Tuesday 29 September 2015

Autumn Writing


To enhance awareness of letter formation and encourage experimentation with writing and pen grip I put some Autumn objects together in a sensory tray. We used salt that was coloured with icing gels in several Autumn Colours together with some sticks, conkers and some of the Autumn leaves that the children had collected with several familiar letters written on them. 


 The children studied the leaves and picked out the sounds they could recognised. We had fun practising the sounds and doing the related actions. The children then used the sticks to make marks in the sand, attempting to draw some of the letters and talking about their shapes. 


The autumn items such as conkers and pine cones enabled discussion, not only of Autumn, but also of the sounds that the children could hear in these words. This activity enhances both literacy skills through sound recognition and practising letter formation through to physical development with the use of fine motor skills and exploration of senses. 

Wednesday 9 September 2015

Joint Art Project


This was the children's first week back together after the summer holiday so we decided to get them used to being together again by creating a joint piece of art work that involved them working together to share both the space on the paper and the available resources. 


I provided the children with some blank paper and they each chose the colour of pen that they wanted first and found some space on the paper. They talked to each other about what they were drawing, making up stories ranging from details of their families through to wales in the sea!



After the children had finished their art work I asked if they would like to do some sticking. They worked to gather sharing one glue stick and taking it in turns through to counting out numbers of eyes and sequins. 


The boys were so pleased with the end result that we are now displaying it on the wall. Within this colourful piece we have covered social skills, communicating, controlling pen grip, counting, discussing shapes, talking about the world around us and, of course, being creative!

Thursday 3 September 2015

End of the Holidays

It is the last week before the big ones go back to school so we thought we would provide them with lots of fresh air and exercise. I couldn't think of a better place to achieve this than at Wembury Beach. Accompanied by two other childminders and lots more children we spent a happy, albeit a little chilly, five hours on the beach. 


The children had such a lovely social time. They enjoyed a picnic on the beach (always a favourite) as well as digging a boat in the sand and taking turns sitting in it, rock pooling, throwing stones and building sand castles.


At the end of the day the children were lucky enough to see some ponies that had been brought down to get used to the water. Even our youngest had great fun filling buckets with stones and playing in the water. There was so much fun that some people needed a quick snooze on the warm sand!