This week, I’m taking you for a walk……
Magical things often happen when no one is watching, don’t you find? This is most certainly the case in early years and the teaching teams hold the privileged position of witnessing children at their uninhibited and natural best. As children grow in confidence and security, their naturally use the environment around them without reservation. This is when we see deep and meaningful learning taking place; engaged children who are motivated to discover and think about the world around them. Engaged children are curious and interested, seeking out challenges with a ‘can do’ attitude. Motivated children have high levels of energy and fascination, they persist in their activities when challenges occur and are proud of how they achieve what they set out to do. Creative children have their own ideas which they test using the world around them, finding new ways to do things and changing strategy where necessary.
On that note, let’s walk……
Young engineers busy at work, designing transport systems including bridges and negotiating the best way to maintain strength. After a few attempts, the children realised that with additional support under the centre of the bridge, it became much more stable and the car was able to pass safely. Discussions, planning, working out the best way forward, testing and adapting theory – all in one activity.
More building and creating; turning what was a princess castle in to a den whilst maintaining a touch of the golden glamour! Rethinking of design concepts is required here to ensure that the creative image in the mind is brought to life. What you can’t see in this picture is the other child inside the den – planning how best to make a safe exit so as not to be caught by dragons!
A mathematician princess – where would you go to buy colourful chain to make yourself a princess crown? To the shops, of course. After estimating how many links would be needed to make a crown, these are purchased at the local shop. All that’s left to do after then is to see how close the estimation came to reality……and with a minor alteration, flexing the small muscles of the hands and exercising hand-eye co-ordination, a crown is ready to be adorned!
We’re going on a bear hunt……retelling familiar stories using the continuous provision within the classroom affords pupils the opportunity to make changes to the storyline to reflect their imagination. Changes to the characters, scenery, storyline and ending are now in the hands of this young learner – will she find the bear? The bear hunt continues in to the shared space – here’s Mr Richard guiding the children through the book. The pupils recount the sequencing of the book (where have they been and where will they go?) and using their binoculars (made by little hands, of course!), they prepare for the adventures ahead. Multisensory experiences bring stories to life and take the words and pictures from books and embed them as rich learning experiences that will long be remembered by all. It looks like the long swishy grass awaits the children’s arrival – swishy, swashy indeed!
Be the nice kid!
Whilst I may not favour the term ‘kid’ over my preferred ‘child’, the sentiment of this quote resonates deeply with me. This quote has been appearing in schools around the world in the hope that due attention will be paid by all who see and read it (I’m hoping that we will see it in Hiba nursery somewhere soon). It is a simple message, yet the words are very powerful with a depth of meaning that strikes a heartfelt chord with me. Recently, I’ve been having conversations with my own children about what ‘cool’ might mean, as they approach an age where they are starting to question their own identity. We discussed the terms ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ as questionable opposites to ‘cool’ and after much discussion, lasting several days, concluded that to be different is quite possibly the best version of ‘cool’. Afterall, why be a sheep? What is more important is to be happy (happy on the inside) and take pride in having good values that will guide you through life (deep, I know, but an essential part of the message). I believe that the quote above from Bryan Skavnak (
https://www.bethenicekid.com) reflects our ethos here at Hiba – it very much reflects our values and identity. If only he would use child instead of kid……
Winter at Hiba!
There is an air of wintry magic around the nursery at the moment as preparations get underway for our annual Hiba Winter Market. The winter market events team, led by Mr Zhang (parent extraordinaire) is to be a wonderful opportunity to come along to the nursery and enjoy being a part of a winter wonderland – shop, eat, mix, chat, shop, drink, chat, shop and repeat! This event is brought to the Hiba community by a team of parent volunteers who have offered their endless support from the very beginning of our existence and without them, we wouldn’t have come as far as we have without them. They are a group of exceptional people to whom we owe so much. Oh, and they can make it snow……just for us here at Hiba, that’s how special they are! I hope to see you there ?
