Last week Nursery World magazine had a very sensible supplement with it that suggested what was needed for under threes.  I have summarised the main points here for anyone that is interested, and added a few comments of my own here and there! First off some quotes from the article:

"It is easy to get seduced by glossy catalogues offering colourful must-haves that actually have limited learning potential"

"Look for versatility, durability and longevity.  Wooden toys are more expensive but buying cheaper plastic items can be a false economy"

"It is the role of the adult to plan how children will be able to use the equipment, rather than buying the equipment without a purpose"

"Wood is more sensory than plastic and more durable.  Wooden toys retain children's interest for longer"

"The best resource for children is a knowledgeable and highly attuned adult"

"Invest in some high-quality items and then bulk out your provision with cheaper buys, natural materials and recycled items such as cardboard tubes and cartons"

Suggestions for resources:

• Cushions and mats for creating cozy spaces and defining different areas. 
• Rocking Toys.  I am cautious about having these indoors as a childminder due to the potential for squashed fingers underneath. 
• Stackable toys - good old blocks and bricks.
• Sorting toys - rather than shape sorters, that can be frustrating for little ones, collect 'heuristic play' materials - a range of natural materials and various small boxes and baskets for the children to discover shape and space for themselves.
• Small-world play - small wooden cars, trucks and planes and very simple wooden people, as well as a plain wooden, open fronted house that can be many things.
• Role-play - go easy on the fancy costumes that limit possibilities and stock up om various fabrics, hats shoes and accessories that expand the possibilities of dressing up.
• Pullable and pushable toys - carts, trolleys, animals, wheelbarrows, pushchairs.
• Soft toys - not highly rated by the author of the article but I value the gradually expanding collection of very beautiful and life-like British wild animal soft toys that I have.  They are used daily wither for play or cuddles!
• Dolls - a range of genders and ethnicities and fit for purpose such as hard bodied to go in the doll bath and soft bodied for changing clothes quite easily.
• Puzzles - simple is better, shape peg puzzles or those demonstrating size from largest to smallest.
• Mirrors - wall-mounted, infinity cube or hand held.

Dare to be different..... you don't have to have all of the same resources that everyone else has!  I decided a long time ago to declare an embargo on bleeping, buzzing and flashing plastic toys and I have never regretted the decision.  It makes for a more peaceful background where I can hear the children making their own sound effects!  Also consider that less is more - you don't have to have the super-giant sized tub of duplo or 30 figures to play with....... smaller amounts call for children to be imaginative and creative with the resources and you will see fascinating ebb and flow in the way their play develops!

I'd love to hear your comments on this article and how you decide what resources to invest in!

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.

Telling the Time

I picked up this clock box in a second hand sale for a pound a few months ago but it has been irritating me a little as it never really 'fitted' anywhere..... too big for the bookcase and too enticing for the littlest ones to take them in and out and carry them round.... all very well but I have books for them to do that with if they wish and I wanted these to be used to explore the passing of time!!  So I re-purposed them into an activity box that can be used independently or with support from an adult.  This is what I added to the box:

• Blank clock faces printed and laminated with a whiteboard pen to draw in the hands.
• A larger clock with moving hands - make your own from here!
• Quarter past and quarter to cards from here (fourth down in the right hand column)
• Half past cards from the same site (fourth down in the left hand column!)
• Days of the week sequencing cards based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar story - these help children to put them in order by themselves as the number of fruits the caterpillar eats through increases as the days go on..... they also encourage children to expand into literacy!
• I made this simple activity to introduce the months.
• Ordinal numbers showing 1st to the 31st.
• The Seasons of a tree.
• I have also made a card for each child with their photograph and birthday on it.
• These resources from twinkl also look great
• I'd like to add one or two of these large sand timers when I can.

Cinco de Mayo!

This is a Mexican festival marking the day that an important battle was won.  The celebrations are not about the battle, but about the patriotism, love and bravery shown by the soldiers for their township.  Now round here we love a good theme day and are looking forwards to all things Mexican tomorrow!! 

