Monday 20 March 2014

Hi again,

It is Sunday evening and I am putting together my plan for tomorrow, which is to all intents and purposes our End of Term Halloween party.  We have finished the first segment of phonic sounds 'satpin' and therefore I will be handing out certificates to celebrate our first part of the phonics journey.  There is a chance it will be a wet one, but as always mini-rangers dress for the weather we don't stay in!!!

So let us look back over our glorious half term of mini rangers, it has been fantastic.  At our high point we had 70 bodies in our little area and have regularly been seeing eager mini rangers no matter the weather.  We have had the most amazing September/October weather wise as you will see from these fantastic pictures to remind us of our first half term:

snake in the box, can you see that lovely dry ground!!!
Following this we had apples, ants and Alice!!!
 A teddy bears picnic with twigs, tennis on the lawn, toast that was really home made bread and butter and a tidy area... that led to the puppy pic nic, some putting a snack of pears and pineapples.  We've had insects and ink made of mud. Then finally we have had our week of 'n' remember our nests, I think some people have still to collect theirs.

So we have covered the sounds of 'satpin' and this week we will be presenting you with a certificate to commemorate your time with us and to remind you all that we have used lots of physical ideas to convey our sound and we have read books to repeat that sound.   

Anne Meade, in her work One Hundred Billion Neurons: How do they become organised? (2001) considered the connection between play and brain development Her study found that play gives children vital opportunities to lay down implicit memories of skills, dispositions and schemas. Our efforts to teach phonic sounds through active physical play takes into consideration children's need to repeat and to actively experience sounds, smells, and touch to make the vital connections with the phonic sounds that we want them to remember.

I have spent Saturday morning at a Creative Minds conference and in this we discussed the importance of children's schemas on their approach to learning and retaining different information.  I am always interested in how your children are approaching the learning and would like to ask you to answer the following questions:

Have you noticed your child repeating any of the sounds we have talked about?

If yes in what situation?

Have you been reminded to mention the sounds when you see them out and about?

Do you have a street sign that you and your child have looked at a little more closely?

Have you repeated any of the activities at home to remind your child of the sounds that they have heard?

I really appreciate your input and hope that we can continue  even as the weather gets colder and a bit damper.

Thank you again for your continued support

Melanie Commins,  EYTS

'n' for November on the 13th of October!!!!!!

The jolly phonics action for this sound is to 'make noise, as if a plane - hold arms out and say nnnnnnnnnnn.'  The sound 'n' appears in words such as neck, nip, hand and man.

So for our group this means.....

We will be making a nest!  It cold be a tiny nest for a little baby fluffy bird, or a enormous nest for a dinosaur, can you find anything to use as an egg[s].  

We are going to collect sticks, grasses, mud perhaps some moss,lichens, feathers, fluffy seed heads, sheeps wool????   Then we are going to use some mud or clay to weave our twigs or sticks together to make the base of our nest and then use all our softer materials to line the nest with. We can then hide our nests in the hedges or takes them home with us and make them safe from predators.

We will then read our story called Rollo and Ruff and the little fluffy bird by Michael Inkpen.  Which is all about making a comfy place to sleep for a little friend.

I am also going to be asking the children to act out the 'little nut tree rhyme'

Maybe you could practice before Monday here goes:

Nut Tree

small brown, hard, round
The nut is lying underground
Now a shoot begins to show
Now the shoot begins to grow
Tall, taller, tall as can be
The shoot is growing into a tree
and branches grow and stretch and spread
with twigs and leaves above your head.
And on a windy autumn day
The nut tree bends, the branches sway.
The leaves fly off and whirl around
and nuts go tumbling to the ground
small, brown, hard, round.

by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt

I am working on getting us some big tubs to use for our mud kitchen, but until then we are exploring the mole hills and collecting seeds, leaves, twigs etc to cook up in our saucepans and make some fantastic mud pies.  I realise this is away from 'n', but hey ho!!!!

As well as the usual coffee, juice and biscuits there will be chocolate nests made by Helen and Nuts bought in by me!!!

Looking forward to seeing you this Monday

Melanie Commins, EYTS

Reflection of the Rainy Mini Rangers Monday 6th October 2014

The first of the wintry weather found the Etherow Park's Mini Rangers this week.  It was windy, rainy and quite cold, so we made plans to batten down the hatches and see what we could make of it. I set off from home quite excited really because I knew that all my plans would change and the weather would make an impact on the children that I could never plan for.  You see novel experiences are the most memorable learning journies any of us have and this was the first day of this type wintery weather in a long time, so I knew we had to capitalise on it!

