Tuesday’s Suggested Activities – Pouring and Emptying – Support Schemas Through Play.
Schema’s In Children’s Play.
Hello Everyone,
Some parents had highlighted through our weekly check-in calls that they had observed their child repeating actions through play. One parent suggested that her child was hiding their toys in ‘random’ places for example behind the cushions on the couch, or between gaps in furniture. These types of repetitive actions in play would suggest it is possible that your child is engaging in schematic play.
Staff at Woodhill ELC support the children to learn through schemas as very young children benefit from opportunities to repeat and practise different actions.
Here’s what Education Scotland say about Schematic Play and how to support your child at home …
Schematic play happens when babies, toddlers and young children are involved in repeated actions or certain behaviours as they explore the world around them and try to find out how things work. We call these specific actions or behaviours ‘Schemas’. They can vary from child to child and some children may never display schematic play or behaviours. Very young children benefit from opportunities to repeat and practise different actions. This helps their brain development and learning as they grow and develop. For example, actions of up and down, going from side to side, and rotating will support children when they begin to make marks, draw and eventually write.
Here is an attached link of nature play which will give some suggestions of how to support your child through schematic play using natural resources you will have at home!
http://www.nature-play.co.uk/blog/schemas-in-childrens-play
Friday’s Storybook Session – Same But Different Too – Support Inclusion & Diversity
Friday’s Activity Idea – PE with Joe to Promote Physical Well-being
Hello Everyone,
Today’s suggested activity is PE with Joe! this is a fun way to encourage your children to become physically active, developing their gross motor skills, whilst burning some energy from the comfort of your home. No equipment is needed and the service is completely free. Joe is dressed up as Buzz Light Year from Toy Story today, why don’t you and your child dress up and take part too…
Did you know…
There are various health benefits of exercising for children
A child who is encouraged to keep fit from a young age will be more likely to exercise throughout their lives. Research suggests inactive children are likely to become inactive adults. Exercise provides plenty of benefits for children and young people such as:
- Lowering stress
- Increasing self-esteem
- Building stronger muscles and bones
- Improves academic scores
- Socialising
If you or your child take part, then please email photographs or feedback to the nursery email or alternatively comment in the comment box below! We look forward to seeing all of your feedback and sharing it with our children and families!
Thursday’s Activity Idea – Yoga to Promote Positive Wellbeing
Hello Everyone,
Here is the link to Cosmic Yoga, which is an easy, fun yoga designed specially for toddlers and children with songs, nursery rhymes and simple stories included in each video! We hope to implement yoga sessions at Woodhill ELC soon to provide the children with the benefits as listed below!
Did you know:
Yoga and mindfulness have been shown to improve both physical and mental health in children. Yoga improves balance, strength, endurance, and aerobic capacity in children. Yoga and mindfulness offer psychological benefits for children as well.
1. Yoga Improves Memory and Cognitive Functioning
Yoga helps to improve memory and cognitive function by creating focus within. Practicing yoga requires concentration of both the mind and the body. We have to pay attention to the movement of our bodies and how our breathing coordinates with those movements.
Some yoga poses, particularly balancing poses, require that you concentrate more than other poses.
When children practice yoga, they are essentially practicing their ability to focus on the task at hand. In their day-to-day lives, this translates to better focus and cognitive functioning at school, leading to improved academic achievement.
2. Yoga Improves Social Relationships
Yoga is typically regarded as an individual activity. While that is partially true, there is a social component to yoga. We go to yoga classes with other people and take part in the yoga community where we can share our experiences with others.
For children, the entire yoga practice is a social one. Yoga for children typically includes songs, games, and other fun activities that get kids moving together and learning from one another, particularly with partner yoga poses. This creates a positive, engaging environment in which children can have fun, talk to one another, and learn to trust one another.
Yoga also helps to cultivate increased self-esteem, self-confidence, and empathy within children, which translates to more positive relationships with others by reflecting their positive attitude toward themselves onto others.