 

Some books to set the scene:

• Colours of Mexico
• Cuckoo/cucu: A Mexican Folktale
• Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story
• M Is for Mexico
• Mexico! 40 Activities to Experience Mexico Past and Present

Some crafty activities:

• Dolly peg Mexican dolls - the idea here is to make dancers but I'm planning on looking in our children of the world book and making some with traditional dress.
• Simple weaving to make a 'God's Eye'.
• Mexican maracas.
• Mini sombrero
• Paper plate pottery

If you want to make a display or book of your celebrations, have a look at these colouring pages with the flag, map and other cultural pictures.  Try some Spanish words for things the children are familiar with, like colours (two pages here and here) or numbers 1-10.

And last but not least some recipes to whet your appetite!

• Guacamole - serve with taco shells or tortillas and vegetable sticks with the salsa too!
• Easy Salsa - except I'm not using three jalapeno peppers in mine, and am taking a tip from 'Katy cooks' and will get the children to chop up fresh tomatoes in a bowl with clean scissors instead of blending tinned tomatoes!
• Charro beans.
• Polvorones (sugar biscuits with cinnamon)

Have fun!!!!

Creative conversations in the Early Years

I have recently read a book entitled 'Supporting Children's Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama and Art' edited by Fleur Griffiths and I want to tell you about it!

Before I start I should tell you about me and books; everyone has to have a treat or something they look forwards to and my treat is a book.  I love a crisp new book and the possibilities of the ideas inside!  I especially love the journeys they take me on from one book to another! I know within the first few pages, or just by flicking through whether I am going to like it or not, and pictures are important to me!  I often pick books that are on a topic I know a little of and want to learn more about, but sometimes I make a leap in the dark based on a reccommendation or a hunch and I am rarely disaapointed when I do!!  I thought it would be nice to review the books that I read to help you decide whether you are interested in reading them too!

I am sometimes wary of books that are by a number of contributors and edited to make one volume but this book really works becuase it reads in a very conversational way.  So much of what we do and learn is based upon discussion and it is a refreshing way to read about the contributors ideas.  the anecdotes and interviews convey the enthusiasm and passion of the practitioners involved.

I found it a book to dip in and out of, pencil at the ready to mark passages and topics that I wanted to come back to!  There is so much to gain from this book; just one interview offered inspiration whether you were\looking for ideas for including children in planning, pondering on the nature of wall displays to put up or considering how you use the space that you have.

The practitioners are clearly very knowledgeable and experienced but they openly state that it takes time to build that up; the whole tone of the book makes you feel like a colleague rather than an underling!!  For me, that boosted my confidence to follow the children more closely than I do now, rather than trying to tick all the EYFS boxes at once!

It challenged my current practice on a couple of areas in particular, such as making the room look 'pretty' at the expense of what the children actually WANT in there, and my reliance on books and resources for 'activity ideas' (ahem, guilty as charged!!) and I'm sure that next time I dip into it, it will spark off some more reflection in other areas too!

All in all, a thoroughly worthwhile read and one I will come back to regularly!

Writing to Penpals

This is my daughter concentrating on writing a letter to respond to our penpals at 'The Playhouse', set up through the childmindinghelp forum.  We are really enjoying corresponding with them and it is great on so many levels because letter writing is dying out somewhat these days, yet it remains so special to receive a handwritten letter.  If you don't want to write to penpals, you could encourage children to wriet to their parents, or grandparents (especially lovely if they live far away and don't see their grandchild often!)

• PSED - dispositions and attitudes as the children get excited about receiving mail and then replying; making relationships as they work on a reply together and working at making a relationship through writing to new friends; sense of community as they learn about others and how others live and what they like to do.
• CLL - language for communication, linking sounds and letters, reading and writing.
• PSRN - handling money to buy the stamp we need
• KUW - Time as they wait for a reply and think about what others are doing in other places; communities as they become more interested in what people in different palces are doing; talking about how the post works (a bit of history about how post used to work)
• PD - fine motor control drawing pictures and writing words to their friends; using equipment and materials by folding the paper to go in the envelope.
• CD - make a postbox together to add in to role play.

