Sensory Play

Children learn through sensory play by being creative with different materials and exploring the world around them through their senses such as their; sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. They learn about different concepts such as floating, sinking, empty and full.

 

Sensory activities can include

 

• Natural resources
• water play
• painting
• musical play
• Picture collages.
• Sand
• Glue
• Play dough
• Jelly
• Flour

These sensory materials which are natural treasures are perfect for personal, social and emotional development. As an adult we can watch a child become deeply involved in sensory play and how we gain an insight into their personality, interest and schemas (repeated patterns of behaviour)

 

Our group decided to look at different aspects of sensory play.

 

Planning the activity - water play

Description

There will be a tray filled with water on the wooden floor. We will have toy fish in the tray of all different shapes, sizes, weights, colours and textures. The children will need to wear aprons to help keep their clothes dry. This activity will be aimed at children who are 2+ and will have 4 children and 1 adult to keep in the ratio and ensure the safety of the child.

 

What the children will do

The children will be exploring this underwater world around them picking up the fish, describing them and talking about the different fish in the water. As a practitioners I will ask open ended questions e.g. Where do you find fish? What does it feel like? Is the water cold? How many fish are there? Why did it sink? I will encourage the children to share and discuss with other children what the fish looks like and what ones they like best.

 

Skills being learnt

Children will be learning many skills in mathematics such as counting, numbers, different concepts such as floating and sinking possibly measurements “providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers” EYFS 2014. Children will learn about the world around them talking about where fish come from and where they live. The different textures of the fish will encourage children to use their sense to describe what the fish feel like and support them to use new vocabulary. Children can use their imagination to describe what their underwater world would look like for their favourite fish “enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings” EYFS 2014

 

Implementing the activity - musical play

I carried out a musical play activity called musical bingo where children had to listen to the nursery rhymes and when they heard the nursery rhyme that was on their board they would place the same picture on top of the board. Within this sensory play is implemented as children are using their listening sense to hear the nursery rhyme.

 

Within this activity the adults would lead this however when sensory play is implemented in other ways the adult role would be to sit back and allow the children to choose what they wanted to do and let them do things for themselves.

 

Documentation - Natural resources

I carried out a sensory activity within my pre-school. I set up the craft table for Child A to take part in. I set up a bowl full of leaves from the garden to link to sensory play, glue sticks, glitter and paper and also books about the outdoor world.  This activity is for ages 2-3years old.

 

For this activity I had to get the parent of the child I observed to sign a consent form because of Confidential needs to keep the identity of the child safe. The child's face is not seen within these photos but their work on the other hand is shown within this these pictures (Newcastle University, 2014).

 

This is the consent form

 

These pictures were taken before the activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In conclusion we found that sensory play has a huge impact on children and they way they learn. Every sensory experience a baby or child will have will be a unique, new and exciting way of learning and implementing those tricky subjects into a child's routine such as mathematics, literacy and science.

Sensory play is extremely important to children as it encourages communication during activities thus helping their language skills and their social development. The word messy can have negative connotations however it is an important part of a child’s cognitive development.  

 

References

EYFS, 2014. Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage Setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. [pdf] EYFS. Available at: http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/eyfs-statutory-framework/ . [Accessed 22nd December 2014]

 

Newcastle University, 2014. Working with Young Children and Adults. [online] [22nd December 2014]

Available at: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/res/research/ethics_governance/ethics/toolkit/consent/children.htm

 

 

 

Student ID's

Lucy Conway - 1301657

Faye Hemley - 1313556

Abbie Bryant - 1305936

Rebecca Clarke - 1311195

Rachel Balogun - 1303754

 

 

 

Outdoor Play - Treasure Hunt

Outdoor play – Christmas Treasure Hunt

Our project was based on the provision of using outdoor play environment and using this advantage of setting up a Christmas Treasure Hunt.

We used outdoor play on the basis of physical education and how we can explain to children that keeping fit and healthy whilst being outdoors is beneficial. It can also promote social and intellectual development throughout an outdoor activity and this can have a positive impact on children in the EYFS and the National Curriculum for their future.

The quote from Hymes (1981) states, ‘since young children are constantly active they need two types of classrooms: simple space indoors, and more generous space outdoors’. This gives us the idea that children need both of these environments and they need to be constantly active in both classrooms in order to learn new experiences.

We felt that our outdoor play activity would be a great experience in the EYFS and National Curriculum as it can help children if they do not have access to an outdoor environment and they can experience the outdoors in their setting.

Our Project

Our project was based on the idea of incorporating Christmas and a treasure hunt together to make a fun and exciting activity that can promote outdoor whilst doing this through a seasonal holiday.

We came up with the idea of having two teams; team Santa and team Elf and using a template paper of Santa and Elf and cutting up the treasure pieces of Santa and Elf into five pieces.

We then placed the five pieces of each picture and scattered these pieces around a small area of the outdoors and we put up a template of the Santa and Elf on a wall for a guide for both teams.

Before the activity started we stated the rules, put Santa and Elf in a hat for each person to pick to make the activity fair and also we brought Santa and elf hats and gave these hats to each team so we can see what person belonged to which team.

There wasn’t many resources in our project and it was more the creative side and using templates from the internet as part of our creativity and to reduce costs of resources. Although this activity is competitive we gave both teams a prize and our outlook on if children were doing this activity then we can show that everyone is a winner.

Documentation

We can document this activity by using a narrative observation so we can detail every moment briefly and reflect back on this when we can come to a conclusion. Also we can take photos of the children participating in the activity and see how they partake and work together as a team.

If we could do this activity again, we would make more teams and make it not as competitive as it worked out when the activity was taking place.



The cut-outs of Santa and Elf before they were cut up into several treasure hunt pieces.
 



