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Superheroes, Weapon Play and a Giveaway

Last month was all about Superheroes for me. It is not that I developed an overriding urge to wear my underpants over my trousers (although it has been known!). I just ended up doing a lot of talking, writing and idea sharing around the positive impact of Superhero and Weapon play for children in Early Years.

March saw the official release of 'Creative Role Play in the Early Years' in which I have outlined my thoughts on what makes really effective role play work and why. As Superhero and Weapon play does take up a considerable amount of a lot of children's role play time, there is a section in the book that explores the reasons behind why children play in that way and what you can do to enhance it rather than try to eradicate it (which never works!).

I have been writing a series of articles for Early Years Educator Magazine over the past year and this month was all about that Superhero and gun obsession that for some children, seems to punctuate every session of Continuous Provision and free play.

Good role play of any sort, allows children to explore questions and emotions that they encounter in every day life in a controlled environment and a safe context. They can explore what is possible and, equally as importantly, what is impossible. Exploring what is risky and dangerous through play is essential if we want our children to be able to acknowledge and accept the limits of reality.

There is a huge element of emotional exploration that goes on during Superhero and weapon play. Through power struggle and combat children can put themselves into semi-real situations that allow them to experience and combat negative emotions.

As adults we tend to me far more literal in our interpretations of children’s Superhero and weapon play, so when we see play fighting we see violence and aggression as the main catalysts for the play, which is rarely the case. I am not saying that play fighting doesn’t sometimes turn into actual aggression, but that was not the intention when the play started out. If it was then it wouldn’t be play, it would just be a fight!

By it’s very nature this sort of play involves struggle, chase, competition, noise! It is often adrenalin fueled play, there is a high level of thrill for the children taking part so it will be fast and loud. We cannot penalise children for that. If we accept that this sort of play is going to take place then we need to make provision for it, both inside and out, and make sure that the whole team have clear expectations about what is acceptable and what isn’t.

In cultures where they do not have guns, children still engage this this type of play only their guns are replaced with spears, bows and arrows. It is the same symbolism.

Is there any difference between children playing ‘robbers’ and pointing guns at each other and children playing ‘Harry Potter’ or 'Fairies' and pointing their wands to cast spells and kill each other? Does it feel better because it is not a gun? Surely the end result is the same thing - power. It is just that the symbolism is more acceptable to adults. 

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

The question that I always ask myself is: when our children are engaged in gun play, are they practising to become a man with a gun or are they just exploring emotions such as control, risk and a sense of power?

Lots of our children’s essential emotional connections, consolidation and development can be made through fantasy play. The more opportunity they get to rehearse them, the more proficient they will get at managing them.

Superhero Dress Up Set 2  - TTS 

Through Superhero and weapon type role play children can learn to manage their own feelings by displacing them. They can make things turn out as they want them to, reinvent the truth and explore other possible outcomes that wouldn’t be possible in ‘real’ life where there is only one.

Wrestling, chasing, play fighting all help children to experience ‘safe’ danger assess risk and take appropriate action. As a species we are ‘hunter gatherers’. Much of the way that children play is grounded in instinct and an innate desire to hone our survival skills. Our experience of current culture just dressed them differently from our days in the cave!

Most often, but not always, these children are boys who are attracted helplessly to this play for five key reasons:

• making guns is an easily achievable task

• weapon play relates to early communications skills
• major themes of children’s play are represented in weapon-related playing

• running in big spaces, outside is a preferred play style

• it is a universal language that requires no language.

If you want to read more about this kind of play and what you can do to support it then get your hands on a copy of this month's EYE and/or enter the Giveaway below.

So, what am I giving away in this month? Well...

The lovely people at TTS have given me five sets of superhero figures to give away.

These are miniature, generic Superhero figures that would be a great enhancement to your Small World and other areas.

I am also going to throw in five copies of 'Creative Role Play in the Early Years' for good measure.

This of course means that this month there will be FIVE winners (I know, the excitement is unbearable).

All you have to do to stand a chance of winning a set of figures and a book is:

Leave a comment on this blog post and/or

Leave a comment on the ABC Does Facebook page and/or

Tweet me about the Giveaway @ABCDoes

All comments and tweets must be received by noon on Saturday 12th Aril 2014

FIVE winners will be drawn by random number generator and the lucky recipients will be informed via the method/s that they entered the Giveaway.

Good Luck!

Before I go, just a quick conferences update...

It had been really good to see all of you that have managed to make it along to an ABC Does conference. As most of the current dates have sold out, next weekend I will be posting the dates for the next lot.

Alongside new dates for 'Excellence in Early Years' and 'From Mark Maker to Writer', I am also running two new ones. 

'Heads Up'  - specifically for Head teachers, Senior Leaders and Governors, looking at attainment and best practice in EYFS. How it works, tracking high level attainment in and out of direct teaching, auditing your provision for best outcomes for children, being 'Ofsted ready' and lots more.

'Transition - No Space, No Staff, No Stuff!' - to make sure that our lovely Year One teachers are not left out, a course that really gets to the bottom of how transition into KS1 can work effectively, how to plan for it, what it looks like and how to maintain levels of attainment for both EYFS and KS1 children.

Look out for details on the 'conferences' page of the blog.

For those of you who broke up yesterday - have a lovely Easter holiday. For those of you (like me) who have got another week to go - just keep thinking about the chocolate and it will be Friday before you know it!

Alistair

ICT in Early Years AND a TTS Giveaway!

It is sometimes difficult to think of ICT as being anything beyond a computer or an iPad, but ICT in EYFS takes on many different forms and can be promoted in all areas of continuous provision – and beyond.

Undoubtedly there has to be a taught element of ICT, but as many aspects as possible should be integrates into the Continuous Provision that we create to make it real and relevant to children.

ICT should be viewed as a tool that will support all of our teaching and learning, rather than just a single focus for teaching. As well as getting children to be familiar with the ‘operation’ of equipment we need to try and ensure that they can access, experiment and practise with various forms of ICT in their play.

  Nice bit of hairdrier action in a deconstructed role play hairdressers!

The world of ICT moves forward at an ever increasing rate and often we find that children’s skills in operating equipment are just as good, if not better than ours! There is no shame in adults being learning partners with children when it comes to experimenting with new gadgets. After all to teach someone else can be the most powerful way to learn.

I watch my pre-school Niece and Nephews navigating their way around an IPad or playing apps on my iPhone and I am struck by how accomplished they are performing tasks that some adults find challenging. We cannot underestimate the high level of ICT capability that our very young children have. We need to make sure we acknowledge it and reflect it in our environments and planning.

 When showing my 2 year old Niece a picture (in a frame) of my boys when they were little, she swiped her finger across the glass and asked me why the picture didn’t change! Many young children have high expectations of the level of ICT that should exist in their little worlds.

 Sometimes one iPad just isn't enough!

Having said that ICT is SO much more than an iPad or a computer. ICT in everywhere around children in many different guises. We need to help them to recognise it, explore it and apply it to their investigation and play.

Lots of you will already be familiar with programmable toys like Bee -Bot. These have many uses and children really enjoy working with them. Ideally, alongside a focussed input, this sort of toy should be part of your Continuous Provision, so that children can access them in their free play.

When we are thinking about areas like Role Play, think about including ICT resources that children will experience in their everyday life. Has your role play area got a cashpoint machine (a cardboard box with a slot)? Does your ‘shopping’ enhancement box have a self service till? Does your restaurant enhancement box have a chip and pin card reader and calculators for working out the bill?

Anyone who has ever been on a staff night out will know that you have to allow at least an hour at the end of the meal to work out how much it will be per person (‘but I didn’t have a starter’…’I only had one glass of wine’…’we shared a desert, so can you split the cost between three’…)!

If you haven’t got the real thing (there aren’t many spare cash machines knocking around) then you can make it. Better still get the children to make it. There is huge fascination though, for children with ‘the real thing’, so if you can, go real.

 

Effective ICT is also good for helping children to develop creative and critical thinking. Operating and applying the technology that they come across helps them to make sense of what they are experiencing and also make new connections about how things work and how they can use them.

Try to keep your ICT experiences relevant and meaningful to children. If it matters to them and engages them then they are far more likely to learn.

One really effective and engaging way for children to learn about how things work  is to take them apart. I guarantee that you will get huge levels of engagement from children if you provide them with a selection of screwdrivers and a pile of ‘stuff’ to unscrew. (Obviously, remove any really dangerous bits!)

 

Switches, wires, circuits, connectors, bulbs, batteries – it is all there waiting to be discovered and tinkered with.

 
With a clever bit of recycling you can even create something new. You might need to raid the Y2 electricity topic box - just don't tell them!

Snack is another great opportunity to get children using ICT. They might be using an electric timer to demarcate how long they can spend in the snack area, a bread maker to make their snack, a toaster to toast their bread, an electric apple peeler, a juicer or a talking tin to give them a talk prompt the possibilities are endless.

Bread making

 

Using 'easy to follow' instructions.

Nursery and Reception children self serving toast

You can have endless fun at the photocopier (as long as the Office Manager isn’t looking!). I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t get a bit giddy when they get to press the big green button and have a copy of whatever they put under the lid pop out of the other end.  Try copying their hands to create a number line.

Lots of settings have a Visualiser now, but if you haven’t got one, you might want to consider it. You can attach it to your lap top and your Smartboard. Anything the children put underneath it gets magnified. Great for sharing interesting ‘stuff’.

 

Equipment like metal detectors are relatively cheap and highly engaging both indoors and out. Just make sure that whatever they are looking for is worth finding. No one wants to find a word card with a paper clip in the corner!

 Simple video cameras are very easy to get hold of these days. There is also lots of really simple software out there that lets children turn their videoing into short films. There is something VERY empowering about being in charge of a video camera or camera. It gives children a sense of power in that they can capture images that are important to them.

Video cameras and cameras are also a really good social prop for children who are shy or lack language, because they give a valid and accepted reason to approach other children and engage.

 

A video also allows children to re-visit and reflect. This can be a very useful and enjoyable thing for children to do.

If you are in a setting with a working kitchen then try and make as much use of that as possible. Not just when it comes to ‘baking’ but work with the children to use the other electrical items that are in there like the washing machine, the microwave and the dishwasher (if your setting is dead posh!).

Bring in from home items that children might be less familiar with like a sewing machine. They will be fascinated by how it works.

Make sure you let them have a go. Under supervision of course!

You can also add to your everyday provision with equipment like a light box, torches, microphones, remote control vehicles, voice changers, talking tins, torches, listening centres, headphones, karaoke machines…the list is literally endless.