Some other ideas I have tried are to find writing paper that ties in with anything that the children are interested in.... these are quite simple to find through searching google.  We have started a scrap book to keep the letters in and have decorated the front with these realistic stamps.

if there are any readers who would like to team up with other settings to exchange letters, please e-mail me at littleblossomschildminding@googlemail.com and I will try to pair you up!

Science in the Early Years - Sink or Float?

I have been planning to extend some of the Montessori cultural ideas into my setting for a while now and organised myself to do it last night!  The Montessori cultural curriculum has some lovely suggestions for science activities that early years children can learn from in a hands-on, child-led way, supporting their knowledge and understanding of the world, amongst other things.

To set up an activity for exploring objects that sink or float,  you need:

• A tray that will hold a glass bowl/vase (glass because you can see through it and observe the objects that have sunk); fill the bowl three quarters full of water. 
• Next to it you need a plastic tray, box or basket that holds eight small objects that vary in size and material. 
• Objects made from different materials; on the tray above I have a light plastic ball, a plastic dinosaur, a small pebble and a marble (inside the small copper pot on this picture), a cork, a piece of bark, a shell and a small copper pot.
• A cloth to dry the objects and their tray with afterwards.

You can also have a laminated piece of card or paper that has the words 'float' and 'sink' on it including a simple diagram of an object below the water line and on the waterline for non-readers.

I like to get the child to make a hypothesis about what will happen such as "Do you think the shell will float or sink?" - you could also ask why they think that, giving you an amazing insight into their reasoning and knowledge (see sustained shared thinking for more tips on asking questions open-ended questions!)

Some of the thinking that came out using this activity was:

• That the dinosaur looked bigger at the bottom of the water because the water reflects it.
• That the shell was nice and thin like the pot so it would float (it sank of course).
• If you drop the pot from a low height it would float but when you drop it from a high height it sinks because it fills with water and goes heavier then.

Not all of the thinking is scientifically accurate but the children are making close observations of the materials and what is happeneing and using creative thinking to apply that knowledge to the other objects.  By exploring this themselves and actually experiencing it, it has more value than being told or reading about it in a book.

Here there is an attempt to balance the dinosaur on the bark to make it float instead of sink. Good Thinking!!

To make this suitable for toddler/baby exploration, put the objects into a wide necked plastic bottle or tub and fill half full with water and screw the lid on tight.  Every way they turn this up, the floating objects wil float and the sinkers will sink!  Differentiation in a nutshell!!

Life Cycle of a Bean

Today we planted our beans from the BBC 'Dig In' campaign as well as some snap peas that we had left over from last year.  Gardening with children is such a great way to spend a sunny afternoon!  Often the children that you are childminding will not have the opportunity to grow vegetables at home making it an invaluable experience for you to offer them.  Planting seeds covers all of the areas of learning and development within the EYFS and should be part of your continuous provision contained within your planning. 

I wanted to provide you with a nice set of resource links to support the life cycle of a bean but came up rather short!!  The best that I found was this set of sequencing cards, although it would be nice to have a card that shows the bean pod open with the beans inside ready to be sown and start the cycle over again! 

My solution to this, and far better than using printed resources in my opinion is to make your own cards!  I am going to cut out some bean shaped pieces of beige sugar paper and then take photogrpahs of the bean developing.  Print a photograph for each stage and then stick to a bean shape with appropriate words.  A great way to include children in the planning!

To enable you to take photogrpahs and the children to see the bean developing, trap beans between damp kitchen paper and the side of a clear glass jar.  Keep the paper moist and the bean will germinate and produce leaves within a week! 

This idea is clearly explained, amongst other simple and fantastic nature activities in the 'First Nature Activity Book' which I thoroughly recommend! There is also a book dedicated to 'the life cycle of a bean'!

What is Sustained Shared Thinking?

In an effort to 'jargon-bust' the EYFS I have looked up sustained shared thinking and have discovered that it is something that we all (hopefully) do everyday as we play alongside the children we care for!  According to Kathy Brodie, sustained shared thinking is "those wonderful times that you get when you are totally absorbed with a child, whether is is in conversation or in an activity, with a genuine interest on both parts to find out more".  The thinking can occur one-to-one between child and adult, or between groups of children, epecially where there are older children mixing with younger ones (such as childminders and your own home amongst siblings!). 

