Activity of the Month - August 2024

Starting School Role Play

Role playing school with your child’s favourite toys helps your child learn vocabulary and concepts ready for school!

Role play school with cuddly toys

Role playing school gives you the opportunity to familiarise your child with some everyday activities in school. You can also build your child’s understanding and use of related vocabulary. I’ve focused on little ones starting school around age 4-5 years, though this activity is suitable for children aged 3-6 years. Adapt the language and play level according to your child’s age and stage.

• Share your play idea, ‘Let’s play school with your toys’. Encourage your child to choose which toys they want to use for the children in the class and who is going to be the teacher. Choose names for the characters.

• You may want to use some props such as paper / pens, some toys and a ball for the playground

• Model how to talk through the toys during the play, using different voices. Talk about what may happen first, e.g. taking the register. Show your child how to call out each toy / child’s name, e.g. ‘Good morning Joe’ and for them to reply ‘Good morning Miss Booth’

• Encourage your child to choose an activity from two or three, e.g. sand play, drawing, lego etc. Be a play partner for your child in this role play to show them how to share and take turns.

• Include routines such as playtime and take the opportunity to model how to choose a game with friends, ‘Shall we play tag?’ ‘Do you want to play with the hoops?’ and how to negotiate, ‘You first and then me’ ‘It’s my turn’

• If you are playing the teacher, you could encourage your child to follow instructions used in school, e.g. ‘Get your lunch box and line up at the door’ ‘Find some paper and pens and draw a picture’

• Encourage your child to choose and read a familiar story to the class - a great way for them to practice retelling a story. Use open questions and comments to encourage them to use longer and more complex sentences, e.g. ‘What happened next?’ ‘Oh no, look!’

• Talk about how the toys / children are feeling, e.g. excited and happy or one of them may be sad or feeling disappointed. Talk about how they feel and why using causal explanatory language, e.g. ‘Bella is sad because she misses her mummy’. This will help your child to extend their use of language around emotions.

Starting school lotto / guessing game

• Print out the picture below x 2 and cut one up into 10 picture cards

• Take turns matching one of the pictures to the lotto board; talking about each picture as you go. Use strategies such as pausing, commenting and using phatics ‘hmm’ ‘oh really’ to encourage your child to take longer turns in the conversation

• Try giving clues about each picture for your child to guess, e.g. ‘This is somewhere you play in the morning and the afternoon’ ‘You use these things to make a picture or a model’

• Reinforce key vocabulary, some of which may be unfamiliar, such as: playground, classroom, teacher, whiteboard, scissors, stapler etc

• Have a conversation about each picture, e.g. ‘How do you clean your hands?’ ‘What do you like to play with your friends?’ ‘Look! the children are putting their hands up to answer the question

• This is a good opportunity to talk about how your child feels about starting school, making new friends, learning new things etc

Sharing stories about starting school

Another great way to talk about starting school and help to prepare your child for this new adventure is to share stories about starting school. There are so many to choose from - here are a couple of favourites:

Activity of the Month - June 2024

Fruity Kebabs

Have fun and learn making a fruity snack for your pre-schoolers

This activity is aimed at children from around 3-6 years, adapting the concept level and the language depending on the age and stage of the child.

Goals for this activity:

• learning vocabulary in categories (fruit)

• developing auditory memory

• following instructions

• understanding pronouns (me, you, his, her etc)

• developing theory of mind (understanding others’ perspective)

• using longer sentences to give instructions

You will need:

Fruit (e.g. banana, grapes, melon, strawberries, mango)

Child friendly knife, plates, blunt kebab skewers or long coffee stirrers

How to play (with a younger child):

• Encourage your little one to give out the plates, ‘Tell Holly, One for you …. one for me’

• Talk about the fruit - ask your child to name each one - and show them one or two new fruits

• Prepare the fruit, highlighting key verbs e.g. ‘Can you peel the banana? Can you cut the strawberry?’

• Ask your child to add the fruit, ‘Put on banana and then strawberry’ (put these on your kebab).

• Repeat or rephrase the instructions and pause to encourage your child to listen and follow them.

• Encourage your child to take a turn and tell you what to do, ‘What shall I put on my kebab?’

• There’s lots of opportunity to use ‘my’ and ‘your’ (‘Tell Daddy, ‘It’s for you’)

• When you have finished, you can talk about when to eat them!

• How to play (with an older child):

• For an older child, this activity can be done as a ‘Barrier Game’. This is when there is a barrier (a box or a book for example) between you and your child and another person (or you and your child if they can follow instructions independently). You take turns giving instructions to make the kebab and then compare them to see if you have the same!

• Introduce new vocabulary e.g. kiwi, mango etc. Try identifying different fruit from a simple description, ‘It’s small and orange and you peel it’

• Highlight new verbs, e.g. ‘Let’s slice the banana, cut the pineapple into cubes’

• Use more pronouns, ‘Tell Daddy what he needs to put on’ ‘It’s her turn’

• Encourage your child to listen to longer, more complex instructions, e.g. ‘Add one piece of banana and two grapes’

• Support them to give instructions too, ‘Three pieces of melon and two strawberries’

• Highlight what information you need to support their understanding of other people’s perspective, e.g. if they say ‘Two of those’ you can say, ‘I can’t see what you are putting on, so you need to tell me more, ‘Two what?’

• Compare your kebabs and see if they are the same.

• Enjoy your homemade snack!

 Activity of the Month - August 2023

Make your own ‘magic’ sand & sandcastle play

Whether or not you live near the beach, it’s a great theme for play and learning with your little one!

These activities are suitable for pre-school children from around 2-5 years. Adapt your language and the learning as you go along depending on your child’s age and stage.

Make your own moldable play sand

This a really simple and great for learning about early concepts such as quantities and opposites.

You just need:

5 cups of play sand

3 cups of flour

1 cup of vegetable oil

Combine the ingredients together in a large plastic container with a lid. If it feels a little crumbly, add a bit more oil. Once you’ve finished playing put the lid on and keep it for another day!

Talk ahead about what you are going to do. Highlight the sequence, e.g. ‘First we need to mix the sand and the flour and then we’ll add the oil” (or for a younger child, “First mix and then pour”).

Encourage your child to tell you the sequence, “First _____ and then _______”.

Talk about quantities. This will help build understanding and the concept and vocabulary to describe quantities:

“Do you want more?”

“Shall I put in a little or a lot?”

“Do you need some or all?”

“Who has more, you or Daddy?”

“Oh look, the jar is empty - it’s all gone”

There are lots of verbs involved too - Pour, Mix, Stir, Look, Wait.

Making sand castles

Have a think together about what you can play with the sand, “Hmm, What shall we play with our sand?” Thinking of different ideas encourages divergent thinking, e.g. sandcastles, make a beach, build a tower, make a sand cake etc

With a younger child at a single word level, you can help them to learn how to make a sand castle by showing them the little process using the bucket and spade, highlighting key words

“First put it in and then pat, pat, pat” “Can I have some more?”

“I like digging”

Encourage your child to complete the sentence to show they understand what to do “First put it ___ and then ______”

With an older child, ask them to tell you how to make a sandcastle - this will help them to give instructions to someone else. You can model it first and them ask hem to tell another member of the family.

Encourage your child to experiment and problem solve - e.g. “What would happen if I put another sandcastle on top?” “Oh no - it’s too heavy - I think it may fall down”.

Extending the play:

Five Little Sandcastles

I found this great little song online - you could make 5 sandcastles and have some water ‘waves’ ready to wash each one away. Teaching new songs helps your child to extend their auditory memory and this one also has lots of rhymes.

5 little sandcastles sitting on a beach.

Watching the boats go by.   (hand over eyes as though watching boats)

5 little sandcastles sitting on a beach 

Watching the seagulls fly  (flap arms like a seagull).

5 little sandcastles sitting on a beach 

Watching the clouds so high (look up and point)

When along came a wave  (roll hands or make large wave movements with arms)

and washed one away  (hold up 1 finger).   (Remove one sand castle)

Now this is what the other ones say:

Now we are 4 little sandcastles sitting on the beach....... 

https://youtu.be/SFessIlHfLw

Guess the shape

Use your play dough moulds too - to do some discrimination - ask your child to give you a shape or object from the set - one, two or three depending on their age and stage. “Can I have a car and a flower?”.

For older children, describe an object in 2-3 parts and see if your child can guess which one you’re describing, e.g. “It has petals and grows in the garden”

What’s missing?

Ask your older preschool child, “What do we need to go to the beach?” - think of as many different things as you can, e.g. bucket, spade, suncream, sunglasses etc.

Put 4 of them on a tray and cover with a cloth - then take one thing away

‘What’s missing?’ Play again and add another item for the beach.

 Activity of the Month - July 2023

Playdoh -playdoh with toddlers

Playdoh

Playdoh is great! It encourages toddlers to explore using their senses. It also helps develop fine motor skills by building strength and control in little fingers, hands and wrists. Playing with playdoh supports early listening and language.

Playdoh can be used with children from around 15 months - some children may try to explore the playdoh by putting it n their mouths - discourage by saying ‘yuk!’ Show your child how to play with playdoh - and how fun it is!

Edible playdoh recipe for babies

– 1/2 cup Infant Cereal or oats

– 1/2 cup of cornflour

– 1/4 cup of Apple Puree

– 1 tablespoon of softened coconut oil

– 2 tablespoons of boiling water

Place the infant cereal and cornstarch in a mixing bowl and whisk well.  Add the apple puree, coconut oil, and boiling water to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Use your hands to bring the mixture together in a ball.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead well. Play & enjoy! Keep in an airtight tupperware box and remember to use just for one day.

Tips on supporting listening and early language through play

• Talk ahead about what you’re going to do - ‘We’re going to play with playdoh’ ‘Shall we do some rolling?’

• Highlight a little problem, e.g. that the lid is on - ‘Uh oh it’s stuck’ and the solution ‘We need to open’. Give your little one the opportunity to ‘open’ it too. Highlight the key words at then end of the sentence to make them stand out. 

• Give some play doh to each person - asking ‘Who wants some play doh’ and modelling the answer ‘I do’ or ‘Me’. You can show your little one how to hold their hand out and ask for ‘more’ too. 

• Have fun showing your toddler how to play with the play doh - there are lots of verbs - ‘push’ ‘pat’ ‘pull’ ‘squeeze’ ‘squash’

• Use a toy rolling pin to roll your play doh and take turns, ‘I’m going to roll roll’ Then you can use a cutter or a toy knife to ‘cut cut cut’. These sounds are acoustically contrasting - they have different patterns - roll roll is a long, continuous sound and cut cut cut is an interrupted sound - this means that when you ask your child to do one of the two actions it is easier for them to discriminate between them and show you they understand through listening. 

• Choose cutters shaped like everyday objects e.g. car, flower, butterfly, moon or animals. Encourage your child to identify an object from a small set by offering b a choice of 2 or 3 of the cutters and asking ‘Where’s the car / flower?’. Try to choose words with different patterns / number of syllables to make it easier to identify each one. Increase the set to choose from as your child builds their discrimination skills. 

  Make a smiley face on your playdoh and talk about eyes, nose, mouth, hair as you make them.

  
  
  

Sing ‘This is the way …’

This is the way we squeeze the playdoh,

squeeze the playdoh, squeeze the playdoh

this is the way we squeeze the playdoh

early in the morning

https://youtu.be/4XLQpRI_wOQ

 Activity of the Month - June 2023

Wild Flower Craft

Make the most of a country walk by picking wild flowers and making a picture with your little one.

Goals

• Develop fine motor skills

• Identify objects from description

• Follow 2-3 key word instructions

• Build vocabulary relating to flowers

Preparation

• Use a piece of card (A3 size) or cut a piece of cardboard from a box to size.

• Make a vase from coloured paper or draw one on the card

• Use a pencil or hole punch to make holes in the cardboard where the flowers will go

• Draw the stems from the flower holes to the vase if you would like to

Activity

• Talk ahead about the activity, modelling how to share an idea, ‘Let’s make a flower picture’

• Encourage your child to decorate the vase – by colouring in a design you have drawn, drawing their own pattern or painting the vase.

• Highlight the problem, ‘Look! We need some flowers.’

• Talk about where you could find flowers, e.g. in the garden, the park or on a country walk.

• Share your plan, e.g. ‘We’ll pick some flowers and then put them in the holes’

• Encourage your child to identify flowers based on a description, ‘Find some big white flowers’ ‘Look for purple flowers with green leaves’.

• Share instructions on how to pick flowers, ‘Hold the stem near the bottom and twist to pick the flower’

• Pick the flowers with your little one and bring them home

• Show your child how to thread each flower through a hole in the cardboard, to make a bunch of flowers.

• Use acoustic highlighting and repetition to reinforce new vocabulary, e.g. stem, petals, leaves, bunch etc

• For older children, you can talk about the names of the flowers, e.g. daisy, dandelion, buttercup etc

• Give your child the opportunity to recall how they made the picture, perhaps telling a grandparent about it

 Activity of the Month - April 2023

Easter Rocky Road

An Easter treat to make with your little one with lots of opportunities to support listening and spoken language.

The ideas are for a child of around 3-4 years; adapt your language level to suit your child’s age and stage.

Ingredients

115g dark chocolate

50g butter, cubed

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp cocoa powder

50g rich tea biscuits

200g mini eggs

25g dried cranberries or mini marshmallows

Method

• Talk ahead about the activity and think together about what you need. Ask your child to remember 3-4 items and recall them, ‘We need ____ (a bowl), ______ (biscuits) and _______ (mini eggs)

• Line a 10x15cm baking tray with baking paper or cling film

• Give 2-3 step instructions, e.g. ‘Break the chocolate into the bowl and put it in the microwave’. Melt in the microwave in short bursts. ‘Mix in the butter and stir it’. Add 1 spoon of syrup and 1 spoon of cocoa and mix.

