"Nothing Without Joy" - Reggio Emilia Explained

If you've been following me on Instagram (first of all - thank you!), you would have heard me talking about the Reggio Emilia approach and how we are incorporating this teaching philosophy into our Early Years classrooms this year. I am so excited about this path we are heading down, and I really want to share more about it with you all!

Back in 2016, I had three lovely guests join me here on the blog, to explain the Montessori, Reggio Emilia and Waldorf educational practices, and it turned out to be my second most viewed post EVER! (Here it is again incase you hadn't seen it - but after you'd read it please come back!).

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Mirror Play for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers

Hi everyone! (*waves) Today's post is all about mirrors. Such magical things and so intriguing to young children. Identity and belonging are key components of the Early Years Framework and through mirror play, even very young children begin to learn about who they are. I love that moment when a baby realises "it's ME" in the mirror looking back at them, not a different baby! A mirror is a fantastic addition to your sensory play resources and I've compiled a list of activity ideas for every age through the early years.

*This post contains affiliate links

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Our Preschooler Playspace

"Mummy what did you put out for me?"

Well, Miss M, today while you were at child care I rearranged your play area!!

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Colour Sorting for Toddlers

Hi there!
I'm here with a simple colour sorting activity today that Miss M recently enjoyed. I love these mini tubs from Howards Storage World and immediately thought of ways to use them for a fun activities.

Click here to see the full range of 'Tubtrugs'! They're such a great addition to a play area.

We love the bigger Tubtrugs as well - they fit perfectly into our IKEA shelves and are perfect for storing toys. Here's one of my previous posts where I share some pics of our play corner.

Lauren

Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT. Haven't been there for a while :)

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Phonics Treasure Baskets | Another Alphabet Post

Hi there!
If you're a regular reader you'll know that I LOVE alphabet activities! I have posted so many of them on the blog...

• A - Z of a Successful Classroom
• Twenty Six Letters - 26 Ways to learn the alphabet in a hands on way
• A - Z in the life of my toddler
• Alphabet Pebbles - Wonderful Word Building

...just to name a few.

I love teaching the alphabet to my students during their first term of school. We adopt the Jolly Phonics approach, which focuses on the sounds of the letters (lower case) rather than their names (upper case) eg - a b c rather than A B C. Another important feature of the Jolly Phonics Program is that you do not teach the letters in alphabetical order, rather a carefully constructed program of letters to allow opportunities for word building as quickly as possible. Read more about Jolly Phonics here!

When learning to read and write, it's important that children not only recognise the letter, but write it and identify some words that start with that letter. This is where my 'treasure basket' idea has been so successful in my classroom. Each day when we learn a new sound, we look at the treasure basket which is filled with items that begin with that letter.

Here's an example of the 'c' basket.

'c' treasure basket - cat, cow, crab, cup, carrots, cupcake, car and clip

Now 'c' is a tricky one because 'k' also makes the same sound (in Jolly Phonics we teach them together - and later on the children learn that 'ck' is another way to make the same sound). So to extend this activity, you could put items that begin with both kinds of 'c/k' and sort them out.

Once the children have learnt most (if not all) of their letters, you can fill the basket with a variety of objects for them to sort out into the correct baskets. I would probably start with 3-5 baskets/letters at the one time.

Alphabet Sorting Baskets

Alphabet Sorting Baskets | a - apple | b - blue bowl, ball, bunny | c - carrots, car, cupcake

I'm always looking around home (and the classroom) to find interesting objects for the treasure basket, I sometimes try to have a few days worth ready to go. Some letters obviously are easier than others! I thought it would be helpful to compile a bit of a list to keep these ideas in mind!

One little note, try to ensure the beginning sound is clear and simple for the children - I wouldn't put 'chalk' for example in the 'c' basket because it begins with the 'ch' sound. 

I quite often add some flash cards into the basket as well, some with pictures, some just the letter. Magnet letters are a great addition or any other alphabet letters you may have. 