Let's break it down a bit:

• SUSTAINED - it must carry on for a while but this could be varying lengths of time; this therefore requires flexible planning and contingencies for ensuring that other children are safe and provided for.
• SHARED - both child and adult must be contributing, there are various ways to encourage the dialogue and find out the child's ideas.
• THINKING - there are six critical thinking skills identified that are developed through sustained shared thinking.

During periods of sustained shared thinking "the practitioner has the opportunity to learn extensive amounts about how the child sees the world, their level of cognitive development, schemas, community and self esteem (to name but a few!). The child may learn things such as social interaction techniques, how to think creatively, cause and effect and factual information" Kathy Brodie (2009)

The six critical thinking skills are:

• Enquiry skills - asking and answering appropriate questions, deciding on the next question.
• Information procesing skills - these help the child to 'do something' with the information they receive in answer to their questions; organising it and retaining the most important parts.
•  Reasoning skills - forming an opinion based on the information gathered (cloesly linked to the development of language, social and emotional skills).
• Evaluation skills - children look at the information they have and decide whether they agree with it or not.
• Problem-solving skills - recognising that a problem is something to be solved rather than a failure and being able to recognise that changes can be made that will affect the end-result.
• Creative thinking - using the imagination to generate new ideas, looking beyond the obvious.

Research has shown that there are three essentials to encourage sustained shared thinking.  The first is OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONING, using such questions as:

• I wonder if.....?
• What could we do......?
• can you find a way to......?
• What would happen if.....?
• Why do you think that happened.....?
• What did you notice about.....?
• tell me about.....?

The secret to open ended questions is that they don't put children on the spot to find the 'correct' answer; the children use the knowledge they have to think creatively and come up with a suggestion.

The second essential is ADULT MODELLING; wonder aloud about things to demonstrate problem solving for events in your own life, or the day ahead with the children.

The third essential is that children are engaging in FREELY CHOSEN PLAY ACTIVITIES as these provide the best platform for extending children's thinking as they are motivated and absorbed.

Other strategies that you can use are:

• SUGGESTING - you might like to try this......
• INVITING CHILDREN TO ELABORATE - I'd really like to know more about this....
• RE-CAPPING - so you think that.......
• SHOWING GENUINE INTEREST - give whole attention, make eye-contact, smile, nod, affirm.
• SPECULATING - do you think that the wolf really wanted to be little red riding hoods friend?
• USE MAKING-SENSE WORDS - I agree, I wonder, I think, I imagine, I like......

Sustained shared thinking is part of the EYFS under 'Creativity and Critical Thinking' (4.3).  I have printed out the strategies and open-ended questions and have put them up on the wall for a short time to remind me to use them more!! My sources and further reading for you are here, here and here!

April Planning!

There will be lots going on regarding planting veg, fruit and salad out in the garden, and observing signs of Spring such as our tadpoles that we have in pond water in the lounge, ready to be returned to their pond when the taddy's are bigger! 
I am planning a series of nature walks for the childminding group in the local nature reserve, as well as tree identification by looking at the twigs before they burst into leaf - use this ID sheet from the nature detectives website to guide you, it can be used in your garden or local park, it doesn't have to be a nature reserve!

Topics I am planning to cover are:

• Vaisakhi - Sikh festival on the 14th April.
• Earth Day - 22nd April.
• St. George's Day - 23rd April.
• National Pet's Month.
• Lifecycle of a bean.

As I do the planning for each topic and post all my ideas and links, I will link each post back to this main one so that you can access all the ideas from one place!
For those in the childminding group, the walks will be titled:

• Badger bumble
• Otter oddyssey
• Shrew shimmy
• Rabbit ramble
• Fox fandango

once again, i will post all of the links through to the site for you to use wherever you are; the resources will be aimed at increasing awareness and understanding about how animals live in woodlands, it doesn't really matter if there are thopse species where you go, the children will get excited none the less!!  Fortunately for us, there are those species at the nature reserve...... whether we find any evidence of them is another matter!!!!!

