The children in Early Years 1 have a strong relationship with the nearby forest as we spend weekly time exploring there. This natural ever changing setting provides countless opportunities to develop and explore theories connected to our unit of inquiry’s…
How do you know the wind is there? Frequently perceptible, but often invisible, the wind can be a fascinating weather phenomena. Its mysterious nature can bring the languages of science and imagination together. When thinking about the question, ‘How do…
After observing the children engaging in ‘restaurant role play‘ over a period of a few weeks, it was clear that this was yet another wonderful opportunity to encourage and foster their interest and embark on a class inquiry into restaurants. Following some…
As a class we read and enjoyed Julia Donaldson’s picture book ‘Stick Man.’ The rhyme within the text is simple and repetitive, allowing the children to join in with the ‘reading’ and predict and identify rhyming words within the story….
Last week in EY2RR, we read the book, ‘Owl Babies’, by Martin Waddell. This delightful story tells the tale of three baby owls who wake up one night to find their mother gone from the family’s nest. This well-written and…
In our class blocks have been a hotspot of inspiration and learning. Playing with blocks keeps children very engaged and interested. Using blocks creates challenges and repeated use inspires children to be more creative and work on more complex structures….
A new school year means reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones. We are working on building new friendships and discussing our roles within our community. We have started working on our first Unit of Inquiry, ‘Who We Are’,…
Vere, Ed. Banana, United Kingdom: Penguin, 2008. Print Last week we read the book ‘Banana’ written by Ed Vere. It is a story of Two Monkeys and One Banana. The book uses only 2 words – ‘Banana’ and ‘Please’. It’s bright,…
In the Early Years we have many learning outcomes related to the four language strands of reading, writing, listening and speaking, and viewing and presenting (some outcomes addressed in this experience are listed below). Our class recently engaged in a wonderful learning experience, which helped…
To invite close exploration, investigation and imagination we invited the children to look at some natural materials and beautiful sensory jewels. It was wonderful to observe the creativity and creative expression when the children worked together, representing their ideas with the objects provided on a large mirror.
Natasha: I’m making an island, a big island.
Mats: I’m making a pattern.
Inga: A red heart and a green heart, there you go Natasha. This one is so pretty, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …. Do you need this?
Natasha: Yes I do, I like that one. There is much room here on my island, look I’m making a big island.
The children became inspired by such intriguing objects and it was fascinating to observe how they used their developing language skills to communicate and work together to share ideas and solve problems.
For Joao this was a valuable opportunity to count the objects in English and to sort them according to various attributes. The children used mathematical language in their play like ‘big’, ‘small’ and ‘pattern’.
Natasha, Inga and Mats were able to tell their own stories about the objects and what they might represent in their imagination, providing them with a rich language experience.