Nicola Call Sally Featherstone The Thinking Child Resource Book - Brain Based Learning For The Early Years Foundation Stage Second Edition Continuum 2010 PDF

The
Thinking
Child
Resource Book
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The Thinking Child 2nd edition, Nicola Call with Sally Featherstone
100 Ideas for Developing Good Practice in the Early Years, Wendy Bowkett &
Stephen Bowkett
100 Ideas for Teaching Creative Development, Wendy Bowkett & Stephen Bowkett
The
Thinking
Child
Resource Book
2nd edition
Brain-based learning for the early years foundation stage
Nicola Call
with Sally Featherstone
Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane,
11 York Road Suite 704
London New York,
SE1 7NX NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
© Nicola Call with Sally Featherstone 2010

First edition published 2003

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Nicola Call and Sally Featherstone have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781855397415 (paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Call, Nicola.
The thinking child resource book : brain-based learning for the early
years foundation stage / Nicola Call with Sally Featherstone. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-85539-741-5 (pbk.)
1. Cognitive learning. 2. Brain. 3. Effective teaching. 4. Early
childhood education. I. Featherstone, Sally. II. Featherstone, Sally.
III. Title.
LB1062.C353 2010
370.15’2--dc22
Typeset by Ben Cracknell Studios

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell&Bain, Glasgow
‘If you are planning for a year, sow rice;
if you are planning for a decade, plant trees;
if you are planning for a lifetime,
educate people.’
Chinese proverb
Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Understanding the child’s brain 1
Step 1: Let’s meet a brain 1
Step 2: Meeting the children in their settings 2
Part One: Preparing the climate and context for learning 5
Step 1: Addressing children’s physical needs 5
Step 2: Inclusion 18
Step 3: Developing emotional intelligence 22
Step 4: Providing children with the tools for learning 32
Step 5: Managing behaviour positively 45
Step 6: Fostering partnerships with parents and carers 51
Part Two: Supporting independent learning 59
Step 1: Making maximum use of the environment 59
Step 2: Helping children to develop good attention skills 72
Step 3: Helping children to stay on task 80
Step 4: Talking the language of learning 84

Part Three: Developing brain-based techniques 95
Step 1: Teaching children to mind map 95
Step 2: Adventures in play 102
Step 3: Maximizing learning through music 110
Step 4: Teaching and learning through movement 115
Step 5: The place for technology 119
Part Four: Teaching for intelligence 127
Step 1: Creative teaching for better learning 127
Step 2: Fostering the beginnings of group-work 133
Step 3: Teaching through VAK 137
Step 4: Engaging the multiple intelligences 145
Step 5: Taking the time for learning 149
Endnotes 155
Appendices 157
Some principles for planning 157
Key vocabulary 158
Recommended reading 160
Bibliography 163
Some useful websites 166
Photocopiable material 167
Index 177
Preface
This book is intended to be used as a companion to The Thinking Child – Brain-based

Learning for the Early Years Foundation Stage. In The Thinking Child, you will find
the theory about brain-based learning and descriptions of the research that backs up the
methods and practices described in both books. It is important to have an overview of this
theory in order to have maximum success in putting these brain-based techniques into
practice. It would therefore be preferable, although not essential, to read The Thinking Child
before moving on to use the suggestions in this book.
Once you are familiar with The Thinking Child, you will see that the structure of this book
is very much the same. This book is also divided into an introduction and then four parts,
which are subdivided into section steps. In order to help you to use both books in tandem,
cross references are given to the second edition of The Thinking Child in the margin.
These cross references provide the background theory for the practical suggestions given in
this book. If there is a possibility that an activity or suggestion taken out of context may be
inappropriate for use with some children or settings, a warning is given through a caution
sign.
In this book, the main aspects of brain-based learning are given context through either a case
study, where we describe real children in real settings, or an anecdote about one of ‘Our four
children’. These four pre-schoolers, who are described in detail in The Thinking Child, are
George, Carrie, Kishan and Samantha. They are fictitious characters from settings that use
brain-based learning techniques, and the descriptions of their activities are representative of
some of the best early years practice.
Some of the resources in this book are intended for photocopying for use with children,
for staff development or for individual reference. Many suggestions are given in the form
of lists which can be easily photocopied, such as ways to help children develop high self-
esteem, ways to give positive feedback or ways to involve parents in your setting. These
suggestions can be used as described or can be developed to suit your individual situation.
Other sections give practical activities to do with children, such as circle time activities
and games to promote a ‘can do’ attitude. At various points, you will find a suggestion
for a practical task, called ‘Activity’, that you may wish to undertake either alone or with
colleagues. Again, these can be adapted to suit each individual setting. Material that
is printed within the text in a small version on a clipboard, can be found in a full-sized
version for photocopying at the end of the book.
Working to understand how the child’s brain develops and applying this knowledge to early
years practice is no small undertaking. The challenge may be great but the rewards of
working this way are immeasurable. We sincerely hope that The Thinking Child and The
Thinking Child Resource Book will help you as you make that learning journey.
page viii
The Thinking Child Resource Book
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
gives cross
givescross
gives
reference
crossreference
reference to
to the
the topic
topic in The
The
in The Thinking
Thinking
Thinking Child.
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in The Thinking
in The Child
Thinking (2nd edition).
Child.
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describesaspects
aspectsof of brain-based
brain-based
of learning
learning
brain-based in
in real
learning real settings.
settings.
in real
real settings.
describes
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aspects ofof brain-based
brain-based learning
learning inin real settings.
settings.
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aspectsof of
of brain-based
brain-based
in a in
learning
learning in a
a fictitious
fictitious
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of one of
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UTIO
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be inappropriate
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Thank
Thank youyou to
you to the
to the many
the many practitioners
many practitioners who
practitioners who generously
who generously shared
generously shared their
shared their ideas
their ideas and
ideas and
and
Thank
Thank
Thank you
youto
tothe
themany
many practitioners
practitionerswho generously
who shared
generously their
shared ideas
their and
ideas creativity
and with
creativity
creativity with
with me.
me. Working
Working with
with Sally
Sally Featherstone
Featherstone has
has once
once again
again been
been both
both aa
a
creativity
me. Working
creativity with
with
with me.
me. Working
Sally
Working with
Featherstone
with Sally
has
Sally Featherstone
once again been
Featherstone has
both
has once
a again
pleasure
once again been
and
been a both
great
both alearning
pleasure and
and aa
pleasure and great
a great learning
great learning experience
learning experience for
experience for me.
for me. Thanks
me. Thanks are
Thanks are due
are due to
due to Sharon
to Sharon James,
Sharon James,
James,
pleasure
experience
pleasure for
and me.
a Thanks
great are
learning due to Sharon
experience James,
for me. Heather
Thanks Anderson,
are due toJill Koops,
Sharon Kate Barnes
James,
Heather
Heather Anderson,
Anderson, Jill
Jill Koops,
Koops, Kate
Kate Barnes
Barnes and
and Siobhan
Siobhan Burrows
Burrows for
for their
their
Heather
and
Heather Anderson,
Siobhan Burrows
Anderson, Jill
for
Jill Koops,
their
Koops, Kate
input
Kate Barnes
and and
inspiration.
Barnes and Siobhan
The
Siobhan Burrows
children from
Burrows for their
Seer
for Green
their Church of
continued input
continued input and
input and inspiration.
and inspiration. The
inspiration. The staff
The staff and
staff and children
and children from
children from Seer
from Seer Green
Seer Green Church
Green Church
Church of of
of
continued
England
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input andSchool and Braunstone
inspiration. Frith
The staff andInfant School
children welcomed
from Seer us into
Green their
Church classrooms
of
England Combined
England Combined School
Combined School and
School and Braunstone
and Braunstone Frith
Braunstone Frith Infant
Frith Infant School
Infant School welcomed
School welcomed
welcomed us us into
us into
into
England
to do our
England research
Combined for this
School book.
and The teachers,
Braunstone parents,
Frith and
Infantchildren
School of Parents
welcomed Nursery
us into School in
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their classrooms
classrooms toto do
to do our
do our research
our research for
research for this
for this book.
this book.
book.
their
Palo
theirAlto, California,
classrooms provided
to do much of for
our research thethis
inspiration
book. for new material in this second edition.
Above all,
Above all, thank
all, thank you
thank you
you toto my
to my husband,
my husband, Josef,
husband, Josef, for
Josef, for providing
for providing
providing the the encouragement
the encouragement
encouragement and and
and
Above
Above
Above all,
all,thank
thank you
youto my
to myhusband,
husband,Josef, for
Josef, providing
for the
providing encouragement
the encouragementand practical
and
practical
practical support
support that
that enables
enables me
me to
to continue
continue to
to write
write while
while being
being a
a mother.
mother. Thank
Thank
practical
support
practical support
that
support that
enables me
that enables
to
enables me
continueme to
to
to continue
write while
continue to write
being
to a
write while
mother.
while being
Thank
being aa you
mother.
to
mother. my Thank
daughters
Thank
you to
you to Sara
to Sara Arola
Sara Arola for
Arola for giving
for giving such
giving such excellent
such excellent care
excellent care
care toto my
to my own
my own pre-schooler,
own pre-schooler, Alysia,
pre-schooler, Alysia,
Alysia, asas
as III
you
Alysia
you to and
Sara Rebecca,
Arola who
for made
giving endless
such suggestions
excellent care for
to activities
my own (usually messy)
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Alysia, as inI this
worked
worked to to meet
to meet
meet mymy deadline,
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deadline, andand to
and to my
to my baby,
my baby, Rebecca,
baby, Rebecca,
Rebecca, forfor snuggling
for snuggling
snuggling so so happily
so happily
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worked
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meet busy,
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deadline, little
and to pre-schooler
my baby, Alexander,
Rebecca, for for being
snuggling willing
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as III worked.
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thank them
thank them
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the early years.
early years.
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teachers.
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page 6
66
page
page
The Thinking
The Thinking Child
Thinking Child
Child page 6page ix Resource Book
Resource Book
Book
The Resource
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
Understanding the
child’s brain
Step 1: Let’s meet a brain
Brain
In recent years researchers have begun to understand more about the brain, and the mysteries page 13
of intelligence have begun to unravel. Scientists are now able to look deep inside the living,
functioning brain, and many long-held theories are being disproved and new ones developed.
The brain consists of about one hundred billion nerve cells, called neurons. These neurons
develop axons for transmitting information to other neurons and dendrites for receiving
information. As patterns of thought are repeated, the participating neurons build stronger
and more direct pathways, which are called synapses. The first few years of life, in fact, are the
most critical for this wiring of the brain, and the more stimulation a child’s brain receives, the
more neural pathways are formed. As he repeats experiences, this pathway-building becomes
permanent and strong – in other words, the experiences are committed to memory. In this way,
nature and nurture act together to wire each individual child’s brain in its own unique way. We
cannot alter nature, but as practitioners we can provide the nurturing environment that will
maximize the child’s brain development.
When we use brain-based learning techniques, we are adapting the learning environment to
take account of what scientists have found to be the best ways to help children to form these
neural connections. That is what this book is about: applying current knowledge about the brain
to the early years setting. Developing these learning techniques can be exciting and extremely
rewarding. We hope that this book and The Thinking Child will help you to put these techniques
into practice with confidence.
page 1
Introduction
Fascinating Facts
•
Until very recently, it was thought that the functions of the various
areas of the brain were pre-programmed and that damage to one area of
the brain caused, for example, by a stroke, was irreparable. The latest
research, however, has shown that the brain exhibits some level of
structural plasticity. In other words, completely new wiring can actually be
created, and some areas of the brain can take on entirely new roles after
physical damage has occurred to other sections.1
•
Nutrition directly affects IQ. In 1988 a group of researchers from
Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand followed more than 1,000
children from birth to age 18 to study the effects of breastfeeding. They
found a direct correlation between the higher scores in tests of cognitive
ability and the duration of breastfeeding.1 Other studies have shown the
seriousness of iron deficiency on the developing brain. Iron is needed for
myelination, the process by which the axons are coated with a greasy
substance called myelin. Without adequate myelin, the communication
between brain cells becomes sluggish. Iron deficiency in young children can
lead to poor cognitive development.2
•
Language is linked to the ability to lay down memories. A team of
researchers from New Zealand conducted a study to discover why most
people do not have memories from before the age of three or four years.
They played a specific game with children on two separate occasions. Most
children were able to describe the game at the second visit, yet even when
a child knew a word at the later date, he did not use it if it had not been in
his vocabulary at the first visit.3
Step 2: Meeting the children in their settings
page 2
Understanding the child’s brain
The setting
Our setting is a fictitious one that is designed to give an overview of what can be achieved when
practitioners use brain-based learning techniques. The setting consists of a part-time pre-school
situated in the church hall, which is just across the playground from the primary school, and a
nursery and reception class within the school. The practitioners here enjoy a strong relationship
and work to ensure that there is good continuity and progression between the three groups. They
have been using brain-based techniques for several years and are continually evaluating their
work and developing new ideas in line with the most recent research into the brain and child
development.
Our four children are George, who attends the pre-school, Carrie, who attends the morning
nursery, and Kishan and Samantha, who are both in the full-time reception class. These children
are not ‘case studies’. They are fictitious characters who illustrate how learning is affected by the
choices made by adults around them. They are all fortunate enough to come from homes where
their physical, intellectual and emotional needs are well met, yet they each have their own unique
learning style. The practitioners work hard to try to match the curriculum to the wide variety of
learners in their settings.
The children
Let’s meet George
George is the one of the youngest children in the pre-school, which he
attends three mornings per week. He is the only child in his family and
receives considerable attention from his extended family. He is a quiet,
gentle and tactile child, who is somewhat wary of new situations and
often wants to follow the lead of other children.
George can be easily discouraged and frequently needs adult support when he encounters a
challenge. Like many very young children, he tends to leave a task if he does not experience
immediate success. His key person also feels that he needs to learn to become more assertive in
group situations. He is now developing a few strong friendships with children in his group, and
is starting to engage in associative play more frequently. One of George’s favourite activities is to
work in the garden, watering plants, digging, weeding, and observing nature. He notices details Multiple
intelligences
about the natural world and is one of the first to see any change in the outdoor environment, page 139
such as a plant flowering, or a new weed growing through a crack in the pavement. Using
Howard Gardner’s definitions of the ‘multiple intelligences’4, George can be seen to have a strong
naturalist intelligence.
Let’s meet Carrie