Springtime Lemon Playdough

This is one child's use of the springtime dough that our childminding group made on Monday!  The dough was scented with lemon flavouring (a baking ingredient but scented essential oil would work very well).  The recipe can be found on this post here.  We sat and observed the children playing with the dough and made some notes about what they were doing, then as a group shared and put them into the six areas of learning. 

PSED: Dispositions and attitudes - children becoming interested and absorbed by what they are doing; self-confidence, particularly if a child is not keen on messy play but then decide to have a go which could be a big step forwards for him/her; making relationships as they play alongside one another, sharing tools and chatting about their play and ideas (fewer resources than there are children can lead to some good problem solving if you support the children to work out a solution to the 'problem'!); Behaviour and self-control - problem-solving and sharing is part of this, as well as following rules for playdough such as keeping it at the table etc; self-care - knowing that it isn't good to eat and washing hands afterwards!

CLL: Language for communication - talking about what they see, smell and feel and what they are doing enhances children's vocabulary, especially if you give them some new 'describing' words.  It could turn into a fun rhyme if you encourage the children to experiment with their words as they play; language for thinking - using talk to organise and sequence what they are doing and thinking, for example they might 'narrate' everything they do, so you know that they are planning and understaning what they are doing.  Using 'positional' language such as 'on top of', 'inside', 'under', 'nest to' is a big step for children in language; writing -  making marks in the dough, shaping letters.

PSRN: Numbers as labels and for counting - children might make representations of numbers with the dough; calculating - count the number of objects they have made, sharing out "half for you" etc; shape, space and measure - talking about shapes "this circle", "that curve there" etc, using words to describe weight and volume "heavy" "more than" etc, having the children measure out the ingredients is even better - the recipe is great for children as it is measured in numbers of cups rather than grams or ounces!

KUW: Exploration and investigation - learning about changes and patterns could be achieved if the children help you make the dough in the first place (powdery flour to wet and sloppy mixture to firm, squashy dough is amazing for a child to see!!); designing and making - constructing with the dough if you add straws of different lengths, craft sticks etc.

PD: Using equipment and materials - children use a range of fine-motor movements and can refine skills such as cutting (scissors or knife), pressing through a garlic press, using tweezers, rolling pins, biscuit cutters etc, all of these help to develop hand and finger strength later needed for achieving correct pencil grip and writing.

CD: responding to experiences, expressing and communicating ideas - children responding to the sight, smell and tecture of the dough (put it out when it is still warm and reshly made!); exploring media and materials - the children working with colour, texture, shape, space and form in two and three dimensions (how perfect play dough is to meet this aspect!!); developing imagination and imaginative play - I have watched children as they have made bee hives, fairy gardens, fairy houses, birthday party food, you name it, a child can make it out of playdough!

Here is some information linked to the EYFS to do with messy play.

These playdough ideas will give you some inspiration all year round!

I printed these simple number mats to laminate and put out with the dough.

This is the second in a series of our group looking at how everyday activities in your home can support all six areas of learning and devlopment, you may also be interested in the post on cooking!

Developing the Outdoors Environment

I have been thinking about this and reading up on it for some weeks now and have today pulled together some initial lists and quotes (mainly from the EYFS).  I have cut them out and added them to a poster that I am making, with cutouts from magazines of equipment that I would like to have in the garden.  I'm going to put it up and ask the parents to contribute to the poster with their ideas about what is important to them about outdoors, what resources they would like to see out there, what their children enjoy outdoors at home, and any other ideas they may have.  I am hoping to be able to get the parents on board by giving them a wish list of 'found items' that would enhance the outside and see what they can ferret out for us to use!

Effective Practice (EYFS, 2008)

o Encourage children to help plan the layout
o Encourage children to contribute to keeping the area tidy
o Ensure that children can be outdoors daily all year round
o Help children to understand how to behave outdoors by talking about personal safety, risks and the safety of others.
o Link the indoors and outdoors so that children can move freely between them.

