Home Learning
Reading, Rhythm and Songs
At Shadwell Childcare we are always striving for ways to support the development of each child in as many fun and engaging ways as possible. There can be few things as powerful as regularly reading or singing to a young child. There are astonishing benefits for children: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun as well as learning opportunities.
It has been demonstrated that reading and nursery rhymes also lays the foundationto early language and reading skills.
Children who are read only one book a day will hear about 290,000 words more than children who are not read too. Young children who are read five books a day from birth will begin reception school having heard around 1.4 million more words than children who were never read to. At nursery we aim to read or sing throughout the day to provide the opportunity for all children. Over the coming weeks we will be focusing on specific areas within literacy, starting with rhyme.
Learning rhymes helps us develop an ear for our language. Rhyme and rhythm highlight the sounds and syllables in words. And understanding sounds and syllables helps children learn to read! Over the coming weeks we have devised a programme of reading and rhyme that will support families with activities that you can do at home to help your child's development. Initially the focus will be on Nursery Rhymes and Song.
Each week we will focus on a rhyme and practice singing in different ways, quiet, loud, fast, slow, with music, without, using instruments, adding movements, clapping out the beat. We will also share a song sheet with the words and a video will be added to the website of the rhyme being sang as an example for you to watch with your child. The link for this video is https://youtu.be/rTe9N6b9pb8
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Please see an example of our weekly blog below, showing how we develop our language through rhymes and songs within the nursery.
This week we have been taking part in various activities around Nursery Rhyme Week building our holistic development.
Five Little Speckled Frogs -We have been making our very own speckled frogs with the play dough, using our fine motor skills to press and manipulate the play dough to the perfect shapes before characterising them with eyes, legs, a mouth and a tongue! At carpet time the children became a speckled frog while we sang the song, then when we heard jumped into the pool, we jumped in and counted how many we had left.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- We made some lovely twinkle twinkle little stars, while we made them we spoke about wishing stars and what we would wish for. We then had to give one of our friends our stars and think of something nice about them. At carpet time we all became sparkling little stars and sang as a group.
B.I.N.G.O-We introduced our little dog BINGO who wasn’t feeling very well and was quite sad, as a group we spoke about how we could help him feel better and happy. With the help of Bingo we then used our hands and instruments to clap along to the words and different tempos and pace of the songs. The children did really good listening and copying as well as sharing some lovely ideas to help Bingo.
The Big Ship Sails- In the construction area we explored different pictures and videos of boats and ships before getting to work to build our own. We did some really good problem solving and learning about the different parts of the boat, working as a team to build some brilliant ships. We then made an exciting treasure map ready to go on an adventure! The children used their great imaginations while playing with our small world ship too.
1,2,3,4,5-The children created their own sparkly fish using different materials and their imagination too. Some of the children spread the glue on really carefully before pinching some glitter to sprinkle, and some used their pincer grip to choose what sequins they wanted. Once they were dry we did a big group song together ready to catch the fish. We also have a fishing game where the children have to use their coordination skills to catch the fish with the rods, the children were very encouraging when their friends found it tricky and they did a great job of waiting their turn too.
Next week we are going to be starting some of our Christmas crafts and practising our Christmas songs. We are taking part in different activities around road safety week, we are going to be creating different tracks for our vehicles, on different places to build our coordination and physical development in our hands and arms. We are going to be making our road in the garden for our different vehicles and bikes to travel on-making our own helmets and learning about how we can be safe on the roads and while out for a walk. We are also making our own deep dark cave like in our story of the week, ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ using our dark tent, different sensory lights and different props to act out the story.
Learning of the week Next Week
Sound of the week-M as in monkey
Maths of the week-Red
Story of the week-The Gruffalo’s Child
Song of the week-Wheels on the bus