Carrie is the oldest child in the morning group of the nursery class. Her
mother is a single parent who has to commute several miles to work. Carrie
goes to a breakfast club before school and is cared for by a local childminder
in the afternoons and during school holidays. One of Carrie’s greatest
strengths is her interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. She relates well to
other children and adults, and talks comfortably about how she feels. She
is sensitive to the feelings of other children and loves to organize other
children and look after them if they are hurt or unhappy.
page 3
Introduction
Carrie is naturally a strong visual learner who can recreate a game with the small world toys, for
example, from memory. She likes to get involved with very elaborate imaginative play involving
other children, but she sometimes finds it difficult to settle for a sustained period, becoming
distracted by the excitement of her stream of new ideas. Carrie needs help to maintain her focus
and follow an activity through to its conclusion.
Let’s meet Kishan

Kishan has been in reception class for two terms. He didn’t attend either
the pre-school or the nursery class previously, because he was settled
at the full-time day care centre that he attended from the age of three
months. Kishan’s family is bilingual. His parents are the first generation
of their families to be born in the United Kingdom, and speak Bengali
and English fluently.
Kishan has a highly inquisitive nature combined with boundless energy. He is a kinesthetic
learner who also has a strong mathematical-logical intelligence. He has strengths in activities
that involve spatial awareness. He needs to move in order to internalize information and he is
always on the go. Consequently, Kishan sometimes needs help with his friendships. He finds it
difficult to think through an action in preparation for an event. This can lead him into conflict
with his peers. He needs to be allowed plenty of time to process information, and benefits from
being given explicit instructions and feedback about his behaviour.
Let’s meet Samantha

Samantha also attends the full-time reception class. She has a strong
linguistic intelligence and was a particularly early talker. By her first
birthday she had a vocabulary of about 30 words, and from that point
onwards her language acquisition was explosive. She enjoys storytelling
sessions, and does not need pictures as an aid to concentration. Her
mother noticed that Samantha pole-bridged instinctively as a toddler,
Pole-
bridging and she still finds it easy to talk her way through an activity now. She
page 99 listens well, and finds it relatively easy to follow what her teacher is
writing or drawing on the whiteboard as she gives an explanation to
the group.
Samantha also has a strong musical intelligence. She has a good sense of rhythm and pitch and
can recall a simple pattern and tune after hearing it just once. She finds it easy to learn while
music is playing, and is often the first child to recognize a CD when her teacher uses it to give
a cue that a session is about to begin or come to an end. Samantha likes to stay indoors to read,
draw or play in the home corner, and needs encouragement to join activities out of doors.
page 4
Part One
Part One
Step 1: Addressing children’s physical needs
Preparing the
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
The psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) developed from his work with animals
climate and context
what he called ‘a hierarchy of needs’. If you are tired and hungry, you choose to eat before
going to sleep. If you are thirsty and hungry, you drink first: you instinctively tend to your
for learning
most urgent need. These needs must be met in succession in order to optimize human
performance. Lower order needs in the hierarchy have to be met before someone can
advance to higher order functioning.
These layers extend beyond physiology. Think of a pyramid with each of these needs being a
layer upon which the next can be laid. Without a strong foundation, the pinnacle cannot be
built. The pinnacle is ‘self-actualization’, which in education we often describe as ‘reaching
full potential’.
Step 1: Addressing children’s physical needs
These are the layers of the pyramid:
Self-actualization
Self-esteem needs
Love and belonging needs
Safety and security needs
Physiological needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow’s
If a child ‘hierarchy
is hungry, of needs’
thirsty or tired, hegives
5
will a
notgood overview
be able of the physical
to function. needs that
If he is worried must
about hisbe
metsafety,
if children
eitherare
at to learn
home or effectively. They
in the setting, canfeels
and be thought
insecure,ofhe
as will
a pyramid, with each
not function. If heofdoes
these Hierarchy
of needs
needs being a layer upon which the next can be laid. The physiological needs are
not build strong relationships or a sense of belonging, he will not move onto higher order the basis of the page 32
pyramid. They can
functioning. behas
If he broken
poor down into five
self-esteem, heareas: hydration,
will not believe innutrition, sleep,
himself and hismovement
performance and
attentional
will be weak. It is our responsibility to ensure that, to the best of our ability, we provideability
systems. It is the practitioner’s responsibility to ensure that to the best of her for
shethese
provides for theseneeds.
hierarchical hierarchical needs and educates children about their importance. Here are
some suggestions of some practical ways to do this.
The physiological needs are the basis of the pyramid, and can be broken down into five
areas: hydration, nutrition, sleep, movement,
The Thinking Child
and attentional systems, which we will Resource Book
page 5
consider in turn.
Part One
Hydration
A reception class teacher shared with us her experience of introducing sports bottles in
the classroom:
‘We decided as a school policy to address the issue of physiology and learning. As a part
of this strategy we asked parents to provide their children with a water bottle that could
be kept in the classroom so that children could drink freely.
The children were so excited the first day when they came into school clutching their
bottles, that they wouldn’t stay in their places for more than two minutes before going
for a drink. I was tempted to set limits, but decided to just wait and see if the novelty
wore off. Within two days, the trips to the bottles (and the loo!) became significantly less
disruptive, and within a week children were only going to the refreshment table when
they were really thirsty. It showed me that if you trust children, they will respond. If I
hadn’t trusted them, I would only have swapped one unsatisfactory system for another.’
In one nursery, the adults and children had easy access to water, but, when they were
busy, they forgot to take a drink. The adults discussed this with the children and
introduced a reminder signal. Now whenever an adult or child remembers to have a
drink of water, they pick up the rain stick near the water table and turn it. Everyone
stops at this sound to decide whether or not they are thirsty, and take a drink if they
need it.
To ensure that child

ren do not become
dehydrated you coul
• Build in regular socia
l times for drinks and
d:
•
snacks throughout th
Remind children to ha e day
ve drinks at the end of
•
sessions and breaks
Encourage children to
use refillable sports-sty
sealable nozzles le water bottles with
• Provide jugs of water

and cups for the child
•
ren to help themselve
Build in times when ch s
ildren can have a drin
•
k between activities
Talk about the importa
nce of drinking enough
•
water
Role-model by drinkin
g water throughout th
•
e day yourself
Make sure children ha
ve access to water outsi
particularly on hot da de as well as inside,
ys. A small table or tra
y of bottles will remind
them
It is now a statutory
requirement that
in the EYFS ‘fresh
drinking water must
be available at all
times’ 6
page 6
Preparing the climate and context for learning
See more
Encourage children to use sports-style water bottles. about nutrition
on page 23 of
Nutrition this book.
A child’s comment alerted a nursery teacher to poor

messages often given in our culture about diet:
‘I was reading a story to a group of children about the day-to-day activities of a baby.
It was a book by a well-known and respected publisher. I was reading on ‘auto-pilot’
when a child suddenly commented ‘Oooh, yummy, a delicious cookie!’ The text actually
read ‘I can taste a delicious cookie.’ Why not ‘a delicious apple’ or ‘a delicious banana’?
We used that book as a starting point for discussion about delicious foods, but I then
became much more conscious of the messages that we were giving children, not only
through books but also through general conversation about food.’
The practitioner arranged an audit of the books in her book corner and removed some
of the books that gave poor messages about food. She made a conscious effort to select
books with more positive messages in the future.
In one innovative nursery school, every other Wednesday was community lunch day.
The children spent the morning preparing and cooking a lunch that they would eat
together at midday. Often the meal would have a theme, and all the cultures of the
class were represented. Parents came into school to help to make the meal with the
children and shared in the preparation of healthy menus. Music was played through
these special mealtimes, and time was taken to eat at leisure and to learn from the
experience. On one occasion all the children made valiant efforts to eat an entire
Chinese meal with chopsticks, and on another, they carefully unfolded pasta as it
emerged from a pasta machine.
Fascinating Fact
The impact that schools can have in influencing lifestyle habits of young
children has been shown by the impact of initiatives such as The School Fruit
and Vegetable Scheme. Analysis of the programme in 2007 showed that ‘the
number of children achieving 5 A DAY has increased from 27% in March
2004 to 44% in November 2006 and the number of portions consumed has
also increased to a point where on average 50% of children in the scheme are
close to achieving their 5 A DAY target.’7
page 7
experience. On one occasion all the children made valiant efforts to eat an
entire Chinese meal with chopsticks, and on another, they carefully
Part One
unfolded pasta as it emerged from a pasta machine.
Children
Children can help to
can help to prepare
preparehealthy
healthysnacks.
snacks.
page 15
To encourage child
ren to have a nutriti
onal diet, you could:
• Introduce a breakfast
club
• Provide more regular

healthy snacks
• Involve the children in

preparing snacks and
•
drinks
Encourage children to
bring fruit or other he
breaks althy snacks to schoo
l for
• Introduce community
lunch days on a week
•
ly, monthly or half-ter
Put increasing time an mly basis
d energy into educatin
and healthy eating g children about nutri
tion
• Read books and tell sto

ries with positive messa
•
ges about good nutritio
Monitor the sublimina n
l messages given out
conversation or storie about food through
s
• Monitor lunchboxes,
and about appropriate
informing parents ab
food content
out what can be store
d safely
• Provide healthy prete

nd food for role-play ac
•
tivities
Ensure that cooking ac
tivities always include
•
healthy foods
Grow foods from pack
s of seeds, such as cre
sprouts or lettuce ss, tomatoes, beans, be
an
• Plant seeds from fruit

and vegetables to enco
grow, such as carrot top urage interest in how
plants
s, apple pips, and avoc
ado stones
page 8
Sleep
One reception teacher suggested an activity for children to do at home where they
each kept a sleep diary. She encouraged children to borrow books from the book corner
to read at bedtime as they snuggled with their parents to go to sleep. Displays in the
classroom showed the wonderful, pleasant aspects of bedtime: stories, cuddles, warm
sheets, soft toys, music and togetherness.
When Carrie first started in the nursery, her mother began to have
problems getting her to sleep at a reasonable time at night. Her mother
spoke to the teacher. The teacher was pleased to get the chance to discuss
this, as she had noticed that Carrie was often tired and not in the best mood for
learning. She wondered if this could simply be an adjustment period for Carrie as she got
accustomed to being in nursery five mornings per week.
They discussed Carrie’s bedtime routine. Because her mother had a long commute from
work it was late before she collected Carrie from her childminder’s house. This meant
that their bedtime routine started late in the evening. Carrie’s teacher suggested that her
childminder could be asked to create a quiet time 15 minutes before her mother arrived.
When Carrie’s mother talked to the childminder, they also agreed that she would have
Carrie’s belongings organized at the door so that they could leave more quickly and quietly.
When Carrie’s mother met the teacher a few weeks later, she reported that although
bedtimes were still challenging, Carrie was now getting to sleep half an hour earlier. The
childminder continued to work in partnership with Carrie’s mother, and gradually things
improved and Carrie was less tired during the day.
Prvide an area for children to rest.
page 9
Part One
To help children be
alert during the da
attitude towards sle y and have a health
ep, you could: y
• Plan activities to make

most use of times wh
•
en children are alert
Practise relaxation ex
ercises regularly
• Use brain breaks and

physical activity to en
•
ergize children when
Teach about healthy necessary
sleep patterns
• Keep diaries about be

dtimes
• Read stories about sle

ep
• Do a whole group proje

ct on sleep and bedtim
•
e routines
Work in partnership wi
th parents who are ha
bedtimes ving a challenging tim
e with
• Provide an area for tir

big cushions
ed children to rest du
ring the day with bean
bags or
• Promote bedtime and

bedrooms as a positive
•
time and place
Sing lullabies and oth
er calming songs
• Play quiet music durin

g some parts of the da
•
y
Work with parents to
create smooth, easy tra
home late in the after nsitions for children wh
noon or evening o go
Movement
A mother told of her daughter’s experience at a nursery where she was expected to sit
and concentrate for long periods of time:
‘We were in a hurry to get Corrine into a nursery soon after we moved. I realize now
that we should have spent longer in the setting before we made the
decision to send her. Corrine was unhappy
right from the start. She just wasn’t ready
to sit for long periods learning
her letters and numbers. Her
behaviour started to become
challenging at school and at
home, and then she started to cry
when I dropped her off. Soon she
was saying she had an ailment
each morning – sometimes just a
tummy-ache or a headache, but
in the end she would wake up
every morning to tell me that she
had broken her leg or her arm!
Teach playground games such as hopscotch.
page 10
After several months, I finally decided to stop taking her and keep her at home. The
following September she started a new nursery school, and loved it. The atmosphere
was so different; activities were fun and engaging, and she wasn’t expected to sit for
ages at a task without a break. I still feel guilty about the months she spent at that
nursery where she was miserable. Thankfully her teacher this year has revived her
confidence and enthusiasm.’
A father told how he was concerned at being told by other parents that his daughter
Molly, who had a sensory integration disorder, disturbed other children by ‘fidgeting
too much in class.’ He asked the teacher to discuss this problem with his daughter’s
occupational therapist. The occupational therapist explained that children who have
difficulty processing sensory information often need to ‘fidget’. She helped the teacher
to draw up a plan where Molly could hold a soft ball during quiet times, which she
could squeeze instead of attempting to play with other children’s hair or clothes.
To ensure that the

children in your ca
you could: re learn through m
ovement,
• Provide ample opportu

nity for physical play
• Limit the amount of tim

e that you expect child
•
ren to sit still
Build in plenty of shor
t brain breaks if you ha
•
ve formal teaching se
Make extensive use of ssions
Brain Gym® and prog
Sounds8 or Jolly Lear rammes such as Lette Brain Gym®
ning9, which incorpor rs and
•
ate movement into lea page 121
Develop brain break ac rn ing
tivities that involve sm
movement ooth controlled cross-
lateral
• Incorporate action rh
ymes and games into
•
story and circle times
Teach playground game
s
• Organize your setting
to ensure freedom of
•
movement
Use music to accompan
y vigorous physical ac
•
tivity to energize child
Monitor individual ch ren
ildren’s activities to en
balance of different typ sure that they receive
es of play a
• Look at your setting re