Challenges to tackle (EYFS, 2008)
o Promoting the value and importance of the outdoors to parents and other professionals.
o Meeting the needs of children of different ages in a shared outdoor space.
o Reflecting learning outdoors in observations and planning.

What the EYFS (2008) says about children being outdoors:

“Being outdoors has a positive impact on children’s sense of well-being and helps all aspects of children’s development”

“Being outdoors offers opportunities for doing things in different ways and on different scales than when indoors”

“It gives children first hand contact with weather, seasons and the natural world”

“Outdoor environments offer children freedom to explore, use their senses, and be physically active and exuberant”

“Children can learn to make decisions, solve problems and grow in confidence in their own abilities outdoors and they need plenty of time to investigate their outdoor environment purposefully”


“Outdoors, children can hear and respond to a different range of sounds, beginning to recognise and distinguish between noises in the outdoor environment”


“Outdoor learning complements indoor learning and is equally important. Play and learning that flow seamlessly between indoors and outdoors enable children to make the most of resources and materials available to them and develop their ideas without unnecessary interruption”

“Provide children with access to environments that stimulate their need to explore and which safely challenge them. The aim is to develop their risk awareness and an understanding of their own abilities as necessary life skills”

Developing the Outdoor Space
1. Evaluate where we are now.
2. Vision Planning – where do we want to be??
3. Action Planning – How can we get there??
4. Implementation – making the changes!

Resources and Play Materials
1. Open-ended and non-prescriptive, and can be used in imaginative ways that fit the children’s play, rather than dictating the play.
2. Different sized and shaped logs, poles, sticks and wood shapes.
3. Blocks, crates and tyres.
4. Natural items: sand, water, leaves, stones, bark, earth, mud, clay, shells, seeds.
5. Ropes and strings of different thickness and length.
6. Different colours, textures and sizes of fabric, cloths and tarpaulins.
7. Clothes pegs.
8. Pulleys.
9. Baskets, bags, buckets, containers,
10. Pipes of different shapes and lengths.
11. Chalks, charcoal, crayons, pens, pencils, brushes with water, paints, large paper and fabric, rollers.
12. Tools for digging, planting and caring for plants.
13. Tools and benches for woodworking.
14. Nets, bug pots, magnifiers, binoculars, trays, tanks.


Key Features to Plan For
1. Access and security.
2. Shelter and shade.
3. Appropriate clothing.
4. Appropriate storage.
5. Variety of surfaces.
6. The four elements.
7. Natural spaces.
8. Growing spaces.
9. Active spaces.
10. Reflective spaces.
11. Creative spaces.
12. Social spaces.
13. Offsite locations.

Plenty of food for thought here.... I will post about how I tackle each area over the next couple of weeks.  this is part of my ongoing review of 'The Learning Environment' section of the EYFS.  It has taken me, and some members of the childminding group on quite a journey so far; because the learning environment covers indoor, outdoor and emotional environment, there is a lot to consider, reflected by recent posts about supporting emotional development, ICT and others.  You might be interested to read the toolkit that has helped me review the outdoors, to be found on this post here!

Our Montessori Visitor!!

This is Nicola, a member of the childmindinghelp forum who contacted me about Montessori.  She came to visit me to see some of the Montessori materials that I have and talk about how both she and I use it in our settings.  It set me thinking about how to write on here about Montessori, and I'm finding it hard because once you talk about one part of the theory, then you have to explain another bit and the whole thing just snowballs into something that sounds very complicated when it isn't!  So here is what I'm going to do: I'm going to break the essential parts of the philosophy down into bitesize chunks and post about them individually, making them relevant to childminding and adding links and suggestions for implementing it in your setting. 

Funnily enough, even though Montessori developed her theory a hundred years ago, there is a lot of it in the EYFS - look here for a document written by Montessori Centre International (MCI), a training college in London.  The director of that college, a wonderful lady by the name of Barbara Isaacs worked together with the editor of the EYFS to produce this and it would make a good starting point if you are interested in following the Montessori story with me! 

