Enrich the environment inside and out with materials, resources, natural objects, images, music, dance (via image, film) for children to inspire their imagination. Make materials accessible so that children are able to imagine and develop their enquiries and ideas while they are still fresh in their minds. Provide children with opportunities to develop their enquiriesContinue reading “EAD BIE EE R6”
Focus Archives:
EAD BIE EE R5
Tell stories based on children’s experiences and the people and places they know well as well as stories that stimulate the imagination. Create spaces for children to respond to stories and their representing their ideas of what they hear, imagine and enjoy through a variety of art forms and materials. Offer children a wide varietyContinue reading “EAD BIE EE R5”
EAD BIE EE R4
Offer a variety of stimulating resources that can be used in different ways both inside and outside e.g. fabric, boxes, sound makers, water, string bags and planks. Create time and space for children to develop their own creations, e.g. photographs, sounds, movement, constructions, stories, collages.
EAD BIE EE R3
Provide a range of resources including familiar and non-specific items that can be used in a range of ways, such as magazines, real kitchen items, fabric, hoops, sponges, rope etc.
EAD BIE EE R1 R2
Create a rich environment that enables babies and children to use all their senses. Provide babies and children with a range of. experiences to feed their imaginative potential, e.g. stories, images, music, natural and urban experiences, social encounters (mealtimes, shopping, visitors).
EAD CM EE R6
Offer opportunities to encounter and revisit key materials, e.g. drawing media, paper, paint, cardboard and clay in order to continue to develop expertise as tools for expression and communication. Provide a range of joining materials (e.g. stapler, masking tape, glue, string, thread, split pins, treasury tags, card strips) to support children working in both 2DContinue reading “EAD CM EE R6”
EAD CM EE R5
Offer resources for mixing colours, joining things together and combining materials, supporting where appropriate. Create a place where work in progress can be kept safely. Share with children other artists’ work that connects with their ideas, interests and experiences. Introduce children to a wide range of music, movement, painting and sculpture. Provide a range ofContinue reading “EAD CM EE R5”
EAD CM EE R4
Plan a varied and appropriate series of live performances for all young children, e.g. musicians, dancers, storytellers. Draw on a wide range of art works from a variety of cultural backgrounds to extend children’s experiences and to reflect their cultural heritages, e.g. architecture, ceramics, theatre. Continue to provide opportunities to encounter and revisit key materials,Continue reading “EAD CM EE R4”
EAD CM EE R3
Offer a variety of objects that will make different sounds, such as wood, pans and plastic bottles filled with different things. Create opportunities to encounter and revisit key materials, resources and tools where children can further explore their properties including form, colour, texture, composition. Create space and time for movement and dance both indoors andContinue reading “EAD CM EE R3”
EAD CM EE R1 R2
Create a rich and well-ordered environment that enables babies and children to use all their senses. Choose and select with intention the materials and tools available to children. Create the time and space that will ensure that children can engage in depth with a diverse range of materials.
UW T EE R6
Provide a range of materials and objects to play with that work in different ways for different purposes, for example, egg whisk, torch, other household implements, pulleys, construction kits. Provide a range of programmable toys for children to play with, as well as equipment involving ICT, such as computers, touchscreen devices and internet-connected toys.
UW T EE R5
When out in the locality, ask children to help to press the button at the pelican crossing, or speak into an intercom to tell somebody you have come back. When in the community and on trips to places such as the park, encourage children to take photographs and use mobile apps of things that interestContinue reading “UW T EE R5”
UW T EE R4
Provide safe equipment to play with, such as torches and walkie-talkies. Let children use machines like the photocopier to copy their own pictures. Provide a range of materials for children to “stain” and have a go at washing, rinsing and drying outside in the sunshine. Provide a range of pipes, funnels, containers, water wheels andContinue reading “UW T EE R4”
UW T EE R3
Have available robust resources with knobs, flaps, keys or shutters. Incorporate technology resources that children recognise into their play, such as a camera
UW T EE R1 R2
See Playing and exploring, Thinking creatively and critically
UW W EE R6
Give opportunities to record and creatively represent findings by, e.g. drawing, writing, making a model or photographing, through music, dancing or dressing up. Provide stories that help children to make sense of different environments. Provide first-hand experiences to support children in making sense of micro environments, the specific conditions which enable each plant or animalContinue reading “UW W EE R6”
UW W EE R5
Use the local area for exploring both the built and the natural environment. Regularly take small groups of children on local walks, taking the time to observe what involves the children’s interest. Provide opportunities to observe things closely through a variety of means, e.g. magnifiers and photographs, phone apps to listen to and recognise birds.Continue reading “UW W EE R5”
UW W EE R4
Make use of outdoor areas to give opportunities for investigations of the natural world, for example, provide chimes, streamers, windmills and bubbles to investigate the effects of wind. Provide story and information books about places, such as a zoo or the beach, to remind children of visits to real places.