• Leave the chocolate mixture to cool for around 10 mins while you break up the biscuits in a freezer bag and get the marshmallows /cranberries ready.

• Use different vocabulary, e.g. ‘Can you mix it / stir it’. ‘Let’s break / snap the chocolate’

• Talk about quantity whilst making the rocky road - you can count the number of biscuits, and add 1 or 2 more, and think about whether to put a little or a lot of syrup in, “Is that enough or do we need more?” “Who has the most mini eggs”

• Ask your child to listen first and then follow the instructions to finish the rocky road. ‘Stir in the biscuit, marshmallow and mini eggs’.

• Spoon into the tray and leave to set in the fridge for about an hour. Decorate the rocky road with the remaining mini eggs. Talk about which colour mini egg is your favourite, daddy’s favourite (this helps develop theory of mind).

• Remove from the tin and cut into squares. Talk about who the rocky road pieces are for, “This is Daddy’s, this one is Grandma’s”. It can help to highlight the possessive ‘s’ as it is very quiet in speech.

• You could take photos on your phone as you make the rocky road, and use them as a prompt to encourage your child to tell another family member how you made them later.

Goals

• Develop auditory memory of 3-4 items

• Follow 2-3 step instructions

• Extend understanding of verbs

• Build understanding of concepts around quantity

 Activity of the Month February 2023

The Invisible String (Patrice Karst)

The Invisible String is a celebration of the love that connects us all - perfect for February!

It is great for children aged 3-7 years. Here are some listening and spoken language activities to go with the book. Shared reading is one of the best things you can do with your child to support their language and early literacy.

Goals

• Support understanding and use of less familiar vocabulary

• Extend understanding of causal explanatory language - identifying how a character feels and why

• Build conversational skills - talking about things outside the here and now

• Encourage your child to follow instructions to make an invisible string picture

Activities

• Talk about thunder - explain what it is in simple terms. You could watch a video for children about thunder:

  • https://youtu.be/T51tbNKzxkA

  • https://youtu.be/CU0enuGnSjY

• Use a ball of string to connect you and your child to bring the idea in the story to life. Highlight less familiar vocabulary and explain the meaning of each word, e.g. ‘invisible’

• Relate parts of the story to your child’s own experiences, e.g. talk about your family, pets and your child’s friends who all have an invisible string connecting them.

• Encourage your child to take longer turns in a conversation by leaving pauses, using conversational fillers (hmm, really?), asking open questions and comments, “Tell me more ..’ and making personal contributions, ‘I love Jasper’.

• The story has some lovely pictures about all the people and places that the invisible string can reach, e.g. a submarine, a mountain, jungle, space etc. You can share observations about the pictures to check your child’s auditory comprehension, e.g. ‘I can see some planets - can you?’ ‘What animals can you find in the jungle’. Think together about other places the invisible string can reach.

• Highlight the different emotions in the story and check if your child understands them, e.g. ‘Do you know another word for ‘mad’?’ Use synonyms to extend vocabulary, e.g. mad/angry/cross. Talk about how the characters in the story feel and why, ‘The twins are frightened because the lightening is very loud!’.

• The picture above shows a fun craft activity you can do with your child after sharing the book. Give your child instructions to make the picture, ‘Find a photo of you and stick it on the picture frame’. Ask your child who they would like to put in each of the hearts. Draw pictures or cut out photos of family, friends, pets that your child loves and who they are connected to by an invisible string. You could make our own version by sticking a photo in the middle of a large piece of paper and cutting out hearts from coloured paper and sticking them around it, attaching them with string to the child’s picture.

• Encourage your child to show their picture to other members of the family and to talk about it. They could also explain how they made it, to practice retelling events.

 Activity of the Month December 2022

Christmas Tree Crafting

Christmas tree craft ideas - two for one! This activity can be adapted for children from 2-6 years by modifying the language and learning to suit your child. The scrunchy tissue tree is great for younger children. Both activities are great opportunities to support listening and spoken language.

 Activity of the Month October 2022

Room on the Broom - Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Here’s another look at this fabulous book with a Halloween theme! Some new ideas too, aimed at children from 3-6 years.

Adapt your language and the ideas and activities you introduce depending on the language level of your child.

Key areas you can work on with this story are:

• rhyming (recognising and later identifying rhymes helps support early literacy skills)

• vocabulary (moving from familiar to unfamiliar vocabulary)

• social development (talking about making and helping friends

• theory of mind (understanding that we all have different thoughts and beliefs)

• early numeracy / mathematical concepts ‘more’ ‘less’ ‘heavy’

Tips when sharing ‘Room on the Broom’

• Read slowly and leave lots of pauses for your child to take a turn

• Show them to interact with the book - by copying the sounds, pointing to the animals, talking for them etc

• Encourage them to fill in the end of sentences to join in the script, “Is there room _______ (on your broom)?

• Highlight rhymes as you read, e.g. The witch had a cat / and a very tall hat - ‘Can you hear they rhyme cat / hat’. There are lots of rhymes throughout the book - e.g. ground / found, room/ broom, flew / blew, be/me. The aim initially is to help your little one to recognise rhyming words by drawing attention to them.

• Build vocabulary, by explaining new words ‘The witch grinned - look at her - she’s smiling. Can you grin?’. The story is full of synonyms (words that mean the same as familiar words) e.g. wailed (cried), clambered (climbed), shriek (scream). Act out new words to help your little one to understand them, e.g. ‘flutter’

• Use different voices for different characters - this makes the story really fun and adds to the drama, ‘Down!’ cried the witch, ‘I am a frog as clean as can be …’ It also encourages your child to use intonation and pitch.

• Give your child the opportunity to think about what might happen next, especially when all the animals are on the broom and the frog jumped! Show them how different people have different ideas, “I think the dog might slip off’ ‘Maybe the witch’s shoes fall off’. This will help with their developing theory of mind.

• Highlight the social and emotional aspects of the story; how the witch makes friends with the animals and lets them ride on the broom. Talk about how the characters feel ‘Look at the cat’s face - how do you think he feels?’ ‘Uh oh, the witch needs help, she’s feeling scared’. ‘Ahh the animals all worked together to help the witch’.

• For older children, you can read the description of the monster line by line and you can draw a picture of the monster to show your child what the features look like. You can talk about what the dragon thought (there was a monster), and what was actually there (the animals covered in mud!). This also helps your child’s developing theory of mind, as they understand characters can believe something that isn’t true.

• Introduce early numeracy / mathematical concepts e.g. more, counting on, first, second, heavy v. light etc appropriate to your child’s age and stage.

Activity

After you have read the book together, you could make some finger puppets. Remember to introduce little problems and solutions to encourage your child to problem solve, e.g. ‘We need to stick the picture onto the lolly stick …. what can we use?’.

Help your little one to retell the story using the puppets. Model simple phrases or sentences, ‘Uh oh my hat has gone!’ ‘Down broom!’ ‘Is there room ….’

Repetition is great for learning new vocabulary and building confidence in retelling a familiar story. \\

More Ideas

Following directions:

P3 Can you find .. a yellow bow and a brown owl?

P5 A magic wand and a sheep on a field?

P6 Frog’s legs and a witch’s nose?

Sequencing:

See if you can find these toys: doll (witch) / frog / cat / dog / bird

Use a broom or a piece of cardboard for a broom.

Or / just draw a large broom on paper and then draw the characters

Ask questions to sequence the characters in order on the broom,

‘Who was first / next / and then / last ‘

Rhyming words

Encourage your child to start generating rhyme.

Think together of rhyming words: Cat (hat/mat/bat/sat)

Dog (frog/log/mog/bog)

 Activity of the Month September 2022

Cheese Straws

Support your little one’s listening & spoken language whilst making these delicious snacks!

The ideas below are suitable for little ones around 3-5 years. You can adapt the language and concepts used to suit your child’s age and stage. Take some photos as you go to share later and talk about or to add to your child’s experience book!

Ingredients

85g plain or wholemeal flour

40g butter or margarine, cold

40g cheddar cheese (grated)

2 x 15ml cold water

1 egg, beaten

Method

Preheat the oven to 190-200c

Line and grease a baking tray

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs

Mix in the grated cheese

Add the cold water, one tablespoon at a time, using a knife and then bring the dough together with your hands

Chill for 15 mins if possible

roll out to a rectangle 1/2 cm thick

Cut into strips & twist 3-4 times and place on baking tray

Brush with beaten and sprinkle with grated cheese

Bake for 10-15 mins

Goals

Following instructions with 2-3 key words

Understanding concepts around quantity & quality

Building vocabulary, e.g. grate, sprinkle, rub, mix, sift, twist

LSLS Strategies

Talk ahead about what you are going to do ‘We’re going to make some cheese straws’ (showing the picture)

Think together about what you may need; cheese, flour, a bowl, spoon etc

Auditory Memory - help your child to remember 3-4 items and then go and find them with you

Acoustic highlighting - highlight new vocabulary to help it stand out, e.g. ‘Sift the flour into the bowl’, ‘Can you twist the straw?’

Following instructions - encourage your child to listen to instructions with 3-4 key words, e.g. ‘Cut the butter and put it in the bowl’ ‘

Do something unexpected - Ask your child what to do next, e.g. add the cheese. Do something funny, e.g. put the bag of flour in the bowl instead of some flour

Concepts - Talk about quantity (a little, a lot, more) quality (smooth, fine), opposites (long, short) and counting (count how many straws you have)

Retell events - Take some pictures on your phone and encourage your child to talk about how you made your cheese straws

 Activity of the Month August 2022

Starting School Role Play

Role playing school with your child’s favourite toys helps your child learn vocabulary and concepts ready for school!

Role play school with cuddly toys

Role playing school gives you the opportunity to familiarise your child with some everyday activities in school. You can also build your child’s understanding and use of related vocabulary. I’ve focused on little ones starting school around age 4-5 years, though this activity is suitable for children aged 3-6 years. Adapt the language and play level according to your child’s age and stage.

• Share your play idea, ‘Let’s play school with your toys’. Encourage your child to choose which toys they want to use for the children in the class and who is going to be the teacher. Choose names for the characters.

• You may want to use some props such as paper / pens, some toys and a ball for the playground

• Model how to talk through the toys during the play, using different voices. Talk about what may happen first, e.g. taking the register. Show your child how to call out each toy / child’s name, e.g. ‘Good morning Joe’ and for them to reply ‘Good morning Miss Booth’

• Encourage your child to choose an activity from two or three, e.g. sand play, drawing, lego etc. Be a play partner for your child in this role play to show them how to share and take turns.

• Include routines such as playtime and take the opportunity to model how to choose a game with friends, ‘Shall we play tag?’ ‘Do you want to play with the hoops?’ and how to negotiate, ‘You first and then me’ ‘It’s my turn’

• If you are playing the teacher, you could encourage your child to follow instructions used in school, e.g. ‘Get your lunch box and line up at the door’ ‘Find some paper and pens and draw a picture’

• Encourage your child to choose and read a familiar story to the class - a great way for them to practice retelling a story. Use open questions and comments to encourage them to use longer and more complex sentences, e.g. ‘What happened next?’ ‘Oh no, look!’

• Talk about how the toys / children are feeling, e.g. excited and happy or one of them may be sad or feeling disappointed. Talk about how they feel and why using causal explanatory language, e.g. ‘Bella is sad because she misses her mummy’. This will help your child to extend their use of language around emotions.

Starting school lotto / guessing game

• Print out the picture below x 2 and cut one up into 10 picture cards

• Take turns matching one of the pictures to the lotto board; talking about each picture as you go. Use strategies such as pausing, commenting and using phatics ‘hmm’ ‘oh really’ to encourage your child to take longer turns in the conversation

• Try giving clues about each picture for your child to guess, e.g. ‘This is somewhere you play in the morning and the afternoon’ ‘You use these things to make a picture or a model’

• Reinforce key vocabulary, some of which may be unfamiliar, such as: playground, classroom, teacher, whiteboard, scissors, stapler etc

• Have a conversation about each picture, e.g. ‘How do you clean your hands?’ ‘What do you like to play with your friends?’ ‘Look! the children are putting their hands up to answer the question

• This is a good opportunity to talk about how your child feels about starting school, making new friends, learning new things etc

Sharing stories about starting school

Another great way to talk about starting school and help to prepare your child for this new adventure is to share stories about starting school. There are so many to choose from - here are a couple of favourites:

 Activity of the Month July 2022

The Little Red Hen

This favourite tale is so great to role play using sensory play!

Little ones from 2-6 will enjoy this story. Just adapt the language and concepts you use depending on your child’s age and language stage. The ides below are for a child of around 3-4 years.

It’s a great story to support goals around:

• mental state language (e.g. like, want, wonder, know)

• emotions

• asking for help

• using auditory closure

• vocabulary

• retelling a story

Tips and strategies

• Try to use more comments than questions when reading the story together and use lots of pauses. This will encourage your child to take more turns and to use more spontaneous language

• Draw attention to things in the pictures, e.g. ‘Look! a windmill’ ‘Wow!’ and pause for your child to comment

• Use acoustic highlighting to highlight new vocabulary, e.g. ‘scratching’ ‘yawned’ ‘purred’ - you can check your chid’s understanding by asking, ‘Can you yawn?’ and reinforce new words by acting them out, e.g. ‘Look the hen’s scratching like this ..’

