This is Mrs Burrow here, I thought I would quickly introduce myself. I am an Early Years teacher and have been working in education for nearly 9 years.
I love Early Years and still at 30 years of age act like a child, although surely that’s just called having fun. Anyways, I wanted to share with you some tips and tricks to help ease and settle all the little toes that will be popping into your classroom to start their first day of school.
I absolutely love the fun, loving and rhyming book called Pip and the Bag of Buddies. This book is a perfect introduction to discuss the different feelings children may feel and go through as they start a brand new routine and the different changes they may face. Pip uses the Buddies to help him on his journey as he overcomes and faces some challenging times, just like we might at school. The book can be used with both Bags of Buddies (set 1/2). The buddies come with a small drawstring bag and are easily washable.
This book along with the Buddies can be used for a circle time activity, the Buddies fit perfectly inside the palm of a hand and can be easily recognisable with the colours and character faces. This allows children to openly discuss their feelings to each other, or perhaps ease a child into the setting by relating to the feelings. Children sometimes struggle to discuss their feelings and regulate them, especially in new environments. Using these Buddies can support the children to release their emotions and successfully achieve their Early Learning Goal to express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. In our setting, we love bookish play and being able to follow a story on our learning journey. As they children develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas and events that may have happened. We have been designing our own Buddies and placing them around the classroom to offer comfort and support.
At the moment, our main Buddies and the story of Pip are perfectly snuggled inside our regulation station. This is a station that is guarded by the fairies of Class 1 (the fantasy doll set). The fairies keep an eye out on all the children, offering their tiny magic when something WOW has happened. These fairies sometimes visit and when they do the children know to use their quiet voices as this is sometimes a rare occasion. This allows children to develop a positive sense of self, creating good relationships with their peers and the fairies, building on the foundations of self-achievement and worth.
After adult modelling and guidance, we decided to set up an independent tuff tray using the matching pairs, feelings and emotions card game. This allows the children to self-regulate and be able to talk to their peers with no pressure. We feel this will aid them to manage their own emotions and understand their own feelings, on their own terms. With these attributes, the children will be able to successfully resolve and secure the foundations of a healthy learning environment.
There is nothing better than a happy child, who smiles in a safe and warm environment.
We love using the KCS Early Years resources to help support the children in our provision and are truly thankful.