 

This is a 'black light' torch. It makes highlighter pen water, tonic water and anything white glow in the dark!

Don’t forget that if you have access to two laptops/computers and an internet signal you can Skype or Facetime either from the room next door or get your friend's school to do it from the other side of your County, the Country or even the World.

I am working on a project at the moment using Xbox and Wii in Early Years, with some fantastic results – but more of that in a longer post at a later date!

ICT can bring really high levels of engagement, learning and interest from children. There is so much out there, make sure you have plenty of it in your setting and LET THE CHILDREN USE IT. It is no good it is still in the stock cupboard.

TTS GIVEAWAY 

To help you along with your ICT provision. The lovely people at TTS are donating quite a spectacular ICT package for this month's giveaway.

 

You can win a set of these Mini Mobile Phones worth £119. They were Shortlisted for BETT Awards 2014 - Early Years Digital Content - Category

These six walkie-talkies, realistically styled like the latest smartphones with bright colours are a fantastic addition to your ICT resources.

So simple to use, they are ideal for outdoor play or even used from room to room.

• Up to three pairs of children can speak to each other simultaneously, each having their own conversation without the need to select different channels.
• Colour coordinated buttons make 'dialling' easy. Simply press the button that corresponds to the phone you want to call. If the other phone is busy, you get a realistic 'call waiting' function.

Answering is simple - just press the 'answer' button and talk, just like you would with a real phone. Children can talk together naturally and enjoy real conversations without pressing extra buttons to talk or listen.

If that wasn’t enough, they are also letting me have 2 sets of Walkie Talkie Headsets worth £38.34 each. These headsets allow the children to communicate with each other whilst on the move or from their secret hideout!  Or, if the fancy takes you, you can use them to chat to the person on outdoor provision! (If you win, you will need 2x9v batteries per headset which are not included in the giveaway.)

 

So, all you have to do to stand a chance of winning the set of mobile phones and the two sets of headphones is:

Leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post and/or

Leave me a tweet @ABCDoes and/or

Leave a comment on the ABC Does Facebook page here

All comments and Tweets must be made by noon on Saturday 1^st February 2014. The winner will be selected using a random number generator.

Good Luck

Alistair

Talk for Mark Making and Writing - Granny's teeth!

At the grand old age of 93 years, my Granny passed away last year. She will be sorely missed and has left behind the great legacy of a long life well lived. She also left a number of things for us to remember her by  – but one unexpected (and unintentional on her part) heirloom was her teeth!

Not her everyday set, you understand. Theses were her ‘spares’, her ‘just in case’ set. Kept in bubble wrap at the back of a drawer – just in case…

I was really chuffed when I found them, because I knew I would be able to put them to good use!

Imagine coming into your setting to find these in a jar in the middle of your snack table! Now if that doesn't get you talking, I don't know what will! There are a million questions, statements, stories and exclaimations that will come from one pair of flase teeth.

When a child has limited language acquisition and wants to talk about the temperature of something then they can only really refer to its state as either hot or cold. They do not have the words for anything in between. As adults we can provide them with a wide range of words supported by a relevant experience. It is no good just getting the child to learn a list of words, for that learning to stick those words need to be attached to an engaging and relevant learning experience so if we say something is, luke warm, tepid, ice cold, warm, boiling, scorching or freezing the child will be able to put that into the context of their experience.

Not forgetting that children have to hear a word used in context on a number of occasions before they can assimilate it, make sense of it and then regurgitate it in their talk.

If they cannot talk about it, then they cannot write about it, as writing is only talk that comes out of the end of your pencil instead of your mouth!

There are so many exciting words in the English language that nearly every activity that they do will be an opportunity to try one out! If you decide to take one of those opportunities and extend a child’s vocabulary, first of all be sure that they have a basic word to describe whatever it is that you are going to extend. Use that word first as that is their point of reference and then extend. The more engagement you can get from the child. The more chance you have got of that word sticking.

• Stress the word that you are using within the sentence

‘Look at that big (insert word). It is not just big it is enormous!’

• Tell them what the word you have used means

‘Can you see it? It is really big, huge, massive, really enormous’

• Act it using gestures, actions or tone of voice.

It is really e-nor-mous, even bigger than this (fling arms apart) 

• Relate the word to something that is personal to that child’s experience

 ‘It is as even bigger than that enormous piece of playdough that you were playing with this morning. Do you remember?'

• Talk it again and again and again! There is no harm in overusing a word on first introduction as long as you don’t put the children off!

 ‘What else can we see that is enormous? That rock over there, is so much bigger an the others it’s enormous. I Once wrestled a shark that was as big as a double decker bus – it was enormous and had enormous teeth!’

 If the child is keen to join in and have a go at using the word then that is great and you should encourage then to have a go. If they are showing no signs of wanting to join in then this is also fine. I is not so much about the child saying the word, but about them hearing it in context and making sense of it. enough to use it.

For a quick mental reminder of what you need to do, just think

START

Stress it, Tell it, Act it, Relate it and Talk it.

Learning to write is not hard, painful or boring if you do it at the right time and in the right order. Many practitioners still put too much emphasis on the physical mark making element of writing pushing children to do things that they are not physically or mentally equipped to do.

 

(Not sure what is scarier - me or the teeth!)

Once we understand the process of how children develop their mark making and writing skills then we can make sure that we are accurately assessing their progress and then reflecting that assessment in the environment that we create and the planning that we put into place.

Alongside that we should be spending a HUGE amount of time talking with children and giving them something that they want to talk and write about.

Getting children with limited interest or vocabulary to talk can be hard work. So pick things that will provoke a reaction.

Something to make them laugh

make them think, make them go ‘Yuk!’

or give them a mild fright!

(This is one of my activities where you make 'dinosaur poo' out of playdough with soil and coffee grinds mixed in. In some of the poo, you put boiled chicken bones, in some vegetation. The children have to disect the poo using tweezers (and hygienic gloves) and work out if the dinosaur who did the poo was a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore and then record their results! Get's them talking and writing every time!)

Once you have got them talking – then you will get them mark making and writing. Hold on, that sounds like a good idea for a conference. It just so happens I know a bloke who is running a really good one on just that subject! You can find the details here. If you're lucky he will bring his false teeth!

Thanks for the inspiration Granny. I am sure you are smiling down on us all (albeit a gummy one due to the fact that I have got your teeth!)

Happy talking...and writing

Alistair

TTS Giveaway - Wooden Till for Role Play

How do you fancy getting your hands on one of these from the lovely people at TTS?

I really like it because even though it is a till, it is ambiguous enough that it could be a variety of contraptions depending on who was using it.

Of course, as adults we can identify it as a shop till. Although, how many shop tills look like this one? When I am standing at the self service till in Tesco (being told that there is an unexpected item in my bagging area), I am not looking at anything like this. So lots of our children may not know what it is as they have never seen one like it.

Don't forget that children can only role play with the language and experience that they have got in their head. So if you create a role play area that is full of gorgeous objects that the children don't recognise or don't have language for, then you are not facilitating effective role play.

Good role play allows children to practise, imagine and rehearse problems and possibilities before they happen. Lots of opportunity to do this will equip children not with the solutions to every eventuality they will come up against, but the strategies for problem solving and a wealth of experience to draw upon. Role playing with other children not only reinforces social interactions but gives of the children involved the opportunity to learn about the thoughts, reactions and strategies of others, which will in turn enhance their own.

 Over structuring and theming of role play spaces can significantly get in the way of children developing these skills. It is difficult to expect children to be able to explore and make sense of their own personal experiences when they are being asked to do it in a Garden Centre or the Post Office! Although, theming around interest can add value to a role play experience, it should be an enhancement to your provision and not the provision in it’s entirety.

For a real quality role play experience you need to provide lots of opportunities for social interaction and objects that will promote open ended play. What is crucial is that the children have lots of opportunities to interact and socialise, that their imaginations can run wild and take a leap – if that is what they want to do. 

So, for me this 'till of loveliness' would be an enhancement to your open ended role play. Something that you could put into a box or basket themed around 'shopping' that would enhance your open ended role play.

Having said that if someone came along and took it out of the 'shopping' box to use it as a control panel in the Tardis, on their space ship or to type in a secret spy code to open a locked door -  that would be fantastic. (no shouting over and telling them to put it back in the 'shop' box would be allowed!)

The great thing about good role play spaces is that all of those things have the potential to be happening at the same time.

So, to win this till all you have to do is...

Leave a comment on the bottom of this blog post

and/or

Leave a comment on the ABC Does Facebook page HERE

and/or

Send me a Tweet to @ABCDoes

All entries must be made by Midday on Sunday 3rd November 2013. The winner will then be drawn by a random number generator.

Good Luck

Alistair

Mid Week Make - Apple Shrunken Heads!

These weren't my idea, I came across them on the internet and just had to have a go.

Initially I made them as talk prompts as part of an activity for my next book about display. The whole concept of a severed head is wonderfully gorey, but also the process of the initial making and then the ensuing decay is fascinating. Not to mention the end results. I love them!

They are dead easy to make (excuse the pun)!

You need

• Apples (any sort will do)

• Apple peeler

• Play dough utenstils

• Blunt wooden skewers or sticks

• Lemon juice (optional)

• Water (optional)

My boys loved making them. I obviously don't condone the drinking of wine whilst working with children (unless they are your own and you are in your own home)!

What to do

• Peel your apples

• Use your dough utensils to dig out eyes, nose and mouth hole.

• The great thing is, that because they shrink down quite considerably, you don't need to be particularly artistic or accurate. The more random the better.

• If you want your head to have teeth, then stick them in now. You can experiment with the sorts of things that you use. I used black and white rice and dried star anise.

• If you don't want to risk your apples  going  mouldy then dip them in a solution of lemon juice and water. I didn't 'dip' as I thought a bit of mould might add to the interest. As it was, mine didn't go mouldy, but I got some lovely brown 'ooze'

• Once you have finished sculpting and dipping then stick your shrunken head on a skewer or stick and leave to shrink.

 

Depending on the temperature, airflow and the size of your apples it can take up to two weeks before they are ready.

TIP: Don't let your shrunken heads touch while they are shrinking , this encourages more of a mushy head than a shrunken one!

Once they are done, let your imagination run wild!

Have fun shrinking...

Alistair

Mini-Me!

I know that I have written about these before but they are great and a perfect 'start of the year' activity.

Hamstel Infant School

The idea of a Mini-Me is that you create your class or group in miniature. The children can then use these miniatures in their play.

There is nothing more powerful for your self esteem than having a little 'you' that you can take around with you or create fabulous fantasy small worlds to play in.