We traced over the Santa and Elf to help children have a guideline and extra help of what the character looks like.

We then placed these treasure hunt pieces outside and placed some where they could be seen and some that were more obscure.

The final image is where teams would place the pieces i.e. the elf head and put the puzzle together. 



Student IDs:     
 

 1303386

 

•1304214

•1212401

•1307245

 

 

 

MESSY PLAY: Using Natural Resources

For our project our chosen area of provision was play based learning, looking specifically at messy play in early years and how this can aid a child’s development. In order to explain the importance of messy play within the early years we have taken a definition from Bernadette Duffy ‘A huge part of messy play is to encourage children to become creative and imaginative when doing an activity/ playing. ‘By encouraging creativity and imagination we are promoting children’s ability to explore and comprehend their world and increasing their opportunities to make new connections and reach new understandings’.

We chose messy play as our area of provision because we felt it is important for children to be able to express themselves through art and crafts. Also, some children may not have access to art materials and resources at home so it is important that children are encouraged to have these opportunities and experiences within settings.

Our project

The name of our chosen activity was ‘bringing the outdoors; in’. To explain this, we collected resources from outside, such as leaves and twigs in different shapes and sizes. In order to ensure our resources were suitable for the children to use, we checked over each item for dirt, thorns etc.  We then set up a table with paints, glue, scissors and paper. The idea behind our project was to encourage children to use their imagination and creativity to produce a picture of their choice. We laid the resources and materials out on the table so the children could choose the resources and materials that interested them individually. The paint was provided so the children could have a try at printing with the different resources and seeing what shapes they could create. The scissors and glue was provided to encourage the children to cut and stick the resources on the paper, in order to create collages. The activity was supervised by adults as there were sharp objects such as scissors, however, the children were able to independently create their own picture using materials and resources chosen entirely by them. Although we designed our project to be adult supervised it was also designed to be child led, we thought this would be important as Rogerson from Childcare Training LTD said “it is important to encourage a "child centered" approach in settings by supporting a creative process for children without focusing on an end product”.

We chose our activity because it is very versatile as it can be carried out indoors and outdoors (depending on weather). Due to the different colours of the leaves and the bare trees/ twigs we were able to teach the children about different seasons and the life cycles of the world around them, (which links to the understanding of the world in EYFS).

                  

We feel that our group project was a success in many ways, first and foremost the group work was equally divided between the three of us. We each picked an area within the presentation and made our own notes to add when speaking in the group. When choosing the area of provision and project, we each had ideas and worked as a team to come up with our final ideas. When doing the presentation, we think it went well as everyone in the class joined in, doing our project when we finished speaking. Everyone seemed to enjoy taking part and the hands on approach of our activity. If we were to do the project again, we would spend more time collecting different resources from the outdoors and making more variations of the activity itself, for example: a group making one big picture together. All in all we were happy with our presentation and our result.

Supporting Children’s Learning: Water Play - Water Wall

 

    To begin our project, we looked at different definitions of ‘continuous provision.’ We then explored a range of areas of ‘continuous provision,’ including: Role play, Music, Sand play and Maths and Science and, after looking into these areas, we decided to focus upon a specific area of ‘continuous provision,’ which was water play.

  Following this decision, we researched a variety of media and publications with regards to examples of excellence in ‘continuous provision;’ examined theories of development, including Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development, linking this to water play; highlighted the benefits of water play, examples being development of fine and gross motor skills before exploring how water play can be linked to the Prime and Specific Areas of the Early Years Statutory Framework (EYFS) and holistic and heuristic development of children.

    We also considered ethical issues surrounding children; families; communities; the professional and research and, although these were broad categories, we felt they were valuable resources to highlight and consider in relation to practice and pedagogy, in addition to looking at what permanent and additional resources could be used in an Early Years setting, including:

·         Sea creatures; plastic boats (fantasy and imaginative play)

·         Jugs; pots; measuring cups (measuring, capacity and weight)

·         Corks; ice; marbles; apples (floating/sinking)

·         Funnels; water wheel (running through, linking to its liquid state)

·         Tea pots; watering cans; sprays (pouring skills)

·         Spoons; beakers; yoghurt pots (things to lift water)

·         Clear/opaque containers of different shapes; containers with wide/narrow tops (things to fill, linking to vocabulary such as full/empty)

·         Sponges (absorption)

·         Bubble bath; Glitter (texture)

Water Wall

  For our activity we made a ‘Water Wall’ which proved how much fun water play is, although it was time consuming, particularly in regards to making sure our canvas and tunnels were waterproof and consideration of any health and safety issues, including making sure children wear apron and wiping up any spillages of water. This artefact was also devised as a result of being inspired by seeing excellence in practice in an Early Years placement, as well as through research.

Stage One:

 

We layered the canvas with “Modrock,” which is a ‘Plaster of Paris’ like material which, when mixed with water and glue, makes the canvas waterproof. We also did the same thing with the two tunnels

Stage Two:

 

After the canvas and tunnels had dried, we painted them bright colours as we thought that the primary colours would be appealing for children and encouraged them to practice identifying the colours of red; yellow and blue.

Stage Three:

We stapled and nailed the tunnels and bottles onto the water wall.

Our Water Wall Completed

 

Documentation

       We documented our project through taking photographs of our artefact but other methods of documentation could be:  

•      Videos

•      Observations

•      Portfolios

•      Reflective Journals

•      Progress Trackers/Charts

•      Visual Posters/Diagrams

How we felt the presentation went

   We feel that that presentation went well; it was well presented and our PowerPoint was informative and provided everyone watching our presentation with graphical guidance. However, we also felt that we talked too quickly because of nerves and we could have produced hand-outs of our research to make our presentation more interactive and reduce the amount of work on our slides.