Blog

“Strive to make everyday the best day of your life, because there is no good reason not to.” Hal Elrod

The Magic of Christmas

Nov 20, 2019

I remember Christmas as a trainee teacher working in a reception class. I thought to myself where is the fun, the enjoyment.. the magic?!

We were just in a conveyor belt of Christmas making activities! I wasn’t even sure that the children understood what they were making and why?!

We missed opportunities to discuss with the children the wonderful experiences they had at home of putting their tree up, family celebrations and going to visit Father Christmas in his grotto.

Christmas is such a busy time that it doesn’t always offer children the chance to slow down, observe, reflect and question. The freedom to look and listen and ask questions.

It can be a time when we forget all the high quality practice we usually do as we squeeze so much into one day. I urge you to try and slow things down a little this Christmas. Give time to igniting the senses, sharing favourite books with a hot chocolate and opportunities to just play!

Who’s with me?

Slow down your Christmas with some suppor

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A Hygge Christmas!

Oct 31, 2019

Christmas is such an exciting and wonderful time of year, but it can also become over whelming on the senses if we are not careful. Jane (Environmentasthe3rdteacher), an Early Educator in Australia, shares with us how she sets up a calm environment in her school while also ensuring the fun of the festive season.

You may think I’m a little strange but I have never really been one for traditional Christmas colours or the typical tinsel tree both in my home (much to my own children's dismay) and in my Pre Primary class. I prefer like in many of my set ups, natural products. When it comes to a Christmas tree often it involves a branch or driftwood with seed pods, twig stars and fairy lights. This year in my classroom I decided to set up a little Christmas area separated from the rest of my room by draping organza from the ceiling with twinkle lights woven through and
around.

I wanted to have a few different choices here including a sensory table which will change weekly i.e. fake snow etc...

Live a Simple Life

Jun 20, 2019

Purchase what will bring you great happiness in the future.

Sometimes we can get a little lost along our track in life and we can benefit from a little reminder every now and again on what’s important for us.

Living a simple life is what the Danes pride themselves on. Nothing complicated, slowing down the pace and being present.

When it comes to spending their money the same applies. Danes will carefully plan their purchases and put thought into the ways they spend. it’s not about how much money they make and showing off but actually about how they spend the money to invest in That’s why you won’t see lots of new cars driving around Denmark or designer handbags on show. For them experiences mean more as they make you feel alive and bring you together. memories and experiences.

For example a holiday with the family would cost a lot of money but think of all the wonderful times together and the memories created will last a life time. How...

Creating a Hygge Staffroom

Jun 11, 2019

We spend long periods of our days at work and during our downtime in the day it’s important that we have a space to relax, come together and recharge our batteries.

Here are my top tips on how you can bring that hygge feeling into your staffroom.

Consider seating; offering sofas to sit on that are a bit more comfy
A dining table to invite staff to come together over lunch
Lovely homely place mats
Plants
Photos in frames of things you’ve done together as a team (Parties, local walks, summer bbqs)
Soft warm lighting from lamps
Flowers in a vase on the table
A selection of teas and coffees
Fruit basket
Soft furnishings; cushions, throws
Lending library of books
Homely accessories- wicker hearts
Room spray
Declutter the space and organise
Fairy lights
Garlands (e.g felted leaves)
Calming colours whites and greys mixed in with some warmer yellows.
Consider how you migh...

How much planning should I do?

May 09, 2019

This is a question that I often asked myself!

Lets go back in time to when I first started teaching...

Each half term we would have a different topic to focus our learning on (Transport, fairy tales or as these photos showed-Celebrations). Every week within the half term the main topic would be broken down into a weeks mini topic (e.g Chinese New Year).

Every Friday I would stay at school till 6:30pm setting up my provision so that it was ready for the following week. This would involve dressing up each area of learning around that theme. Prior to that my week day evenings had been taken up preparing for this Friday dressing by printing, laminating, double backing images and sourcing resources to support each area. Gosh it was exhausting!

On Mondays when the children went into the provision I would always feel disappointed that they weren't using it in the way I had planned for. At times levels of engagement were low or children would ask me where the lego was (We had it out the we...