Hamstel Infant School

Mini-Me's can be really effective in helping children to develop language and communication skills as well as personal social skills and positive behaviours.

Hamstel Infant School

How to do it

What You Need :

• Digital camera
• Printer
• Laminator
• Small yoghurt drink bottle (one per child)
• Glue

What to do :

1. Take a full length photograph of each child . It is worth spending the time to make sure that they are all of a similar size. If you are taking them in your setting then find a spot to stand the children and always have the camera in the same place
2. Cut around the photograph
3. Laminate
4. Attach to the front of the yoghurt drink bottle

Tip:  PVA glue can take a long time to dry. Try attaching your photograph to the bottle with self adhesive Velcro or a glue gun.

You could also try using the bottle to store special messages or gifts to or from the children.

Don't forget to Mini-Me yourself so that the children can use you in their small world play. This can really help them with familiarisation. The downside of having the adults in the setting as a Mini-Me is that you really find out what you sound like to the children!

Hamstel Infant School

I have successfully used family Mini-Me's with children who are finding it difficult to settle. Far from making the children more anxious, if they have Mini-Me's of their significant family members it allows them to involve them in their play and gives them a sense of security.

Kids Allowed Nursery

Once you have made a set you will find yourself making them again and again. It doesn't stop with your children, once you have got the hang of laminating a picture and sticking it to a bottle, the world is your Oyster!

Have fun Mini-Me-ing!

Alistair

Make a Mud Kitchen - It's a must!

If you haven't got a mud kitchen already, then you need to make one! I know that for some of you in schools the summer holidays have already started and for the rest, they are just around the corner, but this would be a brilliant thing to set up for your new intake in September as it links to so many of the skills that you will be focussing on with all of your newbies.

If you are working with children in your setting during the summer then there is no better way to spend your day than up to your eyeballs in mud!

Not only is a kitchen a lovely familiar link to children's own 'home' setting. This sort of familiar, secure play offers up lots of opportunities for cooperative play and interaction as well as a million other things.

The great thing about a mud kitchen is that it will develop with the children. It has got so much potential for so many learning experiences, that it would be an all year round asset to your outdoor space.

I had been wanting to have a go at making one for ages and the opportunity arose this week via two unrelated incidents.

The first was that my brother-in law sat on our garden bench and broke it. To be fair it was an old bench and it gave way very easily, with hilarious consequences!

The second was that we were having an 'invasion' of nieces and nephews this weekend that would result in 10 mud kitchen guinea pigs, six of whom were 4 and under - perfect!

So I got to work with my very limited DIY skills, a broken bench and an old Belfast sink from down the side of the shed (just needed a good clean and a new plug - 34p.)

A mud kitchen is not the same as a soil or digging pit, although they are a good place to start, A mud kitchen will have some structure and be a defined space, that is well resourced that children can return to again and again.

What really helped me in thinking about what I wanted my mud kitchen to look like, was identifying some of the skills and experiences I wanted children to have in it.

Obviously, they are not going to get all of these in one session, and the list is by no means an exhaustive one, but it gave my thinking a bit of structure and purpose. I was also thinking about how it might look as a permanent feature in a setting.

These are some of the skills that I came up with that children could learn and consolidate through mud kitchen play.

• Development of Pretence – Children developing the capacity to use their imagination to feed their play.

• Development and use of receptive and expressive language – Children’s ability to listen to and understand what is being said to them and also their ability to communicate their ideas and thoughts is a way that others can understand.

• Mental representations – ideas that children create in their mind and then play out through role play and interaction

• Transform objects – Children use their imagination to turn one object into another. The more ambiguous the object, the easier the process. So a box can be a boat, a house, a microwave a shoe etc

• Symbolic action – children imagine how something might ‘be’ or ‘feel’ and then use this as a mechanism for their play.

• Interactive dialogue – Children talk to others who respond appropriately

• Negotiation – Using language and conversation skills to reach a compromise or end result.

• Role taking through choice – Children coorperate in play but decide on the role within that play that they would like to take. Often done without talk

• Role taking under direction (cooperation) – Children cooperate in play but are happy to be directed by another child or adult who is leading the scenario

• Improvisation – Children have no set or fixed plan for how their play will develop. The scenario emerges as a result of the children’s interactions.

 Cognitive Strategies

• Joint Planning – Children work together to come up with a plan

• Negotiation – Joint discussions that lead to an agreed end result

• Problem Solving  - taking time to think together or alone to solve a problem or issue

• Goal Seeking – Children will work individually or in collaboration to seek and end result

• Emotion – Children can explore a range of emotions in a safe and supported environment

• Cognition – Children acquire new knowledge through language, interaction and experience

• Language – Children can extend their range of vocabulary as well as mechanisms for using and expressing language.

• Sensory Motor Actions  - Children make sense of the world through their senses and physical actions

• Abstract Thinking – Thinking about the world around them in a different way. For good abstract thinking, children need to be able to use and apply their prior knowledge uniquely.

• Explicit Rules  - Children learn about explicit rules like playing fairly and sharing

• Implicit Rules – Children learn about more complex and subtle rules that exist with play like engaging others in their play and maintaining fantasy play, even though they know that it is not ‘real’.

 I also bought 3 wooden crates from EBay (3 for £26) so that I could stack them to display the resources I wanted the children to access and also use them to store the resources if I needed to put them away. The crates also make the space easy to change and re-arrange around the chidlren's preferences.

It is worth remembering, that if you use indoor wooden furniture (like a ‘play’ kitchen) you use will eventually warp due to the sun and rain. If you can, varnish anything you leave out with a good yacht varnish to help to protect it.

Although shelving is important for storage, work surface is really important. You need to provide enough working space, at child height, to allow the children to arrange all of the resources that they need and then carry out their stirring, mixing, pouring and creating. All of which takes up a great deal of space!

I extended the working space by using a old pasting table and chopping off a bit of the legs to make them shorter.

When it came to resourcing the mud kitchen, I wanted what was in it to be interesting, open ended, linked to skill development and cheap!

Be prepared for your mud kitchen to ‘evolve’ as the children play in it. Although the structure is likely to stay the same how the children play with the resources will be different.

 I had some bits and pieces already (If you work in a school or setting, you can send home a letter asking families for kitchen donations) and I decided that it would be worth investing in some long term and unique resources like this gorgeous teak wooden bowl £24.99 (find it here)  

and wooden basket £17.99 (find it here) from TTS.

I also got this wooden pestle and mortar from eBay for £14.99 

as well as some everyday, familiar items like, jugs, whisks, wooden spoons, pans, cups  etc.

 

The Uncle Joe's Mint Balls tin was a 'thank you' gift from the Wigan Early Years team when I did their Early Years Conference this year. Why Uncle Joe's Mint Balls? You will find the answer to that question here. They even have their own song! (Thanks Ruth).

These turkey basters were another eBay purchase and a huge hit.

The children are going to be exploring and consolidating a range of skills like:

• Filling
• Pouring
• Emptying
• Transferring
• Sorting
• Whisking
• Mixing
• Splatting
• Counting
• Handling
• Mashing
• Sharing
• Scooping
• Gathering
• Estimating
• Decanting
• Adding
• Stirring
• Sieving
• Foraging
• Serving
• Ladling
• Squashing
• Grinding
• Molding
• Smoothing
• Splashing
• Picking
• Selecting
• Collecting
• Crushing
• Squashing
• Measuring
• Brewing
• Separating

 …to name but a few. So, it is worth considering how you will resource your space to support these skills. I had a happy half hour in Wilkinsons buying all sorts of pots, pans and plastic containers very cheaply. I also managed to pick up some really nice wooden bits and pieces like pastry brushes and an egg timer. You can shop online for delivery at www.wilko.com.

If you can, try and provide a wide selection of different natural resources for children to add to their play like pebbles, gravel, bark, wood chips, seeds, pine cones, shells, glass beads, wood slices, sticks, moss and I even added my trusty old box of bones which never fails to provoke a reaction.

Even though I called it a mud kitchen, it is not just about mud. Mud is a great starting point so ideally you need to set up your mud kitchen near to a good source of soil. I made my mud source in a nearby border. This meant that the children had to do a bit of digging as well as some transporting. I put up a camouflage net to give the area a sense of enclosure and privacy for the children. It also provided some well needed shade.

If you haven’t got an open digging space that the children can access, then you can provide containers of topsoil that the children can use to make their mud mixes.

I found out through experimentation that although compost has a unique texture when mixed with water, it doesn’t make great mud. It tends to be very ‘loose’ with lots of floaty bits in it! You really need to use soil. If you are concerned about what might be in the soil in your boarders (especially if you have got younger children who might eat it) you can buy bags of sterilised top soil from the garden centre.

Because the soil in our garden was so hard due to the hot weather, I topped up the bed with a bag of loam top soil. One bag went a long way.

To make soil into mud you need water. I was able to fill (and refill and refill and refill…) the sink with the hose. I also cleaned out and filled a water butt with fresh, clean water and stacked it on some bricks to give it enough height for the children to be able to fill their containers. Water butts are very heavy when full so you have to make sure that they have a really sturdy base to stand on. In a setting I would always use a water butt stand for safety.

Like with the moving of the soil, lots of children really enjoy the transportation and pouring of water, so having a separate water source can be a real benefit to the space.

Washing up liquid, scented shampoo, powder paint and even a bit of glitter can all make simple but effective additions to your mud kitchen mixes.

Children will get the opportunity to experiment and create to their hearts content. I used a tomato sauce dispenser for my washing up liquid. It was good for getting little hands stretching and squeezing.

Children will also want to pick leaves and flowers to add to their mud mixes. If you are going to set up a kitchen then you need to have a conversation with the children about what they are allowed to pick and what they aren’t.

It is very hard to make petal perfume without petals, but by the same token, every flower in your setting could easily be stripped of its petals in one afternoon by a group of over zealous perfume makers. You need to establish a middle ground.

Poo Alert!

Dogs, cats, foxes and potty training 2 year olds all like a nicely dug soil patch to use as a toilet, so you have to be vigilant to ensure that the children aren’t going to come into contact with any animal (or human) poo as it can be extremely harmful.

Hand washing is essential after any mud play. Because you are not going to be with the children every time they finish their mud kitchen play it is really important that the hand washing routine becomes automatic to them. It is also good to get the children to wash up all of the utensils they have used in the kitchen using warm soapy water. Not only do they enjoy the water play, but it also really helps to keep their hands clean. A little squirt of sanitizer never goes amiss either!

Whether your outdoor space is big or small you will find hours of play, engagement and learning from a few kitchen utensils and a bit of mud.

