Children’s Learning Journey

Week commencing 4th January 2012

Children’s learning journey based on children’s interests, needs and professional observations made in the setting.

To make the most of the room we have, we have set up the following activities in Tosca: - playdough, this is set up on the round table as we feel this is a really sociable activity that lots of children enjoy, 3 table top activities such as abacus, a mark making activity and a maths activity, the large train track and the small world village, as well as the wooden car. These are as well as the activities we always have set up in the main setting. Staff work in pairs in each room and when we open the outdoor area, we close TOSCA. If we are quieter in the afternoon we use the pre-school room and the outdoor area. If you have any questions, please ask staff. We will change the activities on a weekly basis according to our theme as we do the pre-school room.

If children show new learning, we will record this learning in their profile. We will be putting a sheet of stickers into your plastic envelopes and sending them home for you to record what your child does. Please return them if they do anything you feel you want to put into profiles and put it into their drawers. Staff will sort them out at the end of each week. A photograph of your child mark making at home will also be useful for profiles.

None of the plans are time restricted and much of the activity will be dictated by the child’s individual interest and involvement.

Writing the letter of the week – please encourage your child to take part in this activity as you enter the room. It is their first taste of mark making and is fun if you join in with them. There is no right or wrong way to begin with, just encourage your child to hold the writing implement. If your child is starting to try, encourage all the way. If your child is confident and is starting to form recognisable letters, show them where to start the letter – usually at the top – and form the letter correctly. This saves time later as your child may begin to form letters one way and may have to relearn. This activity encourages hand/eye coordination, sound and letter recognition, develops fine/small motor skills, increases and extends vocabulary, develops refined hand movements, demonstrates 1:1 correspondence, to select writing implements that suit their needs, to enjoy using language, to explore initial sounds in words, to initiate and create letter sounds. Our sound this week is Pp the action for this is to put your hand in front of your mouth and make the pppp sound into it so that you feel the puff of air on your palm.

Baking activity: This week the children have been baking ‘banana loaf’ for snack time. This has included preparing food, taking pride in self care and hygiene and working as part of a team.

Skills and Attitudes: The children have really seemed to enjoy this activity and the general feedback from the children was positive, which is great! The children have learnt many skills during this activity, such as; working as part of a team, following simple instructions, using their bodies to explore texture, smell and sight. The children also used their own personal space to explore the ingredients as they poured, stirred, sieved, poked, squashed and rolled.
Evaluation: The children seemed to feel content whilst taking part in this activity. Small groups worked well, as the children had their own personal space, but also had the opportunity to work along side their peers. The children asked lots of questions relating to food and hygiene and enjoyed exploring the tools and equipment they used.
As a practitioner, I believe it is important for the children to understand how food is made, what ingredients are used, what food is healthy and what foods should be a treat so and how a healthy diet and lifestyle affects our bodies.
Adult Response: I showed the children a book, which had pictures of the ingredients that we were going to use and showed them what we were baking. I asked the children questions and responded to theirs. I demonstrated action to show the children what we were going to do next. The children and I spoke about the scientific change within the food ,comparing it to before it was cooked and after it was cooked.
What next: The children have told me they would like to make buns next week, so this is what we will do! We will add raisins, blueberries, or raspberries, to ensure the children are getting 1 of their 5 a day during snack time. We will discuss flavours, textures, what they can smell and the scientific change within the food before and after it has been cooked.

Home Corner: Activity: baking took part in this area some of the week and at other times children were able to play freely. Some children decided to make a picnic and have a sleep over.

Skills and Attitudes: playing together with a theme involving role play and pretend play, forming relationships or developing existing ones, using their imaginations and getting along.
Evaluation: the area was really well used this week. It is a good place to do baking in as it promotes role play and using objects for their intended purpose but it also means that lots of children can either take part or watch as it is a large area.
Adult Response: Izzy assisted and led as the adult with the baking. Otherwise all play was child initiated.
What Next: it will be set up as a picnic area with a book called This is the Bear and the :Picnic lunch.

