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“Strive to make everyday the best day of your life, because there is no good reason not to.” Hal Elrod

Winter Nature Shelf

Nov 07, 2019

How do you create and celebrate the moments of joy that come throughout the year?

I like to create a nature shelf in the entrance to our setting that can be used as a way of creating a wonderful sense of arrival for young children and their families. It encourages discussion and a love for what is seen and experienced in the world around us. With a hope of making children and their families more present and strengthening the connections between home and setting. By encouraging children to add their natural treasures to this working display or observations.

Here is a winter themed Nature shelf that I set up at the beginning of December last year. It simply had an artificial tree, Pussy Willow in a tall vase, pine cones and Holly collected by the children, twinkly lights to bring the enchantment and then the wonderful book Pick and Pine Tree by Patricia Toht. This book is a delightful read about a family choosing and decorating their own Christmas tree- offering many discussion...

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Getting Outside In November

Nov 06, 2019
 

My Wanderlust: A Nature Study Programme is an online programme that challenges the way we live our lives and encourages us to get outside more! Encouraging our next generation of scientists, explorers and adventurers.

Click Here! 

I know that November can be a less appealing time of the year to get outside with the gloomy damp weather but actually it’s a great time to learn and have fun!

First of all you just have to have the right clothing to prevent anyone getting miserable and cold (that includes you and your team!). I provide my children with a set of waterproof overalls that they need to wear if they are learning outdoors. I prefer the seperate waterproof over trousers with braces so these can still be worn in the warmer months with a t-shirt underneath or layered up over the winter. We also invest a part of our budget each year in supplying water proof gloves, wooly hats and waterproof boots and liners. This includes having a bank of clothing for our staff to...

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FREE 5 Day Challenge

Nov 04, 2019

FREE 5 Day Challenge

Launches on the 4th November!

We turned to social media last month to ask what your biggest challenges are! We have now set up a 5 day plan to help you feel more confident and less frustrated. 

Join us each day to take part in our daily training session!

Monday: Recruitment
Tuesday: Motivating your team
Wednesday: Destructions of resources
Thursday: Organising your space
Friday: Resourcing for 2 year olds and under

 

Join in with our FREE training here >> https://hyggeintheearlyyears.mykajabi.com/offers/GvyqANN5/checkout

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'This week everything will be about Bonfire Night!'

Nov 04, 2019

It's easy when there's a special day or time of year to dress all your provision around that particular theme. In my first year of teaching when it was bonfire night I would dress all my areas of provision around this particular theme for the week. Enhancing each area with things like;

 

-Firework themed play dough mats

-Adding red and yellow cellophane and kitchen roll tubes to the junk modelling table

-Putting black sugar paper up on the art easel and luminous paint colours.

Taking this approach to learning each week meant that there was always something in each area of the provision that the adult had decided the children should make often with the adults own example. Or maybe it would have been a tick sheet activity that everyone would have been called to take part in. Getting everything ready the week before was exhausting and I would often feel disheartened when I had set an activity up and the children used it in a different way.

This type of approach can leave very...

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Create STEM Opportunities with Potion Making

Nov 01, 2019
 

Who loves potion making?

Today we have made some great mixtures but even better so much learning has happened- From predicting to problem solving!

We’ve explored making ‘Witches Blood’ and watched it fizz and bubble as the bicarbonate of soda combined with the vinegar.

 

We also made ‘Goblins Snot ‘mixing together cornflour, water, green colouring and chia seeds.

We popped our mixture into bottles and wrote our own potion labels too.
According to the children tomorrow we are making a spell book!!

Resourcing

  • Old white shirts (Lab coats)
  • Safety goggles
  • A variety of different sized flasks, containers and bottles (Try adding some measuring cylinders and jugs too)
  • Wooden spoons
  • Slotted spoons
  • Variety of measuring spoons
  • Weighing scales
  • Blank spell books to write in
  • Sticky labels to make up names for their potions
  • Pipettes and turkey basters
  • Pretend spiders, cobwebs, eyeballs
  • Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

Ingredients (Supervision of play and...

