Cooking food alongside an adult has long been a traditional experience for young children.
When children are involved in preparing food, they are more likely to try out new tastes and flavours, even if the dish is a green ‘mushy peas’ dish.
Through cooking, children can learn new vocabulary spontaneously as they will often want to talk about what they are seeing and doing and they can develop a sense of pride and also feelings of competence when they cook.
Open ended play activities involve exploration and physical activity. In these activities, children are allowed to use their imagination and do things that they are curious about. Such activities could take place with sand and water, construction, arts and crafts playdough, activity trays, role-play etc.
Our children are spending time outdoors daily to keep fit and healthy physically.
We are encouraging children to run, jump, climb and chase, to ‘cook’, to read, draw or write, to ride wheeled vehicles, to engage in imaginative play such as making a camp fire or being on a plane.
Drawing with light and shadow is such a fun activity! Shadow drawing helps children to recognise and understand several important concepts in physics. By tracing around their chosen objects, children may start to notice that as the sun moves, the shadow moves
Making a shadow theater has been an engaging experience for all our children. They used what they learnt about shadows, how to change their size, shape and position to help tell a story.
We already feel the Christmas cheer in the kindergarten! We have sparkles, glitter, tinsel, stars, pajama party and letters being written and sent to Santa Claus.
Math is a part of learning for children in the early years because it provides vital life skills. They will help children problem solve, measure,compare, develop their own spatial awareness, learn shape and colours.
We learn it through ‘doing’, nursery rhymes and carefully chosen resources and games. For example finding different ways to make 7 or finger painting Christmas lights
Early reading ignites creativity, sparks curiosity, and stimulates the imagination in young children. This morning we had our first book fair and it already lead to a great role-play. As children grow, books help to develop skills such as empathy, problem-solving and morality.
Mark making is much more than just a scribble! Toddlers learn and begin to make sense of the world through mark making. It is the beginning of a child’s journey towards writing and is an important step in a child’s development for handwriting, creativity and coordination. It is when children start to intentionally create their own lines, patterns or shapes using tools or their bodies.
How does pretend or real cooking help a child’s development? Cooking activities allow children to achieve several learning outcomes. -Children have a strong sense of wellbeing. -Group cooking activities help develop children’s sense of belonging by encouraging turn taking and cooperation. -Give children the opportunity to imitate common situations they are familiar with. -Widen vocabulary as children begin to learn the names of new objects and foods. -Promote healthy food choices.
It’s raining, it’s pouring, it is ok we are all dressed up warmly. Experiencing the rain, catching the water, filling containers, analyzing, reflecting and working together to make a puddle to jump in it.
Children enjoy hands-on activities and so we created a fine motor skills station. The children created patterns, shapes or swirls using stones, pasta and colourful yarn. Indoors they used tweezers and spoons in order to get their yellow and pink pasta.
Eating food in a social context is an important aspect of food literacy, and a key to successful relationships with food throughout life. Therefore, teaching children to share food from a young age is an important stepping stone to developing their healthy relationships with food
Climbing develops our spatial awareness, motor skills, & memory Climbing plays a key role in early childhood motor skills development. Increasingly, researchers are uncovering the values of one of the most developmentally important forms of play – climbing. We’re born to do it! We’re explorers, problem-solvers, and above all, curious. Climbing at a young age helps with spatial and directional awareness, and also boosts physical skills such as balance, hand and foot coordination, and agility.
What a busy, lovely day we had. Autumn is here and we love it! We read the story Hide-and- Seek Pig, we played hide-and-seek, we prepared food for the garden birds hoping to see a blackbird, we picked up yellow leaves, built car ramps and now we get ready to have a delicious apple pie outside.
Parents and grandparents came to the nursery’s open day together with the children. Children played, parents chatted, found answers to all of their questions and learned about the curriculum and different areas. Every nursery is unique and during a visit parents can get a sense of the atmosphere and envision their child develop and grow over the following few years there.
