Teach Early Years - Issue 14.2

REFLECT ON YOUR PRACTICE Audit your current blocks and small world resources to ensure they are of high quality. Reflect on the progression the resources offer, e.g. from two-year-old provision to Reception. Explore how your resources are supporting your curriculum and how they are used for adult-initiated activities and child-initiated learning. Check your whole team has a deep understanding of the potential of these resources. Consider carefully how you enhance these resources over the year to reflect children’s interests and other themes you may be exploring with the children. Small world people and/or animals linked to texts Props linked to specific landscapes Resources linked to children’s current interests or events, e.g. superheroes, space, football or minibeasts Sometimes, rather than adding these directly into your continuous provision resources, you may prefer to develop an “enhancement area” (e.g. using a low-level play table), which gives a specific focus to the resources. Enhancements and provocations are not permanent additions. To judge how long to offer them for, remember that enhancements need adult support, so make sure that you and your team have sufficient time to: Introduce the new ideas, resources and experiences Support and guide children’s initial explorations Facilitate group discussion and provide feedback Observe and interact with children as they further explore and deepen their learning It’s also important to judge how many enhancements to have at any one time. PARTNERS IN LEARNING The key to unlocking the potential of any resource we offer is our understanding of child development and how children’s innate desire to experiment supports learning over time, combined with our knowledge of the curriculum. Both strands guide how we interact with children as they experiment and create. As we play alongside children in the blocks and small world area, we should: Observe and take note of their key interests and fascinations Respond to their requests and ideas Sensitively suggest possibilities to extend their play and thinking Model language and extend vocabulary Support with the development of imaginative play As we act as role models, we are able to: Model how to think aloud by making comments such as “I’ve not thought about that before”, “You’ve really made Mathematical skills: size, shape, 1–1 correspondence, comparison Creative skills: divergent thinking, imagination Scientific skills: similarities and differences, balance, cause and effect Rich learning opportunities that small world resources offer include: Creating stories around a set of characters Developing stories with familiar patterns and sequences Retelling stories to, and sharing story ideas with, an audience Designing a setting for a story and characters Drawing and labelling designs Creating maps of story settings Exploring ways to record ideas and stories And many more! me think about…”, “How might I…?” As we sensitively raise questions, our purpose is to: Stimulate ideas and add challenge with questions such as “What do you notice about…?”, “I wonder how…?” And when we are able to mobilise ourselves to teach effectively in these ways, we can unlock the power of our provision. NEXT STEPS At Early Excellence we have several free tools to help you support young children’s learning, so please do take a look at our EYFS block area planning guide (tinyurl.com/TEYEEXbp ). We also provide a carefully curated range of blocks and small world resources (tinyurl.com/TEYEEXblsw ) plus enhancements (tinyurl.com/TEYEEXen ) selected by our curriculum team to maximise learning outcomes. Find out more at earlyexcellence.com Young children have a natural desire to construct and create ENHANCING YOUR PROVISION Enhanced provision extends learning by enabling children to further develop their ideas and interests as well as offering new and unfamiliar knowledge, skills and understanding, and enriching vocabulary. When we enhance provision, new resources, books, equipment, or artefacts are made available for a period of time, often for a few weeks, in response to what practitioners have observed children need next or to reflect themes, such as seasonal events. These new additions do not replace continuous provision but add a new dimension alongside it. In this way, enhancements offer either an extension to existing learning or provide a starting point for new learning, acting as a catalyst for exploring, talking and thinking about new ideas. Enhancing your blocks and small world area might involve providing: Focused texts, such as a story currently being shared with your children Teachearlyyears.com 27