Working with the Early Years Curriculum
Personal, social and emotional development
We have lovely home corners which are used to support development of language and communication skills with opportunities to engage in imaginative and creative role play, including dressing up, making tea, cooking for the babies and teddies. Small world play such as farms, trains and a dolls house, stables and castle. Children also enjoy creating a master piece with our construction toys, Lego, stickle bricks, Duplo etc. Whatever they choose, there will always be qualified staff on hand to support, encourage and scaffold their learning and development or just simply observe their play from a distance. Staff will be encouraging independence and social development, assessing their progress and planning their next steps.
Children can spend time in the cosy book corner, allowing children time to relax independently, with either adults or their Little Doves friends. We also have a puppets basket, so the children can use their imagination whilst using the books.
We have a singing and story sack and puppet books, with which there are items relevant to each song. The children can use an object such as a star (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) or Bus (wheels on the bus) and so on. Children enjoy participating, taking turns and learning the actions.
Treasure baskets
We have treasure baskets for young babies to explore, that include an array of natural sensory products for direct hands on experiences. Discovering and manipulating natural products can help increase fine motor skills, build confidence and self-esteem, increasing engagement by fostering focus. Concentration and independence promotes a ‘no fail’ method of learning. These baskets extend our experiences of the real world through play.
The baskets can be used to discover texture, smell, colour, temperature, weight, size and more using senses. These baskets can be continually used as your child grows, promoting curiosity, discussion, debate and communication.
Children’s Yoga
All the staff have had training in mindfulness and the Early Years and we incorporate mindfulness into our daily routine. The children enjoy having their mats and enjoy this innovative approach. Sometimes we practise it after lunch for our quiet time or as a short activity before a listening activity such as a story time.
In the baby room it can help babies to sleep or find new ways to interact and stimulate babies. In the pre-school the pace, atmosphere and clear instruction of postures and songs keeps the children’s attention supporting listening skills and physical development. We have a Fully Qualified mindfulness teacher that will be joining us in the holidays.
Practical Life Activities
The practical life activities develop children’s everyday practical skills. These are fun and really do assist the child in practical situations as they all have a specific purpose. They will develop lots of fine motor skills such as hand and eye co-ordination, such as learning to pour and spoon (wet and dry), developing dexterity.
The Montessori resources support children to develop their fine motor skills by using one handed tools such as tweezers, tongs and the turkey baster. We use large wooden beads, cotton reels and pasta to thread, which helps them gain control over tools. Using these one-handed tools allow them to develop these skills, eventually enhancing their control by working with pencils, paint brushes, glue sticks and spreaders. Working with one handed tools supports greater concentration and self-control and the ability to complete the cycle of activity by choosing, completing and repeating a sequence of movements for as long as they wish, reinforcing concepts and skills.
Literacy: Reading and writing
Once an individual child or group of children are ready we run phonic sessions/activities within our everyday activities, following phase one letter and sounds. This allows children to explore phonics through various strategies and from an early age they are recognising and using sounds all around them, really helping them to grasp those initial letter sounds. We practise lots of rhyming skills which is important for understanding how sounds can be changed. We have a selection of Montessori word building activities and an object and sound box for children to build confidence with phonics. Children can use our easel to paint or write/draw on the white board and we have an enormous large chalk wall to practise their mark making skills. We also have magnetic letter boards because these activities making learning letters fun! Playing with sounds is a great way to learn.
Mathematical Development (Number, Shape, Space and Measure)
We have specific activities for children to develop their numeracy skills. There are many new ways to learn about numbers using natural resources such as conkers, corks, shells, buttons for counting and learning about quantities. We can use natural resources to gain confidence with numbers, counting, sequencing, and simple addition or subtraction. We learn that shapes are everywhere and teach the ability to identify, name and talk about shapes and properties. From an early age we look at grading by size, height, length and depth, finding ways to measure learning to make comparisons and develop language skills. We find ways to learn about shape, space and measure.
Understanding of the world
At Little Doves one of our favourite topics is ‘Lifecycles’, where we talk about sequences and changes. In addition, we have numerous books on ‘lifecycles’ and topic based art activities to develop their understanding. Also available are binoculars, magnifying glasses, sink and float games and magnetic activities to explore and investigate new concepts. Using these tools and games helps build up individual understanding of the world and again developing and building on their concepts.
We use the garden to explore the world, experimenting in the sand and mud construction area, going on bug hunts and watching living things grow. We will explore the seasons and changes in animals, plants and weather. We also use a world globe, puzzles and maps. We do lots of group activities talking about different continents and countries. We look at languages, cultures and understanding of how other people live around the world.
Expressive Arts and Design
We have lots of expressive Arts activities giving opportunities to do sticking, cutting, colouring, painting, junk modelling, play dough and cookery – always lots of interactive, fun activities. We plan activities for the morning that are normally topically based or of children’s interests at the time which children can do in a group, individually with a member of staff dependant on ability.
We set up music sessions for children to explore sounds, working individually, in groups and with us during Circle Time to learn about listening to music and making their own. Learning how to make and change sounds, for example by playing loudly, quietly, slowly, fast, then playing with rhythm. We play instruments along with our favourite songs.
We are lucky to have Nursery Nurse Michelle, who plays the guitar and takes music sessions with the children. This activity really captures the children’s attention playing favourite songs and learning new songs, as well as supporting our Christmas sing along and Nativity.
We also enjoy drama with the children, acting out favourite stories, dressing up and building up stories remembering key phrases such as ‘We are going on a bear Hunt!’ We talk about characters and key events, building up children’s understanding of storytelling.
Outside Classroom
We value the outside area, so we do ask that warm clothing and wellies are provided so we can get outside and enjoy our Little Doves garden learning environment. Out in the garden we provide a careful balance between adult planned and child led/initiated activities and opportunities.
We can choose to have snacks and lunch time outside as we have all weather play areas which provide shelter from the rain and shade from the sun during those hot summer months. We also have a natural garden space and woodland area to have picnics. The outside is a fantastic area for children to develop their gross and fine motor skills, practising climbing, and balancing on equipment. The apparatus is of varying levels to challenge and encourage children to begin to risk assess and manage risks independently as and when ready. This develops confidence in their ability, challenging themselves and persevering.
We have a choice of boxes full of bats and balls, bean bags and hoops. Children can also use the equipment at all times to explore their own ways of working with the resources. We enjoy getting groups of all ages involved in gym trials and use Sticky Kids routines to get the children exploring different ways to move freely. We have small and large bikes and trikes, push a long’s, scooters and prams to develop and master co-ordination and balance skills.
There is a large digging plot used for construction in the dirt with diggers, dump trucks, wheel barrows, spades and a ‘mud kitchen’. There is also a sand pit in which we regularly change the toys and plan activities to develop learning such as using sand with weighing scales, exploring capacity and size. Children enjoy playing with animals, dinosaurs and burying treasure in the sand for the day. We also have separate sand and water trays for indoors and outside. Look what happens when we add water!
We use our woodland area regularly which supports our forest activities and we use this area to observe nature and make our own animal homes such as a bug hotel and hedgehog houses. We use the den making area for story telling providing natural wood seating for all the children and we use the area to develop personal, social, emotional and team building skills.
We also have mark making activities and counting games for outside play, providing as many opportunities outside as possible.
We also have vegetable patches, where the children will have an opportunity to take part in growing carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, runner beans and potatoes, to use in snacks. Children can also enjoy picking, washing and eating plums and apples.
Children are encouraged to water our vegetables and flowers and rake and sweep leaves! This encourages discussion about living things, growth, changes, seasons, colours and so on.