• You can adapt the language to model asking for help using the more familiar phrase, ‘Can you help me …. plant this corn’ ‘to encourage your child to ask for help

• Use different voices for the different animals in the story; this makes it fun and gives your child the opportunity to listen to and copy different pitches and intonation

• Use mental state language, ‘I wonder who will help? I think the cat will help etc…’

• Leave gaps for your child to fill in using auditory closure, e.g. ‘Who will help me cut the corn? …….. (Not I, said the pig)

Sensory Role Play

• You will need: some wheat stalks (e.g. from a florist or dried online), seeds (e.g. wheat, barley, sesame whatever you can find), flour & some playdoh or dough mix and the animals from the story.

• You can make some wheat playdoh as part of the activity or beforehand (8 tbsp plain flour, 2 tbsp table salt, 60ml warm water, food colouring, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, Barley / wheat seeds)

• Encourage your child to remember 3-4 animals he needs and go and find them. You can help by encouraging them to rehearse what they need, ‘What animals do you need? ……..’

• Model how to role play the first part at the first bowl of grain / seeds, ‘Can you help me plant the seed?’ ‘No, barked the dog’

• Encourage them to take the part of the hen or one of the animals for the next part with the wheat, ‘Can you help me cut the wheat?’

• Repeat with the flour and the playdoh, pretending to make bread and cook it!

• It’s great to repeat the play and retell the story again - you could ask another family member to join in. This gives your child the opportunity to hear and use the language again and build confidence retelling a familiar story

More ideas

• You can print out these great cut outs to retell the story from Sparklebox: https://www.sparklebox.co.uk/1006-1010/sb1009-little-red-hen-cut-out-characters.html

• Make some bread rolls! This is a whole other activity with so much listening and language - great for following and giving instructions

Activity of the Month May 2022

Growing Sunflowers

Grow your own sunflowers with your little one with this fun, language filled activity. Suitable for ages 3-6 years; adapt your language level to your child. I’ve suggested ideas for a child who is around a 3 word level below.

Planting a sunflower seed

• Talk ahead about the activity, ‘We’re going to plant some seeds’ - think together about what you need. See if your child can recall 3 items, ‘We need soil. seed, water and a pot’ … ‘We need ____, ____, and _____’ Check his recall and then go and get them.

• Cut up the six pictures showing the process of planting and growing the seed. Talk through the pictures and sequence them, highlighting time connectors, ‘First, then, next, last’ etc

• Talk about the parts of the plant - leaves, stem, roots etc to build his vocabulary.

• Have a pot, seeds, water spray etc each if you can and then start by giving him an instruction, e.g. open the seed packet and choose three seeds’. Give him the opportunity to say what he thinks you need to do next, e.g. put the soil in the pot.

• Plant 2-3 seeds in each pot and then cover with soil. Water the seed and cover with cling film. Leave on a warm windowsill to germinate.

• Talk about what you are doing at each stage. Encourage your child to give you instructions too as you plant your seeds.

• You could take pictures on your phone while you do this activity and then use the photos as a prompt for your child to talk about how he planted the seed with another family member later, with some scaffold- ing, e.g. “First ____, then _______, next ________, last _______”

 Activity of the Month April 2022

Things That Go Together

Matching objects and explaining why they go together builds understanding of early concepts, and helps develop visual discrimination, cognitive skills, listening and language. It is suitable for little ones from 21/2-5 years. Adapt your language to suit the age and language level of your child. Start with the real objects and later you can print out and use the card game to reinforce the language and concepts.

Things that go together activity

• Collect pairs of everyday objects and toys that go together, e.g. toothbrush & toothpaste, paint and brush, shoes and socks, train and track, table and chair, pencils and paper etc

• Place the objects in a bag or box and the things that go with them on a tray on the table.

• Take one object out of the bag and ask ‘Can you find something that goes with a table …. A table and ……(chair)’ Leave a long pause for your child to think about what object goes with what.

• Encourage them to take turns picking an object from the bag.

• Talk about the use / function of the objects and ask them questions about them, e.g. ‘What do we use a knife and fork for?’ ‘What’s that one used for?’

• For older children, you can encourage them to guess what each object is before you show it to them, e.g. ‘I’ve got something that has bristles and a handle and you use it to brush your teeth’. Leave a pause for them to process this information and guess the object.

• Highlight new vocabulary and label the parts of the objects again when you show each one to your child; this will help extend your child’s vocabulary.

Things that go together matching game

• Print out and cut up the jigsaw pieces of ‘Things that go together’ - maybe start with 4-6 and increase depending on your child’s age and stage

• You could put all the left hand pieces on the table and then take turns choosing a piece from the remaining pieces to match to each object.

• Talk ahead about each one you have, describing what it is and wait for your child to match it to one of the pictures on the table.

• You could describe each one and encourage your child to guess from description through listening, ‘I’ve got something you can play tennis with and you hit it with a tennis racket’

• Alternatively you could play a matching and memory game by laying all the pieces face down on the table and taking turns to pick up two, trying to find two that go together. The person who finds the most pairs wins the game.

Here are the links to the PDFs to download:

Things that go together 1

Things that go together 2

 Activity of the Month March 2022

Easter Chocolate Nests

This month I’m revisiting a favourite activity - making chocolate nests. This is a great activity and is suitable for children from 2 years old - adapt the activity and your language depending on the age and stage of your child.

Ingredients

200g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

85g shredded wheat, crushed

2 x 100g bags mini chocolate eggs

You'll also need cupcake cases

Method

• Does your little one know what a ‘nest’ is? Show them the picture of the bird’s and talk about where birds live. Then you can show them the picture of the chocolate nest “We’re going to make some nests with chocolate eggs”

• Ask your child, “What do we need to make chocolate nests?” - this encourages them to think about what you may use e.g. chocolate, a bowl, a spoon etc. Help them to remember 2 or 3 or 4 things, depending on their age and stage to develop their auditory memory - “We need ______ & ________”

• Highlight the simple processes in the method, e.g. “First open the packet and then break the chocolate - tell Daddy, “First _____ and then ______”

• Try to use different verbs - e.g. open / unwrap, mix / stir. Comment on what they are doing “You’re opening the chocolate”

• Draw attention to the problem - the chocolate is too hard - “I wonder how we can make melt it (or make it hot)?” Pause to give thinking time & help if necessary “Let’s put it in the microwave” (this is a great opportunity to talk about the microwave if your child is not familiar with the vocabulary). You can count backwards from 10 together whilst waiting for the microwave to ping.

• Pour the melted chocolate on the shredded wheat. “First pour the chocolate and then mix – first ______ and then _______ (mix / stir)” “I’m mixing the chocolate - do you want to have a go?”

• Introduce the idea of quantity whilst making the nests - you can count the number of cake cases, and add 1 or 2 more, and think about whether to put a little or a lot of mixture into each case, “Is that enough or do we need more?”

• Share / divide the eggs into the nests – maybe there are not enough eggs – “What shall we do?” talk about possible solutions “We could buy some more etc / share”

• Talk about who the chocolate nest are for “This is Daddy’s, this one is Grandma’s” It can help to highlight the possessive ‘s’ as it is very quiet in speech.

• Use mental state terms to describe what you are thinking (e.g. think, know, wonder, like) “I think Daddy will like the yellow ones” - this helps your child to understand that people may like different things.

• Enjoy!

  
  

 Activity of the Month February 2022

Sensory Play with Rice

Sensory rice play

This is great fun for little ones from 12 months to 5 years. Adapt the activity, play level and language to suit your child.

Sensory play is great for supporting developing listening and language skills, as well as:

• tactile learning

• fine motor skills

• early numeracy skills

• pretend play

• fine motor skills

Coloured Rice

• You can use plain rice or you can colour it (one colour or a rainbow of colours)

• Use 1/2 tablespoon of white vinegar and a few drops of food colouring or icing gel to each cup of rice

• Shake the ingredients together in a food container or ziplock bag

• Spread out on a foiled lined tray and leave to dry for 2-3 hours

• Place in a large, shallow container e.g. roasting tin, washing up bowl

Ideas for younger children

• Encourage your child to choose a colour for the rice, highlighting key words, ‘Do you want yellow or red?’

• Introduce a cup, spoon, jug and/or a little bucket and spade

• Let your child lead the play and talk about what they are interested in doing; holding and dropping the rice, pouring it from one container to another etc

• Talk about actions and objects during play, e.g. ‘Where’s the jug?’ ‘One for you and one for me’ ‘You’re pouring the rice’, highlighting new nouns and verbs to help extend their understanding

• Hide toys in the rice for your child to find - e.g. a little car / train / animals / keys / kush balls / shells / little people. Talk ahead about each toy ‘Can you find the train, chu-chu’ ‘I want a ball’

• Try to add one new play idea to make a little play sequence- e.g. scooping some rice into a box with a lid on and then emptying it, taking turns hiding a toy and looking for it

Ideas for older children

• Take photos while you are making the coloured rice and print them out / cut up. Encourage your child to sequence the pictures and describe what you did in each picture

• Talk about favourite colours, showing that people have different preferences, ‘Daddy’s favourite colour is yellow', what’s your favourite?’. This helps to develop early theory of mind

• Use different objects, e.g. cup, jug, scoop, bowl, sieve, funnel and spoon to pour, scoop, sieve, shake, mix and stir. Highlight key words to help your child build their vocabulary, ‘Let’s scoop the rice into the funnel’

• Hide small objects in the rice - maybe a mixture of things, or items relating to a theme like sea creatures, dinosaurs, play food - take turns to find something

• Describe objects that may be hidden for your child to guess, ‘Find an insect with eight legs that spins a web’ ‘Something you can drive with four wheels’

• Talk about quantity to help your child understand the concept and vocabulary such as ‘more’ ‘less’ ‘most’ ‘all’ ‘some’. Show them how to transfer the same volume of rice from one container to another

• Encourage pretend play, e.g. with little people, making cakes etc. Ask open questions and comment to encourage your child to use longer sentences to explain what they are doing, ‘What are you going to do next?’ ‘Hmm, I’d like a chocolate cake please’

 Activity of the Month January 2022

Pip & Posy: The Snowy Day

A lovely story for a cold January day! Great for supporting listening & language for little ones 3-6 years. Adapt your language and the content depending on the language age and stage of your child.

Ideas

• Talk about the cover to help your child begin to build their book knowledge - ‘What’s this story about?’’ What’s it called?’

• Introduce vocabulary around weather - snow, cold, freezing, winter etc For older children you can use synonyms, e.g. ‘It’s cold / chilly/ freezing.

• You could have some winter clothes to look at e.g. gloves, scarf, socks and compare to Pip & Posy’s

• Ask open questions, e.g. ‘I wonder where they are going?’ and comment ‘Look!’ (snow angels), ‘That looks so fun’ (sledging) to encourage your child to take a turn

• Use different pitched voices for Pip & Posy and pretend to be them, ‘I want to make a snowmouse’ etc

• Highlight pronouns he/she/they ‘Oh oh - look what she did’ ‘I wonder what he will do?’ ‘Awww Posy’s crying because she hurt her head’ ‘They are playing with playdough’

Identifying & sequencing pictures

• Draw simple pictures of 4-6 key events in the story, talking about what is happening in each picture with your child

• Encourage your child to identify each picture from a phrase, e.g. ‘Uh dear! Posy threw snow at Pip’

• Put the 4-6 pictures in the right order - ‘What happened first?’ Highlight language around sequencing first, next, last and then…

• Give your child the opportunity to say what happened in each picture - use comments and pauses to encourage them to talk about each one, ‘Uh-oh’ ‘Wow!’

 Activity of the Month December 2021

Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits

Cooking is so great for supporting listening, language and early maths concepts too. Merry Christmas!

This activity is aimed at children from 3 -6 years old - adapt your language level and the concepts according to your child’s age and stage.

Goals 

• Develop auditory memory of 2-3 items

• Follow instructions with 2-3 critical elements

• Develop understanding of range of verbs

• Identify and object from description from a set

• Build understanding that different people like different things (theory of mind)

Ingredients

• 350g plain flour

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 2 tsp ginger, ground

• 100g butter

• 175g soft light brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 4 tbsp golden syrup

  Icing tubes / smarties to decorate

& Large & small bowl / butter knife

Different shaped cutters

Method

Preheat oven 190'C/Gas mark 5

Measure out the dry ingredients beforehand in different bowls (adding the bicarbonate of soda and ginger to the flour already)

• Talk about what you 2-3 things you need to make the biscuits and encourage your child to recall the 2-3 items, ‘We need a bowl, a spoon and shapes’ ‘We need ____, _____ and ______’

• Give instructions with 2 or 3 critical elements:

‘Put the flour in the big (or biggest) bowl’

‘Can you cut the butter with a knife’

• Use different verbs, highlighting new vocabulary, ‘Rub the butter in the flour’ ‘Stir the butter in the flour’ (quickly rub the butter into the flour)

• More instructions:

  ‘Can you put the sugar and the egg in the bowl’ 

‘Pour / squeeze the syrup’ (add to dry ingredients & mix to form a dough)

• Talk ahead about what you are going to do next, ‘We’re going to roll out the dough and cut some biscuit shapes’

• Ask your child to find each shape from a set of around 4-6 Christmas cookie cutters based on a simple description, e.g. ‘It twinkles in the sky at night’ (star), ‘You decorate it with lights and baubles’ (Christmas tree) ‘It’s made of snow in the garden’ (snowman) etc

• Talk about the sequence, ‘First roll the dough, next cut out the shape’ highlight vocabulary around sequencing

• Put the biscuit shapes on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 10-15 mins until golden brown

Decorating the Biscuits

• Once cooled decorate the biscuits using icing pens and smarties / currents.

• Talk about who likes what colour / flavour etc ‘Daddy likes orange’ ‘I don’t like currents’

• Your child can give out the biscuits - which is a good opportunity to practice pronouns - ;This one is for Grandpa, can you give it to him’ Mummy wants a star can you find her one?’

