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How to get your child to hold their pen/pencil correctly
September 27, 2023

How to get your child to hold their pen/pencil correctly

Is your child at the age where they are starting to draw? Scribble? Attempt letter formation? 

If so then it's important to help them hold their pen or pencil correctly. 

Every child is different and some may love drawing and writing while others may prefer voicing their phonics instead

That's ok - you know your little one best so don't stress!

Here are some hints and tips to help your child

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Sound Hunt
September 03, 2022

Sound Hunt

Show your child the word written on a piece of paper, but explain to them that someone has hidden the sounds in the house/garden. Can they find the sounds around the house and bring them back to make the word or find the sounds.

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Count up and down on the stairs...
September 03, 2022

Count up and down on the stairs...

Put the number flashcards up the stairs on the wall. Children have to count going up the stairs and then count backwards coming down the stairs.

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Have fun Matching
September 03, 2022

Have fun Matching

Before going out in the car while your trying to get ready and pack bags as it’s busy give your little one something to do.

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Have fun with Passwords
August 02, 2022

Have fun with Passwords

Our first activity involves passwords on snack drawers. So if your little one doesn’t recognise their name use their name if they do use another word… any word you would like to use that you want them to learn.

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🇱🇹 Let’s go to Lithuania 🇱🇹
April 18, 2021

🇱🇹 Let’s go to Lithuania 🇱🇹

🇱🇹 Another striped flag...Find all the striped flags from the other capital cards and compare the colours and the stripes. Talk about horizontal and vertical lines. Encourage the children to look in their wardrobe/draws at their own clothes. Have any of them got stripes on? Which way do the stripes go?

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🇰🇪 Let’s go to Kenya 🇰🇪
April 09, 2021

🇰🇪 Let’s go to Kenya 🇰🇪

🇰🇪 My favourite item is on this card...coffee!!!!!! We have coffee beans at school and they are great for exploring!! Pop a load of coffee beans into a tray or bowl for children to role play making coffee, filling and emptying containers. Some of the key language to use during this play is: full, empty, half full, nearly full and nearly empty.

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🇯🇲 Let’s go to Jamaica 🇯🇲
April 08, 2021

🇯🇲 Let’s go to Jamaica 🇯🇲

🇯🇲 The Jamaican coconut is one of the most popular types of coconut in the world, found on the towering coconut palm trees throughout the country. The taste of coconut is undoubtedly delicious and is used in countless Jamaican recipes . Cut into a coconut and taste it, look at it, try coconut milk, coconut ice cream, and maybe every chocolate bounty’s (one of my personal favourites).

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🇮🇪 Let’s go to Ireland 🇮🇪
April 07, 2021

🇮🇪 Let’s go to Ireland 🇮🇪

🇮🇪 It's often said that Ireland is home to more four-leaf clovers than any other place, giving meaning to the phrase "the luck of the Irish." Make a four leaf clover with the children and then go on a walk and see if you can find any clovers.

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🇭🇺 Let’s go to Hungary🇭🇺
April 07, 2021

🇭🇺 Let’s go to Hungary🇭🇺

🇭🇺 Compare the flag to Germanys flag. What do you notice? Ask the children to make their own stripe flag with their three favourite colours. Name their flag after themselves. Remind them it must have a capital at the start as they are important. When they have finished it place it in their room or on their door so that they are reminded that they are important too and that capitals come at the start of their name and countries.

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🇩🇪 Let’s go to Germany 🇩🇪
April 06, 2021

🇩🇪 Let’s go to Germany 🇩🇪

🇩🇪 Look at the flag with the children. What three colours can you see? Can you make a repeating pattern with these colours? A repeating pattern is when it happens over and over again. Black, red, yellow, black, red, yellow, black, red, yellow.

