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

Nicola Hacking: Literacy Rich Environment

May 21, 2020

Fostering a Language Rich Environment

In some areas of the UK, more than 50% of children entering reception are assessed as having language levels below what is expected for their age. Now whilst there’s a complex range of issues surrounding this, such as how we measure and assess children at this young age, and the parameters upon which we measure this, there’s no denying that language is a necessary and life enriching skill that we all want the children in our care to develop a real love for.

To begin with, language is used as a way of the child having their needs met. Whether this is learning to ask for ‘more’, to participate in and steer play, or the soothing lull of songs and bedtime stories. As their skills deepen and increase in complexity, language is used further to enrich their lives and satisfy social and emotional needs.

So how do we foster this development and enjoyment by creating an environment that is language rich? An environment that nurtures successful talkers...

Your Approach to Intervention and Phonics

Nov 14, 2019

I had a discussion with a Year 1 teacher the other day and she was sharing with me how sad she felt for her children.

Her senior leadership team were putting pressure on her to 'drill phonics' into her less ready year one children every day with extra daily intervention group time as there was a slight dip in Phonics Screening results last year...

The intervention groups take place at a table in the corridor where the children get a repeat in the afternoon of the phonics lesson they had in the morning.

Imagine as a 5 year old having to do extra of the thing they really hate doing or struggle with. How would this make you feel? Would this make you excited and motivated to learn more? Would your levels of engagement be high?

In my training I talk a lot about how we have to make wanting to read and write irresistible. We have to tune into the child and find out what excites them. Discover what their purpose is to read and write.

Understand how you can more phonics more active and...

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 risk assessment...

3 Ways to Strengthen A Literacy Rich Learning Environment

May 16, 2019

1. Consider your culture

We want to make learning so irresistible that they can’t wait to start exploring
these key skills. The way we set up our learning environment plays an important
part in this. It helps to shape the culture we are trying to promote for our children.
Take a look at your provision and consider the following questions;
Have your Literacy displays turned into wallpaper that goes unnoticed?
Do children often struggle to find their favourite book because you have so many
out?
Have you offered cosy spaces to sit and share books?
Are children having to hunt to find a pencil to write their name on their painting?
Do you as an adult label children’s work?
Are your books often shoved back into the book case and look tatty?