EYFS Learning Through Play for 0-5s
As a qualified and experienced Early Years teacher, Kirstin is practised in providing excellent quality learning opportunities which support and extend each individual child's social and intellectual development. All our learning occurs through play activities and is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum for children aged between 0 and 5 years which is used in Pre-Schools and Reception classes. This supports children in 6 areas:
PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
We aim to help all the children in our care development positive attitudes and good behaviour. The individual is always at the centre of our practice and we provide each child with love, care and individual attention. Children are given time to talk and are listened to. We share our toys and work together on activities. Children develop their self-esteem by giving them praise and celebrating their successes. We reward positive behaviour and good manners.
COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
We talk to each one-to-one and in small groups developing our communication skills and extending our vocabulary. We read and enjoy stories and rhymes from books and tapes and re-enact them in our play. We play alphabet, phonic and word games and look for written language in the world around us. We explore with mark marking and improve our hand and eye coordination which will help us write when we are older.
PROBLEM SOLVING, REASONING AND NUMERACY
Counting is very much a part of our every day lives and it can be incorporated in to everything we do at Butterflies. We count bugs in the garden, eggs on an Easter Egg hunt and pieces of apple at snack time. We look for numbers and shapes while we out and about and learn about money during visits to the local shop.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD
Most of a young child's life involves learning about the world around them.
We talk about how things work and why things happen. We enjoy cooking and playing with clay. We observe the natural world outside experiencing different seasons and hunting for minibeasts! We explore with sand and water and build and construct. We learn about living in a community and experience different festivals.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
At Butterflies we actively promote a healthy lifestyle which includes eating well, exercising and resting. Children are provided with healthy balanced meals and are encouraged to spend time outside each day. We play in the garden, taking out activities and sometimes picnics! We visit the local park to climb, swing, slide, run and play with balls. We go for walks and explore the local environment. Children develop good hygiene practices such as washing hands before meals and after using the toilet. We have a rest period each day where children can nap or play quietly with books, puzzles or treasure baskets.
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
At Butterflies we love to explore with art and craft activities, producing masterpieces for our proud parents! We draw, paint, construct, cut, stick and print on both small and large scales! We are very imaginative and like to dress up and create pretend worlds. We play at being chefs in the kitchen or carpenters at the work bench! We love singing songs and rhymes and making music with instruments.
Our activities include:
Dressing up
Books and Story tapes
Small world play
Construction toys (Lego, Duplo etc)
Pretend play (toy kitchen etc)
Water play
Sand play
Arts and Crafts
Cooking
Gardening
Outdoor play
Music making and singing
Messy Play
We plan activities for the children based around their individual interests. This may include having focuses such as a festival or important event e.g. Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day or topics like 'numbers' or 'nursery rhymes'.
Each week we try to have an outing, a cooking activity, at least one yoga session and some art and craft as well as all the other things we do!
Daily Diaries
Each child aged 0-5 has a daily diary which is a book for both the key worker and parents to write in. We enter information each day about the child's mood, activities, meals, sleep, toilet habits and we also include any lightbulb learning moments! It is very useful if parents also write in the diary to provide us with any important information. This is especially important if the child attends another setting e.g. it is helpful to know what a child is learning at Nursery so that we can reinforce it during their time with us.
Observations for Learning
In line with the EYFS and with the permission of the parent, we observe children's learning whilst they are with us. We take photographs which show the child's learning and keep them together in individual learning assessment books. These are always available for the parent to see and are theirs to take away when their child leaves our setting. We have found that parents are very impressed by these books and are pleased to have a photographic record of their child's learning. Our observations are extremely important as they allow us to plan individual play activities which are designed to specifically support your child's development. Every parent is given their child's book to look through at the end of each term when they are welcome to come and discuss their child's progress with their key worker.
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