furniture does not restr
gularly to make sure
the organization of th
e
ict children’s moveme
•
nts
Make sure your group
area, story corner and
space for the children music area have enou
to get up and move du gh
•
ring group activities
Give children options
of where and how to wo
as playing on the floor rk whenever possible
or standing up rather , such
than sitting at tables
page 11
Part One
Attentional systems
Attentional
systems For many reasons, both physical and emotional, some children find it easier than others to maintain
page 35 periods of sustained concentration. These physiological and emotional needs can be catered for in
a variety of ways.
In the early afternoon Samantha often finds it difficult to concentrate and

focus on a task. Her energy levels are low, because the amine levels in her
body are at their lowest level of the day. Amines are the chemicals that act
as stimulants to run the body and brain. Fortunately her teacher monitors the
attention levels of the children in her class, and provides lots of opportunities for physical
movement. When Samantha takes part in a brain break activity, adrenaline is released,
which helps to make her more receptive for learning.
To cater for the diffe

rent concentration
care you could: levels of the childre
n in your
Affirmations • Create lots of opportu

nity for play and freed
•
page 64
om of movement
Use affirmations to he
lp children to refocus
•
on tasks
Ensure that the activ
ities available meet th
•
e needs of individual
Present literacy and nu children
VAK meracy sessions in VA
range of attentional cy K format to match in
page 134 cles put with a
• Lengthen your session

responses and concen
s gradually as childre
tration as you move slo
n get older, and moni
tor their
•
wly towards longer se
Build in regular brain ssions
breaks to energize th
•
e children
Create an appropriate
balance between adult
maintain a good balan and child-initiated ac
ce as children get older tivities and
• Monitor the children’s

high and lows by care
•
ful observation
Experiment to find th
e best times for activiti
concentration and fee es that require greater
l free to stop or start
•
a session when the mo
Try to work flexibly, giv ment is right
ing the children with
of leaving the group aft shorter attention span
er the first or second s the option
•
activity
When individuals or gr
oups of children get fid
to break up the dema gety, offer a more prac
nd for concentration tical activity
•
and sitting still
Remember that you no
w have much more fle
organize literacy and xibility in how you tea
numeracy sessions to ch and
your group suit the needs of the in
dividuals in
• Use puppets, differen

in listening
t voices, objects, music
and sound to keep ch
ildren engaged
page 12
Use puppets to keep children engaged.
Healthy settings
The health of children is reaching crisis-point, with some analysts forecasting that over 37% of
British children aged 5–13 will be overweight or obese by 2012.10 The responsibility for trying
to turn around this epidemic of addiction to junk food and aversion to exercise falls largely on
the shoulders of those working with children, with the Statutory Framework clearly stating
that ‘the provider must promote the good health of the children’.11 This task needs to be viewed
in two parts. First, practitioners need to be working carefully to ensure that they are providing
a healthy setting in every way possible. Second, they need to take responsibility for educating
children about healthy living while supporting and encouraging their families as they strive to
live healthily.
A nursery teacher introduced a new policy of placing one small taste of each type of
food on every child’s plate at snack time, then putting plates with more of the snack on
the table. She soon found that children started tasting new foods simply because they
were exposed to them:
‘One week, a parent made rice with lentils for snack – foods that are unfamiliar to most
of the children in my class. Instead of asking each child what he or she preferred, she
dished up a teaspoon of each food on each plate, and then put the bowls of rice and
lentils in the middle of the table, along with the familiar plate of fruit and cheese. One
or two children immediately pushed their plates away, and one boy cried at the sight of
the lentils! His key person sat with him to reassure him, as a couple of other children
started eating and took more from the bowls. Gradually, the other children relaxed, and
by the end of snack about half of them had tasted lentils. Some just ate fruit, which was
fine. All I told the children was that I didn’t want them to make a fuss. They didn’t
have to eat it, but they were not allowed to be rude. I asked the mum to come in and
make the same snack again, in the hopes that next time more children will try it.’
page 13
Part One
A practitioner in a day nursery described how she resists the temptation to use
mealtimes as a chance for preparation or cleaning up while eating ‘on the go’. Instead,
she makes a policy to relax and eat her own lunch with the children:
‘Even though sometimes my mind is elsewhere at the start of lunch, once I actually
sit down and take a few deep breaths, I am glad that in our nursery, we prioritize
mealtimes. This is the time when I get to really talk with the children. I resist the
temptation to correct manners or to “teach” the children. It is a time to connect – and
often to reconnect. I now realize that taking a time to sit and eat is as good for me as it
is for the children. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
Fascinating Fact
In addition to increasing the amount of healthy food that children eat, many
schools have found an unexpected value from participating in The School
Fruit and Vegetable Scheme. Sitting down as a group to eat, which in many
settings was not the norm, gave an ‘advantage of providing a social time and a
time for learning.’ So, in addition to improving diet, the scheme helped some
settings to develop better social environments for children when eating.12
When Samantha was in her first pre-school her teacher noticed that
she rarely chose to participate in gross motor activities. She spoke with
Samantha’s parents, who said that Samantha had always preferred indoor to
outdoor activities. Together, they identified the types of activities that Samantha enjoyed,
and the teacher started to build these into outdoor games. For example, Samantha loved
playing with Fred, the classroom teddy bear. The teacher dressed Fred in a warm coat and
strapped him into the wagon, asking Samantha and a friend to take Fred out for a ride
every morning. On another occasion, she took all the dolls out to the climbing frame and
told the children that the dolls needed to learn how to climb the steps safely to the slide. At
another time, she gave Samantha a flag to wave at the ‘finish line’ for the children riding
bikes, and then suggested that Samantha got the wagon and took Fred around the ‘race
course’. Over time, with gentle encouragement and support, Samantha began to engage
more frequently in physical play outdoors.
Fifteen ways to promote a positive attitude towards healthy food in your setting
1. Incorporate cooking and enjoying food into your activities every day, emphasizing healthy
eating habits
2. Make healthy food a policy for your setting, including all the food that is cooked for, by, and
with children
3. Make sure all the practitioners in your setting are confident and competent at planning and
providing for healthy eating
4. Make your setting a junk free zone for adults as well as children!
5. Provide leaflets and ideas for parents about healthy snacks and simple recipes
page 14
6. Involve the children in preparation of fruit for snack and in cooking activities, talk about the
health benefits of eating fruit and vegetables
7. Share your shopping list with the children, so they can see that you try to eat healthily
8. Share your aims about healthy eating with parents and carers, and ask for their ideas and
help in creating and maintaining your food policy
9. Talk about healthy food enthusiastically, for example, ‘Oh, great! They have fresh broccoli at
the market!’
10. Use descriptive language as you share food with children, such as, ‘These peaches are
extremely juicy!’ and, ‘What delicious, crunchy carrots!’
11. Grow as many different kinds of foods as you can. Be creative with pots, grow-bags, and
different containers, and make the most of your space
12. Make a trip to a ‘pick-your-own’ farm, and then bring produce back to make jams, chutneys
or pies
13. Take a trip to look around local allotments, and see if you can make a friend of a gardener
or two!
14. Present healthy foods in fun ways. For example, cut up a French loaf for sandwiches with
a variety of healthy fillings, then lay the pieces out on a tray in the shape of a snake. Use
grapes and a slice of carrot for the snake’s eyes and tongue
15. Mix unusual colours and textures together, and let children be creative when selecting snacks.
For example, try little pots of natural yoghurt with different sugar-free cereals and chopped
up fruit, or avocado slices with pots of cream cheese alongside crackers or fingers of toast
Some ways to help create a family-style mealtimes

Every setting is different, and for many, it is challenging to create a family-style routine for meals
or snacks. Here are some ways that might help create a family atmosphere when sharing food:
• Create a rota for which adult or adults will eat with the children each day. Pin copies of
this rota up, so that the children expect you at the table and prevent you from getting
sidetracked!
• Take a fresh look at your work schedules and see if you can reorganize them in any way to
give priority to snack times and family meals
• Insist that adults all sit down to share snack with the children, especially if this is not
possible at mealtimes
• Write up menus on a white board or blackboard, with details of the snacks or meals for the
day
• Make snack aprons and badges for the children who are helping
• Ask parents to come and help prepare meals or snacks, and of course, encourage them to stay
to eat!
• Make it a policy that, unless dangerous or of vital importance, whatever doesn’t get done by a
mealtime or snack time, waits until afterwards
• Create a rota for parents or other members of the community to come to share snack or meals
• Schedule regular special ‘Family Meals’ to which you officially invite other adults
page 15
Part One
• Liaise with teachers to create a rota for having older children join you for meals. Talk to the
older children first about the importance of modelling good manners and communication
skills during the mealtime
• Take photos of social occasions and pin copies on notice boards, post them on your website, or
email them to parents, to communicate and promote your policy of encouraging family-style
eating
A dozen ways to create a pleasant atmosphere at mealtimes

1. Use tablecloths on tables, and encourage the children
to choose which ones to use each day
2. Surprise children with different

picnic plates, juice jugs and cups –
look for end of season sales in
stores and visit charity shops to
build up a stock of fun designs
3. Encourage children to help to lay

the table
4. Teach children how to serve food

for themselves and others
5. Make rubber stoppers from tennis balls

for the legs of chairs to deaden noise Try to create a pleasant atmosphere at mealtimes.
6. Ask children to help cut flowers or greenery from the garden for vases on the tables
7. Select peaceful music in the background for while you eat
8. Teach children how to use napkins when eating messy foods
9. Create rituals and traditions, such as encouraging each child to say two things for which she
is thankful at the start of every meal
10. Talk about manners at times other than during meals. Practise passing plates of play food at
circle time, and role play how to ask for more food
11. Teach children phrases for politely declining foods that they prefer not to eat
12. Teach children to wait for everyone to be seated before eating. Try starting each meal with a
ritual, such as thanking the cooks or reading a special poem aloud
Six ways that practitioners have worked with parents to improve children’s eating
habits
• A children’s centre made the topic of their parent meetings ‘healthy eating’. By the end of
the term, they had brainstormed many different ways to improve the eating habits of the
setting and their homes. They made up a booklet with these ideas for each participant
• A nursery teacher asked for parents to provide recipes for a Healthy Dinners Cookbook. She
printed off copies, and the children decorated the covers before each taking one home for their
family
• A childminder made a good-humoured agreement with parents that she would cut out eating
excess junk food – and so would they! All the adults purged their kitchens and replaced
page 16
crisps, fizzy drinks and chocolate with healthier alternatives. They supported one another as
they all made the move towards healthier living
• A day nursery invited parents to lead cookery workshops, where everyone learned how to
cook a healthy recipe while having a sociable evening together
• A nursery school worked with parents to create a weekly shopping list for ingredients for
cooking and snack, with specific information about brands of items to buy, such as crackers
and cereals without too much salt or sugar
• An infant school created a ‘recipe of the week’, which they posted on the parents’ notice
board. The children helped to make the recipe, taking a series of photos of the process. The
photographs and recipe were then presented in a cook book, with photocopies for parents to
take home if they wished
A dozen ways to get reluctant children outside to play

1. Pin up pictures of wild animals around the playground, then provide binoculars and
rucksacks and encourage children to be ‘explorers’ going on safari
2. Hide numbered envelopes around the playground. In each one, put a photograph of the
location of the next envelope. Show children a photograph of location number 1, then help
them to run from one location to the next, until they get back to the start
3. Teach games that involve some running, such as ‘What’s the Time Mr. Wolf?’ and ‘Duck,
Duck, Goose’
4. Start a ‘parade’ inside, then take it outdoors. Play instruments like drums or play marching
music on a CD player. Wear silly hats, wave streamers or scarves, or make pom-poms to
shake as you all march
5. Make a regular time for active outdoor games with a parachute
6. Take story time out of doors and lead into a related outdoor activity immediately afterwards
7. Lead children outside after snack or circle time to teach everyone a new outdoor game
8. Ask parents to volunteer to play outdoor games with the children on a regular basis
9. Bury ‘treasure’ such as coloured beads or sequins in the sandpit. Read a story about pirates
or treasure hunts, then give children plastic bags or pots in which to collect their treasures
10. Create a working document with information about games to play. Add to your list by asking
parents and friends to tell you the games that they played when they were children
11. Look out for stories you can tell to movements, such as Follow My Leader13 We’re Going on a
Bear Hunt14, and then take the game outside
12. Have a scavenger hunt, where you show children pictures of items that you have hidden
outside. Try dividing children into teams, with an adult leading each team, and encourage
children to explore and hunt in all areas of the playground
Some inexpensive items to stimulate active play outdoors
• Big shovels in a designated ‘free dig’ area of the garden
• Large chalks to make roads for bikes or for running games
• Blankets thrown over play structures to make camps
page 17
Part One
• Large boxes from electrical appliances to make camps in different areas
• Cones and ropes to rope off play areas
• Ropes tied from fence to fence to hang a blanket over to make a camp
• Plastic bags and string for making kites, with adult supervision, of course!
• Lengths of smooth timber for building cars, trains or houses
• Water spray bottles or squirters, with home-made targets hung around the playground
• On a warm day, a water sprinkler hung across a path, for a ‘car wash’ for bike and scooter
riders (put swimsuits on for this!)
• Stop/Go signs on lolly sticks for directing bike traffic
• Large paintbrushes, rollers, child-sized mops and brooms and water for children to ‘paint’
the playground
• Bibs or pieces of sticky paper with numbers written on them, for running marathons or bike
races (no winners needed – just encourage children to cheer each other as they run past!)
• Tree stumps from felled trees, arranged in different configurations for jumping and climbing
• Hobby horses made from sticks with cardboard heads
• Laundry baskets as ‘goals’ for throwing or kicking balls
• Old car tyres for rolling, building, jumping and hiding
• Big stones or real house bricks and barrows for heaving and shifting
• Hoops laid out on the grass for ‘stepping stones’
Step 2: Inclusion
‘ All children are entitled to enjoy a full life in conditions which will
help them take part in society and develop as an individual, with their
own cultural and spiritual beliefs.
’
Early Years Foundation Stage Framework15
‘ We have a wonderful pre-school teacher. What makes me really trust

