Following your children’s interests in the Early Years
As part of the IEYC units of work, the children learn about specific things such as the ocean, dinosaurs, places all around them or space. As we are trying not only to develop your children’s knowledge but also their personal interests you may notice that sometimes the teachers support your children in developing learning in areas that are not on their day to day plans.
F2 have been looking at mini-beasts for their unit of work on ‘The Brilliant Bug Ball’. They explored the garden using magnifying glasses and collected snails using bug boxes. They wanted to find other bugs and decided to dig in the soil to see what else they could find. They were lucky enough to find a big long fat worm, which they were keen to share with the children in F1 and F3.
Everyone was very excited about this worm and it led to creative drawings of worms, the building of suitable worm homes, research in books and on the internet. In F3, they even learnt a song about a worm called ‘Wiggly Woo’. This personal experience that we captured across the Early Years is not something that you can find in a book or on the iPhone. It is something that we always try to find time for and the teachers share it with you on Tapestry. If you have any outdoor experiences with nature at home or when you go on holiday, please try to take some pictures and either share them with your class teacher or on your child’s online Tapestry account.
There’s a worm at the bottom of my garden song;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqViDa4gQp4&disable_polymer=true
Tapestry Login page
https://tapestryjournal.com
Around Royal City, we have a limited number of trees, plants and gardens. It is so important that we teach the children about nature and the world around us by providing opportunities for our children to ask 'how' and 'why' questions about the world around them.
Some of the important curriculum objectives for this area of learning come from the ‘Communication and Language’ and ‘Understanding the World’.
• Questions on why things happen and give explanations.
• Comment and ask questions about aspects of their familiar world, such as the place where they live or the natural world.
• Talk about some of the things they have observed such as plants and animals.
• Show care and concern for living things and the environment.
This shows that we need to encourage our children’s curiosity and provide opportunities for them to explore the world, around not just inside our homes and classrooms but outside in our local environment.
Miss Julie Walton
Head of Early Years