To add to this Pure Innovations website manager came down to take photos and interview everyone that would turn up, I was a little afraid it would just be Neil, myself and volunteer Marina!  It wasn't and we had a lovely time as depicted on the Pure Innovation website:

http://www.pureinnovations.co.uk/etherow-park-mini-rangers-volunteer/

I really enjoyed the mud ink that was created and I was interested to see how studious the children were in muddying up their boots and then jumping on to the pallet to carefully print on the sheet we had placed there.  We added a drum beat and the footprints became dancing prints and the end result is on the Pure website!

Despite the weather Neil set up an insect making section, where children were encouraged to paint pine cones, stick leaves together and all sorts of other constructive, fantasy type of play was going on. It is a shame the Gazebo didn't work as the wind really was too strong for the Gazebo to last, but luckily the wind seemed to take the rain away and we were left with the damp, grey remnants of the rain.

We then sat in our circle and looked at the interesting objects in our sounds box.  The children really enjoyed the instruments and when we were reading our itchy bear story they shook their instruments every time I said the word 'itchy'.

Due to the cold I completely forgot to show the fantastic presentation Helen had made to support her beautiful fairy cakes.  So while the children cued up for snacks I showed them the ingredients that had gone into making the cakes.  I was so impressed that the children that I childmind will be doing a similar activity soon!

I would love to hear how you felt the children did in the cold and the rain?  I know Maddie came away with a smile on her face as did Marina, Neil and I!!  Please let me know how you coped!

Look out for next October 13th's plan!

Melanie Commins, EYTS

Monday 6th, October, 2014 - Phonic Sound 'i'

It is that time of the week again and we are thinking about the next sound in our phonics journey.  This week we are introducing the sound 'i' not to be confused with its partner eye!  We are talking about itchy, igloo's, ink, ingredients and insects.  So this is how I am proposing to approach the sound....

I have found a great book 'itchy bear' by Neil Griffiths, I think that we can all relate to an itchy bear.

This week we have volunteers a plenty with Tracey-Anne volunteering to provide us with our natural ink activity.  She is going to be helping you and your child to whittle a twig with a potato peeler and use natural ink to create lovely art on the bits of cloth we will provide.  Natural ink can be made from the natural supplies we have in the surrounding area.  If you can find any blackberries left we could make purple, any part of an oak we can make brown, nettle tops make yellow (please bring some gardening gloves if you have any!) sweet chestnut twigs make a brown ink as do conkers and elder berries give lovely blues and purples. Or we can mix a little mud in a bowl with water and that makes a nice deep brown ink.

Another idea is hammering leaves, this will need to be supported by yourself as I feel that we could have a few hurt thumbs if we leave it to the children alone!!!

I think finding a snack beginning with 'i' is going to lead to us taking artistic licence.  Helen Hurren is going to be making us some fairy cakes so that we can talk about the 'i'ngredients used to go in the cake.     I am going to try to make some 'i'njera bread, which is an Ethiopian bread suggested by Annabel Bradbury that consists of water, flour and a pinch of salt.  Paul Taylor has said that he is going to man the BBQ this week so we should be able to cook them fresh.  I think they are a little like pancakes, obviously if there is anyone more experienced at this please help.  

We will of course be providing our usual coffee, juice and biscuits, but you may need to bring any other refreshments your child may require during our time in the wild!

Jo Frost has offered to build us an 'i'gloo using our willow twigs and a sheet, I think she could use some young assistants to make this.

Marina will be assisting with the administrative tasks of taking the register and collecting the funds. This is going very well and we are hoping to connect with the friends of Etherow at some point to ask for their advice on how to spend the money we are raising in order to improve our little area.  

Neil is going to be making insects from leaves, pine cones and berries.  

We look forward to seeing the return of Ranger Steve, but last week he was called away on urgent business in rural Wales, so hopefully he has returned safe and sound and back to our little group.

I would like to thank every one who has attended Mini Rangers, I was so excited last week to see so many interested and happy faces.  The children all seem really engaged and eager to meet the challenges set up for them.

In our circle time this week I will be introducing a few instruments.  I will bring all the instruments that I have, but I feel that it won't be enough, so if you could bring an instrument with you that would be brilliant.

As always looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.  

Melanie Commins
EYTS