Songs and rhymes

As we have many new and younger children joining the setting, we wanted to begin to help them with their lstening, turn-taking and sharing skills. These can all be challenging when you are only two, so we try and make the activities as fun and interactive as possible. Some examples of the songs which are great ways of helping children develop turn-taking skills are Five Little Ducks and Six Currant Buns. The children waited their turn to hold the teddy or the monkey as the number of teddies and monkeys reduced to zero. These songs were followed with some action songs, such as Ten Little Frogs Sitting by a Pool. Again, each child waited to ‘jump’ into the pond as they counted down from ten to zero. These simple activities are not only great for listening, turn-taking and sharing but for mathematical and physical development.

Woodwork

We have a woodwork station available for the children to experience using real tools. As we of course need to ensure this is safe, the children only access this under adult supervision. They let us know that they want to take part in woodwork by giving the adult a badge to wear, which is available for them to access from a shelf. We only have two children at a time, so the children learnt that they need to take it in turns if they want to get involved. The rules of how to use the tools safely were explained to the children and some of them chose to put on the goggles, with one child commenting “for extra protection of our eyes”. They used the hammers to tap in nails, screwdrivers to drive in screws and saws to saw the wood. Next they used a tape measure to see how long the pieces of wood were. This led to them measuring themselves, discovering who was the tallest – funnily enough, it was the teacher! i