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What is a tinker tray?

Tinker trays are filled with open ended loose part materials that will spark curiosity, problem solving, critical thinking and imaginative play. The objects in the tray can be used in any way the child chooses and there is no set way that they should be used.  It is commonly used in the Reggio Emilia Approach to learning and can be adapted for a range of different ages and stages of development. 

 Materials for a tinker tray

Any tray with compartments can be used to display and store the loose parts to be used in play. I quite like using trays made out of natural materials like wood and seagrass as i always think we can display our materials in a beautiful way in these.

Here are some ideas of what you could use or re-use:

• A cutlery tray insert
• A chocolate box or biscuit box insert
• Bun trays
• Tie box
• Jewellery tray insert
• Desk drawer dividers
• Tool boxes
• Crafting boxes
• Cardboard box - glue in dividers
• Ice cube trays
• A tea bag caddy   

Ideas f...

I love maps and have got quite a collection now at home! As a child my grandparents would also have their maps and travel guides out and I used to be fascinated in looking at them. I would love going on long car journeys and following our route on the AA road map (before the time of Sat navs) and they would always give me such a sense of excitement. These days I love using maps for planning road trips around new places or finding a new Wainwright to walk in the Lake District.

Maps are a great way of creating that sense of Wanderlust in young children and there are many ways we can support this in our homes and learning environment. Perhaps having a world map on the wall with places pinned off that have been visited by someone we know, when visiting a local park with children encourage them to use a map to discover where they would like to go, a collection of maps in a basket in a book corner along with some travel guides and postcards, a globe to explore and lastly going on an adven...

What is a tinker tray?

Tinker trays are filled with open ended loose part materials that will spark curiosity, problem solving, critical thinking and imaginative play. The objects in the tray can be used in any way the child chooses and there is no set way that they should be used.  It is commonly used in the Reggio Emilia Approach to learning and can be adapted for a range of different ages and stages of development. 

Materials for a tinker tray

Any tray with compartments can be used to display and store the loose parts to be used in play. I quite like using trays made out of natural materials like wood and seagrass as i always think we can display our materials in a beautiful way in these. Here are some ideas of what you could use or re-use:

• A cutlery tray insert
• A chocolate box or biscuit box insert
• Bun trays
• Tie box
• Jewellery tray insert
• Desk drawer dividers
• Tool boxes
• Crafting boxes
• Ice cube trays
• A tea bag caddy   

Items ideas for your tinker tray:

We...

Telling stories always gives me that hygge feeling of joy and being cosy. It's also such a lovely way of celebrating coming together and sharing a love for storying!

Here are some of my favourite book recommendations;

• How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
• Four Seasons in One Day by Jessica Courtney- Tickle 
• Lost Words by Jackie Morris
• I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree - A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year: National Trust 
• We're Going On a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
• Little Red Hen

Classic books 

• Not now Bernard 
• Where the wild things are 
• Hansel and Gretel 
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears 
• Gruffalo 
• Bear Hunt 
• Little Red Riding Hood 
• Dear Zoo 
• Mr Gumpys Outing 
• Whatever Next 
• Peace at Last

Ideas to support practice 

• Get outside to story tell 
• Listen to music and move to the story it creates (Four Seasons in One Day) 
• Tell a story with just props 
• Tell a story in the forest 
• Sit around the fire pit with hot chocolate and tell stories from memory...

Easter in Scandinavia is a big celebration involving get togethers and marking the start of Spring. Enjoying family time and feasts. With the warmer weather it's also a good time to take a sunrise hike up a mountain and enjoy the fantastic views. 

The egg is a symbol of Easter in Norway and the traditional decorated chicken eggs have now been replaced with those filled with sweet treats. A big Easter Sunday breakfast is usually followed by an egg hunt outside. 

I managed to pick up these beautiful Scandinavian metal painted eggs by Maileg. I love that these are re-fillable and also add a whimsical storytelling twist for the celebration. They can be filled with sweet treats for a fun easter egg hunt. 

We also like to set up Easter Egg hunts with less sugary treats inside too! I thought you might like to see my list of ideas for the Wanderlust Child;

19 non-sugar ideas for filling an Easter Egg:

• Rubber Stampers
• Stickers
• Magnifying Glass
• Finger Paints
• Shells
• Rocks
• Little no
...

We can all feel a little bit stuck at times and wonder why learning isn't happening for our children. Perhaps your environment feels chaotic and your children just flit from one area to another. Or perhaps nothing you put out seems to create high levels of interest and involvement. You're going round in circles setting up provocations around an interest you think a child has but it just doesn't grab them. Worse still you feel the only play going on is destructive and the children are not getting anything from it. 

Sometimes you just need an opportunity to stand back and evaluate what's happening with some handy tips to move learning on.

One of the wonderful approaches to life that the Scandinavians tend to have is turning a negative into a positive. For example if its dark and cold outside they can think well what opportunity does that give me? It gives me some quiet time to get cosy and read a book by the fire.

We can take this approach when it comes to considering behaviour too. I...

You’ve noticed that you have a child that loves to build towers in the Duplo and enjoys making the train track. They’ve loved taking the wheels off the toy tractor they got as a present.

You recognise that this is the connecting schema and you go about offering more opportunities to explore this inside.

But what about when you’re outside?

Well I have 4 whole booklets and a course to share with you how to support play and schemas throughout the year in nature but here are just a few ideas for you today:

- Building a tower of pebbles at the beach
- Making snowballs and stacking them one on top of another
- Using Wiki sticks or string to temporarily join the trees together
- Creating a journey stick
- Working with Teifoc bricks in the sand outside
- Creating toy zip lines between the trees
- Building a bridge to get across a puddle or stream
- Building a structure to rescue a Teddy stuck up a tree
- Making leaf kebabs or using kebab food stones for threading with a stick

Don’t forget to check out my W...

Guest Post by Abbie Moore

Happy Valentine's Day! We absolutely love celebrating valentine's day at Scallywags, as we get to celebrate and share LOVE!

At Scallywags, we love all of our families and staff very much! 

The term ‘professional love’ was coined by Dr Jools Page, who conducted a research project in 2012, talking to Early Years professionals across England, to research the impact of media coverage around scandals on the relationships with children and early years professionals.

The research aimed to understand how professionals felt about ‘loving’ children in a professional capacity.

I’ve seen many debates over the years about where the line is drawn when it comes to the love and affection, which we show the children in our care. One of the most discussed questions on this topic is how staff should respond when a child says, ‘I love you’.

Should the word love be used between early years practitioners and children and ultimately, should practitioners tell a child ‘I love y...

When I was a new parent I had many lovely members ask about the resources and play ideas I have found most useful in my journey with my baby. In this blog post I share the start of my journey and some of the recommendations I have. None of the products shared are advertisements and I'm not linked to any of the brands in any way.

Tummy time roll

Mirrors

Black and white burp cloths

 

An early years environment for this age range is very different from what is offered for 3 and 4 year olds. 

We need to question ourselves... What do we want our open-ended learning environment to look like for our under 2's? 

Do our children need the latest messy play activity to compete with social media? 

OR 

Do we need to provide a calm, enabling, cosy, and homely provision for our littlest of people, filled with warm and welcoming practitioners, who have the time to meet their needs and be there for them and their families.

 Within our baby room provision, we demonstrate the introduction of recycled materials, authentic resources and how we step away from purchasing items from ‘catalogues’ and one-purpose Early Years age and stage equipment. 

We have set up cosy spaces with books, puppets, soft furnishings and fairy lights, for the children to explore within a safe and secure, calm environment.

We also allow children to use large scale items and smaller loose parts, ...