More language learning opportunities

• Whilst making the biscuits with your little one, take some photos on your phone. Then you can talk about what you did together, using the past tense, ‘Tell me about what you did?’ ‘We made some biscuits’ / ‘First we rolled the dough’.

• You could print out 3-4 pictures and encourage your child to sequence them and talk about what they were doing in each picture.

 Activity of the Month November 2021

The Smartest Giant in Town

A fabulous book by Julia Donaldson to share with your little one from around 3-6 years old - have ENORMOUS fun!

The Smartest Giant in Town 

Adapt your language to suit the age and language stage of your child

• Talk about the story by looking at the front cover ‘What do you think this story is about?’

• Read the story, simplifying the text in parts as necessary

• Share the book, focusing on the the following techniques to encourage your child to comment:

  • use more comments than questions, ‘Oh dear, his clothes are all dirty’ ‘I like his new shirt’

  • pause after you talk to give your child time to process and generate a response

  • use phatics & hooks (hmm, wow! Look!)

• Model different voices for the characters, e.g. louder low voice for the giant, higher pitched, quieter voice for the mouse.

• Highlight how the characters are feeling and why, ‘The giraffe is sad because he’s cold’. This will help them to build their understanding of

• Highlight & act out new / unfamiliar words e.g. storm, squeaking - this is a great way to help your child to learn new vocabulary

• Think together about what the giant could use to help the animals, e.g. ‘What could the fox use to sleep in?’

• Sing the giant’s song, ‘My shoe is a house for a ………’ Leave a gap for your child to fill in the song

Pictures for Lotto / Matching Game:

Lotto Game

• Print one copy to make the lotto board

• Print another copy and cut it up to make the lotto cards

• Choose a card and describe the picture to your child

• Use language tailored to their language level e.g.

• Something you wear on your feet

• An animal that is tall and has a long neck

• This is an animal with four legs, a tail and lives in a kennel

• With an older child, take it in turns to guess the items of clothes / animals, asking the question, ‘Is it a _____’ and replying, ‘It is a …’ to highlight the full form of the verb, ‘to be’ to develop grammatical understanding.

Matching game

• Print out one copy and cut up the pictures

• Encourage your child to listen and finish each sentence from the story, e.g.

• My tie is a scarf for a _________ (cold giraffe / giraffe)

• My shirt is a sail for a________ (goat / a goat on a boat)

• My shoe is a house for a _______ (little white mouse)

• One of my socks is a _________ (bed for a fox)

• My belt helped _____(a dog) who was crossing a _____(bog)

• For an older child, highlight the first few words (underlined) and then pause to encourage them to fill in a longer sentence. It is also a great way to emphasise the full form of the verb, ‘to be’, ‘My tie is ..’

• Match each item of clothes to the animal it helped as you play the game

Dress your own giant!

• Before the session, draw around one of the family on a large piece of paper (a roll of lining paper works very well) with a black marker. You can have fun drawing a face on it too!

• Collect some clothes from different members of the family. You could get more than one item e.g. different tops - shirt or jumper etc

• Dress the giant! - encouraging your child to choose items and label them, highlighting adjectives and also possessive ’s’, e.g. ‘Shall we use Mummy’s jumper?’ ‘It’s red and soft’ etc ‘They are Daddy’s socks’

 Activity of the Month October 2021

Halloween Paper Plate Spiders

A fun activity for little ones from 2-5 years for Halloween. Adapt your language and the concepts you use to suit your child’s age and language level.

Resources

• large paper plates

• black paint

• black card or pipe cleaners for the spider’s legs

• white/ black / red card for eyes (or use large goggly eyes) and mouth

• glue

Method

• Help your child to remember some of the things you need to make the spider (2-4 items) ‘We need paint, glue and paper plates’ ‘What do we need? ____, _____ & _____. This will help them to develop their auditory memory.

• Paint the outside of two paper plates black.

• Count 8 spider’s legs with your child, pausing to encourage them to join in (for older children count on / add one more etc).

• Stick the spider’s legs onto the inside of first plate and then stick the second plate on top.

• Help your younger child to link parts of the face to their function, e.g. ‘Uh oh, he needs something to help him see …..’

• Stick the eyes and the mouth on the spider. Encourage your child to problem solve with you, ‘Oh dear, the eyes have fallen off … what shall we do?’ (try sellotape / more glue etc).

• Punch a hold in the top of the spider plate and tie some string to hang him up.

• Sing ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ - great for practising the /ss/ sound! Leave gaps for your younger child to fill in to encourage them to listen ahead, e.g. ‘Down came the rain and washed the spider ____ (out). Older children can fill in longer phrases, ‘Down came the rain and _______ (washed the spider out).

For more halloween fun, make some spider web cup cakes - www.karengazeley.co.uk/activity-of-the-month-Oct-2019

 Activity of the Month - September 2021

Three Billy Goats Gruff

A great story for children from 2-6 years & fabulous for role play - tailor your language and play to the age and stage of your little one.

Goals:

• Join in with role play using a simple script

• Understand and answer hypothetical questions

• Retell parts of a story

• Learning new vocabulary, e.g. to describe size

• Developing early book knowledge

• Theory of mind - understanding emotions

Activities

• Look at the front cover together - talk about what the title of the book and talk about what the story is about - ‘This story is about ….’

• Read through the story together – talk about who is in the story, and what the problem is and what they did about it.

• Use a simple repetitive script – ‘The little goat went tripp trapp over the bridge’ ‘Don’t eat me, wait for the big goat’

• Ask open ended questions ‘What do you think the goat will do?’ and hypothetical questions – ‘What would you do?’

• Use acoustic highlighting to draw attention to new vocabulary / less familiar words e.g. field, bridge, bigger, growl, scared

• Highlight emotions ‘Are you scared?’ ‘It’ll be OK’

• Go through the story again, leaving long gaps to encourage your little one to comment / retell the story

Role play

• Make a bridge scene like the one above and collect some goats and something to be the troll - you could make a bridge out of lego

• Act out parts of the story using the props (speak through the goats / the troll) ‘Come on, goat’

• Another fun option is to make a bridge using lots of cushions on a blue towel or blanket for the river - then you can take turns pretending to be a billy goat and crossing the bridge - watch out for the troll!

 Activity of the Month - August 2021

Frozen Banana Ice Lollies

These banana lollies are great fun to make with your toddler and are a delicious fruity treat!

Great activity for supporting listening and spoken language. Here are just some possible goals:

Goals

- Auditory memory - 2/3/4 items

- 2/3 part plan

- Sequencing - first, next, last

- Recalling activity

- Theory of mind

Ingredients (for 4 lollies)

2 Bananas

4 large strawberries

grapes (optional)

yoghurt

milk chocolate

sprinkles

wooden lolly sticks

Method

I’ve pitched this method for a child with a language age of around 2-3 but you can adapt it for the age and stage I’d your little one.

1. Talk ahead about the activity ‘Let’s make something we can eat that’s lovely and cold’ pause for your little one to guess what it may be and give more clues if necessary.

2. Encourage your little one to remember 2/3 items and go and get them from ‘We need bananas, strawberries and chocolate’. Give them the opportunity to recall out loud, ‘We need ____ & _____ &_____.’

3. Show your child the sequence for threading the fruit, ‘First strawberry and then banana (and last a grape). Highlight and repeat the sequencing words to help them stand out.

4. Freeze the lollies on a tray for one hour.

5. You can dip each lolly into yoghurt to coat and refreeze if you would like to.

6. Melt chocolate in a microwave in 30 second bursts - for older children this is a great opportunity to talk about concepts of melting and cold / hot and also counting down from 10-1 second!

7. Share a 2/3 part plan with your little one to show them how to coat the lolly in chocolate and sprinkles. ‘First dip it in chocolate and then roll it in the sprinkles’

8. Remember to talk about what you like and don’t like (and how we like different things) - this will help your child to develop early theory of mind, ‘I would like pink sprinkles’

9. Refreeze briefly and enjoy!

10. Take a few photos during the activity so that you can talk about what you did later and your child can tell another family member about it. Highlight the past tense ‘We put the lollies in the freezer’ ‘Then we dipped them in chocolate’

 Activity of the Month - July 2021

Rainbow Spaghetti Sensory Play

This activity is suitable for babies and toddlers from around 12-36 months - sensory play is beneficial and there’s lots of opportunity for early listening and language.

Sensory Play is so great for supporting:

• Exploration

• Fine motor skills

• Listening

• Early language

• Problem solving

Rainbow spaghetti method

• Cook spaghetti, drain and rinse

• Divide into ziplock bags - one bag for each colour

• Add food colouring and a few drops of water or vinegar to each bag

• Zip the bag and shake well until the spaghetti is covered

• Rinse the spaghetti and leave it to dry

Play & language ideas

• Involve your little one in the fun making the spaghetti and choosing the colours

• Highlight verbs, e.g. pour, pull, squeeze, mix ‘Can you pull?’ ‘Mix the spaghetti’

• Hide and seek - hide some little toy animals in the spaghetti for you little one to find

• Add a wooden spoon, tongs or scissors to mix or cut the spaghetti (great for fine motor skills)

• Add pots and pans so you can do some role play cooking. Model a little script for the role play, ‘Can I have some more?’

• Talk about the colours of the spaghetti and introduce mental state language, ‘I like red blue’ ‘I want yellow’

• Give your child the opportunity to understand and answer questions, ‘Do you want more?’ ‘Where’s the spoon?’

• Take some photos to make an experience book with your little one - this is great to talk about what you did afterwards

 Activity of the Month - June 2021

Pip & Posy & the Big Balloon

A wonderful story to support early social and emotional learning

This book is great for children around the ages 2-5 years old. Adapt your language level according to your child’s age and stage.

Goals:

So many goals for one book! Here’s just a few:

• Recognising and labelling emotions

• Understanding characters have different feeling and thoughts (theory of mind)

• Retelling a story in sequence

• Understanding descriptive words

• Understanding and using pronouns ‘he’ ‘she’ ‘his’ ‘her’ ‘they’

• Practising speech sounds /b/ /p/

Ideas

• Help your child to begin to build their knowledge around books by looking at the front cover together:

  • What’s it about?

  • What is the book called?

  • For older children talk about the title and the author

• Descriptive language:

  • What is Pip wearing? What are you wearing? Introduce vocabulary to describe clothes - e.g. stripy / spotty, colours ‘Pip is wearing a stripy jumper?’ ‘You are wearing ______ (blue trousers) etc

  • Encourage your child to finish the sentence to describe the balloon ‘The balloon is ______ and ______ and _______’ (big and round and red

• What can you see? - the pictures in the book have lots of little details in. For younger children, take turns saying what you can see in the pictures e.g. p3/4 ‘I can see a bird sitting on a bike!’ ‘I can see a green frog’ - this is a great way of checking your child’s comprehension though listening as they find the things you describe. With older children you can play a version of ‘I spy’ using Initial letter sounds, ‘I spy with my little eye, something beginning with /d/ (door).

• Highlight emotions in the story, drawing attention to the facial expressions on the characters, e.g. p5/6 ‘Look, the fox is smiling, he’s feeling ____ (happy). Introduce other words for emotions too, and for older children explain why the character is feeling that way, ‘Pip is feeling excited because he has a new balloon'. p9-10 ‘Look at Posy’s face - how is she feeling?’ (surprised, worried, shocked etc). Try different facial expressions with your child ‘Can you look surprised?’

• Predict what might happen next. Encourage your child to guess what may happen next in the story. You can model different ideas to show your child that we all have different ideas and thoughts - this helps your child’s developing theory of mind. Go over what you all think, ‘Daddy thinks the balloon will go pop!’ ‘I think it will float up in the sky’.

• The illustrations are great to use to guess what someone might be saying, e.g. p11/12, ‘What is the cat saying? ……. ‘Look! a red balloon’ or ‘Get the balloon!’ You could use a thought bubble and write in it for an older child e.g. p19/20 ‘I’ve got an idea!’

• Pause to give your child opportunities throughout to comment on what is happening spontaneously, e.g. p15/16 ‘Oh dear! ….(pause).

• Check comprehension using open questions, e.g. p17/18 ‘What happened?’ ‘Why is Pip crying?’

• Highlight pronouns through out the story p5/6 ‘She’s first’, e.g. p19/20 ‘He’s so sad’ ‘She has a great idea’. Think together about what Pip’s idea maybe - you may all have different ideas. Explain more complex ideas, ‘Posy wanted to make him feel better, so she shared her bubbles’ ‘They are blowing bubbles’

• Highlight /b/ sounds - blow, balloon, bubbles & /p/ sounds - Pip, Posy, pop, pop.

 Activity of the Month - May 2021

Fruit Kebabs

Have fun and learn making a fruity snack for your pre-schoolers

This activity is aimed at children from around 3-6 years, adapting the concept level and the language depending on the age and stage of the child.

Goals for this activity:

• learning vocabulary in categories (fruit)

• developing auditory memory

• following instructions

• understanding pronouns (me, you, his, her etc)

• developing theory of mind (understanding others’ perspective)

• using longer sentences to give instructions

You will need:

Fruit (e.g. banana, grapes, melon, strawberries, mango)

Child friendly knife, plates, blunt kebab skewers or long coffee stirrers

How to play (with a younger child):

• Encourage your little one to give out the plates, ‘Tell Holly, One for you …. one for me’

• Talk about the fruit - ask your child to name each one - and show them one or two new fruits

• Prepare the fruit, highlighting key verbs e.g. ‘Can you peel the banana? Can you cut the strawberry?’

• Ask your child to add the fruit, ‘Put on banana and then strawberry’ (put these on your kebab).

• Repeat or rephrase the instructions and pause to encourage your child to listen and follow them.