Have fun, we did! 

 

TTS Giveaway - It's All About The Talk!

Command of language and talk is the single most important thing that we can teach our children. The more that they understand then the more diverse their use of language can be.

 As talk is so important, it never fails to surprise me that its essential elements are often misunderstood and that quality opportunities for it practice and use rank so low in the learning opportunities that we provide for our children.

There is a long history in teaching of 'listen to learn'. In adult led talk sessions the adult will spend a great deal of time instructing and children only really get a chance to talk when they are responding to adult questioning. This significantly stifles children’s opportunities to develop their language skills and also mars their interest and engagement in learning. There is a great deal of emphasis on children's ability to be able to record their thinking but not as much on giving them the language to use.

Even though the Early Years curriculum is far less prescriptive than that of Key Stages One and Two and offers more opportunities than anywhere else in the primary curriculum for children to engage in talk and exploration of language. Adult focused sessions are still very centred around adults speaking and children listening.

When I talk to practitioners about why they run their Early Years teaching sessions like this, some talk about a ‘top down’ pressure to get children writing. An expectation that often comes from management who have little or no experience of Foundation Stage. Some staff have also told me about their own insecurities and lack of knowledge and confidence for how to deliver their teaching in any other way.

(all pictures above from October Afternoon)

If we are going to change the ingrained practice of ‘chalk and talk’ to allow children the opportunity to engage with their learning in a meaningful and personal way then there needs to be a huge pedagogical shift not only from practitioners but their management teams and the institutions that are responsible for delivering the training that prepares adults to be effective practitioners in Early Years. 

The message that we need to get out there is...

It's all about the talk!

To help you to start your very own 'talk revolution' TTS have given me:

6 Talking Post Cards

6 Talking Pegs

and 3 Talking Points to give away.

I will also throw in a copy of my books 'Get Them Talking Get them Learning'

and 'Get Them Talking Get Them Writing'

That should be enough to keep you talking for a while!

All you need to do to win is to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post or on my facebook page. The comments are moderated first (just in case of inappropriate content) so don't worry if your comment doesn't appear immediately.

All comments must be posted by mid day on Saturday 6th July when the Giveaway will end.

A random number generator will then be used to pick the winner!

Good luck

Alistair

Café Culture and the not so humble snack...

Like with every area of your provision, it is worth asking the question 'what is snack for?' before you start to plan for it.

At it most basic level, snack is an opportunity for young children, who burn lots of energy in their play and exploration of your environment, to re-fuel. But, in truth there is SO much more that snack could and should be than that. At best it can offer some brilliant leaning opportunities. At worst it is a bag of apples and some cartons of milk dumped on a table.

Halton Lodge have a small but perfectly formed snack area with a 'Have a go if you want to' waiting area with leveled challenges in it

There are a number of ways of running your snack sessions, from sit down and eat together to free flow. There should be no hard and fast rule for what you should do when as long as your snack sessions have purpose and are linked to learning as opposed to being a glorified chimps tea party!

At the beginning of your year, or with a new intake of children, you will be stopping and starting your children regularly to re-enforce rules and routines and celebrate individual achievements. 

During this 'settling' in period, a collective snack time can be brilliant for coaching the children through what snack is all about. How you eat your snack, how to pour your water and in some cases how to suck through a straw -trickier than you think if you have never done it before!

It is also a time for practitioners to remind children about rules and routines and celebrate successes.

Another situation where you might consider as 'stop and sit down' snack is to support your Key Person role. Sharing food is a very social thing to do and meeting and eating in small groups can really help to develop relationships as well as provide fantastic opportunities for adults to tap into children's interests and then use what they have found out to link into learning for high level engagement.

I worked with one setting where the Key Adults had a picnic basket complete with blanket, plates and cups. At snack time the children found a space either indoors or out and set up their 'snack picnic'. 

In this particular setting many of the children lacked a range of vocabulary and talk. So, each week alongside the usual 'chat' we planned in a talk focus. So one week it might have been talk for questioning, another talk for conflict resolution. This didn't mean that this was all that was talked about, but it gave adults a focus for their snack talk which they could also use in their other interactions with children in  and around the setting.

Here at Hamstel Infant School they have made soup together and are now sharing it for snack.

Usually as time goes on and the children get better at using the environment independently, you will do far less stopping and starting as you want to facilitate opportunities for deep level learning, exploration and discovery.

This is when a self service snack comes into its own. Sometimes practitioners are a bit wary of giving children responsibility for their own snack. Someone did once ask me what I would do if I child took two milks instead of one! I don' t think my answer of 'Call the milk police and have them arrested' went down too well!

There is really no need to be wary though. With some good organisation and high expectations very young children can be very self-sufficient.

Here are children at Noah's Ark pack away pre-school self-managing their own snack - yes, that is a toaster in the background on the table and no there is no adult (in a tabard) standing watch.

and they do the washing up...

This is a similar idea in St Andrew's C of E Primary. These children are mixed Nursery and Reception and they completely self manage their 'Seedlings Café'. The school is in an are of high social deprivation so the café serves breakfast at the beginning of the day. 

Once the breakfast rush is over the cereal and toast are replaced with milk, water and fruit.

There are 2 waiters aprons which the children take turns to wear. They manage the length of time that they are a waiter by using a timer.

The children were surprisingly good at sticking to their time without adult intervention, but there were one or two serial offenders who would have kept their apron on all day, but staff were aware of who these children were and kept an eye out for them.

Snack like this is brilliant for supporting independence and interaction but as there is no adult 'manning' the space it can also become a haven for 'avoiders' who will happy sit and spend half an hour chewing on an apple.

Alongside the independence element of the snack area, you also want to introduce other learning opportunities. This can be as simple as having a photograph or object on the table for the children to look at and talk about. 

For any Continuous Provision to be effective, adults need to be mobile within the learning space. You should be taking learning to children rather than pulling children to you. If you set up an activity at a table in one area of your setting and then call children to you it becomes impossible for you to then ensure that what is going on in your Continuous Provision is really taking children's learning forward and not just low level holding tasks.

So, as an adult is moving through the learning space they are able to drop into snack, re-set any of the resources that need resetting, check for loiterers and engage in a bit of quality talk.

This is snack time at St Augustine’s 'Primadona Café'. The waiters are also on a timer and their job is to write down the name of the diner and their preferred snack option before serving it to them.

Whilst waiting, the snackers had some great pictures to look at that promoted a lot of talk.

If you are trying to encourage children to talk then you need to give them something that they are going to want to talk about. Humor and terror (within reason) often work well as does showing them photos of past events, getting them to remember, recall, sequence and articulate their memories.

the shark creeping up on the boy (if sharks can creep?) was a particular favourite!

There will also be times when you work in the snack area alongside the children to help them to prepare what they are going to eat and then join them in eating it!

nursery children learning to cook and cut with a sharp knife

rocking that pinny Mr. Clegg!

Although I am a fan of keeping most other areas of your provision as ambiguous and open ended as possible snack is one area that you can really go to town on 'dressing'. This not only gives your environment impact but also offers up some great opportunities to re-enforce other areas of learning like roleplay, mathematics, understanding of the world, mark making -the list is endless!

Whether it be a cafe, ice cream parlour, tea shop, tree house or all American 1950's diner, just make sure it has purpose and impact as well as good food and quality talk!

Alistair

Hierarchy of talk in Early Years

I spend a lot of time talking about the importance of talk in Early Years. It really is the key to effective learning and personal development in children. Yet, quality talk development is often missed out or overlooked by pressure to show attainment in other areas.

The ability to talk is simple enough for most children but how they talk and what they talk about is a far more complex thing that needs to be effectively modelled and regularly practised.

Such is my passion for the importnace of talk I was asked to write  ‘Get Them Talking, Get Them Learning’  where I am able to take a more in-depth look at some of the more common types of talk that children come into contact with in their every day life. Through quality planned talk sessions they should experience all of the following and more.

• Talk for social interaction
– build relationships – co-operation
– take turns, join in – share
• Talk for making choices and decisions, 
developing curiosity
• Talk for developing  language – using familiar and newly introduced vocabulary
• Talk for develop communication and negotiation skills
• Talk for expressing emotions and feelings
• Talk for recalling own experience
• Talk for developing mathematical language and concepts in a meaningful context
• Talk for develop day to day activities like cooking
• Talk for communicating ideas in construction of props
• Talk for projecting themselves into feelings, actions of others
• Talk for taking on a role in an imaginary situation both real and fantasy
• Talk for conflict resolution, both real and imaginary
• Talk for problem solving in real and imaginary situations
• Talk for tidying up! – talk for negotiation, organisation
• Talk for comparison
• Talk for cooperation and collaboration, beginning to work as part of a group
• Talk for sharing and turn taking 
• Talk for naming of familiar objects
• Talk for the development of descriptive language
• Talk for positional language
• Talk for naming attributes of common objects and animals
• Talk for developing an awareness of a real life environment that is different from their own
• Talk for communicating emotion e.g. fear
• Talk for discussion of previous experiences that were both good and
• Talk for description and exploration of colour, texture, shape and size of objects found in ‘real’ and imaginary habitats
• Talk for awareness of danger
• Talk for recognition of  “sameness” and 
“difference”
• Talk for finding out about past events in their own lives and the lives of others
• Talk for making choices
• Talk for organising ideas and experiences
• Talk for expressing feelings and ideas

To ensure that children are getting lots of opportunities for talk development, a talk focus should be part of your weekly planning. Use your assessments and observations to identify which areas of talk development that children are weakest in and then focus on those in your teaching times and interactions.

I regularly advise settings to have a box on their weekly planner that states the type of talk they are going to be focusing on and how they are going to differentiate it for the different abilities that they have got.

It is not enough just to speak, we have to teach children to talk. 

In the revised Every Child Matters document what was Communication, Language and Literacy had now been sub sectioned into the Prime Areas of Communication and Language which covers listening and attention, understanding and speaking and the specific area of Literacy which covers reading and writing.

 If you use the age related descriptors for Communication and Language, they give you a very comprehensive reference point, not only for the type of talk activity that you should be planning, but also the national expectation for age related attainment.

Skills for Talk Development

 22-36 months

• Uses language as a powerful means of widening contacts, sharing feelings experiences and thoughts.
• Holds a conversation, jumping from topic to topic.
• Learns new words very rapidly and is able to use them in communicating.
• Uses gestures, sometimes with limited talk, e.g. reaches toward toy, saying ‘I have it’.
• Uses a variety of questions (e.g. what, where, who).
• Uses simple sentences (e.g.’ Mummy gonna work.’)
• Beginning to use word endings (e.g. going, cats). 

