Prime Areas

The Three Prime Areas of Learning

• • Communication and Language

"The development of children's spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children's back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial." (EYFS 2021)

Throughout the nursery day our practitioners use conversation, storytelling, rhymes and role play, to help develop the communication skills of our children. With support, repetition and modelling, our children learn to actively listen to others and develop the confidence to respond by sharing their ideas and thoughts.

• • Physical Development

"Physical activity is vital in children's all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child's strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults." (EYFS 2021)

We are so lucky at Shadwell Childcare to have such fabulous and accessible outdoor learning environments where our children can learn to challenge their physical skills. From learning to kick balls and use small ride on toys in our Sunflower Room, to building and tackling obstacles courses in Bluebell, we aim to provide our children with exciting opportunities to develop their motor skills and support them as their confidence grows.

• • Personal, Social and Emotional Development

"Children's personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development. Underpinning their personal development are the important attachments that shape their social world. Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others". (EYFS 2021)

Our key person system is designed to help children feel safe and supported at nursery, giving them a secure platform through which they can learn how to regulate their emotions, independently attend to self-care skills and develop the confidence to try and achieve their goals. With role play and modelling, our practitioners work to support our children as they learn valuable life-skills such as how to make friends and to play co-operatively with others.

Please see below our latest blog which shows how we embed PSED into our weekly activities at nursery: 

How do you feel today?

This week we have been talking lots about feelings and behaviour, reading the story The Colour Monster. The children have been making colour jars for each of the feelings and drawing pictures to show us what makes them feel that way. Some children felt really happy when they had sweets or presents... others felt angry when their little sisters threw toys at them! We have been finding colours around the room, matching them to the emotions from the book. Most importantly we have been playing with the children and helping them to deal with situations "in the moment", talking through our feelings and behaviour.

Growing up is sometimes tough, and we are really happy to be teaching the children to label their emotions, and how their behaviour might make others feel. Ultimately, we want to give them the tools to do this themselves, so we hope you can continue this at home too!

Next week is a busy one for Bluebell Room!

We will be celebrating National Nursery Rhyme week with lots of singing together and extending this with fun activities for their learning and development. We hope you'll be practising your nursery rhymes at home too!

All week we will be baking and inviting you make a donation to Children in Need at the end of each day. Outside there will be a bowl to drop your pennies into if you would like to take a cake home. (Please ask a member of staff for allergy information if needed).

Every morning we will also have boxes out to collect your food bank donations in. We have been so overwhelmed by your generosity so far and have set up a huge table in Bluebell Room to display them! The children will be helping us the build the collection next week and be taught about food banks and who they help.

Don't forget on Friday, you are invited to wear your Pudsey Bear clothes or wear your brightest outfits to celebrate the official Children in Need Day!

Learning for the week is:

Sound of the Week: Rr as in robot

Maths of the Week: number 4

Our book of the week will be a collection of nursery rhymes book to enjoy at carpet time together!

Have a great weekend!