UW W EE R3
Develop the use of the outdoors so that young children can investigate features, e.g. a mound, a path or a wall, and experience weather, large spaces and seasonal change. Provide a collection of sets of items for children to explore how objects can be combined together in heuristic play sessions.
UW W EE R2
Provide lift-the-flap books to show something hidden from view. Play hide-and-seek outside. Provide a variety of interesting things for babies to see when they are looking around them, looking up at the ceiling or peering into a corner. Display and talk about photographs of babies’ favourite places. Take babies on regular outings to a rangeContinue reading “UW W EE R2”
UW W EE R1
Provide a range of everyday and natural objects to explore such as in treasure baskets for sitting babies. Provide additional interest – make small changes in the predictable environment. Provide spaces that give young babies different views of their surroundings, such as a soft play area, under a tree, on a lap, looking at bushesContinue reading “UW W EE R1”
UW PC EE R5 R6
Plan extra time for helping children in transition, such as when they move from one setting to another or between different groups in the same setting. Provide activities and opportunities for children to share experiences and knowledge from different parts of their lives with each other. Provide ways of preserving memories of special events, e.g.Continue reading “UW PC EE R5 R6”
UW PC EE R4
Share photographs of children’s families, friends, pets or favourite people, both indoors and out. Support children’s understanding of difference and of empathy by using props such as puppets and dolls to tell stories about diverse experiences, ensuring that negative stereotyping is avoided. Ensure children have resources so that they can imitate everyday actions and eventsContinue reading “UW PC EE R4”
UW PC EE R3
Collect stories for, and make books about, children in the group, showing things they like to do and things that are important to them, in languages that are relevant to them wherever possible. Provide books and resources which represent children’s diverse backgrounds and which avoid negative stereotypes, ensuring different cultures are represented but especially theContinue reading “UW PC EE R3”
UW PC EE R1 R2
See Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language Provide opportunities, both indoors and out, for babies and toddlers to see people and things beyond the baby room, including the activities of older children.
M EE R6
Comparison Involve children in voting, e.g. for books to read at story time, using linking cubes with children’s names on. Discuss examples and display large numbers including hundreds, thousands and a million. Counting Jump with children along a number track, counting each jump or counting on. Sing counting songs and count together forwards and backwards,Continue reading “M EE R6”
M EE R5
Comparison/ Counting Provide a numeral rich environment, e.g. in role-play areas, mud-kitchen recipes, numbers on trikes and toilet doors. Provide numerals that children can pick up and use within all aspects of their play. Provide resources indoors and outside for children to explore and talk about higher numbers. Model using objects to illustrate counting songs,Continue reading “M EE R5”
M EE R4
Comparison/ Counting Provide buckets and bags for children to create collections of objects which they can count. Provide mark-making materials indoors and outdoors for children to represent their own ideas in play. Cardinality (How many?) Provide opportunities for children to explore cardinality in the environment using self-correcting resources, e.g. jigsaw with two ducks and theContinue reading “M EE R4”
M EE R3
Comparison Play hiding games so children notice that something has ‘gone’. Provide varied sets of objects for playful opportunities for children to independently explore ‘lots’, ‘more’, ‘not many’ and ‘not enough’. Counting Count while engaging in everyday tasks and while moving around. Sing songs with counting strings. Spatial Awareness Designate specific places or spaces forContinue reading “M EE R3”
M EE R2
Number Plan to sing number rhymes with actions.Involve families in sharing number rhymes from home cultures. Spatial Awareness Play games that involve curling and stretching, popping up and bobbing down. Provide boxes, cloths and bags for children to store, hide and transport items. Provide nested boxes, cups and toys of different sizes that fit insideContinue reading “M EE R2”
L W EE R6
Provide word banks, notebooks, clipboards, post-its and other writing resources for both indoor and outdoor play. Ensure resources enable children to draw on their out-of-school practices and personal interests, such as children’s popular culture or sports teams. Include oral stories and explore ways for both adults and children to develop oral storytelling skills. Provide aContinue reading “L W EE R6”
L W EE R5
Write down things children say to support their developing understanding that what they say can be written down, and then read and understood by someone else. Encourage parents to do this as well. Set up environments of offices, dens in the garden, library, shop, home corner with greetings cards, etc., so that children engage inContinue reading “L W EE R5”
L W EE R4
Draw attention to marks, signs and symbols in the environment and talk about what they represent. Ensure this involves recognition of English, other languages and scripts. Provide materials which reflect cultural diversity, so children see symbols and marks with which they are familiar, and learn that there are many different script systems e.g. Arabic, Chinese,Continue reading “L W EE R4”
L W EE R3
Introduce a range of appropriate implements including large brushes, chalk and crayons, sticks and sponges for children to trace patterns and shapes. Offer children a range of different surfaces to make marks on, inside and out, e.g. chalkboards, light boxes, sand and pathways. Provide a broad range of opportunities for early writing experiences through sensoryContinue reading “L W EE R3”
L W EE R1 R2
Provide a range of materials: sand, paint, early writing apps etc. for babies and toddlers to make marks with their hands and fingers, feet and bodies. Give children large sheets of paper, trays of gloop, paint, soil etc. to make marks collaboratively.
