Monday 6 July 2015

Nature watch can you find?

       Stinging nettles
       Wild honeysuckle
       a Caterpillar on a leaf
       dropped feathers from birds moulting
       Flying ants

This week our giddy Ranger Steve is setting up an assault course (from his time in the military!) .
Conversations involve one person speaking while the other listens, and then the other person speaking, while the first listens.  Any game that involves taking turns helps to develop this skill:
There will be only one of each obstacle, we will listen while Ranger Steve explains how to move over or under the obstacle, then we will get the chance to try this one at a time.  

During snack time we take turns in approaching the lovely Marina who has sourced some lush blueberries for snack time. Marina will say 'your turn' and then offer us a small cup of blueberries we can either respond 'yes please' or 'no thank you' (or I prefer biscuits don't you know!)

We will be reading 'Oi Frog'  for this we will talk about the character of the frog and develop an action and sound that the children can join in with.  I will then emphasise the name of the character each time he is mentioned and allow the children to join in.

These activities are supported by the 'I Can' range from the Children's Communication Charity section Toddler Talk.

See you on Monday

Mel

Monday 29 June 2015

Mini Rangers is back after Raft Race Sunday!  Don't know if your planning on popping down, but the event is run and organised by the boat club.  Remember your risk assessment and take care to look out for rubbish that may not be friendly to you or your child.

Our ideas this week are centred around building sentences and learning and using new words.  To do this we have a very simple activity using a piece of string.

This week Mini Rangers we are focussing on a fishing game!  No we aren't going near the water, we are however using a piece of string.  We will tie a small twig on the bottom and then we are going to go on a treasure hunt through the undergrowth.  You will notice the big leaves the tiny flowers of different colours.

For children just being introduced to words it is enough to describe the colours, textures and feels of the objects that they find.  For older children I will bring some spotting books and we can start to identify the leaves and flowers that we find.

We are encouraging Attention and Listening through the circle time where we will be reading the Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.   I will also briefly show the spotting books that I mentioned using one of the strings made by the children to encourage understanding.

We will encourage Talking socially through giving out food, taking our turn to request our juice and saying please and thank you.
The food we will be making this week on our camp fire will be fresh cooked pancakes, shop bought crumpets with butter and some shop bought pancakes.

Looking forward to seeing you all

Take care

Mel