Learning Through Play

It’s about Developing Knowledge

I’m having a bit of a preach I’m afraid.

Members of staff working with older children can often think that all we do in the foundation stage is play.

I have told the children in my class that we work with the toys in the classroom, and the head teacher will tell me off if I let them play when it’s not play time. The children now delight in correcting me if I say ‘play’ by accident.

Children in the foundation stage work very hard when they are playing. They are developing relationships with other children, learning about who they are and how they relate to other people. If they actually do the activity as it is intended, they will be learning about numbers, shapes, writing, sounds and ICT.

The role of the Learning Through Play Manager is essential for ensuring that the goals in the Early Years Foundation Stage are met. It is not all about teaching knowledge but it is also about developing that knowledge.

Christmas Spirit

Children Using the New Role Play Area

It’s weird, you spend all this time making a role play area for the kids to use. You get the children to help you paint it and construct it, and you fill it with lovely laminated things.

And then you get quite protective of the whole thing and don’t want the children to play in it!

But I managed to stop myself from fussing over the role play area and the kids actually had some fun!

They were dressing up and pretending to be Santa, delivering presents and constructing toys in construction area! Everyone was on task! There were even two children who appointed themselves in charge of the post office!

All in all a successful role play area!

Here’s how I did it!

Christmas Role Play

Hours of work for just a few weeks!

Here is a photo of my Christmas role play area. It’s a Santa’s workshop.

I put some construction materials into the role play area along with a wooden tool box and some wooden tools. I explained that the children need to wear some elf ears if they’re doing construction in the role play area because the elves help Father Christmas to make the toys.

I’ve put lots of writing activities of various levels including letters to the children to thank them for their letters, naughty or nice lists and drawing toy designs.

There are also lots of dressing up opportunities and wrapping presents in a tough spot.

It will all be destroyed by 9:05am tomorrow morning, but the effort was there! lol

Gruffalo Lesson Plan: Rhyming

Going a Bit Gruffalo

As promised, a Gruffalo lesson plan. It’s not my best lesson plan and not my most ‘wow’ starter.

The children do enjoy reading the Gruffalo. If the focus of this story was different, if we were looking at retelling the story rather than rhyming, I would start this story outside in a forest area where the children could act out the story in the forest where the story is set.

Rhyming Lesson Plan based on The Gruffalo book Hopefully this will help anyone looking for a Gruffalo rhyming lesson. Like I say, it’s not got my best wow starter but it does cover all the literacy areas (speaking and listening, reading and writing) uses ICT and has the option of working outside. Download the lesson plan here.

Don’t forget to buy your copy of the Gruffalo! Normal paperback is available here. Big book of the Gruffalo available here.

It’s All Gone a Bit Gruffalo

I am Gruffalo Mad!

I’ve been a huge fan of the Gruffalo from the first time I read the story. It’s different and unique and sparks the children’s imagination. There are thousands of lesson plans you can use from the Gruffalo, and I’ve gone a little bit Gruffalo Mad!

My husband will say I don’t need an excuse to spend money, but with a Gruffalo lesson week coming up, I couldn’t resist!

I am teaching a rhyming lesson, but I didn’t want the children to only be involved in rhyming, I wanted them to have a rounded experience of the Gruffalo so the resources I have are:

• Gruffalo role play
• Gruffalo story sequencing
• Gruffalo large pairs matching
• Gruffalo small pairs matching
• Matching the written description to the picture (that’s to challenge my highers)
• Matching rhyming pairs, so ‘snake’ would be paired with ‘lake’ for example
• Making a Gruffalo’s child puppet
• Writing the roasted fox, owl icecream, scrambled snake and Gruffalo crumble recipes
• A maze (for fine motor skills)
• Story writing frames if the children would like to write their own Gruffalo story
• And a Gruffalo puppet
  
  
• I also have in my classroom a matching rhymes game that isn’t Gruffalo related

Letter to Santa

Lesson Plan Coming Soon!

I was looking up Letters to Santa lesson plans and I couldn’t find anything that said ‘wow’ to me, so I’m going to write my own.

I’m using elements from other plans but mainly designing my own so called ‘wow’ starter.

Watch this space for a week’s worth of thematic resources and a lesson plan to go with them!

High Frequency and Tricky Words

Bingo Bongo

The best way to teach reading, in my opinion, is repetition. I’m trying to learn to read Chinese and the only way I’m remembering the words is by seeing them over and over again.

For little ones, learning to read is similar. They have the sounds but to translate them into written form is difficult.

Bingo is a fun way to be repetitive. The children see it as a game and don’t realise they’re learning! When I’ve left the bingo out in the classroom, the children have even chosen to play this activity by themselves!

All my resources are available online to download.

	All the High Frequency Words Bingo The high frequency words in Reception are 100 words that children are expected to be able to read by the time they go to Year One. Download the High Frequency Word Bingo
	Autumn High Frequency Word Bingo These are the words children are expected to learn by Christmas. Download the Autumn High Frequency Word Bingo
	Spring High Frequency Word Bingo These are the words children are expected to learn by Easter. Download the Spring High Frequency Word Bingo
	Summer High Frequency Word Bingo These are the words children are expected to learn by the end of the school year. Download the Summer High Frequency Word Bingo
	Tricky Word Bingo Tricky words are those words which cannot be sounded out. Good examples are ‘the’ and ‘what’. Download the Tricky Word Bingo

I hope you enjoy these resources, however if there’s any way I could change them please feel free to contact me.