Playing Christmas!

I have been resisting the 'C' word as hard as possible for weeks. I don't like that the commercial side of it is thrust down our throats for so long, but last Wednesday I could resist no longer as the children were playing 'Christmas Shopping' furtively, worried that I would tell them to stop! I mellowed and provided gift bags that I had stored - for them to put their 'gifts' in once wrapped. They were delighted and it made for hours of happy and imaginative play (and lots of opportunity for counting in fives and tens, and working with money, and writing receipts and signs etc etc). The evil anti-early-Christmas in me found great satisfaction from the amount of learning that took place! This week I am adding in jiffy bags for posting gifts and am going to transform a corner into a post office using some of these resources here, as well as these, whilst I am waiting for the resource pack offered by the Post Office, available here. Now just wondering if we have a box big enough to make a suitable post box?

Here is the post office ready to go, and here are the girls who were so excited they wanted to view it before they went to bed - it met with their approval!! We are going to see if the real post office will let us have some forms and labels and other goodies to plump out the stocks a bit!

Exploring Friction

I was inspired to make this activity after watching how interested the children are in rolling vehicles down slopes during their block play.  I wanted to extend this further with a science activity that could be returned to over time as understanding and knowledge of friction built up.

In the basket there are two chocks to place the planks against; two because I think the children might then explore how the angle of the planks (i.e. stacking two chocks) affects the movement of the vehicles.  There are also seven planks in all.  one is plain wood, one covered in a carpet sample that I begged from the local carpet fitters, one covered in rough sandpaper, one covered in plastic made from laminating coloured paper, one covered in wool from a jumper, one covered in bubble wrap and the last covered in textured wallpaper!  I chose these as they are a range of different materials and different textures and will challenge the children's assumptions about surfaces and textures.

To make this activity you will need:

• 7 planks of wood cut to the length that you require (offcuts from DIY will do nicely!)
• 6 different materials to fix to the planks (I left one as wood!)
• A glue gun and staple gun (tacks and a hammer would do also!)
• A stanley knife and heavy duty scissors.
• Sandpaper or an orbital/belt sander.
• Two wood 'chocks'.
• One or more small vehicles with freely moving wheels.
• A basket.

Preparation:

• Cut and sand the planks and chocks so that they are smooth to the touch.
• Cut the materials to shape by drawing around the planks and cutting out the sections marked. I had to use a stanley knife for the carpet and scissors for the rest. Leave an extra edge round the wool/fabric to fold under to prevent threads and runs!
• Fix them securely to the planks using the most suitable means - I hot glued the carpet and staple gunned the other materials.
• When dried and ready, arrange in the basket and add to a suitable section of materials in your learning area.... in a Montessori classroom this may be the cultural area but equally alongside the blocks is a valid place to encourage exploration and experimentation!

Introducing it to a child:

• Wait to see if the child/ren notice the basket, if they do and start to ask questions or explore then join them and explain that the planks are to roll the vehicles down and they can be propped up on the chocks (show them if you need to).
• Encourage the child to explore and use all of the planks, talk about what the surface feels like; introduce new descriptive vocabulary such as bumpy, rough, smooth, shiny, bobbly etc. 
• If you feel it is appropriate for that child, draw attention to the effect that the different textures have on the car; you could group the planks according to whether the vehicle goes fast or slow down them, then talk about why the child thinks that happens. Ask the child to predict what they think will happen for a particular plank if they have noticed that some are slower and dome are faster.
• Don't automatically correct the child if they propose an incorrect theory, but talk about it with them and explore why they think that - you might well be surprised at the logic behind something and it isn't always helpful to override that and give instruction on the 'correct' science behind friction.  At this stage it is important to nurture positive tendencies for scientific exploration and the child will eventually when they are older discover and learn all the theories of forces, for now wonder, questioning and testing are enough!

Just so you know what you're talking about....... friction is a force that affects all types of movement on earth. When two surfaces come into contact (here the surface and the vehicle wheels) there is friction between them - the greater the friction, the greater the grip between the surfaces and the more resistance to movement. A real-life example is flat-soled pumps versus ridge-soled walking shoes; on an icy path the ridge soled shoes have the greater friction and therefore resist movement and prevent you slipping!

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!

Core Experiences

Core experiences is one of the 'buzzwords' that is popping up more and more lately.  I see it as a version of 'continuous provision' which different early years settings use for their EYFS planning.  If grey is the new black, then continuous provision is the new long term planning!  I think it is particularly suited to child minders because of the number of daily routines or activities that can be linked to all of the areas for learning and development within the EYFS.  As well as considering the core experiences in your continuous provision, you can put in mealtimes, going to the shops, walking to school etc. 

It sounds like just another load of paperwork to create but I think it needn't be like that!!  I am planning to create mine gradually as I go, I have already made a start when I considered how baking linked to all of the areas of the early years foundation stage.  Once written I am going to put them in a folder and parents can see what is on offer, as well using it to aid evaluation of observations and planning of next steps.  It provides a way of reflecting on the resources that you already have and how you might use them, as well as what you would like to add in or remove.  If you don't know the six areas of learning and development well already then you will by the end of your continuous provision planning!!

Some key points about core experiences:

• Officially there are fourteen of them but you can adapt them to your early years provision.
• The ideas is that they are areas that the children can access every day or regularly, rather than one-offs.
• It isn't about making sure that the children use all of the resources and cover all of the fourteen core experiences, but that they can follow their own individual pathway, becoming more skilled and advanced as they go.
• Children know that the resources will be there and can plan in advance what they would like to do.  This brings children into the planning.
• It is important that the children can return to their model/picture the next day if they want to, so think about some space to put things so that they can return to it; this shows that you value what they are doing and encourages concentration and perseverance.

Some core experiences to consider:

• Book area.
• Cookery.
• Role-play.
• Gardening.
• Outdoor play.
• Malleable materials (dough etc).
• Music, dance and movement.
• Emergent writing and book-making.
• Painting and colour-mixing.
• Craft.
• Sand and water.
• Construction and block play.
• Woodwork, modelling and making.
• Sewing.
• Small world play.
• Treasure baskets and heuristic play.
• Trips and educational visits.

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!