• Encourage your child to take a turn and tell you what to do, ‘What shall I put on my kebab?’

• There’s lots of opportunity to use ‘my’ and ‘your’ (‘Tell Daddy, ‘It’s for you’)

• When you have finished, you can talk about when to eat them!

• How to play (with an older child):

• For an older child, this activity can be done as a ‘Barrier Game’. This is when there is a barrier (a box or a book for example) between you and your child and another person (or you and your child if they can follow instructions independently). You take turns giving instructions to make the kebab and then compare them to see if you have the same!

• Introduce new vocabulary e.g. kiwi, mango etc. Try identifying different fruit from a simple description, ‘It’s small and orange and you peel it’

• Highlight new verbs, e.g. ‘Let’s slice the banana, cut the pineapple into cubes’

• Use more pronouns, ‘Tell Daddy what he needs to put on’ ‘It’s her turn’

• Encourage your child to listen to longer, more complex instructions, e.g. ‘Add one piece of banana and two grapes’

• Support them to give instructions too, ‘Three pieces of melon and two strawberries’

• Highlight what information you need to support their understanding of other people’s perspective, e.g. if they say ‘Two of those’ you can say, ‘I can’t see what you are putting on, so you need to tell me more, ‘Two what?’

• Compare your kebabs and see if they are the same.

• Enjoy your homemade snack!

 Activity of the Month - April 2021

Where’s Spot? Eric Hill

A classic lift the flap book with lots of activities for listening and talking!

This book is great for children from 0-3 years.

It’s one of my favourite books to introduce babies from around 12 months to books with a simple plot.

Here’s some ideas for a child around 12-18 months.

• Talk ahead to gain your little one’s auditory attention ‘We’re going to read a book about a dog, woof woof’

• It can help to hold the book and show your child each page, keeping the pace slow and leaving lots of pauses to encourage him or her to join in and take a turn

• Highlight key nouns & verbs as you read the book to help them stand out

• Highlight the simple plot, using language tailored to your child’s language level. ‘Where’s the dog? It’s time to eat! (you can take turns to call him, ‘Dog!’)

• You could use a little toy dog to go with the story

• Use a simple repetitive script for each page that your little one can join in with:

  • ‘Where’s the dog, it’s time to eat, yum yum’

  • ‘Knock knock … Open!’

  • ‘Is that the dog? … No, no, no! It’s a monkey oo oo’

• Use the Learning to Listen sounds for the animals, e.g. snake /ss/, crocodile /snap snap/. If your child already uses LTL sounds the next step is to use the noun & LTL sound, e.g. ‘Its a lion, roar!’

• Remember to wait expectantly for your child to use his voice to name / use LTL sound / comment

• Encourage him to turn the pages over to help him begin to learn about books

• Hide toy spot under a blanket or in a box on the table to reinforce your child’s understanding of ‘Where?’ ‘Where’s the dog?’ ‘Here he is!’

Here’s some more ideas for an older child (18-36 months)

• The aim is to encourage your child to join in with the simple repetitive script using 1-2 words+ depending on their language level

• Encourage your child to listen ahead and fill in the gaps in familiar phrases, ‘Is he behind …… (the door)?’ ‘Where’s ……. (Spot!)’

• Use props to help your child to retell a simplified version of the story

• Try some auditory discrimination when putting the toys away in a box at the end of the activity - ask him to give you one from a small set ‘Where’s the dog, woof woof / monkey /oo oo/ etc.

Prepositions

This story is great to help your child learn about prepositions, in / on/ under (behind). To reinforce theses concepts - hide a toy Spot the Dog around the house - take photos so you can make a little book or go through them again later.

 Activity of the Month - March 2021

Easter Egg Treasure Hunt

Easter egg hunt + Treasure hunt = Easter egg treasure hunt (double the fun!)

O

Easter egg treasure hunt

This activity is great for 3-6 year olds. You can adapt the clues to suit the age and language level of your little one. You could add more clues around the home and garden too.

Reinforce the sequencing words to help your child to understand and use words to describe a sequence - first, next, last.

Highlight the rhymes in the clues to support early literacy / phonological skills, e.g. ‘Have a look / where you find a book’

Scaffold his or her thinking as they try to guess the clues by adding more information, ‘Can you think of somewhere cold? Think of somewhere in the kitchen. Where do we keep drinks to make them cold?’

Clues

Here’s a book that would go really well with this activity ‘We’re going on an Egg Hunt’

 Activity of the Month - February 2021

Teddy’s Birthday!

Make your child’s favourite cuddly toy the star by celebrating his or her birthday! This is a great activity for toddlers from around 18-48 months - just adapt your language level and the concepts you are using depending on your child’s age and stage.

Ideas for play:

The example below is for a child working at a two key word level.

Presents

Wrap some familiar toys up for Teddy (e.g. train, ball, crayons, duck, a book). Tell your little one that it is Teddy’s birthday. Show him the presents for Teddy - and help him to guess what each one is. Use 2-3 words to describe each object and then pause to give him time to think.

’It’s round and you can bounce it ……. Look it’s a _______ (ball)’

’It has wheels and goes chu chu - It’s _______ (train).

Encourage your child to open each present, highlighting key verbs and adding new words e.g. pull. rip. open

Show him that you have a preference for which toy you like best ‘I like the ___’, ‘Which one do you like?’ This will help him to understand that we all like different things (and support his early theory of mind).

Make a cake

Model how to share an idea (so useful at nursery!) - ‘I’ve got an idea!’ “Let’s make a cake for Teddy’. Use playdoh to make a cake, sharing your plan, “First we roll and then cut’ - encourage your child to recall the plan by prompting, “First ______ and then ______’. Make and stack circles using the cutters to make a cake.

Show your child what’s missing, ‘We need some candles (you could go to the kitchen to find some) and add them to the cake, counting together ‘One ….. (two, three)’

Light the candles (if you want to). Share your plan again, ‘First we sing and then we blow’ Give him the opportunity to fill in the gaps, ‘First ___sing, then _____blow’.

This will help him to remember and follow a 2 part plan.

Sing happy birthday and then blow out the candles! Use auditory closure, ‘Happy birthday ____ (to you)’ “Happy birthday dear _______ (teddy).

Cut the cake and give some to each of you, highlighting the pronouns ’Some for me, some for you’.

Ideas to extend the play:

• Have a tea party for Teddy’s birthday

• Buster’s Birthday is a great book to go along with this activity

 Activity of the Month - January 2021

Process Toys - Drop ‘n’ Roll

Toys involving simple processes are engaging for babies from around 6-24 months. Using simple learning to listen sounds for each part of the process helps them link sound and meaning. There are lots of different process toys for this age group - Drop ‘n’ Roll is one!

Ideas to try (aimed at approx 12-24 months - adjust the language for your child’s age and stage.

• Talk ahead about the toy ‘We’re going to play with the balls that go, whee!’ or ‘Let’s play drop and roll!’

• Build the tower with your little one - highlighting key words, ‘Can you pull’ (a piece out of the box), ‘Can you put it on’ ‘Let’s push’ ‘Do you want more?’

• Point at the next piece and leave pause to encourage your child to vocalise to ask for ‘more’

• Highlight a little problem, pointing to the top of the drop n roll - ‘Uh oh - we need a ball’ ‘Where’s the ball?’

• Offer a choice between two different coloured balls, ‘Oh you like the red ball’

• Use acoustic highlighting to make verbs stand out, ‘Drop the ball’ ‘Roll, roll - whee!’ ‘Go!!’ ‘Stop’ ‘Give it me!’

• Take turns to play, showing your little one how to take turns, and introducing pronouns /me/ /you/ for older toddlers around 18m - ‘My turn’ ‘Your turn’ ‘One for me, one for you’

LING Six Sounds & Vocal Play

• You can use this activity to check your child’s functional listening by encouraging them to copy a LING sound before adding each piece to the tower, or before rolling each ball. The LING sounds /mm/ /ah/ /oo/ /ee/ /sh/ /ss/ represent the range of frequencies in the speech sounds. If you child can detect and later imitate the sounds at conversational level this indicates that they have good access to speech.

• This toy can also be used to encourage your child to practice babbling through play - model different sounds, e.g. /ba ba ba/ /oo ee/ /maa maa/ /hahaha/ /oo ah/. This helps to develop oro-motor skills and extend their range of speech sounds.

Here’s some more examples of process toys

 Activity of the Month - December 2020

Making a Snowman (or two!)

It’s Christmas!!!!! Here’s a fun crafty idea for this magical time of year.

Materials

Snowman template (see below)

Coloured card

Craft materials e.g. coloured or patterned paper, googly eyes, fabric, felt, ribbon etc)

Glue

Activity

This activity is suitable for littles ones from 12 months - 5 years. Adapt the activity and your language level depending on the age and language stage for your child.

First cut out your snowman template from card:

• Read a snowman book with your little one first, so they know what a snowman is and what he looks like (see ideas for books at the end of this activity).

• Talk ahead about the activity, ‘We’re going to make a snowman’ for older children you could talk about what you will need to make a snowman and encourage them to repeat the items back to you and then go with you to find them. “We need ____ (paper) and ______(glue). This helps to develop their auditory memory.

• Cut the snowman out of card using the template you have chosen (I’d go for the simpler one for little ones). Don’t have everything you need for the activity out in front of you - as thinking about what you need and finding it is all part of the learning. You can make a snowman alongside your child, so that you have two to do some role play later!

• Encourage your child to problem solve ‘We need to cut the snowman out - what can we use for cutting?’ This helps them to link objects and their function (and learn -ing verbs).

• For older children, you can help them to start to understand comparatives using the different round shapes for the snowman made of circles, ‘This one is big, which one is bigger? Which one is the biggest?’ Carry this on during the activity ‘Can you find me the longest scarf?’

Now add the eyes, nose, arms, scarf etc:

• Highlight each little problem your blank snowman has, ‘Uh oh he can’t see, he needs something to help him see’ ‘He needs some ______ (eyes). ‘Uh oh he says, ‘I can’t hear you, I need some ___ (ears) etc. This will help your child to link parts of the body with their function.

• Have fun with older children thinking together about what you could use for different parts of the face / body. This is a great opportunity to support their social skills by learning how to share ideas and ask others about theirs. Model how to share ideas, ‘I’ve got an idea?’ ‘What’s your idea?’ ‘Lets make eyes from buttons’.

• Offer your younger child a choice of eyes - to build their vocabulary around describing things, e.g. ‘Do you want red or blue eyes’ ‘Would you like googly eyes or button eyes? “Shall we have a long scarf or a short one?’ Older children can learn new descriptive words like patterned, stripy, rough, fluffy etc.

• Continue to make your snowman, adding different parts. If you are making one each, you can draw attention to the fact that you each like different things, ‘The fluffy scarf is my favourite - what’s your favourite?’ ‘You chose a ____ hat and I chose a pink one because I like pink’ Understanding that other people have different preferences to you supports your child’s developing theory of mind.

• Once your snowmen are finished, they can have a chat! ‘Hello’ ‘What’s your name?’ … ‘What shall we play?’ etc. This gives your child the opportunity to practice talking to their friends and joining in play.

Of course you can make one using different materials and techniques, e.g. pom pom painting, paper plate snowmen and a cotton wool snowman.

Books and songs to go with this activity

Here are a few of my favourites:

I’m a Little Snowman Song;

https://youtu.be/FczqntFwb6k?si=ycux4k0Fv_x6TAST

 Activity of the Month - November 2020

Discovery Baskets (also known as Treasure Baskets)

This is a great activity for babies and toddlers from around 6-24 months.

The aim of the activity is to encourage your little one to explore a range of objects from around the house, with different textures, shapes and colours. 

You can make a mixed basket of things from around your house, like the one I made earlier (I’ve always wanted to say that!) or you can make a themed basket.

A shallow, wide basket works best so your little one can easily grab the things inside. For a baby you could choose around 5 or 6 items, for a toddler you could have more maybe around 10-12 or even up to 20 for 18-24 year olds.

Here’s an example of using a discovery basket for a child around 18 months:

• Put the basket on the floor and give your toddler the opportunity to explore the objects in it. Let your child lead the play. Wait for him to initiate interaction by looking at you or holding objects out for you.

• Once he has had time to explore the things himself, then you could show him how to use some of the objects, e.g. mixing with the spoon, squeezing the ball etc.

• Add language by naming objects and using verbs to describe the actions associated with the toy, ‘Look! the wheels go round and round’ ‘Can you pull’ ‘Look it’s sticky’ ‘I like the bells, shake shake’.

• Try to add one new play idea with some objects, e.g. pulling and sticking the tape, pretending to drink from the cup etc. This will help to extend his play.

• Use prepositions /in/ /on/ /under/ during the play - hiding objects under the cloth, putting the ball in the bowl etc.

Themed discovery baskets

There are many different themes you can use to make a discovery basket. Baskets can be filled with objects to reinforce with vocabulary in different categories, e.g. food, toys, clothes.

Kitchen treasures

Musical fun

Nature treasures

Shape basket

Colour basket

 Activity of the Month - October 2020

Room on the Broom - Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

This is a fabulous book with a Halloween theme! The ideas below are aimed at children from 3-6 years.

Adapt your language and the ideas and activities you introduce depending on the language level of your child.

Key areas you can work on with this story are:

• rhyming (recognising and later identifying rhymes helps support early literacy skills)

• vocabulary (moving from familiar to unfamiliar vocabulary)

• social development (talking about making and helping friends

• theory of mind (understanding that we all have different thoughts and beliefs)

• early numeracy / mathematical concepts ‘more’ ‘less’ ‘heavy’

Tips when sharing ‘Room on the Broom’

• Read slowly and leave lots of pauses for your child to take a turn

• Show them to interact with the book - by copying the sounds, pointing to the animals, talking for them etc

• Encourage them to fill in the end of sentences to join in the script, “Is there room _______ (on your broom)?

