Please find below a few links to help you understand and support your child through the 7 areas of learning within the foundation stage curriculum and beyond. Please remember the best and most powerful tool you have is play, this is a child’s first and foremost way of learning and a responsive and caring adult joining and observing play is crucial. We are all teachers, we are all learning and we are all important!
Web sites for young children
Always review the sites ahead of time so that you are able to help your children find the best resources available within the sites. Some offer a great number of games, songs, stories, videos etc. so it is important to know the site well in order to support and develop your child’s learning and ensure their safety online.
How to keep your child safe online
Guidance and support for online safety from NSPCC
Parents guide to the EYFS
Hungry Little Minds
Simple, fun activities for children from newborn to 5 years
Communication and language
Communication and language does not just include speaking and the development of vocabulary, while we recognise the vast importance of these it is important to remember that we communicate in a variety of different ways and rely on multiple strategies to become effective communicators.
- Children are learning how to listen and attain including the ability to discriminate one sound from another, this ranges vastly from distinguishing the voice of a loved one to hearing a single sound in a spoken word.
- Children are developing their understanding of words, context and beginning to build sentences that express and share their ideas in different ways.
- Children are learning to speak and confidently and share their ideas, their experience, their interests and creativity.
Personal, social and emotional
Personal, social and emotional development (PSED) supports children to learn about others and how to successfully interact and manage their own behaviour and feelings. Children learn to make friends, understand and talk about feelings, learn about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, develop independence and be confident in their own abilities and self.
We can encourage children to become confident and competent learners through developing a growth mindset where mistakes are valued as learning experiences and children learn to value the process of learning opposed to the final outcome. Practising growth mindset with children is a great way to get them engaged with activities that they try to avoid through fear of getting things wrong or doubting their own ability. When children compare themselves to others they are often focusing on performance opposed to learning and therefor may give less effort at tasks they already feel that they are not good at.
Good ways to develop a growth mindset include:
- setting high expectations for your child and praising them for their effort- this shows you believe in them to achieve highly and empowers them to believe they can achieve highly too.
- Encouraging children to be resilient and not give up, even when they find something difficult or frustrating
- Celebrating mistakes!
- Using inspirational role models
Praise them for effort saying things like “you’ve worked so hard on this, well done!” or “you get better every time because of all the practise you’ve been doing” or “you have found a great way to do that, it worked out really well”.
Physical
Physical development is one of the prime areas of the EYFS. It focuses on not only children’s physical skills but also their health, independence and self help skills. Children develop their control over big and small movements gaining the ability to join in with games and the co-ordination, strength and dexterity needed for writing. Children learn spacial awareness and begin to explore different environments with confidence and enthusiasm.
Often as adults we can be risk adverse and may approach physical activities by telling children to be careful , you can support them to manage safety and take appropriate risks by carefully considering the language used for example instead of be careful why not try some of these suggested sentences:
- Instead of be careful say- ‘Its a little icy today I wonder what we need to think about’
- Instead of be careful say- remember to take your time because balancing needs lots of concentration
- Instead of be careful say- notice how
Encourage problem solving during physical activity by asking:
- What’s your plan… if you climb that boulder, cross that log?
- What can you use… to get across, for your adventure?
- Where will you… put that rock, climb that tree, dig that hole?
- How will you…. get down, go up, get across?
- Who will… be with you, go with you, help you if?
Maths
Within the area of maths children will learn skills such as:
- Number facts
- Using & Applying skills and knowledge
- Conceptual understanding
- Generalising
- Persevering
- Risk-taking
- Challenge
- Thinking mathematically
- Problem solving
- Fluent calculating
It is also important to recognise the significance of vocabulary when engaged in mathematical learning and development. Children will develop the language to describe, categorise and make sense of concepts such as shape, space and measure as well as to recognise the vast use and importance of numbers within everyday life.
Literacy
Literacy includes talking about books and stories, recognising and noticing print in the environment, early mark making and writing, as well as sharing books and reading. This will start from an early age as you and your child begin sharing stories, songs and conversation. Literacy is vitally important as it focuses on not only storytelling and books but also children’s ability to speak and listen with good understanding.
Understanding the world
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world, themselves and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology, and the environment. Children have the chance to question what they see, expand their own knowledge beyond their experience and learn that they may have different thoughts and beliefs then others. As well as this understanding the world supports children in gaining the skills needed to use ICT skillfully and effectively for a range of different purposes.
Expressive art and design
Helping children to be creative is as much about encouraging attitudes of curiosity and questioning as about skills or techniques this is why the characteristics of effective learning are so important within the early years foundation stage. Children notice everything and closely observe the most ordinary things that adults may not give their attention to. Building on children’s interests can result in fantastic displays of creativity through storytelling, crafty, collage, painting, drawing, music, dance, role play and other forms of expression. Encouraging children to choose and use materials and resources in an open-ended way helps them to make choices and to have confidence in their own ideas, for example a box may be used as a car in role play. Children who feel listened to and know that their ideas are valued will have much higher levels of self esteem. Just expressing an interest in the process a child has gone through is often enough or asking open questions such as ‘Tell me more– that looks amazing’ will give them the confidence to experiment, share and value their contributions.
Websites that offer multiple learning opportunities
Forest school
Forest school is a unique, inspirational and most importantly an enjoyable provision where children are encouraged to lead their own learning. The forest school ethos stretches far beyond the classroom and encapsulates the whole child, their needs, interests and passions. Children are encouraged to value, respect and learn from nature, through play, creativity and exploration.
Key benefits of forest school include:
- compassion
- risk taking
- challenge
- exploration
- problem solving
- observation
- creativity
- relationships
- confidence
- resilience
- perseverance
- empathy