EYFS

 Welcome to the 0-5 section!

I've had the best time learning the EYFS requirements, completing courses, course work and exams, phonics (less so), early numeracy and child development and learning. It's given me something back, which secondary teaching took away from my original love of teaching. I'm thankful for that.

This is by far my favourite age group to teach to date. The rewards and breadth/depth of curriculum is so diverse and interesting, that you just can't get bored. I've made this page to share theme ideas, recommendations for projects, share activities and other programs and relevant books.

I've also decided to publish this to reflect for future teaching practice (or current, if you're reading this), as this age group really does solidify all of those learning theories, techniques, behaviour for learning, progress...etc that are thrust upon you during PGCE or inset training sessions. Honestly, you can see it all working in their developing minds and if these practices are embedded through a holistic, joined up curriculum (throughout nursery-secondary), then it could quite easily be a great eduction system. 

This is a dream solution that will probably never come into fruition, but i've developed this page to stress that repetition and positive reinforcement really does work - but the feedback needs to be immediate for it to have any sort of significant impact on their learning or behaviour. This isn't always possible, and it's a cost that we've all had to pay, sadly.

This is page is also a shout out to those secondary teachers which, like me, struggled to see what more we could do after:

Questioning why we couldn't be better,

Why our results couldn't be better, 

Why we felt like failures with all the hours, blood, sweat, tears, 

Feedback, 

Constant marking and 

Data extraction and analysis. 

You've got this. You can do it. You will improve. Repetition, positive reinforcement (about the work - work/outcome/input focus), have a strong subject knowledge - in excess of what you need for whichever level you're teaching. Progress will come.

Here are some of the themes that we've covered so far (they are not in any order and some aren't complete as these were started 2 years ago - from the age of 0-3 so far) See some of the activities and photos here:

About me (including the body, inside and out):

Wild West:

Where is America? Show a variety of maps. cut out the continents and get the children to "match" the shapes to the location on a globe/map/upside down/pacific focused/Atlantic focused map.

Panning for gold - following a picture recipe (buying the ingredients in the shop and then using them in order to make the sensory activity). 

Dress a cowboy and girl (name the body parts and clothes and put them on correctly).

Dress a native American and discuss the differences between natives and cowboys/girls

Colour in and create a frontier town play set and a native American play set - role play what it was like to live each life and how they are different (opposites).

Autumn:

Changing weather - match the words to the pictures (sunny, windy, cloudy, storms).

Temperature - move the arrow to the correct number, to represent changing autumnal weather

Fingerprint autumn trees - finger print shades of green (acknowledge light and darks), pick                 colours for autumn tree (red, orange, yellow, brown - acknowledge lights and darks and different      shades of each colour).

Colour mixing - use primary colours to mix autumnal shades and paint the correct leaf                      (matching to colour words).

Pumpkin shape drawing - dot to dot shape drawing and naming the shapes on the pumpkins face

Spider leg counting (simple addition) - ask child to put certain number of legs on either side, or both sides in total (up to 10) e.g. put 2 legs on each side of the spider. What is 2 add 2? - learning mathematical vocab.

Spider web dot to dot - pen control and number sequencing up to 20. number recognition up to 20. 

Learn about bonfire night - paint/colour in a bonfire and explain why we have one using                    rhymes/stories from 5th November. paint fireworks next to it and explain why we celebrate with them every year (pros and cons of fireworks - smell, sound and sight of them).

Harvest festival basket - name the vegetables that we can harvest during end of seasons at farms - put them in the basket. What do they look like (descriptive words), count the different types of vegetables.

I spy vegetables - find the vegetables in the patch and count how many of each vegetable you find. circle the vegetables you find in a different colour.

Handprint hedgehogs - colour mix brown, paint hand prints and decorate with felt and googly eyes.

Play doh numbers - make nut shape and sized play doh balls and group them into numbers up to 10, to feed the squirrel. e.g. 10 = a pile of 10 play doh nuts

Make a card for the local farmers to thank them for their hard work - colour in a farm scene - discuss work and vocabulary and practice writing their own name with guided letters.

Read hibernation book (Smokey and Chip) and look at real life hibernation and what happens to the body.

Practice hibernation - prepare their favourite toy for hibernation and practice checking temperature (reading numbers on a thermometer) and using terminology such as high/low, fast/slow, increasing/decreasing and weighing - reading scales.

Cut out different coloured leaves/pinecone/acorns and spread the pictures out. Then ask the children to “colour match” or camouflage the animals to the correct picture, describing lighter or darker shades and the colour.

Bake bread to celebrate the end of the harvest festival - follow a recipe - sequencing.

Winter:

Spring/easter:

Make and arrange paper flowers

Make easter bunny ears (headband) and learn about how rabbits live and eat

Make easter bonnets and watch short clips about the easter bonnet parades

Decorate large foam eggs (stickers, glue, stamps)

Easter egg hunt, with a drawn map to follow

Plant bulbs and seeds and watch them grow (in a test tube)

Books: Moomin spring, we're going on an egg hunt, Usbourne spring sticker book, maisy mouse      seasons book

Cotton wool sheep

Paint and print butterflies

Plant and grow a unicorn flower garden

Draw and colour bouquets of tulips, build tulip lego, show holland from above (Tim Peake book and National geographic amazing landscapes), talk about the colours and patterns of the tulip fields (stripes, shapes, zigzag, name the colours, count the fields).

Try maypole dancing

Space:

German:

Diwali:

The environment (weather and climate, planet Earth, Continents, countries, UK places, maps):

Machines (cars, work vehicles, inside engines, how cars are made, how they move):

World book day:

Fancy dress as favourite book character and ask child to explain choice and bring the book

Read 110 books - charity challenge 

Gift/donate a book 

Complete the A-Z jigsaw puzzle

Tell a story with Duplo

Complete a bear hunt, with a map

Make bear heads on paper plates

(Role Play) Following the plot of the worry-saurus, have an outdoor picnic.

International womens day (including careers):

Create picture of self (hair threading and dressing the cardboard cut out).

Learn about careers (women in careers colouring pages, reading about historic women changing the            world for the better)

Universal signs for female and women

Design your own spy - cardboard person with lots of different clothes, tools, colours  (with tools) ask          child to describe/explain choices).

Female anatomy - differences between male and female cows/pigs/chickens/humans

Pancake day:

Follow a recipe and bake pancakes (including weighing)

Create the life cycle of a chicken (make pipe cleaner and pom pom nests, pom pom chickens for the            nests, chickens sit on eggs, eggs hatch in the nest). Complete along side the life cycle of a chicken (and      anatomy) book.

Complete chicken sticker/activity book, so show how to look after chickens in every day life. What            they eat, what they live in, how to exercise them).

Make cardboard feather chickens - large cardboard cut out and colour in/stick feathers to chickens              (sensory activity).

Count chickens in different coloured and shaped pens.

Bird watching:

Secret Den day:

STEM challenge:

Star Baker: