First of all i would just like to begin this post by saying i hope that you have all had an amazing Christmas and are all excited for the year ahead, #2020herewecome
I don't know about you, but i always seem to reflect on absolutely everything when it comes to a new year, i evaluate every aspect of my life. As childcare professionals, we spend all of our working hours 'reflecting' and 'evaluating' so it really does come so naturally to us. As a whole, the Golden Apples team strive for excellence in the range of teaching, activities and opportunities that they offer the children within their care, our practitioners take the children's interests on board and formulate activities suited to them in order to ensure the children achieve the best possible learning outcomes from every activity they participate in. The best part about it is that the children are blissfully unaware of all of the learning that they are completing everyday!
I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you, some of the outstanding activities the staff have created, all tailored to the children's interests:
The above activity really does look pleasing to the eye! A group of children within our 2 year old room had displayed a big interest in dinosaurs. Our practitioners within the room worked with the children to create this wonderful activity, not only does it look very exciting but it also covers many aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage so the children have an opportunity to develop in every single area.
This activity stemmed from the children's interest in trains! The practitioners adapted a simple activity of setting up a train track and turned it into a very exciting learning opportunity for the children. The children had the opportunity to look closely at how the track can connect together to create a variety of shapes, with shapes in mind the children had a big discussion about the blocks situated on the table and explored their texture, size and shape and decided to use them as buildings. This is a great example of a simple but effective activity for the children.
The above activity was created with the children's interests of mark making and vehicles in mind. The practitioners made scented play-dough and pieced it together with a range of vehicles, cutting tools and it was all strategically placed onto a road mat. The children were able to explore their senses, make marks and distinguish the differences between each mark they made, this enabled the children to learn brand new vocabulary in relation to this activity. It may look like a simple activity, but it provided an excellent foundation for the children to apply their already acquired knowledge and skills, and build on what they already know.