her and feel that my son is in the right place is that she does not see my
’
son as a diagnosis or as a specific behavioural issue. She immediately
saw the good in him, the things that make him ‘him’; the positive traits
that I, too, love about him.
A parent
page 18
Over recent years there has been a major shift in attitude and policy regarding the inclusion of
children with special needs in early years settings and schools. It is now unlawful to discriminate
against any children when providing services such as education, and practitioners are becoming
familiar with the needs of a far wider range of children than was traditional in the past. Inclusion,
however, is more than simply a policy shift: it is an ideological shift, where inclusion of all children
together is seen as something to be embraced and celebrated.
It would be unrealistic, however, not to acknowledge that inclusion can present some challenges
for settings and for individuals. Practitioners often find themselves in the position of needing
to provide support to children, parents, carers and colleagues, but they may also need to seek
support. If you are expected to provide for a child who has needs that are unfamiliar to you, you
may find yourself on a steep learning curve. The keys to success are communication and support.
The 2009 Lamb Inquiry into Special Educational Needs and Parental Confidence found that:
‘ Our discussions with groups of parents identified a number of key factors

in giving them confidence in the system. Amongst these, two stood out:
’
the importance to parents of knowing that those working with their child
understood their child’s needs; and good communication. The latter is
important even when the communication includes difficult messages.16
As you build strong communication with parents and other experts involved with the child, you
may need to seek support for yourself as you adjust to new challenges. But when communities come
together to learn from one another as they provide for children, everyone experiences enrichment.
The better the communication and support systems, the greater the payoff for all concerned.
It is extremely important to recognize the intense concern that some parents may experience
when leaving their children in your care. Deciding to place their child in the setting may have
been a long, difficult process for them. They may still not feel confident that they are making the
best decision, and may have some well-founded and understandable concerns or fears. For some
families, this might be the first time they have been able or ready to trust someone else to care for
their child. The reality for many parents of children
with special needs is that they have very little
respite and are accustomed to managing
their child’s environment twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week.
They are the people who
know best how to handle
their child, and it takes a
huge leap of faith to entrust
this to someone who is
often a complete stranger. It
is therefore vitally important
that you work hard to get to
know these families extremely
well, taking time to ‘go the
extra mile’ to build up a strong
partnership.
A soft play room allows children of all needs to play together.
page 19
Part One
An American parent shared her feelings about her daughter’s teacher on an online
forum:
‘My daughter just started at the inclusion pre-school run by our school district and
already I love her teacher, who has more than twenty-four years of experience in special
education.
A week before school started, she came to our home to meet my daughter and see her
home program. The teacher wanted to see our therapy program in person so that she
could get a good sense of how much my daughter knows. She also invited us to bring
my daughter several times to the pre-school a week before school started, to get her
more familiar with the place. This impressed me because she lives a good forty miles
away. She didn’t have to be at the school, but she made the effort so that my daughter
wouldn’t be scared of the new school.
She calls me regularly to tell me things about my daughter. She doesn’t mind if I call
her after regular school hours. She sends emails because I’m not the one who picks up
my daughter (grandma often does the pick-up from pre-school). When she talks to me,
this teacher always says something positive about my child before any sort of negative.
It’s a little thing but it makes a difference in how I feel as a parent.
When she visited, she told me that she would take care of my daughter as if she was
her own child and I believe her. All these little things she does shows me that she goes
the extra mile to make sure that my daughter is getting the most out of her pre-school
inclusion program. She doesn’t coddle my daughter. She has high expectations but she
tempers that with kindness and patience.’
A parent spoke at a conference about her experience when her special needs son
started at nursery school:
‘When Sammy was three, we decided to join a little school in our town. Sammy and I
had been isolated for a long time. Sammy has a serious condition, and he finds it hard
to communicate. It’s difficult to have friends when your child does not interact with
other children and when other parents just don’t understand. I needed some sort of
normality in my life – to find a community and spend some time with other adults, and
Sammy needed to learn from other people, not just from me.
We agreed with the teacher that I would stay with Sammy until he was settled, for
however long that took. I was very stressed, as I feared that it would be a very long time,
and that the teachers would start to feel impatient. After two weeks the teacher put her
arm around my shoulders, looked me in the eye, and said, “You know, if you don’t want
to leave him – not at all for the whole year, that’s fine. It’s fine for you to stay here. You
make yourself coffee, and just hang out here every day. This is your school too. I want
both you and Sammy to feel safe here.”
She went on to assure me, “If you do want to leave Sammy, I will help you with that. We
can make it work. But I want you to know that you are his mum and that you can make
that decision, and that I will support you in whatever you choose.”
page 20
I cannot describe what that meant to me. For the first time, we were accepted for who
we were, and allowed to be those people. I got to mix with other adults who understood
Sammy and genuinely wanted to be a part of our life. I handed over part of the
responsibility for Sammy to other people for a short time every day. It may sound corny,
but I felt that we’d come home.’
Twenty-one things that parents said made them feel confident when choosing their
child’s setting
1. ‘A warm welcome every time we went to visit, where everyone remembered my child’s name
and stopped to speak to him’
2. ‘An efficient lady in the office, who at our first appointment, knew my name, understood my
son’s diagnosis, and helped me with paperwork’
3. ‘A willingness to re-think the policy over storing and administration of emergency

medications, so that I knew that my daughter would be safe in any part of the building’
4. ‘Two very relaxed home visits over the summer, so that my child really got to know her key
person well’
5. ‘Being allowed to visit the setting during the holidays, when there were no other children
there, just the adults preparing for the start of term’
6. ‘Every phone message being returned promptly and courteously’
7. ‘Regular emails – group ones for the whole class, but also private ones to me about provisions
for my daughter’
8. ‘A warm manner on the telephone – never being made to feel that my questions were silly’
9. ‘Great communication between the staff and the school nurse, our doctor, the physiotherapist
and our social worker’
10. ‘Being treated like one of the other parents, yet it being accepted that at times I did need
“special” treatment – such as discussion about special events so that we could find ways for
my daughter to participate’
11. ‘A kind smile and word whenever we pass in the playground or in a corridor’
12. ‘Being told very clearly that the practitioner viewed me as the expert on my child’
13. ‘Knowing that my daughter’s key person really understood how challenging our lives can be
and that she wanted to shoulder some of that challenge herself’
14. ‘Being asked to attend meetings to discuss adaptations to the room ready for my son to start
pre-school’
15. ‘Immediately hearing positive things about my child and never feeling that he was a burden
to the staff’
16. ‘Seeing playfulness and genuine warmth in the interactions between my daughter and her
key person’
17. ‘A headteacher who took the time to get to know my son, even though she has four hundred
children in the school to care for!’
18. ‘Additional visits from her pre-school to her new reception class, so that she could get really
used to the changes’
page 21
Part One
19. ‘Knowing that there was quiet place where confidential information could be shared
privately’
20. ‘Being offered a home/school diary for daily comments from everyone’
21. ‘Photos of children sent home regularly, so I know what he has been doing at school’
Some ways that practitioners have created strong support systems
• A nursery teacher arranged regular after-school meetings where she and her assistant met
with the parents over coffee, to talk informally about how things were going. Invitations to
these meetings were emailed to others who worked with the child so that they could attend
when their schedule allowed. On one occasion, the family invited the child’s grandmother,
who felt reassured once she was able to meet those who cared for her grandchild.
• A reception teacher organized for a child’s doctor to attend a brief meeting to talk to the
entire school staff about the child’s specific medical condition. Once colleagues became more
directly aware of the challenges being faced, they were more than willing to help out, for
example, by altering routines for playground use and altering rotas to relieve pressure on the
reception staff.
• A childminder made good use of the toy libraries provided by her local charities and the area
Special School. Over time she got to know the staff, who helped her with practical advice and
information about support groups and systems.
• A day care provider joined an online forum where she could get information from others
about special needs issues, and could also post questions when she needed advice or support
from other professionals who may have faced similar challenges to hers.17
• A reception teacher arranged to meet once a fortnight with her SENCO to talk about how
things were going with two particular children in her class. These were not official meetings,
but served as an informal support system where the teacher took time to reflect and the
SENCO could act as a sounding board.
• A school created a library of books and leaflets on a range of additional needs. These were
available for all parents to borrow, so the parents of friends and classmates could find out
about the challenges facing some children and families.
• A childminder took all three of her children to a support group for one child, giving everyone
an opportunity to play together while she met with other adults facing similar challenges.
Step 3: Developing emotional intelligence
Helping children to become emotionally literate
‘ We really need to change that historic dichotomy of cognition on the

one hand, emotions on the other hand, and realize that our emotions
are the fuel that gives rise to social behavior but also to different levels
of intelligence.
page 22 ’
Dr. Stanley Greenspan18

‘ The central role that the emotions play in every learning experience is one
of the key findings of recent research. Much learning, moreover, takes place
’
within a social context. Before children can begin to tackle the cognitive
demands of any task, they need to be able to address the social and
emotional components that accompany the activity.
Excellence and Enjoyment, social and emotional aspects of learning19
Daniel Goleman20 argues that emotional intelligence can prove to be a more significant factor
in a child’s future than any other measure of intelligence. The five aspects of emotional literacy
that Goleman defines are: self-awareness, management of emotions, self motivation, handling
relationships and empathy.
The five aspec

ts of emotio
nal literacy
self-awareness

management of em
otions

self motivation

handling relations
hips

empathy

For full-size photocopiable version, see end of book.
Developing skills in each of these five areas is essential if children are to achieve the Every Child
Matters outcomes, and one of the practitioner’s main challenges is to help children to manage
their emotions. Learning to manage impulsive behaviour often comes with increasing maturity,
but some children need additional help to become ‘emotionally literate.’
George can tend to be passive, partly because he is one of the youngest

in the group. His play is not always purposeful, and he is not resilient in
the face of difficulty. George will happily let other children take the lead
and make decisions for him. His key person often creates situations where
George has to lead the group and make decisions for himself. If George is not involved in
positive decisions about his learning, he will not develop the attributes of resourcefulness
or confidence.
page 23
Part One
Kishan, on the other hand, is certainly not passive! He is resilient and assertive, but he does
not act responsibly when he rushes to grab the red tricycle first and knocks down Samantha
in his wake. Kishan’s teacher gently directs him to help Samantha up and check that she is
not hurt before returning to the tricycle. She is encouraging him to demonstrate empathy
on this occasion. Her aim is to help Kishan to become more responsible and deliberate in
his play, so that he will think through the possible consequences of his actions and act less
impulsively.
A father spoke of being somewhat surprised when he discussed his son’s behaviour
with his teacher:
‘When Tommy started school, the teacher spoke to me and told me she was concerned
about his aggressive behaviour towards the other children. I wasn’t surprised that he
often shouted and so on, because everyone in our family has a bit of a temper – we joke
and call it the “Smith temper”. But I was upset to hear that he was taking it a step
further at school, and hitting other children.
The teacher asked if I thought that a temper was inherited, not a learned trait. That set
me thinking. Of course, Tommy had seen temper tantrums in our house regularly since
birth. They are never really serious, and the adults know that we may shout and stamp,
but we don’t hurt one another. But Tommy wasn’t making this distinction. I realized that
we as adults were not acting very maturely, and we were passing that on to our children.
Suffice to say that we all made more effort from then on to control ourselves when we
were frustrated. We worked hard with Tommy to help him develop better self-control, and
gradually he learned to use words to express frustration, rather than losing his temper.’
A teacher took her reception class on a visit to a local church, and unexpectedly
discovered a remarkable way to encourage children to think calmly about challenging
emotional issues.
‘In the grounds of the church, beneath some beautiful trees, members of the
congregation had created a labyrinth. It was a very simple but beautiful creation.
Pebbles had been pushed into the ground to mark out the track, which led around and
around in a circular pattern, bending back and forth, until you reached the centre. The
vicar explained that the labyrinth is an ancient concept and that throughout history
adults have used it for meditation purposes, walking slowly through as they thought
hard about difficult problems. He told the children that it was also fine to run through
the labyrinth and just explore.
After the children had spent some time running through the maze and chasing one
another in and out, I sat them down and we did some simple breathing exercises. After
that, some of them went off to play in the garden, but others chose to enter the labyrinth
again, thinking about something important to them. It was remarkable seeing such
young children clearly enjoying the chance to think quietly, while walking the simple
pattern of the maze. I have no idea what they thought about, but I did resolve to find a
way to create a similar “thinking place” at our setting in the future.’
page 24
Some strategies for helping children to develop emotional literacy
Scenario: Paula finds it difficult to wait her turn for outside toys such as bikes
and trucks
Strategies might include:
• Using a sand timer so that she can

see how long she needs to wait
• Redirecting her to another game

while she has to wait
• Giving out tickets or tags like those

given at delicatessen counters
• Talking to her prior to the play session

about how she might need to wait
• Helping her to verbalize her feelings

about the need to wait
• Acknowledging her feelings about waiting and using affirmations that she is very patient
•
•
Talking about how she waited patiently at plenary sessions
Using a big white board or flip chart for her to ‘write’ or stick or draw a sign for her turn.
• Having a ticket collector with a badge, hat, and clipboard to help the children to organize
themselves
Scenario: Utpal rushes at tasks and gets upset when the outcome is
unsatisfactory to him
•
See more about
Using the ‘Plan, Work, Recall’ model
•
Plan, Work, Recall
Talking before the session about what he plans to
on page 147 of
do
•
this book.
Giving him ownership of activities by encouraging
him to plan them himself
• Sitting alongside him as he works and encouraging

him to work slowly
• Encouraging him to pole-bridge as he works
• Making regular affirmations that he works slowly and carefully
• Encouraging him to work with a friend to plan a task
• Discussing sequences and difficulties at group and plenary times
• Drawing sequences as a group and

walking these through as a story or
play to get them right
• Making sure that he knows how

