Buttercups Home Learning Opportunities

Hello to our lovely Buttercups and their families. During these unprecedented times, we would like to share some activities that you can do at home with your child so they are receiving the best education possible. We hope you and your child enjoy the activities and have lots of fun doing them! They are linked to the seven areas of the Early Years Curriculum which we follow at nursery. All the best, take care and we hope to see you all soon 😊

Miss Butler and Miss Cole

Personal, Social and Emotional

This includes a lot of pretend play, so if possible, you could set up a shop or kitchen and allow children to role play. Follow their lead and play along with them. This is also a great chance to allow bonding time with your child and gives opportunities to develop their language skills.

• Kitchen/shop role play                                          
• Cars/garages/Trains
• Small world (toy figures)  
• Play with dolls                                                       

Mathematics

Our Buttercups are fantastic at learning their numbers and doing some counting so try to encourage counting toys up to 5 at a time. If you have a garden or yard, you could even count the flowers! Allow your children to build towers, create structures with items such as Lego and play with their puzzles. This helps them to understand shape and helps them with their matching skills.

Ideas  

• Singing number songs (5 little monkeys jumping on the bed)
• Counting toys
• Using toys to identify which are big and which are small
• Water play-filling jugs with water and emptying them (if possible)

Literacy

The children in Buttercups love story time and are brilliant at listening to them and joining in with some of the words. Reading books with your child allows for some relaxing, down time and helps to encourage speech. Ask your child what they can see on the front cover, identifying any animals or colours. You can also ask them to repeat any simple words they may come across. Repetition is great for helping children to learn certain words so if they have a favourite story, you could read it a few times to help them take it in.

Ideas

• Reading stories
• Story Time on CBeebies
• Watching story videos on You Tube such as ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ or ‘The Gruffalo.’
• Using a teddy bear to act out the story or say some of the words

Understanding the World

This part of the curriculum is all about discovering the world around us, how things work, understanding families and children learning about themselves. Activities for this include allowing children to explore objects such as musical instruments (shakers etc) and playing with technology toys (toys with lights, sounds and buttons.)

Ideas

• Sharing photos of yourself and your family and allowing children to identify the people in the picture
• Showing children photographs of themselves
• Allowing play with technology toys
• Collecting some twigs/leaves etc to build a pretend bird’s nest together and allowing them to explore the objects

Communication and Language

We encourage lots of song time at Nursery. The children love to join in with the words and actions. Try and allow your child to choose their own song and sing along with them. ‘Roly Poly’ is one of Buttercups’ favourites. If you are tidying away toys etc ask them to see if they know where a certain toy goes and if they can return it to its place. Encourage talking with your child, whether it be during play or out on a walk. This will really help your child to develop their understanding and speech.

Ideas

• Whilst out on a walk ask questions such as “Where are the birds?” and “What can you see?”
• Sing songs such as ‘Two little dickie birds’ or ‘The Wheels on the bus.’
• CBeebies story time
• CBeebies watch and sing

Physical Development

This section is all about getting your child moving! Allow them to play in the garden, run off some of that energy and play with balls etc. See if they can pass the ball to you or kick it around the garden/yard. They can also have a go at riding their early learning bikes (if they have one.) Encourage them to draw and make marks using pencils as this will help them with their pencil grip and encourage creativity.

Ideas

• Ball games (passing the ball back and forth)
• Try different ways of moving, jumping, skipping or side stepping
• Setting up a small obstacle course

Expressive Arts and Design

This is where you and your child can really get creative! Painting, drawing and making collages are great fun for the both of you. Dancing and singing to your favourite songs would be excellent to help your child develop movement and will help them to express themselves. Encourage them to clap their hands or copy some of your movements.

Ideas

• You tube videos-‘Shake your sillies out,’ ‘One Little Finger’ and ‘The skeleton Song.’
• Toys in Paint to make prints e.g. encourage rolling car wheels in paint, the bottoms of small toys can create some lovely shapes too.
• Make a nature picture

Routine for the Day

9.00-9.30                     Joe Wick’s PE video/Jumpstart Jonny on You Tube

9.30-9.45                     Story Time

9.45-10.30                   Maths activity and play

11.00-12.00                  Creative activity

12.00-1.00                   Lunch time

1.00-2.00                     Literacy activity and play

2.00-3.00                     Outdoors time

3.00-3.30                     Music/dancing