50 Fantastic Ideas For Small World Provocations

Small world play offers a wide range of learning opportunities for young children. Acting out narrative and ideas through the manipulation of small or miniature equipment, tools, toys and objects helps children to respond to their environment. Play becomes representative of real-life situations and is a medium through which children can explore their own feelings about these events and experiences in a safe and productive way. The frequent inclusion of sensory elements in this play also deepens experiences. Small world play is rich in possibilities for specific, thematic, learning, such as gathering information about spaces, positions, colours and cultures. Small world play is entertaining, challenging, motivating and allows children to use their imaginations and decide on their own play choices. Many practitioners find it challenging to continually renew the play environment, but this book suggests ideas for how to ensure a meaningful play content that replicates environments or scenarios that children can connect to, using a large variety of resources from natural materials to specific props. Presented in the accessible, practical and flexible 50 Fantastics format, Judit Horvath's book is a compendium of ideas that will ensure you get the most out of small world play in your setting, without over stimulating and distracting the children involved.

The tuff tray is a staple resource that is often abandoned or underused in early years settings. However, when used effectively, a tuff tray can enhance a child's learning through its versatile usage, such as messy play or as enhancements to support themes and ideas that are being explored. A simple tuff tray provocation can offer many learning opportunities to help a child progress and develop, as its sensory play approach promotes open-ended investigations and problem solving. 50 Fantastic Ideas for Tuff Trays is packed full of exciting activities that are not only simple and easy to prepare and manage, but that also use materials and tools found in most settings and at very low cost. With ideas for tuff trays that support books, promote mathematics and are ideal for celebrations and festivals, this book creates inviting opportunities for learning objectives to be met in an exciting and creative way.

Fully updated to reflect the current status and understandings regarding outdoor provision within early childhood education frameworks across the UK, this new edition shows early years practitioners how to get the very best from outdoor play and learning for the enjoyment, health and education of young children up to age seven. This invaluable resource gives sound practical guidance for providing: play with water, sand and other natural materials; experiences with plants, growing and living things; movement and physical play; construction, imaginative and creative play; and explorations into the locality and community just beyond your garden. This full-colour third edition has been further developed to act as a comprehensive source book of relevant materials, books and resources supporting the core ingredients of high-quality outdoor provision, while each chapter also includes extensive collections of children’s picture books relating to the themes within each chapter. Playing and Learning Outdoors has become the essential practical guide to excellence in outdoor provision and pedagogy for all early years services. This lively, inspiring and accessible book will help every educator to develop truly successful and satisfying approach to learning through play outdoors for every child.

50 Fantastic Ideas for Science Outdoors is full of play based ideas for exploring both the natural and man-made world within a child centered learning environment.

This book provides ideas and inspiration for basic woodwork skills for children aged 3-6. Organized into 3 levels of competence: beginning - sanding, using rulers to measure wood; emerging skills - mini hand drill, hammer and nails; developing competence - screw driver, mini hacksaw, advanced - pliers, glue guns. Includes practical advice on tools and how to use them (both real and play/pretend tools), construction materials (where to source and store), safety issues, role of the adult, where to site the woodworking area in the setting, key vocabulary and decorating/painting wood. Children's physical development as well as knowledge of the world, and mathematical development will all benefit from these activities.

In the original book – Continuous Provision, Alistair Bryce-Clegg covered what effective continuous provision should look like and how practitioners could achieve it by linking their provision directly to assessment. This new title: The Skills, demonstrates that in every area of continuous provision (like sand, water, role play, small world etc) there are 'pure' skills that children can only learn in that area and there are 'facilitative' skills that children can learn through that area. Each of these 'pure' and 'facilitative' skills needs to be acknowledged, assessed and taught and this is the premise of this new title. In The Skill of Continuous Provision Alistair: Revisits (briefly) the principles of effective continuous provision Looks at each area of continuous provision in turn and identifies a range of 'pure' and 'facilitative' skills Shows how the provision itself (resources) should be leveled 'top', 'middle' and 'emergent' to meet the development needs of all children irrespective of how old they are. Gives some comprehensive examples of how to break those skills down into top, middle, emergent e.g. in 'Paint' he identifies skills that children need to learn when using paint like texturising, application, printing etc. He then takes each of those skills individually and show how a skill like printing could be broken down into three broad stages. Asks and answers questions like: What would really basic, lower level printing look like? What sort of resources would facilitate effective learning in this area of development? By the end of the book the practitioner should have a really practical guide to differentiated skill development in continuous provision.

Listening to music and moving in response to the sounds we hear is the most natural reaction in the world. The Little Book of Music and Movement is packed full of ideas and activities for early years settings. The musical sources are varied and eclectic, including classical, pop, jazz, world, traditional, some well-known and others undiscovered gems, and all easily available via www.youtube.com or other internet sources. This book gives practitioners information, resources and confidence to use lots of music to enrich the learning environment. Alongside ideas for movement, other ideas for expressive arts activities such as art, music and drama are included in 'Whatever next' sections and links to other curriculum areas which include 'EYFS connections'.

Over 70 highly practical activities looking at the themes of shape and colour for early years practitioners to use with little or no preparation.