• a - apple, ant, arrow, aeroplane, anchor, angel, astronaut, avocado
• b - bowl, ball, bunny, banana, balloon, bottle, bat, bed, bee, bell, bird, blocks, boat, book, butterfly
• c - carrot, car, cup cake, cup, cat, caterpillar, clock, cotton, comb, crayon, crown
• d - dice, dinosaur, dog, doll, dolphin, domino, drum, duck
• e - egg, elephant, envelope, elf, eraser, echidna, 
• f - fairy, feather, fire engine, fish, five, flower, frog, football, funnel, four, flag
• g - goat, green, glitter, grasshopper, glue, grapes, guitar, 
• h - hat, headband, horse, holly, hippopotamus, heart, helicopter, 
• i - ice cube tray, ice cream, igloo, iguana, insect, instrument
• j - jack-in-a-box, jar of jam, jelly/jelly beans, jelly fish, jug, jigsaw, jeans
• k - keys, kangaroo, kite, koala, kettle, keyboard, kitten, king, kiwifruit, 
• l - ladybug, leaf, lemon, lettuce, lion, lizard, lock, lollipop
• m - magnet, magnifying glass, map, marble, mask, mirror, monkey, moon, mouse
• n - necklace, net, nest, newspaper, number nine, nuts
• o - octopus, orange, oval, owl, 
• p - pink/purple pencil/paper, pig, panda, peacock, pineapple,, pom poms, plate, puppet, plant
• q - quilt, queen, question mark, quarter (the fraction)
• r - rabbit, rainbow, red rectangle, ribbon, rock, ring, rocket, ruler, rose, rope, robot, rice
• s - snake, stop sign, sand, scissors, six/seven, soap, sock, spider, sponge, spoon, square, star, sun, stamp
• t - texta, tambourine, teddy, teapot, toothbrush, turtle, two, tree, tiger, triangle, tractor, tomatoes
• u - umbrella, unicorn, uniform, underwear
• v - van, vase, vegetables, violet, vest, velvet, violin
• w - watermelon, water, walrus, watch, web, whale, wheel, whistle, white, worm, window, wizard
• x - tricky one! You could just do the usual xylophone and x-ray. 
• Or you could choose items which have the letter x in them such as box, fox, taxi, mix, exit.
• y - yellow, yoghurt, yoyo, yacht
• z - zipper, zebra, zero, zucchini, zig zag

I have another very cool alphabet post coming soon! So please stay tuned and keep following along.

Hope you found this post useful. Do you have anything to add to my lists?

Lauren :)

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Sensory Play Ideas | For Christmas Week

Christmas is nearly here! My little miss has enjoyed some Christmasy sensory play this week.

For something different (and just because it was in my pantry) I dyed some risoni pasta with red and green food colouring (hand sanitiser and few drops of pine essential oil was the best method I found - sets the colour and smells like Christmas). I raided my left over Christmas decorations, craft box and bits and pieces we had around the place and made her this sensory bin. Big success!

I thought a Christmas discovery bottle would be lots of fun for my little nephew (8 months old). I popped some of the red/green risoni pasta in with some jingle bells, red/green pom poms, red glitter and scrunched up cellophane. I hope he'll like it!

Last year (before I had my blog), I put together these treasure baskets - one red and one green. Thought I would give it another go, just with bits and pieces from Miss M's toy boxes. As I've mentioned previously on the blog, sometimes the same old toys presented in a different way can seem new, interesting and visually appealing to babies and toddlers. Older children could find the items themselves - set them the challenge! Count how many objects you found or make a pattern - red/green/red/green.

My last batch of playdough was getting a bit old and tired, so I thought it would be a perfect time to make some more. I made it with the traditional red/green Christmas colours in mind, but thought white would be fun as well. When you provide your little one with colourful decorations - they really stand out against stark white playdough. Some cookie cutters in Christmas shapes and loose parts completed this play experience for little miss.