much time he has for planned
activities
• Making sure that that he knows

that there will be time to return to
an unfinished activity
• Having a place for him to put

unfinished models and pictures
page 25
Part One
Scenario: Kirsty regularly gets into conflict and shouts at her friends
• Observing carefully what triggers the conflicts
• Encouraging her to make friendships with less

volatile children
• Talking about the cooperative skills needed for a

task before it begins
• Structuring groups for her to work with children

who demonstrate good cooperative skills
Use of
appropriate
voice
• Observing, and then intervening when conflict is
building
page 88
• Use cue cards to remind her to use an
appropriate voice
• Using the ‘Decibel clock’ to communicate your

expectations before the session
•
Decibel
clock Practising using different voices and talking about how it feels to be spoken to quietly or
page 88
loudly
• Making regular affirmations about how she listens to her friends and speaks gently to
them
•
•
Practising alternative ways to handle disagreements in circle time
Encouraging children to be assertive and say when they don’t like the noise or being
shouted at
• Acknowledging her self-restraint when she manages to control her enthusiasm!
Scenario: Jon finds it hard to read the moods of other children and respond
appropriately
• Encouraging children to verbalize their feelings
• Role-playing scenarios in circle time where children have to guess what one another are
feeling
• Reading stories that deal with

children’s emotions
• Playing games with photographs of

children’s faces that show different
emotions
• Getting down to his level as he plays

and asking him to verbalize how he
thinks other children are feeling
• Being explicit about emotions and

how expressions show how somebody
feels
• Using soft toys and puppets to explore feelings and relationships
page 26
Scenario: Christie begins activities with enthusiasm but soon loses interest and
rarely completes a task
• Talking about what the task entails

when giving the Big Picture Big Picture
• Discussing what the end result will be

when giving the Big Picture
page 96
• Asking her to describe how it will feel to

complete the task before she begins
• Giving regular input during a task and

redirection if necessary
• Building in regular brain breaks and

opportunities for physical reprieve
• Grouping her with children who have

good concentration skills
• Making frequent affirmations that she is

good at staying on task
• Remembering that very young children sometimes run out of steam and need an option
of returning to something after a short break
• Modelling and discussing the need to take a break before returning to a task
Scenario: Caroline can tend to be dominant, and gets frustrated if other children
do not follow her lead in activities
• Grouping her with children who have good

group-work skills
• Discussing who will do what before

beginning a group activity
• Observing and intervening in her play

before she becomes too dominant
• Getting down to her level and helping her

to find solutions when other children do
not want to follow her lead
• Asking other children to explain to her

how they feel when she is being dominant
• Being explicit about the verbal and non-verbal cues that other children give when they
are not happy about her behaviour in a group
• Role-playing different scenarios in circle time where she can experience following the
lead of others
• Encouraging her to follow her ideas through independently when other children do not
want to participate
• Using frequent affirmations that she is good at listening to others
• Using soft toys and puppets to explore her feelings and relationships
• Raising the profile of listening activities in paired games, listening walks and circle time
• Involving her in games with turns, ‘conversation’ type songs and rhymes, and clapping
and chanting activities
page 27
Part One
Twenty-one ways to help children to manage impulsive behaviour

The Three 1. Use The Three As system of Acknowledgement, Approval and Affirmation to encourage
As
page 61 appropriate responses to challenging situations
2. Role-play ‘what if’ scenarios where children have to practise the skills of self-control
3. Play games that involve waiting and turn-taking
4. Use circle time to explore challenging situations
5. When children have acted impulsively help them to retrace their footsteps to find alternative
responses
6. Be explicit about the management of emotions
7. Comment when you see children exercise good self-control
8. Use role-play with small world toys to illustrate ways of responding to frustrating situations
9. Discuss the skills of self-control that are needed before embarking on an activity
10. Play games that involve suspense

Pole-
bridging 11. Encourage children to pole-bridge
page 99
12. Explore emotions and behaviour through stories and fantasy games
13. Use video and photos of situations in the setting to help children explore feelings and responses
14. Discuss pictures and posters of faces with clear expressions to help children ‘read’ facial
characteristics and expressions
15. Focus on both children in conflict situations. Avoid the temptation to concentrate only on the
aggressor
16. Have clear systems for cooling off, repairing relationships and returning to games
17. Collect and use story books that explore feelings and relationships
18. Make up your own stories that address issues about emotions and behaviours
Technology 19. Ensure that software for the computer encourages
page 122
thoughtful responses
20. Play alongside children and

verbalize your frustrations
and describe how you
control them
21. Encourage children

to verbalize their
emotions and teach
them the language
that they need
to describe their
feelings
Helping children to identify emotions.
page 28
Twenty-one ways to promote emotional literacy in the early years

1. Read and discuss lots of stories that involve emotional dilemmas
2. Stop during stories to ask what children think the characters felt, and how they should act
3. Ask children to describe what they are going to do, before they do it
4. Give lots of opportunities for role-play
5. Timetable regular sessions for circle time
6. When children are involved in a disagreement, be interested, discuss it calmly, and help them
work out solutions
7. If a child misbehaves, help her by going back over the incident, if possible by walking it
through. Ask her what she might have done differently
8. Describe how you feel and encourage children to do the same
9. Use reassuring language about emotions, such as, ‘I bet you feel cross that….’, or, ‘I would
think that you are upset about….’
10. Use The Three As system to help children to learn to manage their emotions and
relationships
11. Organize groups so that the more volatile children follow the lead of their more mature peers
12. Talk about the necessary attitudes for approaching tasks before children begin
13. At plenary sessions talk about the way that children approached tasks in addition to what
they achieved
14. Acknowledge children’s successes when handling their emotions, being clear about what you
are affirming by describing exactly what they did
15. Use the vocabulary of emotions regularly: talk about how you felt in situations and
encourage children to do the same
16. Display pictures and make books of photos of children’s faces showing different emotions
such as sadness, surprise, joy, fear or amazement
17. Make a lotto matching game of faces with

different expressions, using photos or clip
art from your computer
18. Include discussion of feelings when

recalling or recording events on mind
maps
19. Use soft toys, puppets or small world

characters to replay events and discuss
how individuals felt
20. When you read stories, talk about the

expressions on the faces of characters,
and discuss how they might be feeling
21. Whenever disagreements occur, draw the

children together immediately to discuss
their emotions and how to deal with
them Helping children to manage their emotions.
page 29
Part One
Developing the right mindset
‘ When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world –
the world of fixed traits – success is about proving you’re smart or talented.
Validating yourself. In the other – the world of changing qualities – it’s
about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.
’
Carol Dweck: Mindset – The New Psychology of Success.21
Researcher Carol Dweck from Stanford University in California has added a new dimension to
the concept of emotional intelligence, with the publication of her bestselling book, Mindset. In
extensive tests where she measured people’s attitude towards challenge, Dweck has found that
people with what she calls a ‘growth mindset’, where they believe that ability in any area is not a
fixed phenomenon, tend to take on challenge and learn more effectively. Compared to those with a
‘fixed mindset’, they have better emotional intelligence and are more likely to fulfil their potential.
A reception class teacher read Mindset, and realized that in some areas of her life
she had developed a fixed attitude. As a teenager in school, she had been intimidated
by one particular chemistry teacher and had developed a belief that she could never
understand even the most basic concepts in chemistry:
‘I put Mindset down and started thinking. How could I be so negative about myself?
How could I have allowed a bad teacher, ten years ago, to affect me this way? What sort
of message was I unintentionally transmitting to children if I secretly felt that I couldn’t
understand science myself?
So, I went online that night and ordered some GCSE chemistry workbooks. My husband
thought I was crazy – but I felt that I had to tackle this bogeyman hiding in my
professional cupboard. I sat and studied the books, my husband helped me with parts I
didn’t understand, and at the end of a few weeks, I could balance a chemical equation –
something that filled me with horror when I was in school!
Once I had shown myself that I was not the dunce that I had imagined myself to be, my
confidence in teaching science grew. Not that I am trying to teach my reception class
about chemical equations, of course! But I wish I had done this years ago, rather than
feeling like a failure – like something was wrong with me.’
Carrie’s teacher fell into the trap of drawing attention away from what
children could not do and drawing it instead to what they already did well,
such as, ‘Oh, I know it’s frustrating not being able to ride a scooter, but
look – there’s the red trike – you are great at riding that!’ This well-meaning
strategy actually gave a very negative message. What Carrie heard was, ‘You’re no good on
the scooter, so be satisfied with riding the trike.’ This put her into a fixed mindset – that
somehow she did not inherit the scooter-riding gene.
page 30
Instead, use language that makes it clear that you believe that the child will master the scooter
in time. She isn’t just an enthusiastic trike rider, but is an up-and-coming scooter rider too!
Try instead a strategy such as, ‘Hmm, would it work if we try with me holding the front while
you practise scooting? After a while, I’ll be able to let go and you can try on your own.’ When
Carrie’s teacher realized that her approach was having a negative effect, she worked hard to
monitor the language that she used with children as they encountered challenges.
Twelve ways to encourage the growth mindset in children

1. Don’t praise intelligence or achievement – instead, concentrate on effort and enjoyment
2. If you give praise, focus on the process, such as, ‘I like the way you turned the paper carefully
as you cut’, rather than, ‘You cut that out beautifully!’
3. Use words like ‘yet’, ‘soon’, and ‘in the future’ to describe what children will be able to
achieve
4. Model how to deal with setbacks yourself and be explicit about challenges that you face in
everyday life
5. Read good stories about characters who faced difficulties and overcame them, but…
6. …read stories such as The Tortoise and the Hare with caution. Realize that most children
would prefer to be the hare, not a tortoise who got lucky because the hare messed up!
7. At circle time, share details about your out-of-school activities, including disappointments.
For example, tell them about your bike race and how you got too tired to finish – and then
tell them about how you plan to get fitter for the next time
8. Encourage visitors to talk about what they find most challenging about their hobby or work.
Ask them to talk about difficulties that they face and about how they might have to practise
and persevere
9. Ask open-ended questions instead of ones that have a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer
10. Tell children in advance that some activities may be challenging. Talk about what to do if
your tower collapses or your card won’t stick properly
11. Give children plenty of

alternatives to losing
their temper or giving
up. For example, tell
simple stories and ask
them to suggest what the
character could do when
they are not successful
the first time
12. Make sure that the

environment offers plenty
of opportunities for challenge
in all areas
To encourage the right mindset, talk through challenging activities in advance.
page 31
Part One
Ten phrases that encourage a growth mindset

1. ‘I see that you are keeping your balance on the bike around the corners now. I wonder how
long it will be before you’re ready to take the stabilizers off?’
2. ‘Your name looks very clear. Look back in your book and see how much clearer it is than
when you started in our class!’
3. ‘Hmm, I’m aiming at the goal from this blue line. I think that if I practise for a few days, I’ll
be able to score from here.’
4. ‘Let’s look at the chart to see how long it took us to run that far last time.’
5. ‘I wonder what we need to do to get better at getting these towers to balance?’
6. ‘I find it difficult to work the remote control for the new CD player. I’m going to ask Sandra
to show me how to do it.’
7. ‘That’s great, you put your shoes on the right feet, what do you need to do next?’
8. ‘Let’s record everyone’s results in this book, and then we can look at the end of term, to see
how much we’ve all improved.’
9. ‘How do you think I can help you learn to do that?’
10. ‘Oh, I know that Mrs. Jenkins plays the piano better than I do. But I like to play, and I’m
getting better at our favourite songs!’
Step 4: P
roviding children with the tools
for learning
Hierarchy
of needs
Fostering strong self-esteem
page 32 When a child’s physiological, security and social needs have been met; the next layer of Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs pyramid can be laid: that of self-esteem. Positive experiences help the child
develop useful attitudes and tools for learning. Helping children to develop confidence and
supporting strong self-esteem is one of the most important tasks for the parent and practitioner.
Kalpana was the youngest of five children. She was taken into temporary foster
care after her mother became unable to care for her. She was split from three of her
siblings and moved to a different foster home after a brief period back at home. This
necessitated another move to a new school. Kalpana’s self-esteem was negatively
affected and her behaviour gradually deteriorated.
Kalpana’s new teacher found her to be withdrawn and quiet. She contacted her previous
school and had a chat with their reception class teacher, who reported that Kalpana
had been an outgoing child until her mother had become ill, but had gradually lost her
confidence as she moved around different homes. She felt that Kalpana had begun to
believe that it was somehow her fault that her mother was unable to care for her.
Armed with the knowledge that Kalpana had previously been a confident little girl
and that this change had occurred because of her home situation, her new teacher
page 32
reported that Zoe had been an outgoing child until her mother had become
ill, but had gradually lost her confidence as she moved around different
homes. She felt that Zoe had begun to believe that it was somehow her
fault that her mother was unable to care for her.
Armed with the knowledge that Zoe had previously been a confident little
girl and that this change had occurred because of her home situation, her
new teacher began to work with her to restore some of her damaged self-
began to work with her to restore some
esteem. The of herassistant
classroom damaged was self-esteem.
asked to spend The classroom
regular periods with
assistant was asked to spend
Zoeregular periods
and involve with Kalpana
her in simple and
routines that involve
would her
give her in simple
additional one-
to-one attention. She took Zoe and a friend each morning to help collect
routines that would give her additional one-to-one attention. She took
the fruit from the canteen and prepare the snack.
Kalpana and a friend each morning to help collect the fruit from
the canteen and prepare the She gave her
snack. thegave
She jobs ofher
filling
thethejobs
water
of jugs for
lunch and helping to get the reading books out of
filling the water jugs for lunch and helping
the teacher’s cupboard toduring
get the reading
register time.
books out of the teacher’s cupboard during
During all these register
activities she used positive
language to build Zoe’s sense of
time. During all these activities she used
self-worth. Slowly, she built a
positive language to build Kalpana’s sense
trusting relationship
of self-worth. Slowly, she built
with aZoe
trusting
and began to
see her self-esteem
relationship with Kalpana, increase.
and began to
It would be a
see her self-esteem increase. It time
long would be Zoe’s
before a family
life regained some
long time before Kalpana’s family life regained stability,
but for now, it was important
some stability, but for now, that
it was
she important
experienced successes
that she experienced successes in one-to-one
in one-to-one relationships
elsewhere.
relationships elsewhere.
page 28
In spite of pressure from some of her family and friends to ‘make Carrie
independent’ before Carrie started school, Carrie’s mother did not aim to
foster independence at this stage, wisely realizing that before independence
a child needs to experience a strong and healthy dependence.
When Carrie started in the nursery class, she found it difficult to say goodbye to her
mother. She preferred going to her childminder’s house, where she benefited from the
familiarity and routine. Carrie’s mother took her time settling Carrie into the new setting.
The practitioners encouraged her to stay with Carrie for several sessions before leaving
her for short periods. They took photographs of Carrie in the nursery with her key person,
which she took home and put on her bedroom wall. They asked if she’d like to bring a
favourite soft toy to school with her, and on the first day that her mother left her, she kept
her teddy bear close to her. Her childminder collected her half an hour before the end of
the session and spent some time looking around the nursery with Carrie so that they would
have plenty to talk about over lunch.
Gradually, Carrie became more confident in the setting. She was proud to be a ‘big girl’
and go to ‘school’ like her childminder’s daughters. Her self-esteem grew from her success
in confidently handling the transition. She had made a good start to her school career, and
the staff continued to build upon the strong self-esteem that Carrie’s mother had fostered
from birth.
A teacher told about a child in her class who was seen by the educational psychologist
as part of a formal assessment of his special needs:
‘Jamie had a very rough history. He had been put up for adoption at the age of three,
and from that point had been in foster care. After a failed adoption, he returned to
his original foster family and was admitted back into our nursery class. Jamie’s self-
esteem was now at its lowest ebb: he seemed to have taken the failed adoption as being
confirmation of his lack of self-worth.
page 33
Part One
The most enlightening aspect of the formal assessment was when the educational
psychologist told me what he had said about himself. She had asked him what he
liked most about school, about his foster family, his friends, and then what he liked
best about himself. He had told her a lot of things that were good about school and the
people in his life. But when she asked about himself, he could not think about one thing
that he liked. Not one thing. When the psychologist prompted him by talking about
what she knew were his positive attributes – his drawing ability, his loving nature, his
imagination, and his sense of fun, he put his hands over his ears and wouldn’t listen.
We realized that it would take major work to reinstate any positive feelings that this
poor little boy used to have about himself.’
Twenty-one ways to foster positive self-esteem