Math’s area: Activity: Memory Game -

We used a variety of everyday items, placing them on the table and asking the children to look and remember what they have seen. I then removed one item and the children then have to guess what is missing. This activity encourages concentration, being alert and group discussion. This activity will be set out for one to one, or in a small group.

Skills and Attitudes: children are encouraged to communicate ‘take turns and share.
Evaluation: This activity worked well for all ages, and they all seemed to enjoy this activity.
Adult Response: Explained the rules of the game. Talked to them about how we look and try and memorized the items and whether they could remember what had been removed
What Next: We will be using play dough that will have different aromas’ .I will be discussing with the children what the smells remind them of and if they recognize them.

Construction area: Activity: Investigation Table

Skills and Attitudes: exploration and investigation were the key learning factors for children using this area. Learning how to use tools and equipment properly as they looked through magnifiers.
Evaluation: although children did not always use this table as it was meant to be used, they still had fun playing with the bugs and reptiles on the table. It needs more adult support and intervention but is a good table to have in the setting.
Adult Response: encourage children to use the table properly and return items to the table when they have been taken away. encourage interest and enthusiasm as children played with the items on the table. Model how to use magnifiers
What Next: we have added herbs to the table incorporate smell to the activity.

Wooden car: Activity: children used this resource as they liked.

Skills and Attitudes: children are really good at sharing this piece of equipment, they have been expressing ideas and feelings, they have been sequencing stories and make believe, they have been experimenting with role play, they have been caring towards each other and patient if the car was full.
Evaluation: children seem to enjoy filling this car up with home corner equipment, while we encourage transporting we will try to discourage children from doing this because children in the home corner end up with limited resources. The area is to be used as a focus area next week so children might develop other ideas for how to use it.
Adult Response: help children tidy the car up if it is full. Praise and acknowledge good manners and a caring attitude if the car is busy, encourage role play and imaginative play.
What Next: The car will take children, their bear and their glasses on a magical mystery trip.

The Large dolls house: This piece of equipment helps children prepare for mark making by enabling children to hold, grip and carry. It gives their little hands the chance to feel and apply pressure as they play with the small dolls in the house, practice palmer and pincer grips and become more direct with their aim as they have less room to manoeuvre the dolls in the small area in which they are playing.

Small world activities – Activity: The castle

Skills and Attitudes: Children have room to play alone or with others promoting independence or sharing skills. children practice role play and imaginary play involving narratives or sounds in their play.
Evaluation: children have used this activity as a settling in activity and have progressed their play by including dinosaurs that have attacked the castle - or guarded it - and wild animals too. children have actively encouraged each other to play with the same resources and has been lovely to watch groups of children playing together.
Adult Response: observe, praise good play.
What Next: small village

Mark making table Activity: On the mark making table the children have been encouraged to draw an object that I will showed them. We used a lemon or a lime. The children were then asked to close their eyes and draw the same object. Children who took part in the activity used tools for a purpose (crayons, felt tips).

Skills and Attitudes: During this activity, the children were encouraged to use their communication skills to describe what the object looked like and the different colours of the objects. This activity also assisted the children with their hand eye co-ordination skills, helped build their fine motor skills, and was great to help build their self-confidence and self-esteem. We looked closely at the two different pictures and described how they looked and the differences they had. This activity was suitable for all children who took part. I didn’t need to adapt any parts of the activity.
Evaluation: The children who took part in this activity were able to complete the activity. Children were beginning to delevlop skills such as exploring with the different fruit, looking at the fruit and describing to me how it looked and the texture, then go on to draw the fruit. The children took part with enjoyment and perseverance.
Adult Response: I encouraged the children to take part in the activity, I modeled how to hold the writing tool. Enabled the children to touch, see and describe the fruit. Responded to questions asked by children.
What next: the children who took part asked who the fruit smelled so, next week we will cut the fruit up and smell it and look for other similar smells in the setting and outdoors.