• Highlight rhymes as you read, e.g. The witch had a cat / and a very tall hat - ‘Can you hear they rhyme cat / hat’. There are lots of rhymes throughout the book - e.g. ground / found, room/ broom, flew / blew, be/me. The aim initially is to help your little one to recognise rhyming words by drawing attention to them. If your child can recognise rhymes, you can add new words and encourage them to start to think of some themselves - ‘cat / hat / mat / …… bat’

• Build vocabulary, by explaining new words ‘The witch grinned - look at her - she’s smiling. Can you grin?’. The story is full of synonyms (words that mean the same as familiar words) e.g. wailed (cried), clambered (climbed), shriek (scream). Act out new words to help your little one to understand them, e.g. ‘flutter’

• Use different voices for different characters - this makes the story really fun and adds to the drama, ‘Down!’ cried the witch, ‘I am a frog as clean as can be …’ It also encourages your child to use intonation and pitch.

• Give your child the opportunity to think about what might happen next, especially when all the animals are on the broom and the frog jumped! Show them how different people have different ideas, “I think the dog might slip off’ ‘Maybe the witch’s shoes fall off’. This will help with their developing theory of mind.

• Highlight the social and emotional aspects of the story; how the witch makes friends with the animals and lets them ride on the broom. Talk about how the characters feel ‘Look at the cat’s face - how do you think he feels?’ ‘Uh oh, the witch needs help, she’s feeling scared’. ‘Ahh the animals all worked together to help the witch’.

• For older children, you can read the description of the monster line by line and you can draw a picture of the monster to show your child what the features look like. You can talk about what the dragon thought (there was a monster), and what was actually there (the animals covered in mud!). This also helps your child’s developing theory of mind, as they understand characters can believe something that isn’t true.

• Introduce early numeracy / mathematical concepts e.g. more, counting on, first, second, heavy v. light etc appropriate to your child’s age and stage.

Activity

After you have read the book together, you could make some finger puppets. Remember to introduce little problems and solutions to encourage your child to problem solve, e.g. ‘We need to stick the picture onto the lolly stick …. what can we use?’.

Help your little one to retell the story using the puppets. Model simple phrases or sentences, ‘Uh oh my hat has gone!’ ‘Down broom!’ ‘Is there room ….’

Repetition is great for learning new vocabulary and building confidence in retelling a familiar story.

 Activity of the Month - September 2020

Make your own family tree

A great activity for Autumn! Making a family tree with your little one is a great opportunity to talk about your family, and to learn about the parts of a tree. You can paint a simple tree trunk and stick some leaves on, or use a template for this activity. It can be tailored depending on the age and language level of your child.

For a younger child:

• Go for a walk in the park and point out the trees around you - ‘Look! There’s a big tree. Can you see the leaves?’. You could collect leaves to stick on your picture later.

• Talk ahead about what you are going to do, ‘Do you want to do some painting?’ Encourage your toddler to think about what you need for the activity, ‘What do we need for painting?’ and help them to remember by filling in the gaps before you go and find the items, “We need paint, water and a brush - can you remember, we need ______, _______ and a _____’.

• Share your plan to paint a picture of a tree. Introduce key words with younger children, e.g. tree, leaf. Help your little one to paint a brown tree on a large piece of paper (lining paper works very well). Encourage your child to use a little sequence, ‘First dip dip and then paint’.

• Add the leaves to the tree - counting them as you go. You can highlight a little problem by forgetting the glue - ‘Uh oh, the leaves fell off!’ and a solution, ‘We need to stick them’ ‘Can you find the glue’.

• Cut out pictures of your family. Ask your child to pass you a picture ‘Where’s Daddy / Grandma etc’ - this will help them to discriminate family names from a small set (gradually increase the set).

• Stick the photos on the leaves to make your family tree and admire!

For older children, aged approx 4-6 years:

• You can paint a tree together as above, or use a template like the one shown above. Help your child to expand their vocabulary by talking about the different parts of the tree - trunk, root, branches, leaves.

• Introduce wider vocabulary to describe the relationship between your child and his or her family members - e.g. aunt, uncle, cousin, grandfather, nephew etc

• Family names are great for early literacy activities - talk about initial letter sounds, ‘Whose name begins with J …. Jenny’ and clap out syllables ‘Jack’ ‘Ca-ro-line’ etc You can even think of things that rhyme with a name, ‘Jack’ ‘Mac’

• You could play a game of ‘Guess who?’ with your extended family photos to help your child learn descriptive words, ‘Who has blonde hair and glasses?’

• Introduce the concept of young and old - ‘Who is the oldest, youngest?

• It can be fun to take photos while you are making the family tree, so that your child can recall how you made it later to a family member, using the past tense, ‘First we painted the tree trunk, then we added the branches’.

• Reinforce the activity and the new vocabulary by collecting different leaves in the park and doing some bark rubbing to make a collage together at home.

 Activity of the Month - August 2020

Playdoh Part 2 - playdoh with older pre-school children

Playdoh Recipe

The recipe makes 1 ball of coloured playdoh

Prep 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 8 tbsp plain flour

• 2 tbsp table salt

• 60ml warm water

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• food colouring

Method

1. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the water, oil and a few drops of food colouring.

2. Pour the coloured water and oil mixture into the flour mix and stir to bring together.

3. Turn out the dough onto a work surface dusted with flour. Knead together for a few minutes to make a smooth, elastic dough.

4. Store in a plastic sandwich bag (squeeze out the air) or a tupperware box in the fridge to keep it fresh for up to a week.

Activities with Playdoh

• Share your idea to make playdoh - this helps your child to share their ideas with their friends later. ‘I’ve got an idea!’ ‘What’s your idea?’ ‘Let’s make playdoh!’

• Make the playdoh together - encourage your child to remember instructions, e.g. ‘Mix the flour and salt in the glass bowl’.

• Encourage your child to choose a food colour, e.g. ‘What colour would you like?’ ‘My favourite colour is blue’. This helps your child to understand that different people like different things.

• Introduce the concept of quantity and the language around it, ‘Do we need a lot or a little bit? Shall we add more? Who has the most - you or daddy? 

• Have fun making some pretend food - this is great for early pretend play - you can make sausages, peas, a banana etc and help your child to make something too and pretend to eat it. 

• Make a birthday cake for teddy or dolly by rolling and cutting circles from play doh and put candles in it - then you can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and blow the candles out.

• Talk about the sequence, e.g. ‘First we light the candles and then sing and then blow the candles out’ - give your child the opportunity to fill in the gaps, ‘First ____ then ______ and then _____’.

• Take turns guessing what you’re going to make ‘I’m going to make something to eat - it’s very cold and delicious’ This is a great way to guess items from description (ice cream), ‘I’m going to make something you wear on your head’.

• Another fun idea is to make ‘playdoh people’ - a girl and a boy - and then give them names and have a little conversation, ‘Hi Ruby - shall we go to the park?’ ‘Yes, let’s play on the swings’ etc. This is also an opportunity to help your child to understand pronouns - he / she / his / her, ‘He wants a hat’ ‘She needs some feet!’.

Have fun!

Activity of the Month - July 2020

Playdoh - Part 1 - playdoh with toddlers

Playdoh

Playdoh is great! It encourages toddlers to explore using their senses. It also helps develop fine motor skills by building strength and control in little fingers, hands and wrists. Playing with playdoh supports early listening and language.

Playdoh can be used with children from around 15 months - some children may try to explore the playdoh by putting it n their mouths - discourage by saying ‘yuk!’ Show your child how to play with playdoh - and how fun it is!

Edible playdoh recipe for babies

– 1/2 cup Infant Cereal or oats

– 1/2 cup of cornflour

– 1/4 cup of Apple Puree

– 1 tablespoon of softened coconut oil

– 2 tablespoons of boiling water

Place the infant cereal and cornstarch in a mixing bowl and whisk well.  Add the apple puree, coconut oil, and boiling water to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Use your hands to bring the mixture together in a ball.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead well. Play & enjoy! Keep in an airtight tupperware box and remember to use just for one day.

Tips on supporting listening and early language through play

• Talk ahead about what you’re going to do - ‘We’re going to play with playdoh’ ‘Shall we do some rolling?’

• Highlight a little problem, e.g. that the lid is on - ‘Uh oh it’s stuck’ and the solution ‘We need to open’. Give your little one the opportunity to ‘open’ it too. Highlight the key words at then end of the sentence to make them stand out. 

• Give some play doh to each person - asking ‘Who wants some play doh’ and modelling the answer ‘I do’ or ‘Me’. You can show your little one how to hold their hand out and ask for ‘more’ too. 

• Have fun showing your toddler how to play with the play doh - there are lots of verbs - ‘push’ ‘pat’ ‘pull’ ‘squeeze’ ‘squash’

• Use a toy rolling pin to roll your play doh and take turns, ‘I’m going to roll roll’ Then you can use a cutter or a toy knife to ‘cut cut cut’. These sounds are acoustically contrasting - they have different patterns - roll roll is a long, continuous sound and cut cut cut is an interrupted sound - this means that when you ask your child to do one of the two actions it is easier for them to discriminate between them and show you they understand through listening. 

• Choose cutters shaped like everyday objects e.g. car, flower, butterfly, moon or animals. Encourage your child to identify an object from a small set by offering b a choice of 2 or 3 of the cutters and asking ‘Where’s the car / flower?’. Try to choose words with different patterns / number of syllables to make it easier to identify each one. Increase the set to choose from as your child builds their discrimination skills. 

  Make a smiley face on your playdoh and talk about eyes, nose, mouth, hair as you make them.

Sing ‘This is the way …’

This is the way we squeeze the playdoh,

squeeze the playdoh, squeeze the playdoh

this is the way we squeeze the playdoh

early in the morning

https://youtu.be/4XLQpRI_wOQ

 Activity of the Month- June 2020

Experience Books

How to make an experience book 

Experience books come in many different forms. The simplest one is made from folded paper, using drawings or pictures or photos. 

For a younger child:

• Talk ahead about what you need for your book - paper, crayons, glue etc Give simple instructions to help your child find the items and to make the book by folding the pages.

• Talk about the activity - e.g. shopping “Where did we go today?” “What did we need to go shopping? (e.g. a bag, money). Pause and wait for your child to respond. 

• Encourage your child to colour in items you have drawn - give them a choice “Did you want an apple or a banana?” or to guess an item from a simple description, “We bought something that’s cold and delicious”.

• Use open questions and comments to encourage your child to talk about the trip. Expand on what they say, e.g. “banana” - “Yes, you like bananas”.

• Glue pictures on some pages and write what your child says or a simple description underneath, “We went to the ______(shops)” 

• Highlight new vocabulary to help it stand out “You wanted some bubble bath”

• Encourage your little one to share the book with extended family members and talk to them about it.

For an older child:

• Encourage your child to tell you about the activity or event, helping them to sequence the events using language such as ‘first’ ‘next’ ‘then’. 

• Help them to add more detail by asking when, who, what questions and by making comments, “It was funny when ….”

• Talk about how your child (and you) felt, labelling emotions, e.g. “You were excited!” “I was surprised”.

• Write down sentences your child says alongside drawings, photos, pictures from magazines etc. 

Other ideas for experience books

Shaped books - make the book in the shape of the theme - e.g. a trains shaped book

Digital books - use your phone to take pictures of your child doing an activity and talk about it at the end of the day. 

Use little people / playmobil to act out a favourite story and take pictures on your phone. Encourage your child to retell the story using the pictures.

Make a tactile or sensory experience book by collecting flowers, leaves etc and sticking them in a scrapbook to make an experience book about a walk in the country.  

Use an App to make a story, e.g. Story Creator - Innovative Mobile Apps (Apple)

Activity of the Month- May 2020

Baby Play

Baby play is fantastic way to engage your little one in play that reflects everyday routines. It helps to develop listening, language, thinking & play! This activity is aimed at babies around 12-36months - and can be adapted depending on your child’s age and language level.

What you’ll need:

• baby doll (preferably without a soft body)

• baby’s toy bath (or washing up bowl or even a sink)

• sponge

• bubble bath

• water / jug

• a bed for baby (you can make one from fabric or a cardboard box)

• blanket

• duck

• small towel

Tips on helping your baby listen and talk:

• Remember to talk ahead about what you’re going to play ‘Let’s play with baby’ or ‘’Shall we give baby a bath’. This encourages conversation. If your little one has another idea, like bubbles - go with that! ‘Yes put bubbles in the bath’.

• Keep the table or floor clear of toys and think about what you need together, ‘We need the bath and some bubbles’.

• Adjust your language to the level that’s right for your child. If your child is using single words help them to build their vocabulary - highlighting key words / learning to listen sounds at the end of the sentence, ‘We need water’ ‘Baby wants his duck, quack quack’

• Encourage your child to use their voice to make fun things happen! You could pour a little water in the bath and then pause expectantly for your baby to vocalise for ‘more’.

• When they are using 50+ words show them how to put two words together, ‘Wah wah - baby’s crying’ ‘He wants milk’ ‘Give baby a cuddle’.

• Encourage your little one to find two items from a small selection - ‘We need bubbles and a duck’ ‘Where’s baby’s hat and socks?’

• Bathing baby is a good time to go over vocabulary for body parts ‘Can you wash baby’s hands, tummy, face etc’

• Use lots of verbs during play - eating, crying, sleeping, playing, drying. ‘Baby’s splashing - splish splash’

• Singing is a great way to encourage your child to take turns - leave a gap in the song for them to fill in. ‘This is the way we wash the baby, wash the baby, wash the baby. This is the way we wash the baby ________ (wash wash wash).

