Home Play/Learning
A Parent or main carer’s role is vital to a child’s development and at Little Villagers we want to work with you to help develop your child. By working together we can help develop your child to make them the best version of themselves they can possibly be.
Weekly Poster:
Each week our weekly poster, which shows our loose themes for the week, is available to view in the Parent Portal and on display at the setting. Along with this you can also see our weekly Enhanced activities (extended play). You can encourage your child to learn and develop by asking them to participate in the activities set out in the poster -they can then bring their findings into school and share them with their friends. Always remember if you have something special to celebrate or have been somewhere exciting please do let us know as we would love to join in your celebrations and encourage your children to share them with us too. This is a great confidence builder for any child and a lovely way for us to all work together. Remember we love to see photos too!
Enhanced Planning:
Each week our Enhanced planning is available to view on the Parent Portal and sent via email to parents - these activities have a learning intention and are based on the interests, needs and extension of the children play.
How you can Help - Termly we will send Parents/Carer’s ideas on how you can help develop your child at home - these ideas are not generic they are individually tailored to your child’s development needs.
September 20 to August 2021 - Please continue to look at our Weekly Poster and Enhanced Activity sheet sent to you via email each week, displayed at the setting and put up on the Parent Portal of our website. This will keep you informed of activities taking place within the setting and it will also give you some ideas of how you can help with your child’s development and learning - let’s work together!
March 2020 - July 2020
For our full Home Play programme during Covid-19 please go to the Parent Portal on this website - every week there is a whole range of activities and play for you to enjoy with your child - have fun!
To learn a little about our teaching methods at Little Villagers please see below, this may help you when sharing learning experiences at home with your child:
Understanding Schemas - how/why younger children play as they do:
Schemas are the way younger children play (possibly more relevant to our Tadpole group but can include older children too) - they are the repeated actions young children perform during play. These actions are great for their brain and cognitive development and should be encouraged once you know how.
Our Home Play/Learning programme within the Parent Portal has all sorts of links and resource ideas too for you to enjoy!
Please scroll down for ideas and helpful links which you may also enjoy with your children.
To with some very simple activities for you to enjoy include:
PSED (Prime)
Board Games
Taking turn games
Develop confidence by bringing things into the setting relevant to our topics to show at Circle Time.
Communication & Language (Prime)
Encouraging your child to use their voice instead of gesture
Encourage nursery rhymes to develop alliteration
Develop language by bringing things into the setting relevant to our topics to talk about at Circle Time
Physical Development (Prime)
Encourage self-care – eating with spoon and fork
Encourage using proper cup
Encourage your child to dress themselves, put their own coat on
Develop gross motor skills with ball games
Develop fine motor skills by encourage mark making
A child should be seeking to do 3 hours of physical activity a day (see Parent Portal Useful Links for further information on the importance of Physical Activity)
Literacy (Specific) - see links below for further help also see useful links in Parent Portal on this website.
Sharing books and discussing pictures
Encourage shopping lists (scribbles are fine!!)
Purchase a Jolly Phonics CD for car journeys
Maths (Specific)
Discuss shapes of everyday objects
I Spy shape games
Counting songs and Rhymes
Understanding the World (Specific)
Cook together
Garden together
Go on a nature walk
Expressive Art and Design (Specific)
Anything creative!
Use pots and pans to make music
Paint with mud
Let children dress in your clothes and shoes (make a dressing up box of them)
Here is a list of further useful resources that are available for you to share with your families:
Talking Time activity cards
The activity cards have simple activities, designed to help parents support their children's learning at home and cover a range of different aspects; Talking Time activity cards
Activity ideas for toddlers
The activity sheets offered (below) contain tips and ideas to use with your toddler throughout the year. By playing together, you're helping to develop your child's communication and language skills - Activity ideas for toddlers
Write with me leaflets - tips for parents of 0-5s
Tips and activity ideas to get your child off to a great start - Write with me-writing tips for parents Time activity cards
Other learn with me resources:
https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/people-and-community/families/education-and-learning-advice-for-families/early-learning Top Tips Posters: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/49803/ECAT-Top-Tips-1-38.pdfLiteracy links:
Below are a few Websites recommended by Surrey Early Years to help parents support their child’s literacy skills: Hungry Little Minds – a new three year campaign launched by the Department for Education July 2019 to encourage parents to engage in activities that support their child’s early learning.https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/ Small Talk, part of the National Literacy Trust website. Activities for parents to use with their children.https://small-talk.org.uk/ National Literacy Trust – guide for parents with apps that help your young child learn language and communication skills.http://literacyapps.literacytrust.org.uk/ I Can – Talking Point, information for parents to help understand and support children’s speech, language and communicationhttps://ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/