Easel: similar to above although children have access to wipe able pens and chalk. This gives children a different writing or mark making experience. They can experiment with how to use the equipment available to them and begin to understand you don’t need paper to draw on. They have to learn to respect each others space here and take turns, respect each others work as pictures or writing is easily removed. During this week children will be writing Spanish words for counting.

The Interactive White Board: Activity: painting

Skills and Attitudes: this is a confidence building activity as its very simple and easy to complete for children that are not confident on ICT equipment.
Evaluation: this activity is popular with almost all children and nearly everyone decided to try it.
Adult Response: ensure the IWB is used correctly and children are having a poistve experience when using it. Ensure everyone who wants a turn gets a turn.
What Next: Nina and the Neurons. We are looking at developing children's awareness of the senses and how they affect everyday life.

The Book Corner: Activity: Magic Glasses.

Skills and Attitudes: children have enjoyed listening to this book and have responded appropriately when asked questions corresponding to the book. children have concentrated well and sat in a large group. Children have enjoyed the story, provoking an interest in who and why you wear glasses.
Evaluation: The story has been a good way to help children understand why other people have to wear glasses. They have enjoyed looking at the pictures in the book. We have looked at which way the text writes and talked about the author. it has introduced a level of new vocabulary such as optician, convex and concave to children.
Adult Response: read the story, answer questions, explain pictures and unfamiliar words, encourage interaction with children regarding the story.
What Next: This is the Bear and the Picnic lunch.

The Malleable area: Activity: Play Dough

Skills and Attitudes: children enjoy interacting and socializing on this table. it builds good friendships as children discuss what they are doing
Evaluation: The table was well used and children enjoyed using all the tools available to them. children are able to choose additional tools for themselves but were happy toi use what was there this week.
Adult Response: encourage correct use of tools and safe transportation. Encouraged children to tidy the area up when they had finished using it explaining why we do.
What Next: Scented dough to encourage further use of the senses.

Junk Modeling: -Recycling area: Activity: Making magic glasses

Skills and Attitudes: children listened to a story, recalled the story, expressed ideas for their own pair of magic glasses, created their own glasses describing what they wanted to use and how they might stick it, they were resourceful and interested
Evaluation: The activity went well encouraging children to put their ideas into practice with an end result they could alter or change. It encouraged discussion and story r4ecollection. Children seemed to remember the story better as a result of having props they had made themselves.
Adult Response: encouraged children to try the activity, encouraged resourceful thinking and practical ideas, assisted if what they wanted to use wouldn’t stick or stay in place suggesting other methods of sticking.
What Next: After observing children’s play in the setting I have noticed a group of children making a picnic so next week we will look at This Is The Bear And The Picnic Lunch – a rhyming story. We will have a picnic and listen to rhyming words.

At the end of the week children also began to make teddies like the one in the story. Next week we will all take our magic glasses and bears on a journey in the wooden car.

Paint area: Activity: painting with brushes

Skills and Attitudes: Children were given the oppoertunity to paint anything they wanted this week. We had some lovely creations such as a self portrait, a lemon and a toy.
Evaluation: the paint area is always a popular area and children enjoy being given the freedom to paint whatever they want. After we read The Magic Glasses, a child suggested they woulod like to paint a teddy bear.
Adult Response: observe, talk to children about their creations, praise.
What Next: painting teddy bears.

Science area: Activity: Linking stars

Skills and Attitudes: children enjoy making and building together watching each other to see what they are making or copying how to join the stars. in young children, linking stars helps with simple things such as colour recognition, colour matching, sequencing colours, with older children it improves connecting and joining skills, working as an individual and imaginative play as they make rockets.
Evaluation: children's imaginations were stretched this week with the linking stars as a child built a big building and used dinosaurs to knock it down! children that enjoy connecting use linking stars a lot as they are easy to use and make good models.
Adult Response: Observe, ask children what they are making, if they could improve what they have done or if they want to modify it.
What Next: fuzzy felts as children were including role play and imaginative play in their play, fuzzy felts help create story lines.