As we go on, you will also start to recognise aspects of the Montessori materials in popular children's toys - you probably have many of them in your setting right now and didn't realise their origins!!! Take the knobbed cyclinders below for example, do the buttons on top of the cylinders look familiar? Got any wooden shape puzzles on your shelves? there you go!!! The cylinders themselves are part of the sensorial materials in Montessori, but the button on top helps to develop a child's hand strength for writing as they hold it with a 'tripod grip' in three fingers also.  More of that later!

As a final incentive for looking further into Montessori, although it may seem like more hard work to start with, it can actually make your job as a childminder easier, because there is an emphasis on developing independence and care for the surroundings! I hope you'll come back for more and comment as we go.... I will answer all the questions I get to the best of my ability!!!!

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!

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

St. David's Day Planning!

I will be joining forces with another childminder on Monday to enjoy some St. David's Day treats, and then we will do some more activities at home in the afternoon.  I have a CD of children's songs in Welsh that we will play (CLL, KUW). There will be welsh lamb casserole bubbling in the slow cooker ready for lunch, I always talk about where meat comes from as I think it's important for children to understand their place in the food chain, obviously in a amnner sensitive to their age and temperament!! (KUW, PSED) We will make daffodil paper chains (PD, CD). I have bought some wooden spoons and we are going to get creative and decorate them as welsh love spoons, talking about who we love and why, and who we would give them to! (CD, PSED) For the children that enjoy the challenge of colouring in templates, I have printed some welsh flags and welsh children to colour.  My husband is Welsh so I will be getting him to talk to the children in Welsh and we will make a book in welsh with numbers and colours, animals and food for the book basket (CLL, KUW), if you want to the same, there are great language resources here! And I think that will happily take us through the day.... there are many more ideas out there, please come back on and comment to tell me what you did, or e-mail me!

The Learning Environment

The childminding group that I co-ordinate is reflecting on 'the Learning Environment' this week.  I found a couple of great documents available on line when I was making up the materials.... really easy to use and read and with some lovely ideas both for those starting out and the more experienced ones amongst you!

• The Learning Environment
• Early Years Outdoor Learning

Let me know how you find them!!

Winter Olympics 2010

There is lots of information on the Official Website and various other sites if you have a look around.  There are some nice things here for older children, I will be using the skating boot dot-to-dot with my oldest as she LOVES skating at the minute!  These are nice too, to dot around and get the children used to the different sports that they will see!  It will be novel to have the TV on to watch things as it rarely gets turned on in our house during the week, I think the children will enjoy the sounds of the crowds jangling cow bells and cheering as well as the sports themselves. Here are a few of the ideas that I might use this week:

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

• Collect Newspaper clippings and pictures of both able-bodied and paralympic athletes, display them.
• Put a red dot on the world map over the location of the Olympics.
• The logo is based on an ancient symbol - build an Inukshuk from cardboard boxes or blocks – explain the meaning (pointed the way for the Inuit peoples of Canada).
• Watch coverage of the sports so that the children understand what they are.

Creative Development

• Make an Olympic Torch.
• Make dough/clay medals.
• Make an ice-skating rink for the small world figures to ice skate on, to promote imaginative play.
• Similarly build a bob-sleigh run with cut open toilet roll tubes!

Physical Development

• Mini Olympics – run with a balloon held between the knees.
• Two children together hold a balloon between their tummies and try to get across the room without it dropping.
• Sledging in a flat cardboard box with rope handle at the front to pull.
• Throwing Olympic rings over posts.
• Jumping from mat to mat (Olympic colours, saxan bath mats from Ikea!).

Communication, Language and Literacy

• O is for Olympics – what other things begin with O, could make a display or mini book.
• Talk about what you are seeing on the television.

Problem Solving Reasoning and Numeracy

• Shape of the circles.
• Counting them.
• Measuring out cooking ingredients to make butter tarts.
• Winter Olympics Bingo

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

• Make Olympic rings and explain what they stand for, they represent the five major land areas of the world; Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Australasia.  The rings are interlocked to show friendship.
• Make paper printables of the mascots; Miga, Quatchi and Sumi. Older children could design their own mascots, younger ones could colour some in.
• “With Glowing Hearts” is the motto, can the children think of their own motto?