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🇫🇷 Let’s go to France! 🇫🇷
April 05, 2021

🇫🇷 Let’s go to France! 🇫🇷

🇫🇷 Let’s go to France! 🇫🇷

🇫🇷Bonjour is hello in French. Encourage the children to say bonjour when seeing any family and friends today or over the phone.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Let’s go to England! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
April 04, 2021

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Let’s go to England! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 In England we have a royal family. Look at pictures of Buckingham palace and the Crown Jewels. Let’s get creative!  👑 Make a crown for the children to wear and pretend to be the queen for the day. 👑

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🇩🇰 Let’s go to Denmark!🇩🇰
April 03, 2021

🇩🇰 Let’s go to Denmark!🇩🇰

🇩🇰Let’s get phonetic with the word D.e.n....m.ark! Sound out the word to the children and break it down into two words. Look at the first word together, den. Make a den with the children. Put the capital card at the entrance of the den, and look at the shape of the country, compare it to the den shape you have made.

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🇨🇳 Let’s go to China 🇨🇳
April 02, 2021

🇨🇳 Let’s go to China 🇨🇳

🇨🇳 While exploring the Great Wall of China and its length totaling more than 13,000 miles. Show the children some cold cooked noodles. Compare the noodles in size and then use them to measure different objects around the house, explaining that the Great Wall of China is super long!!!!

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🇧🇪 Let’s go to Belgium ! 🇧🇪
April 01, 2021

🇧🇪 Let’s go to Belgium ! 🇧🇪

    • The Grand Place is always packed with people. There are tourists and school groups during the day and during the night, people sit on the stones in small circles drinking and talking. Can you become a builder and construct something that you think tourists would want to visit? Something grand, like a castle or the grand place. You may want to show the children books or pictures of other buildings. It may be a building of interest to you or to them, such as their school or nursery. This is really good for drawing on aspects of their own life and children sharing their own experiences. 
    • Look at the shape of the country. Draw round the edge of the land on the card with your child and look at the world map to see if they can find it. What do you notice about the shape compared to yesterday? It is important children compare the similarities and differences. The current population of Belgium in 2021 is 11,632,326. Compared to  25,749,369 in Australia . Therefore explain to the children that more than double the amount of people live in Australia than in Belgium!
    • Look at the flag. Today is all about black, yellow and red. We need to find as many things in the house as we can that are black yellow or red. Once the children have found objects, they need to count and compare which one has the most. Try and push the objects together into three rectangles to resemble the Belgium flag. 
    • Tasting: This is the BEST bit. Look at the card with the children. What foods can you see? What can you tell me about these? Are they healthy or unhealthy? Taste different chips, chocolate and waffles. Compare the taste of each and encourage children to describe what it taste like and what it feels like in their mouth. Remind the children that taste is one of their senses. 

✈✈✈Let’s go travelling✈✈✈

#playbased #eyfs #nursery #preschool #toddler #teacher #geography #exploration #education #fun #mum #mumlife #dad #child #children #flashcards #school #primaryschool #primaryschoolteacher #sharksaustralia #australia #australian #geography #eyfs #kids #chocolate #belgium 

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🇦🇺 Let’s go to Australia! 🇦🇺
April 01, 2021

🇦🇺 Let’s go to Australia! 🇦🇺

🇦🇺 Look at the shape of the country. Draw round the edge of the land on the card with your child and look at the world map to see if they can find it. As they are drawing round the card tell them it is a country called Australia that starts with a capital A because countries are very important.

🇦🇺 Find things in your house with a pocket. Collect all the things together that you can find inside pockets (you may want to purposely hide things...a bit like a treasure hunt) and talk about what you think the kangaroo may have in her pocket. Explain that it is called a pouch which is a bit like a pocket. We put things in pockets to keep them safe and or to keep us warm. The pouch acts as an incubator and allows the full development of the baby's body. It allows the mother to nurse her baby which is called a Joey. Even after the young have properly developed, the mothers still carry them in their pouch to defend them against the threat of different predators. Link all of these facts to a pocket as it will be easier for the children to understand. Every time they see a pocket... they will remember all about the kangaroos from Australia. You could even give them a print out of a Joey or the card to keep safe in their pocket!

🇦🇺 Make your Australian flag. What colours can you see? Can you see the stars?...talk to the children about where else they might see stars?