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Behaviour and Christmas

Oct 31, 2019

The whole fam under one roof, Christmas bakes in the oven, winter roaring outside the front door: It doesn’t really get much cozier than Christmas.

Christmas…oh that’s right I mentioned the C word and it's only the start of November! I have Michael Buble de-frosting as we speak and in this weeks blog post I’m going to be sharing my first few ideas with you for supporting behaviour over the festive period. 

Over the last few months we’ve been getting ready for our Christmas training events at KSEY Consultancy and I know that so many of you are super organised (a bit like me!) and want to get things ready early. I always used to use my half term week in October to do the majority of my Christmas shopping and start writing my Christmas cards…a job I really do love doing.

As I said we’ve been planning Christmas for a little while now…we worked with our fabulous photographer back in August to get some great Christmas Product...

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A Hygge Christmas!

Oct 31, 2019

Christmas is such an exciting and wonderful time of year, but it can also become over whelming on the senses if we are not careful. Jane (Environmentasthe3rdteacher), an Early Educator in Australia, shares with us how she sets up a calm environment in her school while also ensuring the fun of the festive season.


You may think I’m a little strange but I have never really been one for traditional Christmas colours or the typical tinsel tree both in my home (much to my own children's dismay) and in my Pre Primary class. I prefer like in many of my set ups, natural products. When it comes to a Christmas tree often it involves a branch or driftwood with seed pods, twig stars and fairy lights. This year in my classroom I decided to set up a little Christmas area separated from the rest of my room by draping organza from the ceiling with twinkle lights woven through and
around.

I wanted to have a few different choices here including a sensory table which will change weekly i.e. fake...

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25 Years Experienced Educator Refreshing Practice

Sep 03, 2019
I really love being able to share with you the work and it's impact on my members. This week i'm featuring in my spotlight the highly dedicated and reflective Ann.
 
'I have been working in childcare for almost 25 years and my setting was in need of a complete overhaul! I have always been busy but felt the need for a change.
 
I saw Hygge advertised and looked into it I loved it from the start. The parents of the children that I care for love the transformation and the resources.
 
When you work in a small setting it is very easy to become complacent as we have minimal help, it is up to the individual to keep up with continuous improvement.
 
This is where I found KSEY invaluable. I started with a couple of short courses and then started the HYGGE in the early years.
 
 
I was hooked from the start and began to transform my setting.
 
I have replaced most of my plastic toys with natural resources but I still keep some of them...
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I Changed To Child Led Learning And Never Looked Back

Aug 30, 2019

The Art of Letting Go by Cornisheyfsteacher

I was often told that it takes a certain type of person to become a teacher – even more specifically; an early years teacher. Passionate, caring, organised, dedicated, inspired, motivated, resourceful, thoughtful… the list is endless. The responsibility and privilege that comes with the job, having a chance to make a difference and be a part of, arguably, the most important stage of a child’s development, is an honour to say the least. I love my job, I enjoy my job, but I completely understand why it is one of the most challenging professions to be in. The workload, the expectations, the weekends lost to ‘I just need to catch up on…’, the last minute scrutinties, lesson observations, it is never-ending. I am at the start of my career. Now approaching my third year of teaching in a Reception class. I want to share the start of my journey, some of my biggest revelations and the sense I have made of a...

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We Went From Bright Colours To Calmness

Aug 30, 2019

I am the Area Manager for Daisy Chain Nursery and over the

last year the nursery owner has worked hard transforming the

nursery into a home from home approach. The company has 2

settings and I work to support both settings whilst managing

the Liverpool site. The nursery Owner works closely with

myself and the teams and has completed a lot of the

environment work and the research behind it, educating the

teams along the way.

When the initial decision was made to change the nursery

approach we started by adapting the furniture and muting the

colouring to provide a more natural approach. We immediately

noticed a change in the behaviour of the 2 year old children

and also the children who have special educational needs. more

comfortable. hey seemed a lot calmer and the environments in

general seemed to be calmed as the children were being

stimulated by the toys and the activities rather than being over

stimulated by the general environment.

We began the process in the baby room and...

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