Use the local area for exploring both the built and the natural environment.
Provide opportunities to observe things closely through a variety of means, including magnifiers and photographs.
Designing and Making
Provide ideas and stimuli for children, for example, photographs, books, visits and close observation of buildings.
Provide a range of tools, for example, scissors, hole punch, stapler, junior hacksaw, glue spreader, rolling pin, cutter, knife, grater, and encourage children to handle them carefully and use their correct names.
ICT
When out in the locality, ask children to help to press the button at the pelican crossing, or speak into an intercom to tell somebody you have come back to the setting.
Time
Plan time when children can discuss past events in their lives, such as what they did in the holidays or what happened when they went to have a splinter removed from their hand.
Ask parents to share photographs from home that show things such as a sunflower that their child took home from school in a pot, which has now grown taller than them.
Ensure the full participation of children learning English as an additional language by offering additional visual support and encouraging children to use their home language.
Place
Plan time for visits to the local area.
Provide play maps and small-world equipment for children to create their own environments.
Communities
Plan time to listen to children wanting to talk about significant events and give them time to formulate thoughts and words to express feelings. Provide the support of adults who share languages other than English with children.
Provide ways of preserving memories of special events, for example, making a book, collecting photographs, tape recording, drawing and writing.
Invite children and families with experiences of living in other countries to bring in photographs and objects from their home cultures including those from family members living in different areas of the UK and abroad.
Acknowledgements
Disclaimer
00012-2007CDO-EN