1. Use children’s names when addressing them
2. Get down to children’s level and make eye contact as you greet them
3. Ask children to demonstrate new skills at plenary sessions
4. Encourage children to talk about which activities they enjoyed at plenary sessions
Part One
5. Tell parents and carers little details about children’s achievements during the day
6. Use regular affirmations about individuals andtothe

Twenty-one ways group
foster positive self-esteem:
1. Use children’s names when addressing them.

7. Timetable regular sessions for circle time
2. Get down to children’s level and make eye contact as you greet them.
3. Ask children to demonstrate new skills at plenary sessions.
8. Send children to the office, another class or another group to talk about what they have
4. Encourage children to talk about their accomplishments at plenary sessions.
learned 5. Tell parents and carers little details about children’s successes during the day.
6. Use regular affirmations about individuals and the group.
9. Take photographs of children engaged in learning
7. Timetable regular and display
sessions them
for circle time.prominently
8. Send children to the office, another class or another group to talk about their
10. Send notes or emails home about children’s achievements
achievements.
9. Take photographs of children succeeding and display them prominently.
11. 10.
Make a ‘Celebration Board’ with bannersSend notesandhome about children’s
balloons where youachievements.
can pin pictures of children
11. Make a ‘Celebration Board’ with banners and
participating enthusiastically in activities
balloons where you can pin notices and
pictures about children’s successes.
12. Give children big badges to wear 12.
forGive
sillychildren
awards biglike the
badges to ‘Do-er
wear for of
silly
the Day’ or the ‘Worker of the Week’ awards like the ‘Do-er of the Day’ or
the ‘Worker of the Week’.
13. Use a ‘can do’ cap to celebrate success –
13. Use a ‘Can do Cap’ to celebrate success – the successful child gets to
the successful child gets to wear the
wear the cap for the session cap for the session.
14. Encourage children to talk about
14. Encourage children to talk about their theiroutside interests
outside interests andand
activities activities.
15. Create a board for children to
display pictures and stories
15. Create a board for children to display pictures and stories
about their friends and families
about their friends and families and andtheir
theiractivities
activities.
16. Select a piece of uplifting music to
16. Select a piece of uplifting music to play
play at theend
at the end of every
of every week after
talking about everybody’s
week after talking about everybody’s achievements. Get up and dance together to the music!
achievements. Get up and dance together to the music!
17. Report successes at gatherings such as assemblies or parents’ meetings and give
17. Report news about successful activities at gatherings such as assemblies or parents’ meetings
children a round of applause.
and give children a round of applause
18. When a child overcomes a difficulty or makes a new discovery, ask those around
him to give him a clap or a handshake.
18. When a child overcomes a difficulty19. or
Makemakes a new discovery,
up a celebration rhyme, chantask those
or song around
with himtotouse
the children give
when
somebody or the group is successful.
him a clap or a handshake 20. Create an award that you give out at the end of each week for the child to take
home for the weekend and have a ceremony like the Oscars when you give it out.
19. Make up a celebration rhyme, chant or song with the children to use when somebody or the
21. At the end of a really successful session, line the children up and go down the
group is successful line giving each child a hug, a handshake or a high five.
page 34
20. Create an award that you give out at the end of each week for the child to take home for the
weekend and have a ceremony like the Oscars when you give it out. Acknowledge effort and
perseverance and make sure that all children have a turn
21. At the end of a really successful session, line the children up and go down the line giving each
child a hug, a handshake or a high-five
Circle time
Use circle time to promote children’s self-esteem.
One of the most effective ways of promoting self-esteem in young children is the use of circle
time. Circle time fosters strong self-esteem and positive attitudes towards learning. Two basic
rules can be taught to the children: nobody is allowed to interrupt the speaker, and they can only
say positive, kind or thoughtful things about one another. After a warm up time, a wide variety
of activities can follow. Circle time can be used for children to revisit difficult situations, to find
solutions to problems, to share their successes, and to express their feelings and develop empathy
for others.
Six warm up activities for circle time
1. Welcome ball
One child starts by tossing a ‘koosh’ ball or a beanbag to another child, Circle time
page 50
saying, ‘Welcome’ followed by his name. That child then tosses it to another,
welcoming him, and so on until everyone has had a turn
2. Sitting down game

Everyone stands up. The practitioner says to one child, ‘Sit down’ followed by
his name. That child then invites another child by name to sit down and so on
until everybody is sitting down
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Part One
3. Double hand shake

The first child turns and shakes both hands with the child to her right, then
the next child passes on the double hand shake to the child on her right, and
so the double hand shake goes round the circle
4. Cross over
One child starts by putting his right hand across his body into the left hand
of the child on his left, who then crosses his right hand to the next person’s
left hand, until everyone is joined with crossed arms. This takes some time to
master!
5. Rope circle
One child holds the end of a long rope or a piece of string. She feeds it through
her clasped hands to the next child, who feeds it on through her hands to the
next, until the rope is in a circle through every child’s hands
6. Watching, watching
The practitioner uses a puppet to do actions that the children copy, whilst
singing a song like this one, which is sung to the tune of ‘Frère Jacques’:
Watching, watching, watching, watching,

Copy me, copy me,
Everybody do this, everybody do this,
Just like me, just like me.
Twelve activities for circle time
1. Welcome song
Once the children have settled for circle time, they sing a welcome song
together, such as the one below, which is sung to the tune of ‘Skip to My Lou’.
The practitioner should encourage all the children to look at the child being
named and smile as they welcome him or her. They continue the verses until
every child has been welcomed by name, if necessary ending with, ‘Hello,
children, how are you?’, ‘Hello, teacher, how are you?’ or ‘Hello, mummies,
how are you?’ until the final verse is complete.
Hello (name), how are you?

,
We re so glad to see you!
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2. Musical chairs
The practitioner arranges a circle of chairs, with one more chair than children.
She stands in the middle of the circle and makes a statement such as, ‘People
who like to draw pictures,’ or, ‘People who like to play in the home corner.’
Children must decide if the description matches them. If it does, they must
get up and find another seat; if it doesn’t describe them they stay in their seat.
In a variation of this game the practitioner can read from cue cards that she
has prepared about the week’s work, for example, ‘People who did cookery’ or,
‘People who helped build an amazing model of a Tyrannosaurus this week.’
3. The picture frame

The children pass around a cardboard picture frame which they take turns
holding in front of their face. While they are holding the picture frame, they
can either say something positive about themselves to the group, or the other
children can be asked to say something about them. These could be general
comments or a specific theme could be chosen, such as, ‘What games I am
good at,’ or, ‘What I like to do at weekends.’
4. Guess who?
The children pass around a speaking object. Then two other children go behind
the screen of the book corner. One child speaks, either choosing what he or she
says, or saying a set phrase that the children have already agreed upon. It can
be powerful to use an affirmation such as, ‘Our group is good at listening to
one another.’ The child with the speaking object has to guess which of the two
children spoke. If they are right, they are one of the next pair to go behind the
screen after passing the speaking object to the next child.
5. The message
The practitioner starts a message around the circle by whispering in the ear
of the child next to her. That child whispers it to the next child, and so on,
until it gets back to the beginning.
6. Run around
Once everyone is sitting in a circle the practitioner makes a statement such
as, ‘Wearing a red shirt.’ Everyone with a red shirt then gets up, runs round
the outside of the circle and back to their place. The game then continues
with other categories such as items of clothing, preferences such as, ‘Likes
marmite,’ or details about appearance.
7. Make a face
Using some pictures of faces with expressions, children take turns to take a
card and without showing it to the others, make the expression. The others
try to name the expression.
8. The voice
The practitioner makes a recording of different adults or children from the
setting while they are talking. She plays extracts and asks the children to
identify the speakers.
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Part One
9. Say something nice

As they pass the speaking object around the circle each child says, ‘Something
nice was when…..’ This can be extended to ‘Something nice I did,’ or
‘Someone was kind to me,’ or, ‘Thank you to my friend Priya for….’
10. Send a movement

The practitioner starts by making a movement with her hands, such as
wriggling fingers, clapping or clicking. She turns to the next person and
passes the movement on, and that child copies it, then ‘sends’ it around the
circle. New movements can be added as the first movement comes back or
while the first is still on the way round. (This is much more difficult!)
11. Change places

The practitioner chooses one person, who calls someone’s name and changes
places with him. That child sits down, then gets up quickly and calls
somebody else’s name, to change places with. He sits down quickly, then
calls out someone else’s name and changes places with him, and so on, until
everybody has had at least one turn.
12. Make me laugh

One child is chosen to be in the middle. The children sing the song below
and then try to make him laugh without touching him. When he laughs, he
chooses another child to take his place.
,
We ll make you laugh, giggle giggle
,
You ll lose your frown,
,
We ll make you laugh, giggle giggle,
When you sit down.
(sung to the tune of ‘Lavender’s Blue’)
Six activities to end circle time
1. Pass a smile
The children turn to each other in turn, passing a smile around the circle
while singing this song:
Turn your head and pass a smile

(shake a hand, touch a toe, and so on)
Pass a smile, pass a smile

Turn your head and pass a smile
Round the circle
(sung to the tune of ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’)
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2. If I were…
The children take turns to say what they would choose to be if they were
something from a category that the practitioner picks, such as ‘If I were an
animal, I would be a (rabbit/giraffe/tiger).’
3. Melting statues
The children stand still like statues and gradually melt to the ground, either
to a piece of music or in silence.
4. Pass the shaker

The children pass a shaker, a bunch of keys or a tambourine around the circle,
taking care not to make a sound.
5. The candle
The practitioner lights a candle in the centre of the circle. The children sit
and watch it quietly and sing or hum a song while they reflect on their day.
6. Farewell song
Everyone sings a farewell song such as the ones below, which can be adapted
to reflect on the languages spoken in the individual setting18
Auf wiedersehn (name), Auf wiedersehn (name),
Daag (name), Daag (name),
Au revoir (name), Au revoir (name),
Joy geen (name), joy geen (name).
Sayonara (name), sayonara (name),
Shalom (name), shalom (name),
Adios (name), adios (name),
Aloha (name), aloha (name),
(Sung to the tune of ‘Frere Jacques’22)
Look at (practitioner’s name), look at (practitioner’s name),
When she smiles, when she smiles

When she smiles at you, sit down,
When she smiles at you, sit down
(practitioner’s name) smiles, (practitioner’s name) smiles
(Sung to the tune of ‘I hear thunder’, with the children all standing. As the
practitioner smiles at each child, he or she sits down)
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Part One
Roll, roll, roll the ball,

Right across the ring,
Say a name and roll the ball,
Then roll it on again.
(Sung to the tune of ‘Row, row, row the boat’, rolling a ball gently across the
ring from person to person)
Hold the mirror on your knee,

Look into it, who do you see?
,
Special (child’s name) that s who you see,
Looking in the mirror
(Sung to the tune of ‘Bobby Shaftoe’, whilst passing a hand mirror around)
Developing the ‘can do’ attitude