Outdoor area: We had planned a treasure hunt for the outdoor area but due to adverse weather conditions we have had to postpone this until next week. Children have though, enjoyed using the bikes, pushalongs, stilts, balls, beanbags and scooters this week.

Staff will: work with children to develop an idea or skill. Show genuine interest, offer encouragement, clarify ideas and ask open questions which support and extends children’s thinking and helps make connections in learning.

Parents and carers can: talk about the senses, help children become aware of the senses they are using.

The Team

About Belinda: Belinda is Pre-School Manager and is responsible mainly for the planning for pre-school, managing staff, ensuring children’s safety – she is the Pre-school Safeguarding Officer – and ensuring the smooth running of the pre-school.

Belinda achieved CACHE Level 3 Diploma in Pre-school Practice in October 2002 and is now working towards her Level 4 Children’s Care Learning and Development which will give her points towards her Degree , she also has training in Paediatric First Aid, Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene, Developing the Foundation Stage Curriculum, Module 9, Communication, Language and Literacy, Developing the Foundation Stage Curriculum, Module 8, Mathematical Development, Developing the Foundation Stage curriculum, Module 11, Creative Development, Working at Quality in Early Childhood Education – The Well-being and the Involvement of children as keys, Early Identification and Identification, Developing Quality Outcomes for Children, Assessment of Knowledge and Understanding, It’s Different for Boys!, Inclusion – Special Educational Needs in the Foundation Stage, EYFS Training, EYFS Conference for Outdoor Play. Health and Safety Level 2, Selection and Recruitment, Safeguarding Children, PSED: Raising Awareness of the new SEAD Materials, Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering, The Language of Learning, Linking Letters and Sounds, Who is my Key Person? Risk Assessment, Supervision and Appraisal, Stepping into Management Level 3, PSED, Wedge meetings and Nursery Network Childcare Providers Forum’s.

About Nici: Nici passed Level 3 Diplomas in Pre-school Practice over a year ago and has been pre-school Safeguarding officer for the last 12 months. She is trained to deliver Safeguarding training to other staff and settings. Nici is a qualified First Aider, as well as Food Safety, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, EYFS training and Senco, Stepping Into Management – Level 3, Listening to Children, Speech Sounds workshop. Nici now works as pre-school administrator and an assistant in the setting.

About Sarah: has currently finished her Level 3 Diploma in Pre-school Practice and is awaiting her certificate. She is Senco for pre-school ensuring inclusion for all children and their families. She is First Aid trained, has Food Safety and Health and Safety training. .

About Jane: Jane is currently training towards her Level 3 Childcare and Development. She hopes to complete this by July 2011. She also has Safeguarding training, Food Safety, Linking Sounds and Letters, Who is my Key Person? And a qualified First Aider. .

About Izzy: Izzy is our first pre-school apprentice. She has gained her Level 2 Childcare and Development qualification and is currently studying towards Level 3 which she hopes to pass by July 2011. She is a qualified First Aider, she also has training in Who Is my Key Person?, Health and Safety, Food Safety, Symptoms of Autism, Outdoor Play, Linking Sounds and Letters. .

About Tracy: Tracy is currently training towards her Level 3 in Childcare and Development, she also has Food Safety, Health and Safety and is a qualified Paediatric First Aider. .

Jo Jingles

On every other Wednesday morning Jo Jingles attends pre-school. This is available to all children that attend on Wednesday morning sessions and is differentiated to suit all children’s ages. Children have the opportunity to sing, dance, move, play musical instruments, and improve physical development and co-ordination. Sessions with Jo Jingles correspond with our theme and reinforce the learning within the pre-school.

All activities are child initiated, child led and differentiated to suit all stages of development. If you would like to discuss an activity please feel free to ask any member of staff at any time.

We would always welcome help from parents. If you would like to help as a volunteer on a regular basis please talk to Belinda. We love having parents around and any help is welcome help. We will use your skills to enhance the setting so if you enjoy baking, cooking, DIY please let us know. If you would just like to come in and be an extra pair of hands – brilliant – we would love it. Your input is always welcome and helps us provide the best setting possible for your children.