NurtureStore

Have you ever tried writing poetry with children? So far this summer the Sunflower Club has inspired us with measurement, science, art, numbers and biology and today we’re tried out some poems about sunflowers.

We had a go with two different prompts. The first was to take each letter of the word ‘sunflower’ and see if we could find another word beginning with that letter which suited our flowers. This worked well for my 7 year old but didn’t click with my four year old.

For the second prompt we used some starter sentences to brainstorm ideas. For example…

A sunflower is….

The sunflower’s colour is…

A sunflower is tall like…

The petals are like…

We then took the ‘answers’ and combined them to make our poem.  Here’s what we came up with – what do you think?

Sunshine

Up to the sky

Nodding

Fiery

Lovely

Over our heads

Wonderful

Extremely tall

Radiant

*****************************

Bright, beautiful, radiant colour

Like a lion’s mane

Tall as a mountain, up to the sky

Happy and sunny and radiant

And don’t forget you are invitied to our Sunflower Club linky party on August 25th. If you have been growing sunflowers or doing any sunflower activities over the summer please come and share your ideas with us. Whether you’ve a tip for planting, advice for growing giants, sunflower pictures or crafts, please come and link up with us.

Happily shared with…

We made these fairytale fridge magnets today and they’ve proved to be a big hit. Fairytales are such an important part of childhood, helping children explore emotions and think about experiences in the big wide world from the safe and secure environment of home. Getting the children to do the storytelling themselves is a great way for them to practise their language and use their creativity as they adapt the story and give it their own personal twists. Using traditional characters is a good way to hook them into the story telling – but soon you’ll find them making up adventures of their own.

We went with The Gingerbread Man today – but as the magnets are very easy to make you can put together several sets so you can play with them time and time again.

All you need is: some card, some small magnets (we bought ours from eBay), pens and pencils, scissors and some strong glue.

Draw your your characters, cut them out and pop a magnet on the back. Easy-peasy!

As soon as the glue is dry you can put them on the fridge and start telling your stories.

(P.S. It’s a great way to keep them entertained while you’re getting dinner ready.)

Happily shared with…

Preschool Corner

A Vision to Remember

Alongside learning how to read, write your own name and tie up your shoes laces, learning how to understand and deal with your emotions is an equally important part of early learning. If we hope to raise happy, reasonable and persevering children we should spend time nurturing their emotional well-being as well as counting, baking and making crafts with them.

One way we try to do this is by using books. There are lots of books which feature characters coping with lots of different emotions: happiness, sadness, nerves, fear, jealousy – and you can find a selection show below. But how about making a book about your own child to really capture their interest and give you the perfect opportunity to talk about how they feel?

The You Tube clip above shows a book we made for Little and retells her battle with frustration and shows how bouncing back from defeat can lead to success! Why don’t you make one for your child? Sit with them as they tackle a challenge and create your own photo story.

Or how about creating a book of the many faces of your child? Put together a selection of photos showing times when they were laughing, cross, tired or giggling. Add a word to describe each photo and read it together. This will open up lots of converation about different feelings. I’m certain you’ll find kids just love reading books in which they are the central character.

This post is happily shared with the writing workshop at Sleep is for the Weak and the photo gallery at Sticky Fingers and ABC and 123

A quick post tonight with an fun idea for a game we’ve been playing today all about rhymes.

Understanding the different parts of our language is important for children as they develop their own speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, and one of the parts of language is of course rhyme. It’s not necessarily something which young children understand easily. Pre-schoolers often think words which start with the same sound (walk and whistle) rhyme, instead of understanding that it’s the final sound of the word which they need to listen out for (as in walk and talk).

Little is switching on to rhymes now and will sometimes stop after she’s said something and say ‘hey, that rhymes!’. We’ve also been having fun thinking of rhyme chains, starting with a word and linking lots of rhymes. (bing, ping, wing, ling, sing, jing, ding…)

Building on this, and to have some more fun, we’ve been playing a game inventing couplets along the lines of…

I don’t like Mr. Melly, he’s too smelly.

I don’t like Mrs. Porty, she’s really naughty.

At first we had to think of the describing work first (smelly) and then have Little invent the rhyming name to go with it, as she found it too hard the other way round, where she had to think of the correct, specific adjective that could match.

Of course, using ‘rude’ words really appeals to a three year old.

We don’t like Mr. Blinky, he’s too stinky.

And as for Mrs. Fooey…….!

I love child-led learning. When I’m helping a child learn a new skill I try to put them and their interests at the centre of any activity. Little is starting to be very interested in letters and writing and I’m always looking for ways to encourage her to explore these ideas. So when she discovered this beautiful green caterpillar in the garden we used it as a springboard to play.

She was wondering where the caterpillar’s head was and we were talking about the spiral shape it had made as it curled up. We grabbed some outdoor chalks and tried to copy the shape ourselves. It’s great for children to try making all sorts of marks – not just using paper and pencil, and not straightaway trying to write letters.

Then we talked about the word caterpillar and what sound came at the beginning – which lead us on to writing a ‘c’.

And also inspired the next letter for our touchy-feely alphabet: c is for caterpillar.

This week why not get some chalks and see what shapes you can make?

It’s always exciting when a delivery arrives in a great big box. Who cares what’s inside, the big questions is: what shall we make with the box? Over to Big this time, who straightaway said, ‘Let’s turn it into a Story Box’. Her inspiration came from the character Pinky Dinky Doo (attention: this link is noisy!) who has her own cardboard story box where she draws pictures which come to life to tell her stories.