‘can do’ One of the keys to success is to have self-belief. This strong self-belief gives children a ‘can do’
page 53
attitude towards all aspects of learning. A child with the ‘can do’ attitude is persistent and
meets challenges with confidence. Providing an environment with the right level of support and
challenge will help children to develop this ‘can do’ attitude. Allowing children to take risks and
to sometimes fail is essential if they are to grow up to be adults who can take on challenges and
deal with failure.
Many experts believe that society is hindering this development by an over-zealous attitude
towards safety. Well-meaning moves to make play areas safe, for example, have gone overboard
to the extent that many playgrounds have become sterile places where children do not face
any challenge. Regulations that all bars on climbing apparatus must be regular, standard
distances apart mean that many children do not fully develop skills in moving their bodies in
unpredictable sequences. Concerns about potential accidents can mean that children do not get
opportunities to climb trees or scrape their knees. Obviously, we do not want to expose children
to unnecessary risk, but childhood should in itself present challenges. It is encouraging that
the government announced a commitment in The Children’s Plan to create and improve up to
3,500 children’s playgrounds.23 Hopefully the designers will plan these play areas creatively,
because if society insists upon sanitizing and standardizing children’s experiences there is a
danger that today’s children will grow to be adults with a negative attitude towards any sort of
challenge.
Fascinating Fact
In the two decades since 1990, when the television show That’s Life
campaigned for safety surfaces to be fitted at all children’s playgrounds,
it has been estimated that between £200 and £300 million was spent in
the UK on safety surfaces. As a result, many playground developments have
been cancelled due to prohibitive costs, meaning that children have to walk
further to reach a local playground. The estimated number of children’s lives
saved by these safety surfaces, based on accident statistics from previous
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decades, would be a maximum total of one or two. During that same period,
approximately 1,300 children have died in pedestrian accidents, and about
40,000 have been seriously injured.24
When Samantha’s tower of bricks collapses for the third time, she does
not blame the other children, nor does she give up. Instead, she says, ‘Uh-
oh!’ and pulls a silly face. Then she starts building again, this time with the
largest bricks at the base of the tower. She is bolstered by a positive self-image
and high self-esteem. Samantha is both resilient and persistent. She also knows how to ask
for help. When her friend Angie walks by, Samantha calls to her. Angie sits down and helps
her to gather the larger bricks, and together they build a tower that is tall enough to satisfy
Samantha’s ambitions.
At a nursery school, the children wanted some new shelving to display their models.
The practitioners took them to a store to choose and purchase the shelving. They
then gave the children ownership of deciphering the instructions and constructing the
shelves. Unfortunately, however, some pieces were missing from the pack. But instead
of the adults taking over, they helped the children themselves to phone the store to
complain. The result was that the store manager came later that day to personally
deliver the missing pieces!
Twenty-one ways to foster the ‘can do’ attitude in the early years
1. Create lots of tasks and activities that have no ‘correct’ answer
2. Create ‘have a go’ times, and model ‘having a go’ yourself
3. Explore the idea of failure and be explicit about being ‘stuck’
4. Ask children to consider open-ended questions and provide plenty of opportunities for
sustained shared thinking
5. Do exercises that involve considering the outcomes of various scenarios
6. Involve children in writing the day’s or week’s To Do list

7. Give children responsibilities such as caring for the pets and organizing the book corner
8. Plan activities that involve children thinking of lots of really good questions
9. Plan activities that necessitate asking other people questions
10. Rehearse and practise appropriate behaviours such as stopping and thinking, or talking to a
friend or adult
11. Encourage children to work together in pairs or groups Group-work

page 132
12. Notice and make a positive comment when children help one another
13. Give public acknowledgement for ‘can do’ attitudes
14. Remember to tell parents and carers about children’s successes and about activities they
particularly enjoyed
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Part One
15. Use puppets and stories to explore positive attitudes such as team work and perseverance
16. Encourage children to tell about helpful friends
17. Talk about positive attitudes at plenary and group times

Pole- 18. Encourage children to pole-bridge
bridging
page 99
19. Pole-bridge yourself, verbalizing when you make a mistake or need to rethink
20. Collect books and tell stories about people who have overcome difficulties and have a positive
attitude
21. Create a ‘can do’ board where you display photographs and captions of all the children’s
positive achievements
We ‘can do’ it: we care for our pets.
Twenty-one ways to turn outdoors into a physically challenging, can do area

1. Provide planks and A frames that children can move around into different and unpredictable
configurations for climbing
2. Space out logs at uneven distances and heights

for jumping and climbing Of course, pay attention
3. Allow children to climb trees, with supervision to safety when creating a
if necessary. If there are no trees, provide challenging outdoor area,
alternative climbing apparatus, but at the but at the same time,
same time, consider planning landscaping for seek a balance where
future generations of children to have tree- you also provide a high
climbing experiences! enough level of challenge
page 42
4. Give children a variety of old tyres to stack up and use for rolling, climbing and jumping
5. Get some large cobbles delivered and encourage children to cart these around in barrows and
build with them – children need the challenge of lifting, shifting and moving heavy objects
safely
6. Pile up items such as plastic crates, cable reels, big cardboard tubes, buckets, boxes, ladders
and planks and let children find ways to use them
7. Create areas where children can have a sense of independence, for example, where they can
build dens and climbing structures using natural materials
8. For a few weeks, create a maze or climbing structure with bales of straw, and move them
around regularly
9. When purchasing new equipment, look for structures that give flexibility for open-ended play
and opportunities for more than one child to be involved
10. When making rules about the use of equipment, think carefully about your reasons for safety
rules, for example, how high children are able to climb
11. Audit your play area to and ask yourself if there ways that you can improve the level of
challenge for children by altering your rules alongside your systems for supervision
12. Work with parents to share information about how important it is for children to be
stimulated and challenged out of doors, and ask them for ideas about how to improve your
play area
13. Collect bike wheels and other interesting pieces of machinery, and offer these for
construction and imaginative play
14. Offer a range of natural materials such as stones, shells, sticks and leaves to add to larger
construction materials. Access to these ‘small parts’ will encourage imaginative play
15. Find or buy some camping utensils such as metal saucepans and offer these for outdoor play
with mud, stones and sticks
16. Make your outdoor area challenging by handing over the getting out and putting away of
equipment to the children themselves. This way, they have real choice over what they use,
and will combine things in unexpected ways
17. Provide equipment for gardening, and teach the safe use of tools for this activity – some
children will love just digging! Create an area for children to freely dig in the mud
18. Woodwork can be a very stimulating activity for some children. Make the area safe,
supervise carefully and teach good habits in the use and storage of tools
19. Make use of resources from garden centres, by picking up bargains in end-of-season sales,
such as fencing, cobbles, plant tubs, canes, clips, fasteners, hose, and trellis. Use these items
to extend the opportunities for creativity in your setting
20. Remember that slopes and steps give children different ways of developing their muscles
and managing risk. As you develop your garden or outdoor area, think of ways of altering the
levels and surfaces to provide additional challenge
21. Experiment together with building techniques such as wattle and daub, living willow, fencing
of different sorts, with fabrics, clips, camping ties and pegs to make structures
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Part One
Turning negative self-talk into positive self-talk

The following five scenarios show the difference between negative and positive self-talk.
The practitioner’s task is to help children to develop the positive language that will enable them
to tackle a challenge successfully.
I can’t do up my shoes. I can put on my shoes and pull the Now I need to learn how to tie
laces tight. the laces.
I can’t read. I can recognize the names of all the children in and my dad says that I make up
my group. I can remember some of the pages really great stories!
of my favourite book and soon I will be able to
read it all by myself –
I can’t ride the I can ride the tricycles really fast. If I keep practising, soon I’ll be able to ride
two-wheeler bikes. the two-wheelers without the stabilizers.
I can’t run as fast as Gerry. I can run a long way without and I am great at tackling when
getting puffed out, we play football!
I can’t roll out the clay. If I get Jeremy to help me, we can roll out the clay really well
page 44
Step 5: Managing behaviour positively
When we consider the behaviours that we wish young children to display, the first requirement
has to be that we are providing a curriculum that meets their social and intellectual needs. Many
cases of inappropriate behaviour can be caused by inappropriate demands being made upon very
young children. Once we are sure that what we are providing is appropriate, we then need to
decide what our expectations are, making them appropriate to the age and developmental stage
of the children in our setting. Most practitioners create rules such as the ones below. The key
to success is to create a minimal number of rules that are phrased positively and in such a way
that children clearly understand them. One nursery school traditionally has always had just two
simple rules, Keep it friendly and Keep it safe. Whenever a situation arises that requires adult
intervention, the children are asked if it ‘feels friendly and safe’. If someone – adult or child –
feels that it is not, agreement has to be reached to make everyone comfortable. Many children
eventually learn to use the rules themselves to sort out disputes, saying to one another, ‘That
wasn’t friendly’ or ‘That’s not safe!’25
A variety of strategies can be used to manage behaviour positively; one of the most useful being
The Three As system of Acknowledgement, Approval and Affirmation. The four-to-one rule, where
four positive comments are made to every neutral one, and negative comments are avoided, is
another good system for monitoring that behaviour management is positive.
Examples of good ru
les for the early ye
ars:
• Help to put away the
toys at tidy-up time.
• Hang up your apron wh

en you take it off.
• Put the pencils back on
the shelf when you ha
•
ve finished drawing.
Put the caps on the pe
ns after you have used
•
them.
Help other children.
• When the timer rings

, let someone else have
•
a turn with the bike.
Put the books back in
the rack after you have
•
read them.
Flush the toilet and wa
sh your hands when yo
•
u have been to the toi
Tell Mary before you let.
go outside.
• Touch other children

gently.
• Always look at the pe

rson who is speaking
•
to you.
Walk when you are in
side.
Activity: auditing your interactions with children

Here is an activity to help you to analyse how you divide attention between the children in your
setting.
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Part One
Sit down, either alone or with your co-workers. Write down all the children’s names and then
make some notes about what they did last week. What did each child achieve? What did they
struggle with? What did you help them with? Who demanded most of your time? Are there
certain children who require more of your attention and time due to specific individual needs?
Is this balance appropriate? If it is not, how could you work with parents, colleagues and other
professionals to ensure that you create a better balance?
Then ask yourself these questions: What did you find it easier to recall? Did you have to think
long and hard about some of the children, to remember exactly what they achieved? Did the
words simply fly from your pen for others? Was there a difference between the boys and the girls?
Is there a difference between the various aged children in your care? Who takes most of your
time? Is this always the same, or does it vary? What actions might you need to take to ensure that
all children receive an adequate share of attention?
A reception class teacher realized that every year a number of the children in her class,
particularly boys, became disruptive during the music sessions that were led by the
school’s music specialist. Over the course of the year, these children would learn to
cooperate during the sessions, but the following year the teacher would face the same
situation with children in her new class. She talked with the music specialist and they
decided that, instead of focusing on altering the behaviour of these children, she would
sit and observe the sessions and try to understand what caused this inappropriate
behaviour.
After a few sessions, she realized two things. Firstly, the content of the songs and
activities was far more appealing to the girls in general than to most of the boys.
Secondly, although many of the activities involved movement, few of them involved
large or challenging motor skills.
The teacher met with the music specialist to discuss her observations. Together, they
adapted many of the songs to make them more appealing to the disinterested boys. For
example, songs about farm animals were adapted to be about dinosaurs and monsters,
with big movements that involved crossing the mid-line, which is challenging for young
children. In the course of a few weeks, the children who had previously been bored by
these sessions were engaged and were participating enthusiastically.
A practitioner talked of how she found that special activities designed for a child with
autism helped other children in her setting develop better social awareness:
‘My special needs coordinator gave me some books to read about Social Stories™ and
suggested that I might want to use some of the materials with a child in my class with
ASD. I realized very quickly that Social Stories™ might be useful for other children in
my class. The stories cover very simple tasks and events in the lives of young children,
such as waiting for turns, lining up and blowing noses, and can be adapted for each
child. Although the focus was upon helping the child with special needs, Social
Stories™ were successful for the other children too. I realized that many things we ask
children to do probably make little sense to them. Social Stories™ spell out the reasons
for the routines we follow and help children to make sense of their world. And, as an
added bonus, using the stories was really fun!’26
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Fostering intrinsic motivation and learning to learn

The intrinsic motivation to learn is one of the greatest tools that a child can have. It will enable
him to overcome difficulties, be persistent, and see failure as a part of the learning process.
Young children are by their very nature self-motivated, but can easily be influenced until they
depend upon adult approval and reward systems and lose the self-drive to learn. The aim of the
practitioner should be to minimize the child’s dependence upon extrinsic motivators and foster
his natural instinct to learn from a stimulating environment.
The four requirements for the development of intrinsic motivation

Researchers Mark Lepper and Melinda Hodell identified four essential requirements if children are
to have intrinsic motivation.27 These requirements are challenge, curiosity, control and fantasy.
Challenge: The task for the practitioner is to design a range of activities that are
far enough within the comfort zone to make the child feel competent, yet far enough
outside the comfort zone to challenge her to achieve more. The level of challenge has
to be high enough that she is motivated to achieve the task, but the task must not be
too difficult, or it will fail to engage her and may diminish her self-motivation.
Curiosity: In order to evoke strong curiosity, children need to undertake activities

that challenge their current level of understanding. If an activity challenges the
child’s sense of equilibrium he will be prompted to fully engage in learning to
resolve the discrepancy. Again, the level of challenge must be appropriate, as a large
discrepancy between what the child understands already and what is presented
through the activity will be likely to discourage him from engaging fully in the task.
Control: Children need to have shared ownership of the curriculum and be free to
make choices in their learning in order to become fully engaged in learning.
Fantasy: Through fantasy and play, children have the opportunity to explore issues
and emotions, which in turn can lead to increased intrinsic motivation.
The Three As
The Three As are a tool for the practitioner to use to encourage good behaviour and attitudes. The
Three As
The As stand for: Acknowledgement, Approval and Affirmation. They form a whole feedback page 61
strategy that gives the child specific information about what he has achieved, and involves him
in dialogue about what might happen next. Acknowledgement lets the child know that you have
noticed what he is doing. Approval can be used, if necessary, to give the child an incentive to
continue or repeat the successful behaviour. Affirmation explicitly states that the child has the
skills and ability to be successful: that this incident was not a fluke and that it will be repeated.
Before Kishan started school, he attended a day care centre. At first he