🇦🇺 Create the sea, use a see through bowl and add stones,shells, fish, sharks, seaweed etc.

🇦🇺Watch the clips on my highlights and ask the children questions based on their senses. Also check out all the photos @australia
If you jumped into this video/photo what would you be able to touch? Feel? See? Hear? Smell?

🇦🇺 Look at the card, what do you notice? What can you see? Do you have any questions? What letter can you see? What is this country called? Do you know how long it takes to get there? Do you think you could swim to Australia?

✈️✈️✈️Let’s go travelling✈️✈️✈️

#playbased #eyfs #nursery #preschool #toddler #teacher #geography #exploration #education #fun #mum #mumlife #dad #child #children #flashcards #school #primaryschool #primaryschoolteacher

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🌎 Travel around the world with us 🌎
April 01, 2021

🌎 Travel around the world with us 🌎

✈️🚢🛶⛵️🚁Create experiences
🗽🗼🏰🏟 🐲Acquire knowledge
🔍📚 🌎 🗺 🗣Develop vocabulary
🦈 🦘 🍫 🧇🩴Learn new things through exploration

🌎 Starting tomorrow we will be travelling around the world with our capital letter cards.
🌎 Each day we will explore a new country.
🌎 We will give you some ideas on what you can do with your little one in order for them to learn about different countries and lots more.

🙋‍♀️ Are you a mum that is fed up of thinking of new ideas everyday? Do you need a focus?
🙋‍♀️ Are you a setting that needs something new to inspire you and the children?

👍 If the answer is yes to the above, join us. I will be posting the activities daily that you can explore based on each card. Don’t feel you have to do all the activities or all the cards. Pick what is right for you and your little ones.

🔍*Important* This is NOT about the perfect set up or creating the best post...it will be everyday activities that you can link in with the daily focus.

🔍Keep us posted by tagging us in your stories
🔍 Remember it is not about it looking perfect
🔍 It is about exploration and language
🔍 Have fun

✈️✈️✈️Let’s go travelling✈️✈️✈️

#playbased #eyfs #nursery #preschool #toddler #teacher #geography #exploration #education #fun #mum #mumlife #dad #child #children #flashcards #school #primaryschool #primaryschoolteacher

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Don't Rush!
February 17, 2021

Don't Rush!

I have noticed a lot of questions coming up from parents are all talking about the same thing. How do I get my child to count?

Well, my advice is don’t rush!

It is important that children do not rush through the numbers because this stops them from learning number sense. It is vital that all children have number sense in order to help with progress as they go throughout primary school.

Therefore, my advice is take is one day at a time, one number at a time.

Each day, week or fortnight, whatever is best for your children. Focus on one number. Break this number down, use it in different activities.

For example, lets look at the number 4:

-Can you do 4 star jumps?

-Can you make me 4 cakes with the playdoh?

-Can you stir the porridge four times?

-2+2=4 3+1=4 1+3=4 4+0=4 Therefore, this is showing children that the number can be broken down in different ways.

-Can you write the number 4?

-Do you know anyone that is 4 years old?

-What is one more than 4?

-What is one less than 4?

-Point out when it is 4 o clock.

-Can you find me 4 sticks? Can you find 1 long stick and three short sticks? How many have you got altogether?

-Can you split the pizza into 4? How many people can you share it between?

-Point (one to one correspondence) counting to 4.

 

It is key, that you do not go onto the next number until the child is secure with the number sense. Sometimes we rush children through counting because wen want to tell everyone they can count to 100 but this will not help them in the long run.

Any questions on ‘Don’t rush’ just ask

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How to support your child at home, in a way that makes sense!
February 17, 2021

How to support your child at home, in a way that makes sense!

Important point, as a teacher I know for a fact that the best progress comes from hands on experiences…Therefore, why not educate your child in a way that makes sense?

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Number Fun
February 17, 2021

Number Fun

Today’s activity involves recognising the numbers.
Place the numbers randomly on the wall.
State a number and then the child needs to throw a beanbag, ball, sponge or water balloon at the number on the wall.

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