30 – 50 months

• Beginning to use more complex sentences to link thoughts (e.g. using and, because).
• Can retell a simple past event in correct order (e.g. went down slide, hurt finger).
• Uses talk to connect ideas, explain what is happening and anticipate what might happen next, recall and relive past experiences.
• Questions why things happen and gives explanations. Asks e.g. who, what, when, how.
• Uses a range of tenses (e.g. play, playing, will play, played).
• Uses intonation, rhythm and phrasing to make the meaning 
clear to others.
• Uses vocabulary focused on objects and people that are of particular importance to them.
• Builds up vocabulary that reflects the breadth of their experiences.
• Uses talk in pretending that objects stand for something else in play, e,g, ‘This box is my castle.’

40-60+ months

• Extends vocabulary, especially by grouping and naming, exploring the meaning and sounds of new words.
• Uses language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences in play situations.
• Links statements and sticks to a main theme or intention.
• Uses talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events.
• Introduces a storyline or narrative into their play. 





Early Learning Goal

Children express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

The range of talk skills that children are able to develop are quite diverse and complex. Far in advance of what they are expected to record in their writing.

 Skills for Writing Development

 22-36 months

•  Distinguishes between the different marks they make.

30-50 months

• Sometimes gives meaning to marks as they draw and paint.
• Ascribes meanings to marks that they see in different places.

 

40 – 60+ months

• Gives meaning to marks they make as they draw, write and paint.
• Begins to break the flow of speech into words.
• Continues a rhyming string.
• Hears and says the initial sound in words.
• Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together.
• Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.
• Uses some clearly identifiable letters to communicate meaning, representing some
• sounds correctly and in sequence.
• Writes own name and other things such as labels, captions.
• Attempts to write short sentences in meaningful contexts. 


 Early Learning Goal 


Children use their phonic knowledge to write words
 in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.

The above list is a really useful reference for looking at what ‘next steps’ for talk might look like in your planning, but also for mapping your coverage of types of talk and use of language.

If you know the types of talk development that you are going to be covering across the year then you can make sure that you have a range of spaces and resources indoors and out in your environment that will support that development. Once you carry out your initial assessments on your children you will know at exactly which level you will need to start at and you can adjust and ‘dress’ your spaces and resources to reflect the interests of the children.

In their talk, children are required to extend sentences using 'and' and 'because', be able to use a range of tenses, know and use questioning words, connect their individual thoughts in way that makes sense, they are not explicitly asked to replicate any of these features in their writing. That is because for most children you can achieve and rehearse many of the higher level features of writing through talk. Then when the children’s gross and fine motor skills catch up the higher level talk is already there waiting to flow out through the end of their pencil!

Alistair

Dinosaurs in Reception - Jenni's Story

I was really chuffed that Jenni took the time to drop me a quick email to tell me that she had tried the recipe for dinosaur eggs that I had posted. It sounded like they had such a good time, I asked her to write me a post all about it....

I was so pleased that Alistair asked me to write about the fantastic dinosaur experience we recently had at our nursery – all thanks to ABC DOES!

 I logged on to ABC DOES, as usual, just to see what was happening. There it was, a recipe for dinosaur eggs – yippee, just what I needed to spice up our ‘theme’ – All creatures great and small!

 Alongside our ‘theme’ we also had three key texts to cover, the most exciting of which was the fab ‘Tom and the Island of dinosaurs’ by Ian Beck. This book provides many PSED/CLLD/KUW and problem solving opportunities – plus a strong female lead to boot!

Next came a surreal trip to my local Costa Coffee to get the used coffee grounds. The staff were kind, but did back away a little when I started blathering on about making dinosaur eggs – strange looks all round. 

The eggs were easy to make and the house smelled great! I think I overcooked mine a little – they were a bit too hard inside – next time I will bake them for less time.

Go on, guess what I am!

Dinosaur mania is rife at our nursery on any given day and they are always somewhere to be found – in the sand, water, play dough, outside – we don’t mind where!

Whilst observing the children, I noticed that quite a few of them, both genders, would, on arrival at nursery, head straight to the dinosaurs – then come to report to the adults that ‘the dinosaurs are still there’. This was just what I needed to get things moving!

The next day found me, at 7.30 a.m., dipping tiny dinosaur feet into brown paint, to create a trail of prints towards the door – watched by a bemused caretaker with a twitchy mop! Our dinosaurs were safely hidden away – although they did leave a group photo in case of pining.

All nursery adults were primed to go into full-on, ‘O.T.T’ acting mode once some poor child said ‘the dinosaurs have gone!’

Goodness knows what the children thought, watching four women of a certain age going ape over some plastic toys. Everyone won an ‘oscar’ for realistic reactions – but more importantly, the children were hooked! We also knew who to get on board, those children who ‘go for it’!

 We searched high and low but not a dinosaur in sight. But, hark, what could be in that envelope handily stuck onto the interactive whiteboard? ‘A pretend letter’ piped up a little voice – ooh such cynicism so young.

The ‘real’ letter (!) told the children that the dinosaurs had gone to help some boy on an island – whatever that was. This led to lots of KUW discussions about what an island was and wasn’t, and we had some unexpected experts: yafta av a boat / no roads to it / gotta fly to it.

 Next day a parcel arrived for the children – a book – ‘Tom and the island of dinosaurs’ – sent by the dinosaurs to let the children know what was going on. The children were enthralled by the story, as were the two senior management members in observing me that morning – so absorbed that they wrote down very little!

The story provides problem solving opportunities. I asked the children to think about how the dinosaurs could get off the island – stony silence at first, faces looking at me as if to say ‘we are only 3 and 4 you know’!

Once I said ‘tell your friend next to you’, they began to talk – granted not all of the talk was about dinosaurs – ‘I need a wee’ etc – BUT, they were talking and the staff praised all their fantastic ideas.

They came up with really good ideas: get a rescue helicopter / swim away / get a boat / some dinosaurs can fly! I won’t spoil the ending for you – do read it though – it’s a brilliant book!

From this we got the following, child initiated work: writing letters to the dinosaurs – putting them in a bottle – like in the story / huge paintings and models of dinosaurs and volcanoes / playdough dinosaurs to fill the empty shelf (sob).

Dinky the dinosaur – as he was christened during phonics!

The children were really hooked and dinosaur talk dominated every nursery session, highest engagement levels ever I have ever seen – from all children.

Dominik’s volcano – great language development opportunities too.

Our school has a Family Involvement Programme and every term, each class invites family members in for a special day / event. There was no doubt about what we should do – Dinosaur day! This is where the eggs came to the fore.

Dinosaur day arrived and there was a fantastic turn out – over 20 adults per session a dad too) – far more than for our ‘Come and learn the jolly phonics actions’ workshop – can’t think why!

Off we go!

We had a range of activities for everyone to dip into as they wished. The main focus, though, was egg hunting! Just in time, the dinosaurs wrote us another letter to say that they had hidden something in our garden and left clues to help us find these items.  What could be hidden? Along with the letter were some written and photo clues. Off everyone went, in great excitement. What they actually found was our dinosaurs – they’re back shouted the children excitedly.

The two final clues led to the eggs – wow, how excited were we now! The parents were brilliant – totally up for it! We then performed our dinosaur songs and rhymes to make them feel at home.

We found one!

What next?

We now had 3 eggs to look after – what did we need to do? Then we remembered how we had recently seen some other eggs in school, in Year 2. They might be able to help. Two ‘eggsperts’ were dispatched to tell us what to do – make a nest / don’t keep touching the eggs / no loud noises.

Guidelines were written up and stuck next to the nest. The eggs were left overnight.

I had bought a set of baby dinosaurs to match our original set – who were now back on their shelf and being guarded by some very stern-looking 3 year olds.

The children checked the eggs next day at drop off time, so parents could join in too. Much joy as the children found the ‘babies’, then matched baby and mum!

The work continued to pour out of the children – result!

One boy was so enthralled he wanted to have an egg of his own – so I sent home an egg and a baby dinosaur. He was thrilled to bits when he came back after the holiday – proudly showing me his baby!

I am always inspired by what I read on ABC DOES, (the new book is brill too!). I am really glad I made those eggs and thrilled by the learning journey they provided.

Try it – your children will thank you!

 

Jenni McDonough Nursery Teacher

 

 

Jenni McDonough, currently working in Bradford.

Been teaching ‘yonks’ but still love it to bits. Done all sorts!

During my career I have taught all ages from 3 to 16, also been a Deputy Head, had two Headships, had SENCO role for many years too. Mostly taught in Yorkshire, but also worked in Sweden, in the International School – teaching reception – a lot of children left with a fab ‘scouse’ accent I have to say!

Decided I wanted to get back into teaching after being in senior management for a while and so became a foundation stage leader, 7 years ago, teaching the reception class. Got itchy feet last year and started looking around – was appointed as a nursery teacher in January.

We have up to 40 children attending each session, with a team of four staff. The children, parents and staff are brilliant and I am always logging on to ABC DOES for new ideas and inspiration – never fails to deliver – not enough hours in the day though!

 Sounds great Jenni - only sorry I wasn't there to join in! Thanks again.

Alistair

Cross Phase Planning - Nursery and Reception

Whether it is Nursery and Reception or Reception and Year 1 together - cross phase working and planning can be a HUGELY positive experience for children but if it is done 'properly' then there are lots of challenges for the practitioners.

Whilst adult directed activities are not such usually the issue, the main challenge comes through effective differentiation within the continuous provision. Your resourcing and challenge in all of your areas has to cater for the ability levels of all of your children from the lest to the most able. With two age groups together you are often significantly increasing the range of ability you are catering for.

I have never yet come across a setting where the provision has been set at too high a level. Usually the provision is aimed towards the younger children resulting in the older ones having long periods of their day where there is a lack of challenge and low learning potential.

The flip side of this is where the environment is planned for Year One and Reception children completely miss out on the Foundation Stage Curriculum apart from a few token opportunities to do some 'finishing off activities'.

Good cross phase planning can be done and the results can be VERY effective both in terms of personal development and attainment.

As I have mentioned before, I am working with The Friars Primary School where Emma teaches in the Nursery and Andy teaches in Reception. They both start their day in their own space, but after their first whole class input, Reception come into the Nursery space and the the two classes work together.

Attainment has been the big focus for our work together and the team are now able to clearly show how they plan to  meet the needs of their cross phase group. They have moved to objective led planning and child led learning and have worked hard to put differentiation and challenge into their continuous provision. They are still on their journey and I keep adding things to their 'to do' list, but they have achieved a great deal over the past year.