found it difficult to stay at any activity for more than a few moments. He
would rush off before finding out what an activity actually entailed. One
day a parent brought in a butterfly box so that the children could watch the life cycle of
caterpillars and butterflies. Inside the box some caterpillars were eating their way through
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Part One
leaves and Kishan joined his friend Paula to watch them. But after a few seconds, he started
to move away. His key person noticed this, and gave the two children some magnifying
glasses to look at the caterpillars’ mouths. ‘That’s great that you’re looking so closely,
Kishan,’ she said, and asked, ‘What can you see?’ He picked up the magnifying glass again.
‘Umm – they’ve got little teeth!’ he exclaimed. ‘I can see them too! It helps that you are
holding the magnifying glass so still,’ she replied.
Kishan was inspired to stay for longer and look more closely at the mini-beasts. His key
person then encouraged the two children to use the books that she had displayed nearby.
Kishan and Paula read The Hungry Caterpillar and then decided to paint pictures of
caterpillars. When she returned to see what Kishan had painted, his key person made the
affirmation, ‘Kishan is really observant. He notices lots of details when he looks at the
mini-beasts carefully.’
A practitioner told the story of how a mother spoke to her before the pre-school’s fun-
sports day:
‘She told me that she was worried about Karin taking part and so was considering
keeping her off school on fun-sports day. Karin is a really enthusiastic, confident little
girl, and she had really enjoyed our practice that afternoon for our dressing-up race. It
was made even worse by the fact that her mum spoke to me in front of Karin.
I asked her why she thought there was a problem, thinking that Karin had a dental
appointment or something. But her mother’s reply was, ‘Oh, the girls in our family are
no good at sports. She’ll come last and will cry.’ I explained to her that firstly, the race
was a team game and that we were not emphasizing winning or losing, and that all the
children were to receive stickers for taking part. I told her that in fact, it wasn’t even
going to be a competition – it was just a fun activity.
The irony was that although Karin doesn’t have the best physical skills, she was not
the least bit worried about the sports day until her mother spoke to me. The sad thing is
that if her mother persists in such negative talk, Karin will probably grow up to be “no
good” at sports just as her mum predicts.’
The practitioner made sure that she used many positive affirmations about Karin’s
ability in the dressing-up race over the next few days, so that any damage done by her
mother’s description of the family’s weakness at sports would hopefully be negated
in Karin’s mind. She also focused on encouraging all the girls to participate more
frequently physical activities, and emphasized their achievements through frequent
affirmations. ‘Look at those girls climb,’ she would comment when Karin and her
friend reached the top of the climbing apparatus, ‘Karin and Bethany are climbing
strongly!’ She continued to address Karin’s need to improve her physical skills, but did
so whilst affirming Karin’s capabilities. Gradually Karin became more confident about
physical activities and her skills improved more rapidly.
page 48
The language of acknowledgement
• I like the way that Johannes……
• Thank you Chen, for……
• I’m so pleased at the way that Kimberley……
• That was so thoughtful, the way that Red Group……
• James, I noticed how you……
• I think that we should all thank Bryan for……
• Look at the way that Sam’s group is……
• We all noticed how quietly the Blue Group……
• Amina and Jake told me how you helped them when……
• John’s dad told me how you both……
• I just heard that Bruce has......
• When we were clearing up I saw......
Ten ways to show approval

1. Give a ‘thumbs up’ signal from across the room
2. Give a hug with a whisper of how proud you are
3. Shake the child’s hand
4. Give strong eye contact and a smile
5. Tell a nearby practitioner what you noticed the child achieve
6. Mention the achievement at the plenary session
7. Tell the child’s parent about his achievement at the end of the session
8. Give a pat on the back
9. Draw a smiley face on the child’s hand
10. Write the child’s name on the whiteboard, to remind you to

tell his mum
Twenty-five simple affirmations:

1. We can all find our own coats
2. We take care of books and toys
3. We listen quietly at story time
4. We turn and look at Sandra when she speaks
5. We pour our drinks of water very carefully
6. We all line up quietly
7. We pick up toys when we have finished with them
page 49
Part One
8. We put the lids back on the pens
9. We walk quietly in the line
10. We put our snack plates in the dishwasher
11. We take turns with the bikes
12. We face the front in assembly
13. We hand round the snack tray carefully
14. We stroke the rabbits very gently
15. We help our friends up when they fall over
16. We keep our hands still when we sit on the mat
17. We wash our hands after we have used the toilet
18. We turn the pages of books very carefully
19. We brush our teeth after meals
20. We look at people when they are speaking
21. We wipe our feet on the mat before we come inside
22. We hold hands when crossing the road
23. We carry scissors carefully
24. We use a tissue for runny noses
25. We peg our boots together when we take them off
The affirmation, ‘We stroke the rabbits very gently.’
page 50
Step 6: F
ostering partnerships with parents
and carers
‘ ‘Successful relationships become partnerships when there is two-way

communication and parents and practitioners really listen to each other
’
and value each other’s views and support in achieving the best outcomes
for each child.’

Early Years Foundation Stage, Effective Practice: Parents as Partners28
Working in partnership with parents and carers

The stronger the partnership between parents, carers and practitioners, the more effective
the education can be. It is important to create strong formal and informal systems for
communication. Whatever the stresses or pressures of the day ahead, a wise practitioner is
available to welcome parents and their children at the start of each session, and if possible, to
personally say goodbye to them as they leave at the end of the day. It is also important to give
parents regular opportunities to discuss their children’s progress in private. Children who know
that their parents and practitioners are working together as a team can be relaxed, confident and
secure in the learning environment. They are more likely to develop the ‘can do’ attitude, develop
strong self-esteem, and reach their full potential.
Partnership
George’s mother was worried that he would be teased when he started with parents
and carers
wearing glasses. She came in to talk to his key person, who listened to her page 65
concerns, and responded,
‘I could see how George might feel nervous about wearing them – he really doesn’t like
change, does he? But don’t worry, we have just the thing. Our wizard puppet has a pair of
glasses for just these occasions. He will remind the children why some people have to wear
glasses and tell them about famous people who wear glasses, such as Harry Potter! We also
have two books in our special collection about children wearing glasses, would you like to
borrow them?’
George’s mum immediately felt supported. The practitioner had taken her concern
seriously. She understood why she was concerned, especially as George did not like having
to deal with change. The relationship between the practitioner and George’s mother was
strengthened through this interaction.
page 51
Part One
In one setting, a group of parents landscaped part of the play area, including a
garden. Groups of volunteers worked outside, enlisting the children’s help when
safe and appropriate. One mother visited local hardware shops and garden centres
to ask for donations of materials and plants, whilst another was simply in charge of
refreshments – along with a group of children, who enjoyed carrying trays of cold
drinks out to the workers. The result was not just a beautiful new play area and
garden, but also a building of positive relationships and morale within the community.
Twelve ways to communicate with parents and carers

1. Ask a group of parents to help to maintain the notice board
2. Let the children help to make and pin up notices on the notice board
3. Create flyers about activities and events to send via email
4. Create flyers with pictures on the front, or cut out in the shape of animals or toys
5. Make newsletters based on pictures, with one snippet of information in each part of the
picture, such as the one below
6. Ask a group of parents for help in writing the newsletters – they will know how to make sure
your messages get read
7. Get the children to paint the background for posters on big sheets of paper. Then use black
paint or a thick marker pen to write the message on top
8. Use photos, video or audio recording of children – play the recordings by the notice board at
home time
9. Make an ‘A’ frame display board or use a flip chart. Put it outside the door or in the foyer
and change the posters regularly
page 52
10. Announce daily activities, such as cooking, outings, special events, and visitors, on a white
board or pin board placed near the door.
11. Use the same board at the end of the session to display reminders and To Do lists for tomorrow
12. Keep a phone or email list for giving messages to those parents who don’t come to the setting
to drop off or collect their children
Activity: Assessing how welcoming your setting is to visitors

Find a volunteer to visit the setting and then give brief answers to the questions below. Alternatively,
create your own checklist of questions that suit your setting. A simplified, shorter checklist such as
the one used here, could be used for new parents to give feedback.
Questions for
your volunteer
visitor:
Was your initial telep
hone call or email de
alt with
efficiently and in a fri
endly manner?
Was it easy to find inf

ormation that you ne
eded on the
setting’s website?
Was the building easy

to find?
How easy would acce

ss be for somebody
with a disability?
Were street directio

ns in literature accura
te and easy
to follow?
Was the entrance we

lcoming?
How long did it take

for an adult to approa
ch you?
How welcoming was

the first interaction wi
th staff?
page 53
Part One
Fifteen good subjects for parent workshops

1. Early literacy skills
2. Helping your child learn to read
3. Early mark making and writing
4. Healthy eating and nutrition
5. Self-help and independence
6. Learning maths through play
7. Supporting play at home
8. Dealing with challenging behaviour
9. What to do in the holidays
10. Choosing and purchasing toys
11. Making toys from recycled materials
12. Cooking with your child
13. Local trips and visits
14. The importance of outdoor play
15. How we assess children’s progress
Thirty-six ways to involve parents in your setting

1. Painting furniture to give it a new lease of life
2. Painting patterns, lines, pictures or games on the playground or path
3. Cutting hardboard to make small clipboards for use in the garden
4. Planting bulbs, seeds, hanging baskets and tubs
5. Accompanying children on walks and visits
6. Looking for items of interest in local charity shops and markets
7. Making concrete stepping-stones for the garden by using pizza boxes as moulds
8. Painting sections of walls or boards with blackboard paint for chalking
9. Sitting with children while they work on the computer
10. Collecting or making bags and boxes for collections of toys or puppets
11. Making story sacks and collecting the items for the stories
12. Contributing photos, artefacts, maps, cultural items and clothing for knowledge and
understanding of the world
13. Putting together new pieces of equipment and apparatus
14. Collecting junk mail and catalogues for language and maths work
15. Making picture labels for boxes of equipment from clip art, catalogues or photos
16. Listening to children read or tell stories in the book corner
page 54
Parents working with children in the garden.
17. Bringing in photos of themselves at work, at home or doing hobbies, and talking with the
children
18. Sending postcards from holidays and visits and bringing back leaflets, baggage labels and
tickets
19. Bringing cuttings or spare seedlings from their own gardens

20. Joining in a ‘Button Week’, ‘Container Week’ or ‘Cardboard Tube Week’ to collect recycled
items for technology
21. Organizing a system for the recycling of paper, glass, plastic and metals with the children
22. Joining a charity fundraising event such as collecting used stamps or a community appeal
23. Putting up wooden battens on outside walls and fences so that you can pin up big sheets of
paper for painting or fabric for shelters
24. Making books for children’s own stories
25. Searching second-hand advertisments in newspapers or on the internet for toys and
constructions sets
26. Testing out new places to go for outings, drawing maps, locating toilets and picnic spots, and
feeding information back to you
27. Finding special offers, bargains and discounts for the things that you need to buy
28. Setting up a ‘craft supply’ shop for other parents by making bargain packs with items such
as glue spreaders, off-cuts of paper, and little pots of glue in photo film containers
29. Cooking favourite recipes with or for the children
page 55
Part One
Parents can help with recycling.
30. Sharing different foods, fruits, and drinks
31. Organizing picnics where the children prepare their own meals
32. Recording songs and stories in other voices and other languages
33. Translating books into other languages and reading them to the children
34. Chalking roadways or train tracks onto the playground and supervising the children on the
bikes and go-carts
35. Helping the children to build a big ‘camp’ out of blankets, rugs, rope and blocks
36. Setting up and managing toy and book libraries
Extended provision in schools and settings
‘ ‘Parents bring up children, not government, but parents need help and
support to do their job.’

’
The Children’s Plan, One Year On29
page 56
As the world has changed dramatically over the past few decades, there has been an increase in
the involvement of institutions and non-family members in raising children. The role of schools
and other early years settings has altered as society’s expectations have changed, with a shift
towards greater collaboration between different agencies as they endeavour to meet the needs of
families who face very different challenges to those of previous generations. The Fair Funding
Formula will mean that a lot more children will spend their pre-school years in settings other
than schools.30 We now have a society in Britain where almost all parents feel that their child has
to take up their entitlement for early years education, for fear of ‘falling behind’. Just twenty
years ago, it was believed that many young children were equally well off kept at home, finding
plenty of opportunities to learn and socialize at coffee mornings, playing at friends’ houses, and
making trips to the park.
While it now generally accepted in the UK that the current level of provision for three and four
year olds might be appropriate, the trend for younger and younger children to spend increasing
hours in childcare and for school-aged children to spend increasing hours in school has led some
experts, such as Sue Palmer and Steve Biddulph, to become vocal in their criticism of these
trends. While these experts acknowledge that there are many families who need such levels of
care and many children who thrive in these environments, they point out that many parents
make that choice because they have no viable alternative.
A huge responsibility lies with practitioners to ensure that they build stronger links with
children’s homes than was traditional when children spent only a few hours per week in their
care. The foundation for this relationship should be the key person approach, which is now a legal
requirement in settings in the UK.31 It requires more than the key person overseeing the day-to-
day care of the child, it requires a total commitment to building a strong relationship with the
home and creating a social triangle between the child, herself, and the parents. There are many
ways to do this, and to be truly successful, the key person approach requires commitment, energy,
creativity and hard work. The benefits to the child, as a result, are immeasurable.
A key person plays a vital support role.
page 57
Part One
All settings are now examining their approach to the role of the key person. The staff
at one large day nursery have spent time discussing the difference between their
previous description ‘key worker’ who was responsible for paperwork and systems, and
the new ‘key person’ described in the Guidance as having ‘special responsibilities for
working with a small number of children, giving them the reassurance to feel safe and
cared for and building relationships with their parents.’
Their discussions have involved them in a total revision of their procedures for
involving parents, and in managing a support system where shift workers share
the key person role, ensuring that there is always someone on duty who has close
knowledge of each baby and young child. This involves a carefully constructed message
system so that important information from parents, or about individual children, is not
lost when shifts change.
Parents have been closely involved in talking about the sort of support they need and
how their child can continue to be an individual within a large and complex setting.
Twelve ways for key persons to create strong links with children’s homes
• Make home visits prior to children joining the setting and then consider creating a schedule
of continued informal visits
• Create a gallery on a photo-sharing website and upload pictures of children regularly. Share
information about daily activities and achievements through personal emails or social
network groups
• Use digital photo frames to display photos of children involved in activities in the setting, and
invite parents to contribute pictures from their homes
• Ask parents for a list of important dates for their family, and help children to make cards or
small gifts for family members’ birthdays and special occasions
• