Autumn Planning

As well as settling our children into the new Autumn term and carrying out activities based on All About Me we use our assessment information from our summer term to inform our planning. Each term we assess all our children using the Early Years Foundation Stage Booklet. The areas where the children may not have achieved become our focus for planning over the following term. This Autumn our focus aspects are Moving and Handling, Managing Feelings and Behaviour and Speaking.

Parents can help to support their children in these areas at home too. For further advise on these areas please speak to Amanda.

Helping your child to develop their moving and handling skills

 

To encourage children to be physically active, and to help them learn how to use tools and materials, they need

lots of opportunities to:

●●move around and make big movements using their arms, legs and whole bodies

●●handle smaller objects to help develop their small muscle control.

 

You could use the ideas below as starting points to help you to do this.

 

Two- to three-year-olds

 

●●Dancing is a great way to develop coordination skills.

●● Read a story together and act out what is happening – this is also a good way to develop imagination and

creativity.

●●Poking and pinching playdough or clay helps to strengthen the fingers, hand and wrist.

●● Jigsaw puzzles and toys that fit together are good ways to develop hand control.

●●Threading things – pasta shapes, buttons or large beads – encourages fine finger movements.

●● Helping with simple chores around the home such as sweeping, tidying up toys, and lifting things develops and

strengthens muscles.

●●Play throwing and catching games that involve big arm movements strengthen shoulder and arm muscles.

Four- to five-year-olds

 

●●Help your child to learn how to use simple tools such as scissors – practice makes perfect.

●●Helping with household tasks such as setting the table builds coordination and control.

●●Draw outdoors with chalks or make patterns in the mud with a stick.

●●Use a squeezy bottle filled with water to shoot at a target or knock down a skittle.

●●Make a place to dig outside where children can develop muscle control and coordination.

●●Bikes and scooters are an exciting way to get lots of vigorous exercise.

●●Try to make sure your child is physically active for at least three hours every day.

Helping your child to manage their feelings and behaviour

 

To help your child learn how to manage their feelings and behaviour you will need to provide lots of

opportunities for them to:

●●develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings

●●understand how to behave as a member of a group.

 

You could use the ideas below as starting points to help you do this.

 

Two- to three-year-olds

 

●●Be consistent in your approach so your child can understand what is expected of her in different situations.

●●As far as possible, persuade other family members to follow the same approach.

●●Find out if your early years setting has any useful ideas about managing behaviour that you could use.

●● I f your child has a tantrum, try to stay calm. Your child may feel frightened and they need to see that you are in

control.

●●Use words to express feelings so your child can learn how to put her feelings into words.

●●When your child plays with other children she will be learning how to be part of a group.

●● Children learn how to control their emotions as they grow older so have high expectations, but don’t expect

the impossible.

 

Four- to five-year-olds

 

●●Help your child to talk about what makes her happy, sad, angry or upset.

●●Remember, children learn best when they feel comfortable, safe and secure.

●●Being tired, hungry, thirsty or bored may have an effect on your child’s behaviour.

●●Be consistent in how you respond to your child’s behaviour.

●●Value your child as an individual but help her to learn the social skills she needs to get on well with others.

●●Make sure your child gets enough sleep to recharge his physical and emotional batteries.

●●Have high expectations, but remember we can’t all be perfect all the time.

Helping your child to develop their speaking and listening skills

 

There are lots of easy ways you can help your child to learn how to listen and pay attention. These will all help

them to build up the skills they require to talk about what they need, how they are feeling, and what they are

interested in.

 

You could use the ideas below as starting points to help you do this.

 

Two- to three-year-olds

 

●●When your child says something, try repeating it back with a little bit of extra information.

●●Read stories together, or try making up your own stories about people and places he knows.

●●Help your child to join in conversations with the rest of the family.

●● Try to be patient and give him enough time to say what he wants to say.

●●When you are out and about, point out interesting things and name them.

●● Listen to what your child has to say so he knows it is worth making the effort to speak.

●●Sing nursery rhymes and songs together. You could include actions to make it more exciting.

 

Four- to five-year-olds

 

●●Read stories together and talk about what is happening.

●●Dressing up and pretending to be someone else is a great opportunity to make up and tell stories.

●●Playing with toy animals, cars or people encourages children to make up and tell stories.

●● Talk together about things that happened yesterday and things you might do tomorrow.

●●When someone speaks to your child, let her answer for herself and don’t speak for her.

●●Encourage your child to be curious and to ask questions about what she sees, hears and thinks.

●● Try to respond when your child asks lots of questions, even if it gets a bit wearing!