There is a strong focus on the essentials that have been identified by assessment and observation. Lots of work on communication skills and fine motor skills

With mark making a big focus it is important that the whole team are aware of where the children are developmentally and what appropriate next steps should look like.

All children have a short, fun, daily physical intervention which is aimed at consolidating their stage of development and moving them forward.

Fine motor/hand eye development

 

How many nuts can you screw on in a minute?

Some fine motor challenges then become part of the continuous provision

The fine motor focus is then carried on into the adult led activities. There was a great deal of interest in the 'Transformers' film and that interest had been used as the focus for some activity planning.

Still developing your fine motor skills here. If you are one of the children who is really motivated by 'Transformers' then this activity is 'sold' to you as a 'Transformers' activity. If not then the activity is flexible enough to engage you through another route.

Simple deconstruction then led to more complex electronics...

 

Using a battery to power a motor to make a propeller turn...

Discovering, then being able to explain why two batteries make your bulb shine brighter than one.

'Transformers' was also used to target specific children for writing development. A Transformers box was created for interest and then filled with provision aimed at specific development. The use of the contents of the box was modelled by an adult with a writing focus during CP

 

Then a baby bird fell out of it's nest in the outdoor area and the planning focus shifted. Because this is objective led planning NOT activity led, the teaching stays the same it is only the focus that changes.

An urgent message was sent to the Head who contacted the RSPB and their response was reported back to the children. (Leave it alone!)

The Friars have had a deconstructed role play area for a while now. One of their ongoing issues is the development of children's talk. Although it was being used for other role play, a number of children had started 'hairdresser' role play so the team had introduced a 'hairdresser' enhancement box.

 Great if you haven't had time to do your hair before you get to work!

It was really lovely to share in the engagement of the children and to see the progress that the team have made in ensuring that they are planning for attainment and challenge across the setting.

Next Steps? Well, pretty much for Emma and the team to keep doing what they are doing and now expand those principles into all areas of provision. How do you ensure that you have got differentiation and challenge in your sand, water, workshop or painting area so that children get the opportunity not only to try new skills but to extend the ones that they have already acquired?

So, that is what we are working on next. I will of course keep you posted on how we get on...

Alistair

Make your own dinosaur eggs!

When it comes to dinosaurs, there is hardly an Early Years setting that doesn't dig up a bone or two at some point during the year. Wherever I go, dinosaurs never fail to capture the imagination of lots of children.

 Imagine finding this box of goodies buried in your outdoor area!

all photos from and abcdoes project at Moor Park Primary find out more here

In most settings the dinosaur discovery starts with some bones or an egg. Bones are relitively easy to get hold of or make. Even if you haven't got a collection of sheeps skulls and foxes jaw bones like me, you can usually lay your hands on some big bones from the butcher and boil them until they are clean, or have a go at making your own.

Eggs can prove a little more difficult and you usually have to resort to good old papier mache and a balloon.

What I was after was a more 'realistic' dinosaur egg that would have some texture, a hard shell to crack and then 'something' inside to be discovered. Although we know that some dinosaurs were HUGE not all were. So, I was looking for something that you could make bigger or smaller depending on your species!

What I have come up with is a playdough hybrid recipe that you can bake in the oven, so you not only get a hard breakable outer crust (or shell) but you also get a gooey inside that allows you to hide a mini dinosaur, bone or treasure for discovery!

This recipe will give you four eggs (roughly the size of a baking potato!)

You need:

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of used coffee grounds (the used ground beans from a coffee machine. If you don't have a coffee machine, ask at the large high street coffee retailers and they will usually give you as much as you can take away! They also make a great alternative to sand in your sand tray)

1/2 a cup of salt

1/4 of a cup of sand or soil

1/4 of a cup of water (to start with you may need more depending on how 'damp' your coffee is)

Something to hide inside your egg

What you do

• Mix all of the dry ingredients together

• Add the water and mix until you get a 'dough like' consistancy. Add more water if too dry or more of one of the dry ingredients if too wet.

NB - The stiffer you make your dough, the better it will hold its shape. If it is too 'springy' your egg will have a flat bottom!

• Take a handful of dough.
• Press your 'find' into the middle
• Shape like an egg

• Place on a greaseproof paper lined baking tray in the oven at 180 degrees for 35 mins (ish).

You need to extend or reduce the time depending on the size of your eggs. As long as the outside has gone hard and crusty, it doesn't really matter about the inside.

Just keep giving them a poke until the outside of your eggs feels 'rubbery'

They will harden up as they cool.

Once cooled, hide them and await the discovery!

Thanks to Pat at The Friars Primary for the donation of the luminous dinosaur!

The inside of the eggs stays hot for a while so be careful! Best leave them to cool overnight.

Even if you don't make the eggs, the coffee grounds dough is good to try as it has a lovely grainy texture.

You could also use the same recipe to make 'discovery stones' and hide gems or even pieces of long lost writing inside them - the possibilities are endless!

I hope your dinosaurs all lay well! If they do, please send me a photograph and any additions/amendments you make to the recipe so that I can share the dinosaur love!

 

Alistair

Planning - Part One

There is SO much to write about an effective planning process in EYFS. I will do my best to strip it down to what I think are the bare bones. This is not going to be an in depth study, but hopefully will give you a few ideas.

There are lots of other factors that might effect the way that you plan, like the space and staff you have available but the basic principle should always be the same.

Sudley Infant School

Learning is far more effective when you take it into children's play as opposed to  pulling children away from their play to come and sit at your table to 'learn'.

So - for me, the key points are:

• Everything is driven by assessment
• Environment is crucial
• Outdoor is as important as indoor
• Continuous Provision MUST impact on attainment
• Plan 'next steps' objectives and outcomes NOT activities
• Plan to children's interests NOT topics
• Do NOT explicitly group children

Assessment 

Assessment and observations are the key. Having said that they have to be accurate assessments and observations done with, not to children. You want to find out what children can do when they are doing their best, not when they are bored or dying to get away from you and back to what they were doing.

Time your assessments well and create an environment that supports your assessment process as opposed to dragging children out into a freezing corridor with a clip board full of initial sounds!

Surely this is a better way to assess number letter or number recognition?

Having said that, the children would probably learn much quicker if they weren't having to recognise cursive script. Why when a child is just beginning to learn to recognise and write letter shapes would you confuse them with this? In this case it was not the fault of the teacher it was a classic 'whole school initiative' !

Assessment should inform your Environment

You should always structure your environment to reflect the needs of your current cohort. This means that your environment could look different at the beginning of every year because the needs of every cohort will probably be different.

Whenever you do any summative assessment you should make sure that your environment has been tweaked and enhanced to meet the needs that the assessment has highlighted.

If I asked you...

Could you match your environment to your last assessment indoors and out?

Have you created numerous opportunities for children to engage in activities that develop the skills that they need most as opposed to just creating six generic areas?

Have you enhanced your Continuous Provision to reflect that skill development?

How are you recording this process?

How are you showing impact?

It is really important, not only for the clarity of your own thinking, but also as evidence of your impact, to record the changes that you make in your environment in response to children's needs. There are lots of ways to do this but you can have a look at an example of a blank and completed 'Environment Map' here.

This deconstructed role play area trebled the size of the exiting 'themed' role play and was created as a direct response to a point of entry assessment that indicated that children had low Personal Social skills and limited Language skills. It was enhanced with lots of first hand objects for the purpose of naming and recognition.

The setting also created a designated 'talk' area complete with a 'talk sofa'. The area was enhanced with interesting and unusual objects to promote discussion.

 As the year goes on, children's skill level should develop in response to the provision that you have put in place. This development will mean further changes in your environment to accurately reflect where the children are at. 

Recording the assessment that has taken place, the changes that you have made as a result and the impact of those changes on attainment are a crucial part of your evaluation process.

Showing Assessment, Engagement, Understanding and Progression in Display

When I’m in a setting and I’m considering the impact of their display, I have a couple of general rules of thumb. Without looking at any planning, talking to any staff or children, just by looking at the walls can I get a real sense of the children who inhabit this space? Can I see the diversity of their curriculum, their interests? Is there clear evidence that the children’s voices are being recorded and that they are shaping the content of the curriculum? Is there space around the display that really highlights the key features and is it personalised for THIS cohort of children?

Are practitioners also recording their thoughts about what they have seen on display? This can be description of the process or a statement of attainment. There are lots of ways of doing this, here are just three.

East Herrington Primary School 

Crofton Hammond Infant School

St Thomas Moores Primary

REMEMBER - We display what the children produce. We DO NOT give children activities to produce a display.

The days of display boards covered in 3o versions of the same thing are long gone! Diversity is the key.

Teach a skill NOT an end result

The skill should be the SAME the end result could be very DIFFERENT

So, if you are introducing the children to the use of pastels you would not get each of them to do a pastel picture of a daffodil for your 'Spring' display. Your display would become what the children chose to do when they were experimenting with pastels. You might get a daffodil if you are lucky but you will also probably get plenty of Ben 10!

I am not interested in daffodils, I am interested in Ben 10.

Your learning objective/outcome was to introduce me to the skill/process of using pastels NOT observational drawings of a daffodil.

I will learn best when I am most engaged

Therefore I should be able to draw what motivates me most.

Of course, once you have introduced a child to a new skill like folding, sticking, textured paint, pastels, the materials they used should be available for them to select or request from then on. Ideally what you want to see is a child choosing to use a skill that you have taught them, independently in their own work. Then you really know that they have got it.

I will have a look at Outdoor and Continuous Provision next post - plus I still want to share the outcomes of the Hampshire project so far. So much to share...so little time!

Alistair

Move AWAY from the Decorations!

Can it be true? Is it really nearly all over? How did the time go so quickly?

It is at this time of year that I get the undying urge to clear all of the decorations away, pack them back in their boxes, shove them in the loft all ready for next Christmas. Maybe it is the whole psychological idea of starting the New Year all clean and clear - who knows?

If you are like me then all I am going to say to you is DON'T DO IT! Leave the decorations in your settings exactly where they are (for a little while anyway).

When we return back from the Christmas holidays all of the experiences that the children anticipated are now real and very much at the forefront of their recent experiences.

Now is the time to capitalise on that by keeping some of the elements of Christmas alive.

For children who are very young and have not had many Christmas experiences to draw on or children for whom our cultural celebration of Christmas is unfamiliar then this time to revisit can be extra powerful.

Here are a couple of ideas that I saw in settings on the run up to the big day that would work equally as well after the event.

