Everyday Inspiration for the Early Years
Now, how exciting was this discovery whilst browsing round Next?
A solid wood dice, ok it’s meant to be a doorstop by that just means it should last!
I saw this on a shelf and instantly thought if maths games, counting activities and talking about numbers.
Wish I’d bought it now!
#regretsinlife
I was having a wander round Home Sense today and saw this pasta on the shelf. I think this would be amazing for threading, working on fine motor control and hand/eye co-ordination.
A bargain at £2.49 as well!
I’ve followed June O’Sullivan’s blog (she’s the CEO of the London Early Years Foundation, a group of 39 nurseries in and around London) on and off for a while. Just recently though this article caught my eye:
https://www.leyf.org.uk/the-male-only-apprentice-group/
It surprised me and pleased me in equal measure. Finally somebody is doing something radical to increase the male practitioner population for Early Years.
June, I salute you!
I was very lucky recently, I mean VERY lucky, and it doesn’t happen often. I entered a competition on the Facebook Page for Hygge in the Early Years, run by the amazing Kimberly Smith, and to my utter amazement I won!
The competition was to win a place on the latest cohort of the Hygge in the Early Years Accreditation scheme. This is such an exciting opportunity for me and my setting to bring some calmness and joy into our practice as we work through this journey. We are aware it isn’t an overnight process so we are taking our time with it and savouring each lesson.
Check back for updates soon!
I’ve was reading an interesting article recently by Stephanie Bennett and Lyndsey Hellyn, the co-founders of The Curiosity ApproachTM, where the talked about how educational pioneer Loris Malaguzzi always spoke about the children’s learning environment in terms of the Third Education. In fact he’s quoted as saying “There are three teachers of children: adults, other children and their physical environment.”
As practitioners do we really spend a lot of our time looking at how our rooms look and constantly running around and sweeping up the mess to keep it looking nice? Isn’t that just a sign that the room isn’t working for the children?
In one of my previous settings I always knew it was time for a change round in the layout of the room when it became our main focus of the day to be clearing up after the children. This was when, as a Team we would sit and look at what worked and what didn’t. Children constantly need, fresh, new challenges and the environment is there to scaffold the children into achieving these challenges. So I urge you to spend a bit of time regularly looking at your learning environment and seeing how to freshen up the challenge for your children.
I was honoured recently when the awesome Siân from Story Props asked me to write a blog post for her website. You can check it out, along with her amazing story telling items by clicking her logo below:
This is my view on what Cultural Capital means for early years settings.
As I said, this is my view. You may have your own interpretation.
Whatever your view on Cultural Capital, just remember to feed those curious minds!
. . . it’s ME!
If you remember a short while ago I had the pleasure of talking to the legend that is Kathy Brodie about my specialist subject – storytelling. Well, you can watch it too by clicking the link below:
As you may have seen from a previous post I’m working on a downloadable resource pack for Room Leaders. This is quite a tricky post for people who are new to it and possibly one that isn’t supported as much as it could be.
I’m going to be working on a face to face training package to support newbie Room Leaders and would like your input!
If you can give me your views on this and anything else you feel a new Room Leader needs to know then please get in touch. My email is hello@tmpearlyyears.co.uk
Thanks!
We’ve been busy this week in my setting. On Monday the children came in to find lots of beans, lentils and other dried pulses on the tuff tray.
Using a picture of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, as well as some real ones, we left it up to the children’s imaginations to create the rest!
This isn’t the first time I’ve used Transient Art. Here’s some pictures of a training sessions about it I attended in 2018.
The Care Inspectorate in Scotland have produced a very useful toolkit called “Our Creative Journey” which gives some hints towards using Transient Art as a child led experience. You can find that here: