Nursery Parent Workshop Wednesday 22nd February

Aims of the workshops Provide you with information about what your child is learning at nursery To help you support your child with their learning at home Answer any questions you have about how we teach in the Early Years Foundation Stage What else would you like covered?

“One of the best things you can do with young children is to have interesting and enjoyable conversations with them.” Michael Rosen

Communication is key! Vocabulary at age 5 is a powerful predictor of GCSE achievement If you haven’t heard the words, you can’t speak or understand or later read or write the words

What makes a good conversation? Think back to a good conversation you have had with someone recently. Share what made the conversation good for you. List some words that come to mind when you think about that interaction. Consider what you learned during that conversation.

Successful conversations are… Respectful: Get down to the child’s level, make eye contact as you talk and treat them as an equal partner in the conversation, developing and exploring ideas together, however simply. Enriching: Add new information to extend children’s language, knowledge and understanding and don’t be afraid to help children overcome barriers they come across in their learning Warm: Ensure your face and body language shows how you value and care about what children have to say. Try not to rush their talk or their responses. Allow time for fun, playful and thoughtful interactions. Responsive: Practise active listening and respond thoughtfully, validating what children say and building on children’s previous utterances. Developmentally appropriate: Simplify your language or add language according to the needs of the child. Build up their sentences by repeating what they say and adding words. Where children make errors in their language acknowledge what they have said and recast it back to them in the correct way. Don’t expect them to repeat this. Nurturing: of children’s imagination and creativity. Provide children with rich and exciting experiences, rooted in play, language and practical experience, which provoke them to think critically and creatively. Genuine: Ask fewer questions, especially where you already know the answer and use more statements e.g. “I wonder…”

Children who speak English as an additional language Keep speaking to your child in your home language Songs, rhymes and stories are a key way of supporting your child’s learning of English Practical learning experiences and playing alongside other children are two of the best ways to learn a new language There is no evidence to suggest that bilingualism will delay the development of speech and language skills

This week in nursery Children are listening to and joining in with the story of the Gingerbread Man. Children will be encouraged to join in with the refrain: “Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man!” When retelling the story the teacher will be using words such as “first’’, “then”, “next”, “last”

This week in nursery They will also be counting the Gingerbread Man’s buttons. Children will count up to 5 buttons on different gingerbread men. They will be encouraged to match the number to the numeral – again up to 5. When counting, the children should touch each button once and count in a line. It is important to emphasis the last number is the number that is in the set.

Ideas for home Share the story – There are some good videos on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U89dkGrsYZY Bake some gingerbread men – add Smarties for buttons and eyes. Count them together with your child. Read or tell your child some traditional stories from your culture / in your home language