The team at Marlborough Road had Christmas cake mix in their exploratory tray. The only problem of course was that the children keep eating it!

Ruth and Karen at Halton Lodge had lots of Christmas going on when I was last there. I particularly liked this idea that encourages hand/eye coordination, orientation and also pencil grip.

 

The children are using 'fancy' cocktail sticks and poking holes to match the dots! If you put the sheets onto a carpet square it makes the process a bit easier.

To differentiate the activity then just make your patterns more or less complicated. The children at Halton Lodge LOVED it!

Also found this idea for using old greetings cards to make a box. It is SO simple to do. These would make excellent little 'talk boxes' with Christmas things in them.

You could use small objects such as decorations for the children to talk about or put smells of Christmas in them for the children to sniff. Make sure you seal the box and put a couple of holes in the top!

Take an old Christmas Card

Cut down the fold

Quick Tip - To make it easier for the bottom of your box to fit into the top, trim a tiny bit of card from 2 sides. (Too much and your box will be too slack!)

Now draw a line 2.5cm from each side of the box. I found it best to do this with a biro and press hard as this scores the lines for you which makes them easier to fold.

Fold along all of the lines

At the shorter ends of each piece of card make 2 cuts (see photos)

Put a dab of glue or a piece of double sided tape onto the end flaps

Fold up and stick into place

There you have it!

many thanks to craftypod.com for  the photos

 Of course the potential for these boxes is endless...Birthday cards, Easter cards, writing boxes, talk boxes or just little boxes to keep things in.

Happy Boxing!

Alistair

Mark Making In Reception and other ideas from Hampshire

Sorry for blog absence but as well as my jaunts around the country I also have had a deadline looming for 2 books for Bloomsbury. I am co authoring them with Kirstine Beeley and they are part of the '50 Fantastic things to do with...' range. So I have just finished (HOORAY!) 50 fantastic things to do with Paint and 50 Fantastic things to Squish, Squash and Squeeze. Both coming to a bookshop near you soon!

Anyway, as I said in my previous post I went on a trip to Hampshire to deliver some conferences and work with some settings. These are settings that the LA have already identified as having very good practice and my job is to help them to improve that practice even further. So while I was there I worked with Jodie and Ruth in their joint 2 form entry Reception Class in a pure Infant School and Tim in his Reception class in 2 form entry Primary School (with play group on site).

 I saw lots of really lovely practice but I think I still managed to give them all an ABC Does... a headache by the end of my day with each of them.

Here are only some of the best bits of Jodie and Ruth's set up

This is a plastic garden arch that has been dressed in a bit of red net to create an entrance to an area of provision. Really made you feel like you were going into a new space.

Too many tables? Nowhere to store them? Turn them into little cosy corners! All you need is a bit of MDF a willing caretaker and a rope ladder from IKEA (cut in half). You can go in or under. The children LOVED it.

Here is another one. This one is really snuggly!

Here is a genius idea for carrying comics around to read in your cosy corner. Having said that the children also put in paper and pencils so that they could write and draw. I saw them use these inside and out.

They are Pringle tins covered in wrapping paper/comic covers and then sticky back. Add a wool strap and there you go!

Also really liked the idea of this. It was on the back of a low level cupboard. All the children have got a laminated rectangle with their name on and every day they are encouraged to leave their friends a message or a picture or a smiley face. Sort of EYFS preparation for Face Book!

Jodie and Ruth's School is very near the sea so I wasn't surprised to find this in their outdoor area...

How much fun could you have in that?

Tim shares his planning with the Reception class next door and his outdoor area with them and the pre-school that are on site. The outdoors was a project in itself, so more about that in a later post.

Thought these were worth a quick mention though. Very cheap, very portable and very effective at keeping your resources dry. You can get them from most DIY shops and Garden Centres.

There were lots of examples of challenge in Tim's environment

Now, I must have missed something in the world of Ben 10 as as far as I knew Gwen is his cousin and is not or never has been his girlfriend! This is the sort of activity that needs adult introduction to inspire them to want to come and sort flash cards (something Tim was very good at) otherwise it would become one of those activities where children just walk on by!

Can you guess who his target group might be?

Tim and his parallel teacher made the decision to split their writing areas and have a super hero themed one in one class and a princess themed one in the other (the children have free flow between the two)

This is Super heroes. What I also liked was the photographs of the other males in the school modelling writing - although some clearly think they are trying out for the next series of America's Next Top Model (keeping it fierce Tim, keeping it fierce)!

This was Princesses..

Real and Disney!

Thought this was an interesting thing to do with a CD rack some laminated cards, tiny writing and a magnifying glass...

You could colour code the cards for particular groups of children or just make them random. The idea is that you choose a card and read it. They could have secret instructions...challenges...requests...anything

Tim also runs a self service 'snack shack' where children select and prepare their own snack and then wash up and put away afterwards.

Did occur to me that the Bible was an interesting choice of breakfast reading!

I have talked a great deal in previous posts about the high level impact of creating personalised alphabet and number lines. Tim has taken SATPIN to the next level!

As with most settings, there was lots to celebrate, lots to think about and lots of ideas for me to share with them about how we could make their practice even better. One of the reasons I love this job so much is because I really do see something new every day. We are all on a journey that should last the length of our entire careers with children. I have yet to find anyone who was got to the end and knows it all.

Am back in Hampshire in the New Year to finish this project and start another one so I will of course share any more nuggets I come across.

For those of you coming to the ABC Does... conference in London on Friday - See you there!

Alistair

All things witchy…I think I might have met a REAL one!

For the past few days I have been working out here in Madrid delivering EYFS training on the COBIS teachers’ autumn conference. As well as my own  conference delivery, I also got the chance to attend some of the sessions delivered by the other speakers.  (Matthew Syed and Tom Barwood were two particular highlights and worth a look). Must just say a big thank you to all of the Kings College staff for looking after me and the delegates for being such a pleasure to work with.

When I looked down the list of other speakers, one name in particular jumped out... Maeve Friel – THE Maeve Friel, author of Tiger Lily and Witch in Training series. I have read and used Maeve’s books   a lot over the years in my teaching and consultancy work. The thought of meeting the author had me a bit awe struck!  I wanted to say ‘I really love your books, I think you’re ace’ but thought I might come across like a slightly unhinged stalker so decided to just admire from afar.

As it turns out we ended up speaking at the same venue so had a taxi ride there and back to get to know each other better!  Maeve has such a passion for engaging children in the reading process that her excitement is totally infectious. If you want an inspiring author to come and visit your setting Maeve would be a great. She also had a vast and comprehensive knowledge of all things witchy. When she came to pay for the taxi, I am sure I saw a wand poking out of her bag. Just as well we got on, or I might have found myself turned into a frog – how do you say ‘ribbit’ in Spanish?

For a free download Maeve's story "Witches Who Made History" click here.

It tells the story of how Dame Walpurga of the Blessed Warts created the Modern Witch's Right-Way-Up broom and how her invention led to Broomstick Battles with the Wrong-Way-Uppers, the witches who still rode their brooms the old-fashioned way.

Sticking with the witches I was really chuffed to get an email this week from a blog reader who has made a few tweaks to her practice as a result of what she has read and…I might as well let her tell you!

Hi Alistair,

 

I just had to contact you to share some good news!

I have been following your blog for just over a year now and found it such a fantastic source of help, support , direction etc etc. It was just what I needed and everything you have said has made perfect sense to me  especially the 'what not to do' advice! I have even e mailed you a time or two when I have needed to ask for some guidance and you have been very kind and replied.

You have filled a massive gap in terms of Early Years Support....

basically not ‘fannying around’ [I do believe this is a direct quote from me!] and showing and telling us what best practice should look like.

Basically I have made significant changes in my Reception class and I am gradually becoming become increasingly confident with what it's all about, said good bye to  topics, planning around what children need next, auditing the environment etc etc....

Where is all this heading? ...well just before half term we had an Ofsted inspection and we have been graded as outstanding in all areas!!

I did pinch an activity from the blog - Creepy Crawly soup as my kids have been loving 'What's In The Witch's Kitchen too. It went down extremely well! However I did think I was several steps ahead of the inspector when he took me to one side and asked 'Is your theme Halloween?' Nothing else in the environment was based on Halloween just different needs and interests of the children…

Well done you! Of course reading any blog is not enough. You have to have the passion and a fundamental belief in what good Early Years practice should look like and a good old dollop of talent but I am really chuffed if I have helped a bit.

Also, I cannot take credit for the Creepy Crawly soup activity. That was an inspiring activity that I blatantly stole from Emma and the team at The Friars Primary School in Salford. You will find the link to that post here.

If you haven't had a go at Spooky Writing or Glow Jars yet - there is no better time. You will find that post here.

Hope you have a great time whatever you are doing for Halloween, it is such a brilliant time of year for expanding children’s imagination and creativity. Remember though, you often get most impact after the event when children who have limited knowledge of an event, festival or celebration can use the experiences they have just had rather than trying to pre-empt something that they know little about.

 

Oh, and don’t forget to buy in your severed fingers and feet! Now is the time of year to get them cheap and they make BRILLIANT inspirations for all sorts of things especially ‘talk boxes’. They never fail to promote a reaction!

 

Alistair

 

A Lightening McQueen CSI in Reception gets Bob the Builder excited!

I am working on lots of projects at the moment with various clusters of schools across our fair nation. All very different and all very interesting and more info about them all will be coming to the blog soon!

Today I was at the very grandly titled JH Godwin Primary school in Chester working with the lovely ladies in Reception.

Now then, the school is in an area that has pockets of significant challenge and the children tend to arrive well below the expected level for their age in the majority of areas. This years intake are particularly poor in talk, speaking and listening and PSE - especiallly sharing. Add to that the fact that there are 23 boys - yes, I will say it again 23 BOYS and 7 girls...you get the picture!

Steph and Emma have their work cut out - but are clearly up for the challenge! What excited me most about my visit today was the fact the the ladies had decided to ditch the old 'Autumn' or 'Ourselves' usual September 'topic' approach and go with a theme inspired by the children's interests.

As a result  the children walked into a crime scene! Lightining McQueen was planning a party and SOMEONE had put mud all over the outside wheeled toys making them filthy. Who could it have been?

Well, what clues would you look for? If you had been smearing things with mud how might you look? That was it. Dirty hands! So the hunt for dirty hands began.

Then the culprit was found.....Charlie!

Check out those hands!

Next challenge...get those bikes cleaned up by building a car wash. The children did a brilliant building job. There was SO much learning involved in it.

 
  
Part of the children's design was was that there were gaps in the roof to let the water through and the walls were re-built so that you could squirt through the gaps just like a'real' car wash!