3. Yoga Improves Sleep
Getting the body moving before bedtime is an excellent way to improve sleep. When we are stressed or overwhelmed, our bodies are tense and our minds are full, reducing our ability to sleep well. This is also true for children.
We tend to think that children “have it easy,” and that they don’t feel stressed, but this simply isn’t true. Children can be stressed in their own ways.
Practicing yoga helps children to relieve stress by using their breathing to calm the mind and the nervous system. The physical practice of yoga also helps to relieve tension and release negative emotions held physically in the body, helping them to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
4. Yoga Improves Strength and Breath Control
Yoga takes some strength – both mentally and physically. When practiced regularly, we notice many physical and cognitive changes within ourselves, particularly increased flexibility, upper body strength, and mental clarity. All of this newfound strength has much to do with the breath.
When we breathe harshly or quickly, we increase muscle tension, reduce focus, and heighten our fight-or-flight response, all of which have detrimental effects on our minds and bodies.
Teaching proper breathing techniques, and building physical and mental strength from a young age promotes physical and mental health.
5. Yoga Increases Determination and Perseverance
Yoga is a fun activity for children, in a non-competitive environment, in which they can learn new yoga poses and breathing techniques. When something is fun for children, they always want to know more.
Children also love the feeling they get when they master the thing they think they cannot do. For example, Crow Pose. While it’s so much fun for kids to practice, it can be difficult. But when they learn how to practice the pose and continue to practice it, they are very excited and want to show everyone the new thing they learned at yoga class!
This determination and perseverance leads to the feeling of excitement. When this happens, children will do anything to keep that feeling. In their day-to-day lives, children will learn that sticking with something, even when it is difficult, pays off and they will want to bring that feeling of excitement to other areas of their lives.
6. Yoga Improves Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is the ability to recognize and change your behavior, thoughts, and emotions based on the situation at hand. Self-regulation skills help kids solve problems and adjust to new challenges, as well as help to set and achieve both short- and long-term goals.
By paying attention to our minds and bodies, we look inward to better understand our thoughts and feelings. Practicing yoga helps children to understand and manage their emotions based on the situation.
For example, if a child is frustrated at school, they are less likely to be paying attention to any new material, therefore not retaining any of that information and falling behind in class.
But, by learning to reflect inward and recognize what they need in certain situations, children can learn to manage their emotions and handle the situation effectively and appropriately.
7. Yoga Improves Independence and Coping Skills
As mentioned above, yoga is both a social and individual activity. One of the benefits of practicing an activity that is both individual and social is that it helps children to recognise what “individual” and “social” mean.
Children rarely do things on their own. After all, they are children! It’s up to us adults to make most of the decisions for them. However, it is still important that they learn how to do things on their own. Practicing yoga is a great way to introduce independence to your children because their practice, and what they get out of their practice, is theirs and only theirs.
By increasing independence in practice, we are also helping children to develop their coping skills. As children , they will have the support of their family and the comfort of familiarity. But this changes as they grow into adolescence and adulthood – peer pressure, graduating high school, going to college, and getting their first “real” job.
It is important that children learn how to be independent and cope on their own while they have the support and guidance from those around them. Otherwise, they will be left with no coping tools under their belt when the time comes for them to be on their own.
8. Yoga Improves Mood
Like any physical exercise, practicing yoga helps children to release their negative thoughts and feelings, bring about mental clarity, and feel better about themselves. When we do something physical, such as yoga, we release endorphins, creating feelings of calm and happiness.
Yoga is also a fun activity in which children can be silly, play games, and be with their friends in a non-competitive environment, while also learning so much about themselves!
9. Yoga Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Improving mood also means reducing stress and anxiety. Those same endorphins that increase mood and affect also reduce stress and anxiety.
Did you know that we physically hold negative emotions in our bodies, usually in our necks and lower backs? Sometimes experiencing negative emotions is a good thing, but only in small doses.