M EE R1
Number Provide small groups of the same objects in treasure baskets, as well as single items. Spatial awareness Provide opportunities for babies to move freely on carpets, grass etc. Observe and sensitively support babies’ play and give them long stretches of uninterrupted time to explore. Provide low mirrors to support babies to develop a bodyContinue reading “M EE R1”
L R EE R6
Provide a rich range of quality children’s literature and dialogic shared reading experiences to involve children in critical engagement with narratives, characters and plots. Provide a range of everyday signs and written texts in play areas (labels, lists, recipes, instructions, etc.) so children can include these in their play. Make story books with children inContinue reading “L R EE R6”
L R EE R5
Provide some simple poetry, song, fiction and non-fiction books, both paper copies and digital. Provide fact and fiction books and possibly ebooks that children can access independently in all areas, e.g. construction area as well as the book area. Provide books containing photographs that children can share with adults, peers and read on their own.Continue reading “L R EE R5”
L R EE R4
Find quality time every day to tell and read stories to children, using puppets, soft toys, or real objects as props. Provide stories, pictures and puppets which allow children to experience and talk about how characters feel. Include familiar environmental print in the role play area. Create frequent opportunities for singing, rhymes and music sessions.Continue reading “L R EE R4”
L R EE R3
Provide digital recordings of rhymes, stories, sounds and spoken words. Provide picture books, books with flaps or hidden words, and books with accompanying story apps. Provide story sacks for children to take home, for parents to read books with their children and talk about stories. Suggest to parents they might encourage children to take partContinue reading “L R EE R3”
L R EE R2
Let children handle books and draw their attention to pictures. Tell and read stories, looking at and interacting with young babies, and using voice, intonation and gesture to prompt babies’ interactions. Draw on children’s home cultures to create meaningful reading experiences. Make family stories using small photo albums or story apps with photos of familyContinue reading “L R EE R2”
L R EE R1
Provide mobiles, inviting displays and pictures of familiar characters in the environment, including in physical care areas, to prompt babies’ focused gaze, pointing and shared attention. Collect a diverse range of board books, cloth books, picture books and stories to share with young babies. Offer books that provide sensory experiences. Include babies in telephone andContinue reading “L R EE R1”
PD HS EE R6
Plan opportunities, particularly after exercise, for children to talk about how their bodies feel. Review enabling environments for adventure and challenge, identifying areas where children are encouraged to take physical risks. Develop and make use of a variety of natural landscapes including slopes, woodland and natural dens in the undergrowth. Provide outdoor resources which complementContinue reading “PD HS EE R6”
PD HS EE R5
Provide a cosy place with a cushion and a soft light where a child can rest quietly if they need to. Plan so that children can be active in a range of ways, including while using a wheelchair. Encourage children to be active and energetic by organising lively games, since physical activity is important inContinue reading “PD HS EE R5”
PD HS EE R4
Allow children to pour their own drinks, serve their own food, choose a story, hold a puppet or water a plant. Provide support and advice for parents on healthy eating, oral hygiene and sleep expectations for their children Offer choices for children in terms of potties, trainer seats or steps. Create opportunities for moving towardsContinue reading “PD HS EE R4”
PD HS EE R3
Set up places, outdoors as well as indoors, for toddlers to take naps during the day: daytime sleep can be much more refreshing and successful when provided outside. Ensure that there are plenty of different places and ways, indoors and outdoors, that toddlers can find withdrawal, softness and calm in the moment that they needContinue reading “PD HS EE R3”
PD HS EE R2
Provide a comfortable, accessible place where babies can rest or sleep when they want to. Continue to provide supported sleeping, resting and withdrawal opportunities outdoors as well as inside, to best fit the conditions that individual babies need. Plan alternative activities for babies who do not need sleep at the same time as others do.Continue reading “PD HS EE R2”
PD HS EE R1
Provide a dedicated place for daytime sleeping outdoors as well as indoors to suit the needs of individual babies. Enable and allow babies to sleep when they need to and to wake up from naps naturally. Provide ample seating both indoors and outside so that adults can sit comfortably with distressed, resting and alert babies. Continue reading “PD HS EE R1”
PD MH EE R5 R6
