GIRFEC

Getting it Right for Every Child.

In our nursery we  place our children at the centre of our thoughts, planning and action. Everything we do is centred around the child.

SHANARRI – Adventure Ted

We use our friends Super Max and Adventure Ted to send out with our children to better their understanding of our “SHANARRI” wheel. They go on lots of adventures with our children and allow them to be Active, Respected and Responsible, Included, Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured and Active.

Mini Balloon Emotions

Create these characters and allow your child to express different emotions!

Resources: Balloons, flour, pen (If you don’t have flour you can always use playdough!)

Activity: Add some flour to your balloon and tie it at the bottom to make sure none of the flour falls out! Draw a face and a different emotion on each balloon! You can use the balloons to describe how you are feeling! See how many emotions you can make!

Fun Toothbrushing

During our time in lockdown many of our routines have changed. For some families it might be a bit of a challenge getting our wee people to brush their teeth for two minutes twice a day.

Here are some helpful fun ideas.

· Be a good role model and let children see you brushing your teeth. Do it together or even let them practice on you.

· Let them brush their dolls or teeth.

· Let them watch you brush your pet dog’s teeth if you have one.

· Let them choose their own toothbrush and flavoured children’s toothpaste.

· Let them choose their two minute song or use a sand timer or stopwatch.

· Be creative and invent a story about the imaginary “sugar bugs” or “sticky plaque” and how our wee people can defend their teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Activities

Teeth

· Let your child draw and cut out two shapes of teeth.

· Draw a happy and sad face on each one.

· Cut out healthy and unhealthy pictures of food and stick onto the happy or sad face.

Playdough Teeth

• Make playdough using the recipe from our blog and add red or pink colouring if you have any.
• · Using dried peas or similar, or even some stones from the garden pretend they are teeth and count twenty teeth. Ten on top and ten on the bottom.

Memory Game

Abracadabra!!!

In your home, pick three things that are really familiar to the child that they are able to recognise and name.

Place these items on the floor in a row and take a cloth or blanket and cover the items up

Wave your hands over the cloth and say “Abra-ca-dabra!” and as you lift up the cloth, grasp one of the items in your hand (so that only two items remain on the ground). Now ask your child to guess which item is missing. Let him peek inside of the cloth to see if he’s right!

Fun Hand Scrubbing

Handwashing is an easy way to prevent the spread of germ. We all play an important role in teaching children to wash their hands regularly and properly.

Handwashing should become a lifelong healthy habit if we start teaching children at an early age. And everyone learns better if it’s made fun.

Here are fun ideas to help explain to children the importance of handwashing.

A fun experiment to do with your child to demonstrate the importance of washing your hands.

Place water in a bowl and add pepper. Your child dips their fingers in having washed their hands with just water…watch!

Now your child adds soap to their fingers and tries again….da da daaaa!

Such a simple and effective demonstration of how washing with soap helps to get rid of germs.

Children learn by imitating the behaviours of adults, therefore we have to set a good example.

Body Games and Movements

It is important that children understand the names of the body parts for a variety of reasons:

• Learning to wipe their nose or put their feet into their shoes..
• Sharing what part of the body might be making them feel unwell.
• It also helps them to identify what parts of the body they are using in a variety of physical activities.

Our wee people learn to develop many skills through the power of play.

Try singing this song and do the actions with your child to see if they can recognise and name the body parts!

HEAD, SHOULDERS KNEES AND TOES

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

And eyes and ears and mouth and nose

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.

Activity

Draw around your child onto old wallpaper or something similar and encourage them to colour and decorate. Talk about the different parts of the body. If there are siblings then they could join in. Afterwards you could discuss how we are all different and unique.

Once this is complete they could cut off the legs, feet, arms. hands and so on.

Hang the body part onto a wall or door.

Direct your blindfolded child in this direction and ask them to guess where they would attach the different body parts using blu tak or sellotape

Go On A Safari

Go outside on an exciting adventure and try picking up a small rock, plant, or flower!

Notice the different bugs all around you. Take a few moments to watch what they are doing. Even sit on the ground beside them and follow what they are up to.

Be mindful of everything around you and pay close attention! Try and be very quiet and take in all of the wonderful things around you! Smells, sights, feelings!

Animal Workout

Lets see if you can get moving and sounding like our animals!

For 30 seconds, ask your child to move around in a clear-spaced area and imitate an animal!

Try and do as many of these as you can.. If you can do them all, why don’t you get creative and try and think of some animal moves and sounds by yourself?

Frog Hops

Elephant Stomps

Bear Walks

Gorilla Shuffles

Starfish Jumps

Cheetah Run

Chicken Arms

Turtle Crawls

Kangaroo Jumps

Bunny Hops

Horse Gallops

Worm Wiggles

Healthy Minds

Look after yourselves everyone. On Thursdays at 4pm a lovely wee mindfulness activity on YouTube. Click on link below.

Here is the link below:

https://youtu.be/mwFmn8ntnLw

Why not go for a walk… play I Spy

As a way of keeping children entertained, children could create pictures at home, place them in their own windows then  go on a window walk and spot them in the local community, if you choose to venture out. Each week a different theme could be chosen. 

Have some fun and join in!

Here are some activities for you to try to keep your body and your mind active!

 

Jigsaw Jenie

Adventure Ted

SHANARRI – Adventure Ted

We use our friends Super Max and Adventure Ted to send out with our children to better their understanding of our “SHANARRI” wheel. They go on lots of adventures with our children and allow them to be Active, Respected and Responsible, Included, Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured and Active.

Activity 1

The next wellbeing indicator that we are helping Adventure Ted understand is how to keep himself SAFE.

Can you help Adventure Ted find five things in your home or garden that are safe or unsafe?  Get someone you live with to help you.

You could use the traffic light code to help him.

Green    For   SAFE          👍 😊✅

Red.       For   DANGER.  👎 ☹️❌

Think of someone who you could ask for help if you are needing help or feeling upset.

It could be someone you live with or someone who works in the nursery or in the community.        👷👮

You could draw or paint a picture of being safe, or of someone who helps you at home or in the community and share it on our blog.

Be safe and happy 😊

Struggling to get a bedtime routine. Click on the link below to download a printable activity.
My Bedtime Routine UK – Big Life Journal (1)