Childhood. Motherhood.
We love baking here at Aston Childcare and after hearing how much the children loved cookies I thought we would have a go at baking our own. We’ve spoken before how cooking is great for covering many areas of learning so it’s the perfect excuse to make some yummy treats. The children enjoyed the cookies for their afternoon snack and the remainder were sent home with them for them and their families to enjoy.
Happy New Year!
We’ve had a lovely end to the Christmas holidays today. Today was an INSET day for my mindees so we were able to enjoy one more full day together for a while.
This morning the kids caught up after their Christmas and New Year breaks and enjoyed some free play (Personal, Social and Emotional Development) and read some new books we have (Literacy) before settling down to a film.
They enjoyed chicken and tomato soup respectively for lunch.
We then enjoyed baking some chocolate chip muffins (Maths, Physical Development (fine motor skills, stirring etc, Understanding the World) before they requested and enjoyed playing with the playdough (Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Expressive Arts and Design, Physical Development (fine motor skills).
They then decided they wanted to make lightsabers(!) (Expressive Arts and Design, Communication and Language) which they then enjoyed using in their role play!
Another day covering all EYFS 7 areas of Learning.
Here’s to a good 2016!
The EYFS statutory framework 2014 lays out the seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in early years settings.
The areas of learning are:
Today, with one of my mindees and my son we were able to tick off all 7 areas of learning through no particular pre-planning.
Given that it was his first day back after Christmas and it’s still the holidays, we had a relaxed day which we spent mostly at home with two short outings thrown in but still managed to cover all of the following –
And there we have it, all 7 areas of learning covered in just one day!
The EYFS statutory framework 2014 states that we must support children in 4 specific areas of learning one of which is “Understanding the World” and covers 3 themes– People and communities, The World and Technology.
Here at Aston Childcare I am very lucky to have very bright mindees who are very aware of the world around them. These are just some of the resources and activities we do to support and strengthen their understanding and learning –
People and communities
The world
Technology
On my wish list currently are a pair of binoculars, wind up torch, karaoke machine, wind up toys and an electronic keyboard. If anyone has any further ideas please do let me know!
There seems to a common assumption amongst childminders that we must have a box of books placed outside all year round in order to promote literacy outdoors. With the unpredictability of the English weather (gales and heavy rain this week) I don’t much fancy this(!). I would be heartbroken if one day I forget to bring a lovely set of books in from the garden and they were rained on.
I think there is much more to promoting literacy (reading and writing) and having a print rich environment outside. These are just some of the ways here at Aston Childcare that children can explore reading and writing whilst outdoors –
We had a great start to the Christmas holidays today. As today was the first day of the holidays I hadn’t planned anything educational for the children but when I reflected on the day I realised just how many areas of learning we had covered.
This morning they had a great arts and crafts session. They coloured Christmas badges and decorated tree decorations (baubles, angels, Christmas trees and stars) with glitter and pens.
This morning during their free play session they loved the nursery rhyme laminated print outs I have in the playroom and had great fun reciting them and changing the words and inserting our names to make for funnier ones “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, Emily jumped over the moon” and “Joshua ran away with the spoon”!
This afternoon we braved the park despite the strong winds! They kept requesting to stay longer and longer so we were there for a good 2 hours! They loved the swings requesting that I push them higher and higher and enjoyed pushing me faster and faster on the roundabout! We ran about and explored and being the only ones there was lots of singing and shouting! We found lots of mushrooms and some interesting pieces of bark.
Back home, they enjoyed catching Roald Dahls James and the giant peach and Jack and the beanstalk that were showing on tv.
Areas of learning covered: Communication & Language, Literacy, Understanding the world, Expressive Arts and Design, Physical Development, Mathematics
I have tried to hold off on Christmas crafts so far in a bid not to exhaust the theme! However, yesterday our playdough session took on a decidedly Christmassy theme! We had great fun making snowmen, holly, Christmas trees, candy canes, stars and even Father Christmas himself!
I love playing with playdough, it’s definitely my favourite activity to do with my mindees. Yesterday reminded me how it’s fantastic for Personal Social and Emotional Development as we worked together to create things, sharing ideas, waiting our turn to use the playdough rolling pins and cutters. It’s fantastic too for Communication and Language, we sat and chatted about what we were making, sometimes drifting off into conversations about their morning at pre-school and such like. Clearly it’s great for Expressive Arts and Design with the children using their imagination in their creations and exploring materials. It covers Maths (Shapes, sizes, halving, counting etc) and finally, it’s also great for Physical Development and uses fine motor skills as mindees roll and manipulate the playdough and hold and control the rolling and cutting tools.
Today I had just one mindee (aged 4) and my own 17 month old son. I enjoy having a different mix of children on different days to see the differences in their play and interactions. With no school runs and time constraints, I let my mindee lead the activities for the day. It was nice for him to be the eldest in my setting for the day and watch his confidence and leadership in situations alongside my young son.
Whilst my son went down for his nap, my mindee enjoyed playing with playdough. When my son awoke later my mindee then enjoyed playing with him until home time. Playing with babies and toddlers is great for their personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and teaches them lots of valuable skills such as the art of caring and sharing. There are also numerous benefits for babies and toddlers playing alongside older children.
The Early Years Outcomes early learning goal for making relationships within PSED is for “Children to play cooperatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children.”. I am confident that my mindees are exhibiting this behaviour which makes me very proud of them!
We all know that exercise is good for us. It helps children develop strength, become mentally alert and stay healthy. Children need space to run, stretch and explore and to have opportunities to develop both their fine motor and gross motor skills.
Here at Aston Childcare, we gets lots of exercise on our daily school runs, village walks and trips to the park as well as at home in the garden and inside too.
We are lucky to have a great park in the village which has a great array of large scale play equipment that the children love – swings, a roundabout, a zip wire and a variety of assault and rope courses. Back at home, we have a good sized garden for the children to play in.
Inside babies have ample space to stretch, crawl and explore. My older mindees currently love singing and dancing to the hokey cokey! Even the babies love this and laugh at the chorus. It’s a great mood booster! I have very high energy mindees – even the babies!
These are some of the resources and activities on offer here to aid physical development –
And for fine motor skills –
We turned nature detectives on our walk this afternoon. Armed with a jumbo magnifying glass my mindee loved looking at all the bulbs poking up through the soil, the berries on the bushes and the textures and sounds of various flora and fauna. We heard the sheep in the field go “baa!”. “I am the detective, I’m looking for clues” he exclaimed as we picked up some bits to add to our nature tray once back home.
Like us, it’s good for the babies to get fresh air too, we walked up to Aston Potteries, unfortunately at this time of the year their usually magnificent flower displays have all died down. My 9 month old mindee fell asleep peacefully in the buggy on the walk, I transferred her into the cot when we got back home for a nice peaceful afternoon nap.
Areas of Learning Covered: Communication & Language, Understanding the World, Physical Development.