Provide time and space to enjoy energetic play outdoors daily. Provide large portable equipment that children can move about safely and cooperatively to create their own structures, such as milk crates, tyres, large cardboard tubes. Practise movement skills through games with beanbags, cones, balls and hoops. Plan activities where children can practise moving in differentContinue reading “PD MH EE R5 R6”
PD MH EE R4
Plan opportunities for children to tackle a range of levels and surfaces including flat and hilly ground, grass, pebbles, asphalt, smooth floors and carpets. Provide a range of large play equipment that can be used in different ways, such as boxes, ladders, A-frames and barrels. Plan time for children to experiment with equipment and toContinue reading “PD MH EE R4”
PD MH EE R3
Anticipate young children’s exuberance and ensure the space is clear and suitable for their rapid and sometimes unpredictable movements. Provide opportunities to swing, spin and bounce. Provide different arrangements of toys and soft play materials to encourage crawling, tumbling, rolling and climbing. Use music to stimulate exploration with rhythmic movements. Ensure that toddlers spend lotsContinue reading “PD MH EE R3”
PD MH EE R2
Alongside the continuing role of adult bodies, the floor is the best enabling environment for babies at this stage. Limit the time older babies spend in seats, highchairs, bouncers and other “containers” as this prevents the critical physical development that takes place through crawling. Plan space to encourage free movement, while being kept safe byContinue reading “PD MH EE R2”
PD MH EE R1
The caregiver’s body is the first and foremost enabling environment, and babies need lots of time in contact with attentive and responsive adults. From birth onwards, babies need to experience movement in space through being held. Rocking, side-to-side and up-and-down movements are soothing, enjoyable and very developmentally beneficial. Provide comfortable seating both indoors and outdoors,Continue reading “PD MH EE R1”
CL S EE R6
Give time and make spaces for children to initiate discussions from shared experiences and have conversations with peers and adults. Give thinking time for children to decide what they want to say and how they will say it. Encourage language play, e.g. through stories such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears and action songs thatContinue reading “CL S EE R6”
CL S EE R4 R5
Display pictures and photographs showing engaging, familiar or fantastical events, objects and activities and talk about them with the children. Provide activities which help children to learn to distinguish differences in sounds, word patterns and rhythms. Plan to encourage correct use of language by telling repetitive stories, and playing games which involve repetition of wordsContinue reading “CL S EE R4 R5”
CL S EE R3
Allow time to follow young children’s lead and have fun together while developing vocabulary, e.g. saying We’re jumping up, going down. Where appropriate make opportunities to talk through and comment on some activities to highlight specific vocabulary or language structures, e.g. You’ve caught the ball. I’ve caught the ball. Eva’s caught the ball. Provide storiesContinue reading “CL S EE R3”
CL S EE R2
Find out from parents the words that children use for things which are important to them, such as bankie for their comfort blanket, remembering to extend this question to home languages. Explain that strong foundations in a home language support the development of English. Tune into what different children enjoy and create environments where babblingContinue reading “CL S EE R2”
CL S EE R1
Learn and use key words in the home languages of babies in the setting. Value and learn from families about their communities, languages and cultures. Including influences from other contexts of the baby’s life supports wellbeing. Encourage parents to record familiar, comforting sounds, such as lullabies in home languages. Use these to help babies settleContinue reading “CL S EE R1”
CL U EE R5 R6
Set up shared experiences that children can reflect upon, e.g. visits, cooking, or stories that can be re-enacted. Help children to predict and order events coherently, by providing props and materials that encourage children to re-enact, using talk and action Find out from parents how children make themselves understood at home; confirm which their preferredContinue reading “CL U EE R5 R6”
CL U EE R4
Include things which excite young children’s curiosity, such as hats, bubbles, shells, story books, seeds and snails, which reflect their wider living and non-living communities. Provide activities, such as cooking, where talk is used to anticipate or initiate what children will be doing, e.g. We need some eggs. Let’s see if we can find someContinue reading “CL U EE R4”
CL U EE R3
Plan play activities and provide resources which encourage young children to engage in symbolic play, e.g. putting a “baby” to bed and talking to it appropriately. Plan real world shared experiences such as visits, everyday tasks, or preparing activities in the setting. Use pictures, books, real objects, and signs alongside your words.
