Natural Playgrounds

One of the great joys of being a childminder is having the freedom to take the children out into the natural environment where they can learn so much through play and exploration. This morning was another beautiful Autumn morning so we decided to do a walk though some local woods to the river. Although only a simple walk I watched the children and was fascinated by the many areas of learning covered within this lovely Autumn stroll. Just some of these are listed below:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Through interacting with their peers and discussing their thoughts and ideas the children learn how to interact with others and develop appropriate social behaviours. 

Physical Development: From climbing on trees, wading through long grass and squelching through mud through to picking up sticks to float down the river and throwing stones the children develop both fine and gross motor skills and benefit from the fresh air and exercise. 

Communication & Language: The children talk about what they can see as well as discussing their ideas with one another. 

Literacy: We related the different surfaces that we encountered to those detailed in the 'going on a bear hunt' book. 

Numeracy: The children instinctively counted a range of objects from sticks and stones through to the steps they were taking. 

Understanding the World: We looked at the environment around us, discussing the autumn, inspecting the effect of the low sun on our shadows and watching the river carry the sticks downstream. 

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. 

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!

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!

Pizza for Lunch

The first day of the school holidays requires activities that will keep all 6 children with a 6 year age range entertained. We therefore decided to make homemade pizzas at the request of one of our three years olds. 

The children talked about the things they would like on top of the pizza, discussing what things are healthy and whether they were fruit or vegetables. We even had a request for apple which was a new one for me!

The children shared the resources, taking it in turns to spread the tomato topping on the base and then sprinkle on the cheese before choosing their preferred toppings. 

We watched the pizzas cooking in the oven as the cheese changed from its grated state to smooth, golden and bubbling as well as discussing the yummy smell. To complete our activity all the children had a yummy social meal time.