Creativity is so important for young children
It can help children to: make sense of the world around them explore their emotions help children express themselves enhance their wellbeing. At Rachel Keeling our core provision includes painting, dancing, music, sculpture, construction and woodwork as just a few examples of ways children can explore creativity. Over recent weeks, children have been developing skills in colour mixing using powder paints. The have learned the process, practising it and returning to access with more independence. Children have worked alone, in pairs and collaboratively with an adult to develop skills and confidence. Many children now independently selecting their paper, apron, brush, palette and pot of water and then remembering the process: Water Powder Palette Paper What is wonderful to watch is children beginning to use the colour wheels independently and the primary colours to decide which secondary colours they would like to create. Some children are now creating frames from offcuts of wood, joining them, painting and embellishing them. Do you express yourself creatively? Dancing, singing, cooking, painting, drawing or writing? Some spooky goings-on have been occurring in the garden at Rachel Keeling this week.
We know how important playing with words and sounds is in a child's journey to becoming confident communicators and readers. Children explored a range of containers, pipettes from the science laboratory, food dye, natural materials and some spooky, exciting props. They explored, mixing, gathering, sharing and talking about what they discovered. Some children were able to use new vocabulary. They also shared some spooky stories about witches and cats together and repeated the stories. Some children were able to predict what was going to happen and some children were able to remember and retell the stories and characters. As children mixed their potions, some created spells and magic words. Many children made marks about their potions. Some children created their own poems and the teacher scribed them. One group even worked together and created a collaborative poem! Playing with rhyming words at home is great fun and very effective in encouraging children to hear the sounds in words and be able to eventually distinguish rhyming sounds! For younger children, nursery rhymes and singing songs (many of which rhyme) is a lovely way to share time together. As part of Black History Month, Shamso made anjero to share with the children.
Shamso is from Somalia and anjero is a pancake-like bread that can be eaten with sweet or savoury meals. This morning we had a campfire at school to cook the anjero. To help support children's understanding of safety, they helped to create a safe space: marking out a fire square with wooden blocks. Children know they must not enter the area once the fire is lit. Children handled kindling, cotton wool, vaseline and coal, preparing it for the fire bowl. Children explored the materials and used language to describe how they felt and looked. When the fire was ready to be lit, Shamso used a flint. The flint is tricky to use but the sparks hit the cotton wool and vaseline and ignited. It is important we don't use matches or lighters with young children as they may find them at home and use them. We talked about the danger of fire and how to keep safe when near a campfire in school. While the flames took hold, children noticed the smoke, the smell, the sounds and staff could feel the heat. While we enjoyed the sensory aspect of the fire, children listened to some music (African Playground) through the speaker and we played the djembe drums in small groups. Children shared and took turns really well. When the campfire was ready, Shamso added her batter to the pan and covered it. The anjeros cooked in a few minutes and were ready to share. We all tried them and most children enjoyed them. Thank you Shamso for sharing your Somali cooking with us. Iroko Drummers are coming to the nursery after half term to bring some music and culture from Nigeria to our school. Would you like to come into school to celebrate your culture with us? Sharing stories, cooking, music, dance, crafts? Please see your key person. We would love to have you! At Rachel Keeling we recognise independence as being a very valuable characteristic we want our children to develop.
Our school routines are designed to support this development: from self registering, to being encouraged to choose where you would like to play. In fact one of our Rachel Keeling Values is 'We have a choice'. The snack table is a wonderful place to support independence (as well as self confidence, language and communication, self help skills and trying new food and drink!) Soon after children start at Rachel Keeling, they are introduced to the snack to these routines:
Your child's session at nursery is filled with exciting learning.
Every day is unique and children are growing in confidence, independence and developing relationships every moment of their day. When you ask your child "What did you do at nursery today?" they may not be able to tell you yet. They may not want to tell you! Harvesting, cycling, painting, making playdough, drawing, hiding, selling ice cream, sharing stories, counting a herd of elephants... all these things I have just seen walking through the nursery to get a book. The best way to find out what your child has been doing is to borrow their Special Book and share it at home. Share stories, play games together and go to the park. Be patient, all the lovely learning they are experiencing at school will eventually show itself in your child. Relax and we will be here to support them (and you) along their continued learning journey. There will be Key Person meetings later this term to talk about how things are going and next steps for your child. Welcome to the Rachel Keeling family! Such a joy to return to school to see the children have all grown so much over the holidays.
They are taller, many are communicating in different ways, are confident, trying new things and extending friendships. This is such wonderful personal development. They are not the only ones that have grown: our garden crop has been very fruitful this summer. We had a bumper crop of the sweetest tomatoes ever, beans and raspberries. Children helped to find them, check they were ripe, harvest them and gather them, sorting as they went. They then washed and dried them, counting and tallying how many were in the harvest. Interestingly, many children declared they did not like tomatoes (although staff assure me they were the sweetest, tastiest tomatoes ever!) We decided it was important the children tasted them so they made a tomato sauce using the tomatoes to put on mini-pitta-pizzas. That way the children got to enjoy the disguised tomatoes! We will continue to grow vegetables, fruits and herbs during the year. Do you grow any food? Do speak to Nazma if you are interested in helping us with our garden or in starting your own window boxes. A gentle reminder as we start the school year with our wonderful, young children.
They are incredibly unique, all arriving with their beautiful personalities, gifts, knowledge, skills and interests. Play is at the heart of our curriculum because it is the most effective and powerful tool for learning. Above is an x-ray showing, on the left, a pre-school child's hand and, on the right, a 7 year old child's hand. Young children are still developing: their bodies are often physically not ready for certain skills yet. So please do not worry that your pre-school child is not writing. Play together: throwing and catching, digging in the mud, playing with sand and water, threading beads, dressing up, completing puzzles, drawing, painting, playing with playdough. All of these things will help their hands to develop. When they are physically ready to write, they will. Give them time, have fun together and they will get there. The end of term at Rachel Keeling is a beautiful time: we see all the wonderful learning children have been involved in coming to fruition.
It is wonderful to see the children as independent, confident, resilient, empathetic, communicators who show great joy every day. Thank you for your support over the past year: working together is the key in getting the best outcomes for our children. We wish those of you who are moving on, all the best. Remember you are always part of our Rachel Keeling family. Treasure your Special Books, keep playing and having fun together. Stay in touch! Those of you who are returning, children come back on 7 September. Thank you to our families who were able to join us for some fun today: we know how important our physical health is and how it is linked to our well being.
There was laughter, joy, talk, connection and a few tears when it was all over! Children and their adults (some very enthusiastically) took part in hoola hooping, dancing with ribbons and scarves, climbing in the sand, potato on spoon races and target tyres. Thank you for joining us and joining in: you are great role models to our children. This summer try to make use of all our wonderful parks in Tower Hamlets for play, picnics, meets ups and rest. Have you visited any of our local parks: Victoria Park, Mile End Park, Weaver's Fields, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park or Mudchute Park and Farm? A little bit further afield: Greenwich Park, Regent's Park, Kensington Park - Diana Memorial Gardens and Hyde Park. You know we had so much fun when not one single photograph was taken!!!
Thank you all for your support for our Annual Rachel Keeling Summer Fete: whether you baked a cake, bought a raffle ticket, had your face painted, bounced on the castle or bought a toy from the Little Treasures stall: THANK YOU! You helped to raise £693.30. Our wonderful community, past, present and future came out in force and the rain stayed away! We thank you all for your support every day by getting your children to school on time, by celebrating their learning and supporting our school values. |