If you're still thinking of a gift to give a little person, whether it be your own, a niece or nephew, or a friends child - consider giving the gift of sensory play (sometimes called 'sensory kits' if given as a gift). Children have so many toys already - why not give something handmade and a bit different?

Happy play.
Lauren :)

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT (my favourite link up I must say - if you're a blogger get onto it!)

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Alphabet Pebbles | Wonderful Word Building

Following on from my Alphabet Project post, I created these little alphabet pebbles in lower case letters a-z. They will be great to use in the classroom for the kiddies to create simple three and four letter words. There is a significant step from when children have learnt the letters of the alphabet - to actually writing simple words. It's called word building. When using materials such as these pebbles, children do not need to remember how to write the letters, it's more about recognising the letters and putting them together to create words (mum, dad, cat, dog are great words to start with).

As I've mentioned a few times before, my school applies the Jolly Phonics approach to teaching Literacy. At the core of Jolly Phonics is the notion that there are 42 sounds in the English language, many more than just the 26 letters of the alphabet. So as I got thinking about this project a little more, I then bought some extra pebbles in a different colour to include the additional two letter blends (eg sh, ch and th - see below). This opened up the possibilities for children to create many more words, and provided opportunities for extension. After trialling them in my classroom, we realised that words such as; will, duck, egg etc could be more effectively created with a third colour pebble for tricky and irregular sounds and blends. Then I got a bit excited and thought, why not make pebbles with numbers 1-20 on them as well? What a simple classroom resource! (By the way I bought them from Bunnings).

L-R & T-B | Jolly Phonics Blends | Examples of Word Builging | Numbers 1-20 | Tricky & Irregular Sounds

So what to do with them? Here's some ideas

• Make your child's name, and other family members or pet's names
• Put the letters in alphabetical order
• Put the numbers in order
• With numbers in order, ask your child to close their eyes, take away a number and they have to guess which is missing
• Ask you child to "Get me a 2" or "Get me the letter m"
• If your child is school age and has sight words or spelling words, make them with the pebbles
• Choose one letter and find things around the home that begin with that letter to make a treasure basket
• Match letters with objects from around the home or classroom (e.g. a - apple, b - ball)
• You could make another set in a different colour again for the capital letters. With this additional set you can match the lower case to the capital letter, and when making names, you can use the correct capital letter (what a neat way to teach proper nouns!)

Sometimes by trying something new, using different 'hands-on' materials and changing it up a bit, you can motivate and encourage your child or students and inject something special into their day.

Lauren

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Treasure Baskets | Baby Play

Well this is my fourth post on my new blog, I feel like I'm getting the hang of it and finding my voice...
This is my favourite post so far!!

I love, love, love the idea of a tiny person peering into a basket full of treasures just waiting to be explored. Thanks to the magic of childhood, ordinary items in a treasure basket appear exciting and interesting to a little one. The key with treasure baskets is to change the contents regularly to keep them fresh and new week to week and ensure there are no other distractions (TV off, other toys away) during play time. A theme is a good way to go but you don't have to follow this approach, you can just choose a variety of special items and toys for your little one to explore, lovingly displayed in a basket.

Here are some treasure baskets that my little one has enjoyed playing with recently...
(See many more examples on Pinterest or google images.)

1. Food Basket (play food from Ikea)

2. Things that are green

3. Peek-a-blocks (we borrowed these from our local toy library)

4. Things that are shiny and reflective

(my little one went straight for the ball of alfoil every time)

5. Balls in a basket

6. Things from nature

7. Things made of wood

8. Noisy Basket

***It is important to always supervise babies/toddlers with these kinds of activities. Be very careful with the items that you select for the treasure baskets and ensure that they are safe for baby (nothing too small that could be a choking hazard).

A little quote to finish today's post;

"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day,

you may look back and realise they were the big things" 
- Kate Knapp

Once again thanks to my 'blog-ogropher' James (I think I've just invented a new word!)...

...and thanks for reading!
Lauren

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