For children, it is important that we teach them the balance between negative and positive emotions. When we are ready to let go of all of that negativity, practicing yoga helps to reduce stress and anxiety by relieving tension throughout the body, literally releasing the built-up negativity children have stored within their bodies.
Thursday’s Storybook Brown Bear And I Spy Turn Taking Game
Hello Everyone,
Here is the link to the story Brown Bear written by Bill Martin Jr, the story has lots of repetition and colorful illustrations! On each page, we meet a new animal who helps us discover which creature will show up next. “Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? I see a redbird looking at me…”. This pattern is repeated over and over, until the pre-reader can join in with the reader, easily predicting the next lines. Giggles and raised eyebrows will accompany the story as the animals become stranger and stranger (a purple cat!?). Singing Hands have created a video of themselves reading the story and use Makaton signs to support children learning basic sign language to communicate, at Woodhill ELC we have been learning basic Makaton since December to ensure we are offering an inclusive service to all learners. Can your child repeat any of these signs?
Brown Bear – I Spy Time – Look out of the window or around the house and play ‘I Spy’. Make is as simple or as difficult as you need to. Ask questions while you play, “What can you see in front of the red car?”. Play I-spy with colours or shapes, or animals from the story for example ‘I spy, with my little eye, something coloured blue’ or ‘something square’ or ‘a an animal that lives in the forest’.
Did you know:
‘I spy’ is a turn-taking game, so it helps to develop your child’s social skills. When your child waits for their turn, they’re learning how to play and cooperate with others. ‘I spy’ is also great for building your child’s vocabulary and understanding of language.
Wednesday’s Storybook, The Gingerbread Man – Promote Communication Through Thoughts and Feelings
Wednesday’s Activity Idea – Daily Mile – Promote Physical Wellbeing
Hello Everyone,
Here is a link to The Daily Mile website, We would like to introduce all families at Woodhill to the #DailyMileAtHome. It’s an easy and fun way to keep fit and maintain good health and well-being for you and your children. The website has up-to-date guidance on exercising outdoors in line with the government restrictions around Coronavirus and also the benefits of being outdoors.
Benefits-of-Physical-Activity-How-The-Daily-Mile-Can-Help
^^ This link will give parents support and advice on the benefits of Daily Mile and the positive impact physical activity has on children.
We hope these activity ideas give you inspiration! if you manage to complete any please email the nursery with photographs and comments from you and your child. We will share these with the other children and families at Woodhill ELC.
A Good Morning Message! – Support Emotional Understanding
Hello Everyone,
Please click on the link “A Good Morning Message” to see some of the comments from staff and Joy our friend from inside out, we hope that reading this will support you to have conversations about your feelings and emotions.
Did you know, children who learn how to understand emotions in themselves and others are better able to regulate their own responses to strong emotions. Helping children to identify and label emotions is an important first step, adults help to support children’s emotional development when they label and talk about emotions and feelings.
Ways to support children’s emotional understanding:
- Ask children how they feel and notice their feelings throughout the day. For example, when a child has a concern or problem, ask questions or make comments like, “How are you feeling? or “It looks like you might be feeling sad about something.”
- Talk with children throughout the day about emotions. For example, when reading books to children, label the characters’ emotions and point out the facial expression and body language of the characters in books.
- Talk about how you are feeling during the day in appropriate ways. For example, “I am feeling happy today because today we are going out for a walk!”. Direct children to look at your facial expressions and body language as you say, “How can you tell I’m feeling happy today?”
- Talk about how people might feel in different situations to help children understand the different contexts of feelings and that all people have feelings. For example, when reading books or talking with children about their own lives, ask questions like, “Why do you think she felt that way? How could you tell she was feeling sad?”
- Label and define feelings for children when they do not have the words to express how they are feeling. For example, “It looks like you might be sad that you won’t get a turn on the swings today. That feeling is called sad. Let’s figure out a plan to make you feel happy and we can come back to the park and go on the swings another day.
Please feel free to comment below any views from you or your child, so that other children and families can see these!