• To develop play and thinking skills while you’re having fun - try to add another idea in the play to make a short sequence - e.g. feed the baby and then put him to bed, dress the baby and then play with him.

• Little problems in play encourage shared thinking and problem solving - e.g. ‘Uh oh baby is dirty’ ‘Baby’s cold’. Help your child to problem solve, giving them the opportunity to fill in the gap to solve the problem first - ‘yuk we need a _________(wipe)’, or modelling the solution ‘He’s cold so let’s get a blanket’.

• Tidying up is an opportunity to help your child build their auditory memory in a fun meaningful way. Use an empty box to put things away ‘Can you give me the spoon and the duck’.

• Repetition is key to building vocabulary - so have fun role playing these everyday activities with baby many times!

Activity of the Month - April 2020

Easter Chocolate Nests

Ingredients

200g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

85g shredded wheat, crushed (or cornflakes)

2 x 100g bags mini chocolate eggs

You'll also need cupcake cases

Method

• Does your little one know what a ‘nest’ is? Show them the picture of the bird’s and talk about where birds live. Then you can show them the picture of the chocolate nest “We’re going to make some nests with chocolate eggs”

• Ask your child, “What do we need to make chocolate nests?” - this encourages them to think about what you may use e.g. chocolate, a bowl, a spoon etc. Help them to remember 2 or 3 or 4 things, depending on their age and stage to develop their auditory memory - “We need ______ & ________”

• Highlight the simple processes in the method, e.g. “First open the packet and then break the chocolate - tell Daddy, “First _____ and then ______”

• Try to use different verbs - e.g. open / unwrap, mix / stir. Comment on what they are doing “You’re opening the chocolate”

• Draw attention to the problem - the chocolate is too hard - “I wonder how we can make melt it (or make it hot)?” Pause to give thinking time & help if necessary “Let’s put it in the microwave” (this is a great opportunity to talk about the microwave if your child is not familiar with the vocabulary). You can count backwards from 10 together whilst waiting for the microwave to ping.

• Pour the melted chocolate on the shredded wheat. “First pour the chocolate and then mix – first ______ and then _______ (mix / stir)” “I’m mixing the chocolate - do you want to have a go?”

• Introduce the idea of quantity whilst making the nests - you can count the number of cake cases, and add 1 or 2 more, and think about whether to put a little or a lot of mixture into each case, “Is that enough or do we need more?”

• Share / divide the eggs into the nests – maybe there are not enough eggs – “What shall we do?” talk about possible solutions “We could buy some more etc / share”

• Talk about who the chocolate nest are for “This is Daddy’s, this one is Grandma’s” It can help to highlight the possessive ‘s’ as it is very quiet in speech.

• Use mental state terms to describe what you are thinking (e.g. think, know, wonder, like) “I think Daddy will like the yellow ones” - this helps your child to understand that people may like different things.

• Enjoy!

  
  

 Activity of the Month - March 2020

Glitter germs & making washing hands fun

The activities this month are to help you to give your little ones (around ages 3-6) a basic understanding of why it is important to wash their hands, and to encourage them to learn how to do it really well whilst having fun! They’ll be building listening and language skills too.

Even young children can understand a basic concept about germs. You could describe germs as tiny ‘bugs’ that live on lots of things - some are good for us and others sometimes make you poorly. Talk to your child about how they can keep germs away and stay healthy - by coughing into their elbow and washing their hands.

Glitter Germs

This is a fun activity to show your child how germs can spread and how best to wash them off hands before eating or cooking with you, after playing or using the bathroom.

Materials:

• Glitter shaker

• Soap & water

• Sink or bowl

• Towel

Method:

• Talk ahead about what you’re going to do, “First, we’re going to put some glitter germs on our hands” “Next, we’re going to wash our hands to clean the glitter germs off”. For older children ask them to fill in the gaps, “First____, next ______”.

• Encourage your child to remember 3-4 items you need and then go and find them together.

• Ask your child to shake (or sprinkle) a little glitter on your hands - you can talk about quantities here - ‘a tiny bit’ ‘a little’ ‘more’ etc. Then put a small amount on your child’s hands.

• Show your little one what happens when you touch your face or arm or the table or a door handle with your glittery hands- this is how germs spread!

• Share your plan - ‘“Let’s try and wash our hands with just water” - (this won’t work very well) - highlight the problem and encourage your child to think of a solution “Oh look, there are still glitter germs on your hands - what should we do?”

• Now wash your hands with soap and water - use the diagram below and show your little one how to wash their hands thoroughly - adapting depending on their age. Draw attention to how much cleaner your hands are using soap and water.

• Sing while you wash! This will encourage your child to wash their hands for the right amount of time - around 20 seconds. You can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice - or try singing to the tune of ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’:

  “Wash, wash, wash your hands / Make them nice and clean. Rub the bottoms, and the tops / And fingers in between”

• Keep a stool by the sink if you can so they can reach the sink easily.

• Encourage your child to tell you what you need to do to wash your hands, step by step. This encourages them to recall an event in sequence, which helps with narrative skills.

Activity of the Month - February 2020

Baby Faces Books

These books are great to share with your little one from a very young age - anytime from around 4 months. We’ll look at using these books from around 6-15 months for this activity. Babies love looking at other babies - and there are lots of opportunities for listening to everyday ‘Learning to Listen’ sounds and songs around routines.

There are lots of different baby faces books available - here are just a few of my favourites:

Tips on sharing a baby faces book:

• For 6-12 month olds - Use ‘Learning to Listen’ sounds (LTL) - these are simple sounds for everyday actions and objects, for example ‘up, up, up’ ‘mm’. Use a different LTL sound for each picture depending on what the baby is doing in the picture:

  • baby eating - ‘mm’ ‘yummy’

  • baby with dirty face ‘yuk’ / ‘wipe wipe’

  • baby in the bath ‘wash wash’ ‘splish splash’

  • baby sleeping ‘sh’

  • baby laughing ‘hehehe’

  • baby crying ‘wah wah’ / ‘ahh’

  • baby playing with bricks ‘up, up, up’

• Books with one picture per page are great -by around 10 months your baby may be able to look at the right picture if you say one of the LTL sounds e.g. ‘hehehe’ versus ‘wah wah’ - this shows that they are able to discriminate between acoustically different sounds.

• From around 10 months you can start introducing simple objects to go with the pictures - for example:

  • a spoon to feed the baby

  • a wipe to wash baby’s face

  • a small cloth as a blanket

  • a brush to brush baby’s face

  Babies from around 10-12 months can begin to copy these simple actions with the book showing pictures of a real baby before they are developmentally ready to play with a toy baby.

• You can build up little sequences for your baby to copy up to around 12-15 months, for example feeding baby ‘mm’ and then wiping their mouth ‘wipe wipe’, or patting them and putting a blanket on ‘shh’.

• At this stage you can encourage your little one to point at a picture to show you something, e.g. ‘Where’s the duck, quack quack?’

• Building pretend into your book sharing at a young age helps to support the development of your baby’s very early social and emotional skills.

• You can add a song alongside looking at the pictures too - for example, ‘This is the way we wash the baby, wash the baby, wash the baby. This is the way we wash the baby. Wash, wash, wash’

• These books are a great introduction to baby play with a doll and more pretend play!

 Activity of the Month - January 2020

Fishy Sandwiches

This is a great way to get your little ones involved in making lunch, and learn new vocabulary and concepts along the way!

Adapt the level of the language you use and the concepts to suit your child’s age and stage - suitable for 2-6 year olds.

Ingredients:

4 slices of brown /white bread

1 teaspoon butter

60 g / 2 oz grated cheddar cheese,

small piece of cucumber.

small piece carrot

2 raisins

Method:

Talk ahead about the activity - ‘Guess what?’ (& pause - a great conversation starter to model- encourage your child to ask ‘What?) ‘We’re going to make fish sandwiches!’ Look at the picture and think together about what you may need - bread, butter, lettuce, cheese etc - see if your little one can remember 2-3 or 4 items.

1. Cut the crusts from the bread slices.

2. Cut out a fish shape from each bread slice(freehand or using cookie cutter) Encourage your child to ask for help - giving them the words they need, ‘Can you help me?’ ‘Can you cut the fish shape?’

3. Butter the fish shape bread slices and place them on serving dish. Introduce new vocabulary, ‘Can you spread the butter?’

4. Sprinkle some cheese on top of the fish shape bread slices and sandwich the second shape on top of it to make a sandwich. Use language around quantities to develop understanding - ‘How much cheese do we need? Is that enough or do you want more? Who has the most / least cheese?’

5. Place some shredded lettuce on a serving dish and place the fish shaped sandwich on it. Talk about the picture you’re making - ‘This is the sea and here are the waves’

6.Cut some green strips from the cucumber peel and arrange them on the fish tail  to represent stripes.Cut out some carrot strips and arrange them on the fishes body to make stripes. Highlight parts of the fish - Where’s is the fish’s tail / fin?’

7. Cut the raisin in half and use to make eyes.You could think together about what else you could use to make the fish’s eye - e.g. cherry tomato.

Making food together is a great opportunity to support your child’s developing theory of mind - for example their understanding that different people have different likes and dislikes. ‘I like cheese, do you?’ ‘Daddy doesn’t like cucumber’

Take some photos whiles you’re making the fishy sandwiches, and then you can encourage your child to retell events by telling a sibling or grandparent how they made their sandwich.

Have fun!

 Activity of the Month - December 2019

Christmas Tree Photo Baubles

Your toddler will love making these photo baubles to add to their Christmas tree. There are lots of opportunities for listening, language and thinking!

Materials

• green & brown felt or poster paper

• Silver foil or coloured paper for the star

• photos of family and friends

• blue tac or velcro

Method

• Laminate the photos so they last longer if you can

• Cut out the photos using a circle template (around 12)

• Cut out the Christmas tree & trunk from the poster paper (or felt)

• Make a star from paper or silver foil and put on the top of the tree

• Add velcro pieces to the photo baubles and the tree so they stick together

• Take turns choosing a bauble to stick on the tree

Listening & Language & Thinking

• Discrimination - encourage your child to identify people in the pictures from the set of 12 through listening, e.g. ‘Can you find grandma?’ ‘Where’s daddy in his red jumper?’

• Talk about what’s happening in the pictures, ‘Do you remember when you met Father Christmas?’ “Look - you built a snowman’. Point at a picture and pause to encourage your child to tell you something about the picture - from a single word to sentences depending on their language level.

• Highlight emotions in the photos, and use causal explanatory language - ‘Mummy is very happy because she’s on holiday’ ‘You look so excited because you met Mickey Mouse’.

• Take turns asking one another to find a particular photo bauble and take it off. You can then stick them all on again!

 Activity of the Month - November 2019

Gingerbread Men

It’s a great time of year for gingerbread and this activity ties in so well with the Gingerbread Man story! 

This activity of great for older preschool and school children aged approx 4-6

Recipe 

350g Plain Flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 

2 teaspoons ground ginger 

100g butter 

175g light brown sugar

1 egg

4 tablespoons of golden syrup

Method (& tips for supporting developing language) 

1. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl. Decide which is the smallest spoon (a teaspoon) from a selection of 3 spoons. Count the number of teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda and ginger.

2. Add the butter and rub in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Alternatively this can be done in a food processor. Stir in the sugar. Weigh the sugar on the scales together - adding more or less.

3. Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together, add to the bowl and mix to a dough (or pulse the food processor to to a dough) This is great to show the concept of dry and wet - ‘The mixture is too dry - we need to add something wet’

4. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

5. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

6. Roll the dough out to approx 0.5 thickness on a lightly floured board. You can sing ‘This is the way we roll the dough .....roll roll roll’ as you do this.

7. Cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a space between them. Talk about who the gingerbread men are for This one is for Jenny because she plays with me....’

8. Bake for 12–15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

9. When cooled decorate with the writing icing and sweets. Make your gingerbread people girls and boys - then you can introduce pronouns in your baking! ‘He wants yellow buttons’ ‘She has blue eyes and red hair’ ‘Let’s give her some silver shoes’

   
   
   

It’s great to link fun activities to stories

The Gingerbread Man

You can find the video of Gingerbread man on here:

the-gingerbread-man-2

Or you can  use story cards to tell the story:

sb465prev.html

Ideas for language and learning

Use different voices for different characters - highlight key words ‘Come back! gingerbread man’. 

Give your little one the opportunity to retell the story at their language level - e.g. 2-3 word combinations or phrases / short sentences. 

‘Come back’ ‘No, no, no’ ‘You can’t catch me’.

It’s great to help your child to learn little phrases in books and songs (this helps to develop their auditory memory) - for older children, encourage them to copy the refrain, starting with some auditory closure so they fill in the last part and moving towards them copying the whole phrase. 

‘Run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man’ 

Collect the animals for the story - a pig, cow, horse, boy, baker, baker’s wife, fox :  

• identify characters based on description

• Discriminate the characters at soft conversational level

• use the props to act out the story

You can help develop your child’s theory of mind as well, by talking about the motives and thinking of the sly fox: 

’Does the fox want to help the gingerbread man?’ ‘Why do you think the fox wants the gingerbread man to move forward onto his head’

 Activity of the Month- October 2019

Spider Web Cupcakes for Halloween - October 2019

Decorating cupcakes is a great way to help your little one to learn language around mathematical concepts of quantity and size & develop their understanding of other people’s perspectives. This activity is suitable for ages 3-6 years - adapting the language depending on your child’s age and stage.