CL U EE R1 R2
Let babies see and hear the sequence of actions you go through as you carry out familiar routines. Provide resources and spaces that stimulate babies’ interests such as a shiny bell, a book or a mirror on the floor or on your lap. Find out from parents how babies make themselves understood at home. ConfirmContinue reading “CL U EE R1 R2”
PSED UE EE R5 R6
Plan small group circle times when children can explore feelings, e.g. through stories. Create familiar, predictable routines, including opportunities to help in appropriate tasks, e.g. setting the table or putting away toys. Display a sequence of photographs to show the routines in the setting to support younger or new children and children with additional needs.Continue reading “PSED UE EE R5 R6”
PSED UE EE R3 R4
Maintain consistency of key person relationships in the organisation of staffing Keep changes in group and routine to a minimum Ensure that observation and planning for children’s emotional needs is a central focus. Provide books, stories and puppets that can be used to model responding to others’ feelings and being helpful and supportive. Provide sufficientContinue reading “PSED UE EE R3 R4”
PSED UE EE R1 R2
Observe babies’ emotional responses and plan the routines, the environment and play experiences to support them. Encourage parents to bring their baby’s comforter/transitional object to ease the change from home to setting. Create a cosy, quiet place for babies to be calm. Provide comfortable seating such as a sofa or cushions for baby and keyContinue reading “PSED UE EE R1 R2”
CL LA EE R5 R6
When making up alliterative jingles, draw attention to the similarities in sounds at the beginning of words and emphasise the initial sound, e.g. mmmmummy, shshshshadow, K-K-K-KKaty. Plan activities listening carefully to different speech sounds, e.g. a sound chain copying the voice sound around the circle, or identifying other children’s voices on tape. When singing orContinue reading “CL LA EE R5 R6”
CL LA EE R4
Use puppets and other props to encourage listening and responding when singing a familiar song or reading from a story book. Encourage children to learn one another’s names and to pronounce them correctly. Ensure all practitioners can pronounce the names of children, parents and other practitioners. Find out parents’ preferred names for themselves and theirContinue reading “CL LA EE R4”
CL LA EE R3
Collect resources that children can listen to and learn to distinguish between. These may include games that involve guessing which object makes a particular sound Encourage listening in its widest sense; this could include opportunities to listen to human noises, non-human noises, objects that make interesting noise, weather and other outdoor sounds. Provide opportunities toContinue reading “CL LA EE R3”
CL LA EE R1 R2
Share stories, songs and rhymes from all cultures and in babies’ home languages and other languages common in communities. Share favourite stories, songs, rhymes or music as babies are settling to sleep, or at other quiet times. Sing frequently with young babies, encouraging them to join in. Create an environment which invites responses from babiesContinue reading “CL LA EE R1 R2”
PSED SS EE R5 R6
Involve parents in their children’s learning and learn about each child’s home culture from them. Plan regular opportunities for children to talk to their small group about something they are interested in or have done. Include mirrors and photographs of the children and their families and friends in the environment. Reflect children’s socio-cultural and ethnicContinue reading “PSED SS EE R5 R6”
PSED SS EE R3 R4
Create displays and albums of photographs of the children and the activities they have participated in. Encourage children to take their own photographs within the setting. Displays, equipment and resources are reflective of the children’s linguistic social and cultural backgrounds and those of the wider community, so there are items that are familiar to eachContinue reading “PSED SS EE R3 R4”
PSED SS EE R1 R2
Allow for flexibility within practice so that the routines you follow offer continuity between home and setting. Learn from parents/carers about each baby’s family culture, traditions and languages. Share knowledge about each child’s language(s) by making a poster or book of greetings and key phrases to use Provide comfortable areas where parents, practitioners and youngContinue reading “PSED SS EE R1 R2”
PSED MR EE R5 R6
Provide stability in staffing, key person relationships and in grouping of the children. Plan opportunities for children to spend time with their key person, individually and in small groups. Create opportunities for children to get to know everyone in the group. Plan the environment to create spaces for children to play alone, alongside or withContinue reading “PSED MR EE R5 R6”
PSED MR EE R3 R4
Display photographs of practitioners, so that when children arrive, their parents can show them who will be there to take care of them. Support children who are new to a group by gradually settling them in over time so they can get to know the people, the environment and the routines. Plan times for childrenContinue reading “PSED MR EE R3 R4”
PSED MR EE R1R2
The setting offers a welcoming, calm, caring environment that is inviting and will make babies feel they want to come and play. Implement a Key Person Approach, so that each child and their family have a special person to relate to and rely on. Continuing professional development and supervision to support attachment relationships between keyContinue reading “PSED MR EE R1R2”