I think this is a wonderful idea to get children creating stories of their own, developing language skills as they play with characters and settings.  It’s also good to use drawing in a different way – on the walls and roof of your house. And writing on a vertical (or even overhead) surface is very effective in developing wrist strength and pencil grip, getting ready for writing.

To make your own story tent you will need:

a big box – ours is big enough for both girls to fit in to together and sit upright comfortably. (If you’re not expecting any deliveries of your own, your local removal company or white goods store are places you might source a big box.)

a craft knife – to cut out some windows to let light into the box so you can see what you’re drawing. And apparently, rectangular windows are boring, so you might like our star-shaped ones.

felt pens – to get drawing and telling stories with. Whatever you like – let your imagination go free! And you can come back again and again to add more characters and make the next installment of your adventure, until every surface of your story box is full.

You might like to add in some cushions and a blanket to make your story box as comfortable as can be.

My girls are really enjoying this play den – inside together, in their own space, lying on their backs, collaborating over a story as they draw it out on the ceiling. Why not give it a try with your children? I’d love to hear what stories they come up with.

Any if you’re looking for other ways to use a cardboard box you might like our play house or ride-on train too.

For lots more play ideas: Come over and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up or visit the ABC and 123 Show and Tell Blog Hop

We’ve been playing I-spy Letters today as we were out and about in the neighbourhood. We were hunting for the lettert ‘R’, which happens to be the initial of Little’s best friend, but of course you can choose whichever letter you like: think about what stage your child is at with letter recognition and play the game accordingly.

Young children might just be able to spot the first letter of their name. Older children can be set the challenge of spotting each letter in alphabetical order.   If you have more than one child you can even make this a competition to see who can find all the letters of their name first. Aside from helping children to actually recognise letters, this game helps them to sort through an assortment of information to home in on what they’re searching for. It shows them that letters have a real purpose, as you can talk about what all the writing is telling passers-by. It’s also good for them to see words written all sorts of different fonts and in both upper and lower case.

Somedays the school run can be fun, other days it can be a chore, so it’s handy to have a few games ready to use if the kids need to be chivvied on a little. What games do you play?

For other ‘out and about’ ideas you might like:

Make Your Own Street Map

My 6 year old has been off sick today and we’ve been playing hangman to pass the time and keep her mind off her poorly tummy. Do you remember playing this as a child? If not you can read a guide on the rules here. It’s a good game to practice the alphabet and spelling.  Some tips for playing with children:

1. Obviously use words that they know. The idea to start with is to get their brain working and thinking of possible words – you’re not trying to beat them!

2. Write out the alphabet on the paper to help them out. If they get stuck help them to go through the alphabet trying out each letter for a possible match.

3. We identified the vowels by using a dot rather than a dash for them. For example ‘CAT’ would be _ . _ rather than _ _ _

4. If they’re really stuck and getting frustrated, give them a clue (e.g. this word might say ‘meow’). You’re aiming for a enjoyable game to get them playing with letters – not giving up because it’s too hard and no  fun.

5. You might want to re-think using a hangman picture – you could use a face instead.

6. Take turns guessing the word and let them catch you out sometimes.

Singing is good for your mind, body and spirit. It helps to nurture language skills:  the patterns of traditional nursery rhymes follow the rhythm of  the spoken language, and songs let you practice new vocabulary and introduce the concept of rhyme. You are also exercising your memory by recalling lyrics. Group singing lifts your spirits and develops a sense of community and team work. It’s physically good for you too: it releases endorphins, and can improve your posture and breathing. It’s even working on your maths skills as you deal with concepts related to rhythm such as ratios and fractions.

So with all these benefits we should be singing with our children every day!

To get you started why not make a song bag? Choose your bag and fill it with props that link to your favourite songs. (You’re bound to have some around the house already, but keep an eye out for them in charity shops too). Then take it in turns to pick something out – and sing about it!

can you sing a song about a.......?

This is what we’ve got in ours:

a sun hat – I’m a Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

a star shaped cookie cutter – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

a spider – Incy Wincy Spider

a doll – Miss Polly had a Dolly

a cow – Hey Diddle Diddle or Old MacDonald Had a Farm

a rubber duck – Three Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day

a fish  – 12345 Once I Caught a Fish Alive or Thou Shall Have a Fishy

a dolphin – Slippery Dolphins

a dog – How Much is that Doggy in the Window

a horse – This is the Way The Ladies Ride or Horsey Horsey Don’t You Stop

a monkey – Three Cheeky Monkeys Swinging Through the Trees / Bouncing on the Bed

a pig – This Little Piggy Went to Market

We’re currently on the look out for a (the wheels on the ) bus to add to our collection.

My children love using our song bag – it’s one of their most frequent requests. They also love subverting the lyrics of the songs – to see how silly they can be. You might also like to have a look at the Sing Up website which is packed full of information about singing, including a song bank full of songs to listen to, learn and sing along to.

A quick and simple game to play to boost your child’s language and get them moving.

Ask you child if they can tell you an animal which flutters? And can they move like one too?

What about an animal that wiggles…swims…flies…dives…stomps…jumps…shuffles…bounces…slithers…stalks…pounces…gallops?

After you’ve played the game a few times and your child has been using the new words you can extend the game by getting them to ask you the questions.