You’ll need:

cupcakes (shop bought or homemade )

icing sugar

food colouring (black / brown or purple)

coffee stirrer or cocktail stick

Method

• Help your child to understand less familiar vocabulary, e.g. ‘web’ - use a picture like the one above and explain how the spider spins a web to catch flies!

• Talk ahead about what you’re going to do - ‘We’re going to make spider web cupcakes’

• Think together about what you need to decorate the cakes - a bowl, spoon, icing sugar, water (colouring). Encourage your child to remember 3-4 or 5 items depending on their age and stage.

• Help them to find what they need in the kitchen, using a range of higher level prepositions (under, next to, behind etc) ‘The bowl is in the cupboard next to the fridge’ ‘The icing sugar is on the middle shelf above the flour’

• Encourage your child to give clear instructions to tell you what to do next. Show them that some instructions can be misinterpreted if they are not clear, e.g if they tell you to ‘Put the sugar in the bowl’ you can put the box in the bowl and laugh about it then highlight the extra information, ‘Oh you mean, pour some sugar in the bowl’

• Add water to the sugar a little at a time and stir to make a thick icing. Talk about quantities - ‘Is that enough sugar or do you want more?’ ‘How many teaspoons of water shall I add? ‘How many is that if I add one more?’ How many cakes do we need for our family? (count them out for each person).

• Ice the top of each cake, saving some icing to add colour for the web. Use a variety of verbs (action words) during the activity - move from familiar to less familiar vocabulary to help your child to learn new words - tear, stir, spread, add, each, every etc

• Add one or two drops of food colouring to the remaining icing - or divide it and make two different colours. Use a simple piping bag made from a triangle of greaseproof paper or a freezer bag and fill with coloured icing. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques/how_to_make_a_paper_piping_bag

• Draw three concentric circles on each cake. “Which circle is the biggest / smallest?’ Use a cocktail stick or a wooden coffee stirrer to draw lines from the centre of each cake to the outside to make the web pattern. Talk about what colour each person would like “Sally would like purple because it’s her favourite colour’ ‘Daddy doesn’t like cake but we’ll make him a spider sweet instead’.

• You could add some spiders made from liquorice or marzipan if you want to add to the fun! Enjoy!
  

 Activity of the Month September 2019

Shopping fun!

Role playing everyday activities such as shopping is great fun and fantastic for language & learning.

Follow up with a trip to the shops to reinforce the language and add real life experience.

This activity is suitable for different ages from 2-5 years by adapting the language and learning during the play.

I’ll focus on toddlers 2-3 years and then add some ideas for older children 4-5 years.

Shopping role play

Resources

You can choose to make a specific shop, like a fruit and veg shop, or a toy shop or a grocery store selling different things.

Use what you have at home, for example:

• toy fruit, vegetables & everyday foods (or the real thing!)

• toys e.g. ball, train, duck, bubbles

• other items e.g. books, paint etc

• a basket or bag & purse and pretend money (or some real coins)

• a toy till if your have one (optional)

2-3 year olds

For toddlers the book “Maisy goes shopping’ is a great introduction to this role play. Read the book together, highlighting new words.

• Set up your shop on a table

• Talk ahead ‘Let’s play shopping’ - agree roles - it helps to have another adult or older child to be the shopkeeper initially, and for you to scaffold your child’s role as shopper, ‘Joe can be the shopkeeper first, and then it’s your turn’.

• Model a little script for your child to follow, for example:

  (knock knock) come in

  hello (good morning)

  hello

  what would you like?

  I would like an apple and some milk please

  here you are - money please or £2 please

  thank you - (give some coins)

  bye

  bye

• Practise a few times, and then swap roles

• Help your child to develop their auditory memory by giving them 1, 2 or 3 items to buy depending on their age and stage

• Bring in some early numeracy by counting items and coins

4-5 year olds

• For older children, you can think with your child about setting up the shop, and introduce categories:

• ‘What kind of shop shall we make?’ ‘What would you find in a fruit & veg shop / toy shop /clothes shop?’ - name as many items in the different categories as you can

• Scaffold the conversation between the shopkeeper and the customer, depending on your child’s age and stage

• Introduce early literacy skills by writing labels with your child for the items in the shop, highlighting initial letter sounds, e.g. ‘what does bananas begin with?’

• Bring in early numeracy skills e.g. by talking about quantities - ‘Who has more grapes, you or mummy?’ “Who has the most crayons?’ ‘I’ve got less money than you’

• Introduce problems in the play and talk about possible solutions, e.g. ‘Oh no - I have no money - what shall I do?’ ‘We’ve run out of apples, would you like something else?’
  

 Activity of the Month August 2019

August 2019 - Make your own ‘magic’ sand & sandcastle play

Whether or not you live near the beach, it’s a great theme for play and learning with your little one!

These activities are suitable for pre-school children from around 2-5 years. Adapt your language and the learning as you go along depending on your child’s age and stage.

Make your own moldable play sand

This a really simple and great for learning about early concepts such as quantities and opposites.

You just need:

5 cups of play sand

3 cups of flour

1 cup of vegetable oil

Combine the ingredients together in a large plastic container with a lid. If it feels a little crumbly, add a bit more oil. Once you’ve finished playing put the lid on and keep it for another day!

Talk ahead about what you are going to do. Highlight the sequence, e.g. ‘First we need to mix the sand and the flour and then we’ll add the oil” (or for a younger child, “First mix and then pour”).

Encourage your child to tell you the sequence, “First _____ and then _______”.

Talk about quantities. This will help build understanding and the concept and vocabulary to describe quantities:

“Do you want more?”

“Shall I put in a little or a lot?”

“Do you need some or all?”

“Who has more, you or Daddy?”

“Oh look, the jar is empty - it’s all gone”

There are lots of verbs involved too - Pour, Mix, Stir, Look, Wait.

Making sand castles

Have a think together about what you can play with the sand, “Hmm, What shall we play with our sand?” Thinking of different ideas encourages divergent thinking, e.g. sandcastles, make a beach, build a tower, make a sand cake etc

With a younger child at a single word level, you can help them to learn how to make a sand castle by showing them the little process using the bucket and spade, highlighting key words

“First put it in and then pat, pat, pat” “Can I have some more?”

“I like digging”

Encourage your child to complete the sentence to show they understand what to do “First put it ___ and then ______”

With an older child, ask them to tell you how to make a sandcastle - this will help them to give instructions to someone else. You can model it first and them ask hem to tell another member of the family.

Encourage your child to experiment and problem solve - e.g. “What would happen if I put another sandcastle on top?” “Oh no - it’s too heavy - I think it may fall down”.

Extending the play:

Five Little Sandcastles

I found this great little song online - you could make 5 sandcastles and have some water ‘waves’ ready to wash each one away. Teaching new songs helps your child to extend their auditory memory and this one also has lots of rhymes.

5 little sandcastles sitting on a beach.

Watching the boats go by.   (hand over eyes as though watching boats)

5 little sandcastles sitting on a beach 

Watching the seagulls fly  (flap arms like a seagull).

5 little sandcastles sitting on a beach 

Watching the clouds so high (look up and point)

When along came a wave  (roll hands or make large wave movements with arms)

and washed one away  (hold up 1 finger).   (Remove one sand castle)

Now this is what the other ones say:

Now we are 4 little sandcastles sitting on the beach....... 

https://youtu.be/SFessIlHfLw

Guess the shape

Use your play dough moulds too - to do some discrimination - ask your child to give you a shape or object from the set - one, two or three depending on their age and stage. “Can I have a car and a flower?”.

For older children, describe an object in 2-3 parts and see if your child can guess which one you’re describing, e.g. “It has petals and grows in the garden”

What’s missing?

Ask your older preschool child, “What do we need to go to the beach?” - think of as many different things as you can, e.g. bucket, spade, suncream, sunglasses etc.

Put 4 of them on a tray and cover with a cloth - then take one thing away

‘What’s missing?’ Play again and add another item for the beach.

 Activity of the Month July 2019

Hide & Seek with Teddy!

Here’s a great game to play with your little one - its so much fun finding Teddy and learning about prepositions and verbs too!

You can adapt the language to suit children from 2-5 years.

Children generally show understanding of early prepositions (in, on, under) at around 2-21/2 years, and learn more complex ones (next to, behind, in front of) later at around 3-4 years.

All you need is a Teddy - or your child’s favourite cuddly toy, a phone camera and lots of energy!

How to play

• First you can play hide and seek with Teddy around the room. By being a play partner, you’re helping them to understand how to play the game with their friends later.

• Talk ahead about what you’re going to do: ‘Teddy’s going to hide and we’ll find him’

• ‘First you need to close your eyes’ Leave gaps to check your child’s understanding, ‘First close your ______’ (or First _____________’).

• Count to ten with your child (or even count backwards with an older child) and say ‘Coming, ready or not!’

• Talk aloud and highlight prepositions while you look for Teddy, “Is he under the table / in the box / on the shelf?’ ‘Here he is!’ Stick to these 3 prepositions - in, on, under with a younger child.

• For an older child you can introduce more abstract prepositions - in front of, behind, next to etc. Add some mental state terms too (think, wonder, know etc) “I wonder where Teddy’s hiding?’ ‘I think he’s behind the curtain’

• Help your child to take a turn hiding Teddy for you or another adult to find.

  Make a Hide & Seek book

  Take photos of your favourite cuddly toy in different places in your house.

  You could do this with your child - have fun finding great places for him to hide!

  Look through the photos and ask ‘Where’s Teddy?’ ‘He’s under the desk’

  This is a great opportunity to go over vocabulary for furniture around the house. You could make a book from the photos to share with Grandparents

 Activity of the Month - June 2019

Stacks of Fun!

This activity is suitable for babies from 6-24 months & can be adapted to suit your baby’s listening and language level.

Stacking rings are a favourite baby toy - and you can use them to help develop listening, early language and play skills.

I really like the sensory stacking rings and wonder cubes from ELC

Here are a few ideas:

Functional hearing check

It helps when there are two of you for this - one of you distracts the baby from the front with a simple toy, the other person sits beside baby with the rings. Say each of the LING sounds in turn at conversational level. When the baby looks round give him or her a ring and help them to put it on. Remember to vary the sequence and pause between each one /m/ /ah/ /oo/ /ee/ /sh/ /ss/. This is a great way to check your baby can hear the range of speech sounds.

Introduce a little play sequence

Show your little one a simple play sequence - for example - shaking a box with a stacking ring inside, taking the ring out of a box, putting it on, then when they’re all on taking each one off and giving it to mummy. Think about the key words you can use for each part of the sequence (highlighting key words at the end of the sentence): ‘shake shake’ ‘can you put it on’ ‘do you want more?’ take it off’ ‘give it to mummy’

Try some vocal play

Stacking cups or cubes work very well for this. The aim is to encourage your little one to copy speech sounds, to give them practice developing their auditory feedback loop (matching what they say to your model).

Take turns modelling different speech sounds, making the a sound into each cup as you build a tower, It may take a few turns for your baby to get the hang of the game - just give them the opportunity to take a turn, e.g. /ah/ /oo/ /ba/ /da/ /ma/ - /dada/ /ma-ma/ /ba-ba/ /dee-dee/ /moo-moo/ etc. Once you’ve built your tower, you can encourage your baby to knock it down!

Learning to listen sounds

The wonder cubes from ELC have pictures of animals on. Make the animal sounds associated with a few of them, e.g. ‘oo oo’ monkey, ‘roar’ for lion, ‘snap snap’ for crocodile. Once you feel your baby knows those sounds go with those animals you can choose 2-3 cubes and ask your baby for one of them, ‘Where’s the ‘oo oo’?’ This will help your baby to learn to discriminate between different learning to listen sounds through listening.

Activities 2019

May 2019 - Playground Fun!

Making a simple park is great fun and gives you the opportunity to support your child’s social and emotional learning whilst playing!

Children can practice initiating play and conversation, negotiating who goes first and problem solving through role play using little people.

This activity can be adapted for children aged around 3-6 years old.

Resources

lining paper (wallpaper)

felt tip pens

play park swing, slide etc

playmobil people

Half the fun is planning the game together. You can model how to share your idea, “I’ve got an idea” (pause) “Let’s make a park”.

Lining paper makes a great base for your park, and you can draw extra things on depending on the age / stage of your child.

Encourage your child to think about what you need for your park and take the opportunity to remember the items again before you get them (using finger prompts can help with this) e.g. “We need a _______ (slide), a _______ (swing) and some ________ (people).

Your park may have a duck pond or a cafe too! You can draw these on the paper.

Next, ask your child who’s going to be in the park - this can be family and / or friends from nursery or school, e.g. mummy, Joe, Sally, Leo.

Let your child choose who they want to be - it can be fun to be other people. You can be one or more of their friends and someone else can be mummy for example.

Role play different scenarios, depending on the age / stage of your child - here’s some examples:

make a plan to decide what your little people will play on first, “Let’s play on the swing” “Do you want to go on the roundabout?”

decide who’s going to go first, which may involve some negotiation! “I want to go first” “ooh, I want to go first”. Model ways to resolve this, “Me first, and then you” “You go first and then it’s my turn” '“Let’s do ‘eeny meny miny mo’ to decide who goes first”

introduce simple problems and solutions that may happen at the park, e.g. a little friend falls off the swing and hurts their knee. Encourage your child to problem solve, “What shall we do?” (go and tell mummy, get a plaster etc). Another friend could lose their ball

with older children you can role play situations where someone feels left out, or has a fight with a friend, and talk through what you can do to help

there are lots of ways to extend the play too, with visits to the cafe, deciding who wants what to eat and drink etc.

you can use this role play as an opportunity to help your older child develop their self awareness about their hearing loss too, modelling challenges and strategies to help, e.g. “I can’t hear my friend” “What could you do?” “Let’s ask her ‘Can you say it again’