Very quickly the bikes were washed and washed and washed again. There were lots of opportunities for large and small scale mark making available so signs were soon made to tell customers when the car wash was open and closed.

A health and safety check was even carried out by non other than Bob the Builder himself (or so he said)!

Whilst all this was happening there were lots of other pockets of high level engagement all over the setting. It was clear to see that activities had been specifically planned to develop those emergent skills.

This was a good one for gross motor, fine motor, hand/eye coordination and balance (and mud)!

Lots of our afternoon was spent discussing how the curriculum needed to be carefully structured to reflect the genetic make up of the group making sure that the girls didn't miss out because of the 'boyness' of lots of the boys. Also that the environment and planning that is going on now needs to respond to the immediate and fundamental needs of this particular cohort. In the short term this might mean not giving the full and broad access to the EYFS curriculum that you would ideally wish - but there is no point in trying to give the children everything if they don't have the skills to access the learning or use the environment correctly.

I look forward to my next visit to see how they have got on...

 

Alistair 

  
  
   
  

If Music in EYFS gives you a headache...read this guest blog

Coming from a very musical family I always think that the hills (or at least our settings) should be alive with  the sound of music! Music has SO much to offer the EYFS curriculum and is not as hard as you think - even if you are tone deaf and without a musical bone in your body!

 

I am pleased to say that I am not alone in this way of thinking and am chuffed to be able to share the following guest post. Thanks to Kate Davison and Helen Nixon for sharing.

There is so much good stuff to share that is going to take up two blog posts. This is the first installment!

 MUSIC TO MY EARS!

by Kate Davidson (and Helen Nixon)

 Over the past six months I have been working on a music project with private nurseries in County Durham. The outcomes have surprised all concerned. I met Alistair at a conference and talked to him about our findings and he invited me to write an article for the blog.

Where did we start?

My background, education and first love is music although it isn’t what I do for a living now. Music has always been a major part of my life having played instruments for over twenty years. Once my daughter, Ella, was born I suddenly entered the early years world and was really surprised at how limiting the musical experiences were for young children.  

Firstly, most of the commercially available music for children was horrible. It largely consisted of twee, nursery rhyme recordings occasionally with “characters” performing in an empty, soulless monotone – Pinky and Perky murdering the Grand Old Duke of York finished me off!

Oh.....the........Grand Old Duke of York!

Secondly the classical music available to children is generally boring and classical can be so powerful and exciting! I work on the basis that if I’m bored by something, the average child will be too.

I found that in my limited experience of settings, music tended to be very compartmentalised, into “sing time” or “musical instrument fun”.

This frustration increased after reading an article in a journal that implied that settings needed to buy in a professional musician to deliver music. Now to be clear, I would love every single child to be taught music by a musician  but I am a School Finance Officer (helping schools prepare budgets) in my day job and so I am very aware that generally resources just don’t stretch to that. My fear was that the tone of the article would make practitioners feel  that they just couldn’t do music themselves and that if they couldn’t afford a musician, not to bother.

I have links to the Early Years team in County Durham and so began working  with Helen Nixon, Quality Promotion Officer. I was convinced that with Helen’s early years expertise and my musical knowledge we could create some exciting resources. From this our project was born and we began working with a selection of interested practitioners. 

The Project

Our underpinning research objectives were defined as:

1. Can non-musicians lead innovative, exciting musical activities?

2. Can non-musicians lead innovative musical activities and enjoy it?

3. Can musician and early years professionals collaboratively produce

The practitioners involved in the project have a reputation for being receptive  to new ideas however most were quite open that they were indifferent to because of bad experiences with school music lessons. It was also suggested that some of the other staff in the setting may not be open to changing the styles of music played.

My specialism during my degree was in film music. This is an amazing field because if it is done well you shouldn’t notice 95% of it but if you watch a film without it, it wouldn’t have half the impact. The music is there for creating mood, atmosphere, emotion and building drama. This is where our starting point came from; we asked each of the nurseries to choose their favourite stories and I choose short extracts of music (largely classical) that told the story.

The list consisted of the contemporary titles like The Gruffalo and also, some fairy stories and some well loved favourites like the Hungry Caterpillar.

Almost all practitioners had asked for the Bear Hunt so we started with that and Dear Zoo as it was my daughter’s favourite story. We asked them to take the CD away with a list of the tracks I had chosen with an explanation and to use it in their setting but gave no further instructions.

 
For illustration the Dear Zoo list is included:

1 Elephant  - Entry of the Gladiators: Triumph March. By Fucik

This is a big sound and has a larger than life feel. It has a feel of happily stomping!

 2 Giraffe - The Love of Three Oranges Suite: March. By Prokofiev

This always feels very aloof and as if it is looking down at you which makes it seem to fit a giraffe.

3 Lion - The Firebird: Infernal Dance of Kastchei. By Stravinsky

This sums up fierce! The low tune suggests the beast tugging and fighting restraints with the higher instrument stabs sounding like snarls and growls.

4 Camel -  Peter and the Wolf: Grandfather. By Prokofiev

 The low bassoon tune has a surly quality which seems to sum up the camel.

5 Snake - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Parade of the Slave  Children.  By   John Williams

There is a threatening quality to this. The pulsing accompaniment makes it feel like the snake is slithering. The high snippets of melody evoke the image of the snake tongue darting.

6 Monkey - Wallace and Gromit Theme. By Julian Nott

There is an exuberant cheekiness to this which suggests a naughty monkey.

7 Frog - The Comedians: Gallop. By Kabalevsky.

The bounciness of the accompaniment makes the jumpiness of the frog come to life.

8 Dog - You Got a Friend in Me. Randy Newman.

This gives the feel of friendliness of the relationship between the child and the dog.

The practitioners were encouraged to take the project in any direction they or their children chose. We were amazed at how creative and interesting the different directions had been; in fact this has been an ongoing theme of the project. Most nurseries had gone with the Bear Hunt and it had centered around dramatising the story. The reflections included children planning their Bear Hunt, taking their Bear Hunt outside with the music or creating a powerpoint presentation which the children had narrated and helped design.

 
All said the music had made the story come to life and had engaged children who were not usually interested in story. Practitioners reported their delight with an impact on a vulnerable child’s emotional well-being and a few settings reported boys being especially engaged.

 
The nurseries were asked to build on their current work and to try another story.

The next meeting came and the reflections were equally exciting. One nursery in an affluent area had a video taken at home of a two year old reciting the entire Gruffalo story. She said she was able to remember it because of the musical cues. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a nursery in an area of extreme deprivation said the stories were just too much for her children as they have such severe CLL problems.

From this came the launch of the DVD versions of the stories. I was very clear in my mind that I wanted the children to use their imaginations in how they responded to the music and not to create image associations. I put the DVDs together based on the playlists but with a series of photos to help bring the story to life.

The DVDs have been very popular but especially beneficial in the setting where children need early intervention of CLL support. It has helped the children understand the stories and learn to love them in a media that is more familiar to them. They have then progressed to investigating the books.

Another unexpected consequence has been with improving engagement for parents’ with basic skills problems. An extreme example is of a severely blind father being able to watch the story on a large screen with his son and so now he understands the story, he is able to help his son engage with the book.

From this meeting it became clear that the settings were all developing their own interest areas. As practitioners were becoming confident with leading musical activities they were understanding the potential and feeling able to identify areas where they could create (or ask for help to) musical resources. From this point it is easier to discuss the settings and their interests separately however we have kept the central theme of stories running through the project and are adding more titles as requests come in. We are also using themed play lists that are matched to events, topics or activities e.g. dinosaurs, countries, Christmas, Royal Wedding etc

Each setting has their own story so more individual stories to follow… 

Thanks Kate, I will look forward to the next installment! 

All this talk of the Gruffalo reminded me of a couple of things that you might be interested in. One is the use of Story Stones as an alternative way to illustrate/tell a story. Given what Kate has just said in her post they would be a great to use alongside the music/sound effects that the children had created. These ones were made by my very clever wife but I have also made some brilliant versions where the children have created the illustrations on the stones.

 
More info on Gruffalo story stones here

Now then, while doing some work with  Salford LA on the launch of their 'Book Time' initiative one of their advisory team played this video of a 4 month old baby boy LOVING being read to by his dad.

It is clear that he recognises not only the images but also the rhythm and 'music' of his dad's voice. I ever there was proof that babies benefit from being read to - this is it!

 

Thanks to the star of the video, his dad and Salford for passing it on for me to share.

Alistair

PSRN Activity and so much more... Witch's Soup!

Was back at The Friars Primary School in Salford last week to see how our EYFS plan was coming along and also start our next cunning plan for developing the outdoors (more of that later).

I was supposed to be saying 'hello' to the staff and then getting straight outside, but...I was drawn to a PSRN focus that was going on at the back of the room.

It wasn't just the hat that caught my attention (although she does look VERY fetching in it!) it was the level of engagement and the amount of information that the children were volunteering.

In essence this had been planned as a PSRN activity, but it was SO much more than that.

The 'witch' was making soup from a list of ingredients. The ingredients always remained the same but the amount could differ depending on the ability of the children involved.

In it's simplest terms it could be 'one ....' or 'two spoons of .....' at a more complex level the children might have thrown 2 dice and added the total or had a go at using standard measure (fluid ounces, or grammes).

The beauty of an activity like this is it doesn't matter who is sitting in front of you, you just differentiate to suit each individual child's next steps in that area of PSRN.

The group I sat in on were recognising and then applying numbers to 5 in context so they all got an instruction sheet.

The ingredients were then identified and tasted, pot by pot! Many of them the children had never tasted before.

We had...

 Sliced up snails!  
 
White Worms!

Maggots!

Crushed Caterpillars!

Butterfly Wings...

and Sticky Woodlice...Mmmm!

Each child put the required amount of each ingredient into their bowl, then all of the bowls were tipped into the pan. As each bowl went in the witch tapped the pan with her wand that flashed and made wooshy noises. I found myself being jealous of the witch's wooshy wand!

Finally for a 'bit of wet' the witch added worms in blood (tin of spaghetti)!

Then the pan steamed and simmered for 10 minutes

Then the 'witches in training' were invited back to taste their potion, which they LOVED.

One of the enhancements that the children had to this activity was a book that I had never seen before.

The illustrations are typical Nick Sharratt and it has some clever little flaps that go left AND right to reveal  what is in the witch's kitchen.

 
  

When they read this page they had to be carried out in an ambulance! Such hilarity!

It was a fun activity that ended with food   - as we all know...a winning combination!

Happy stirring...

Alistair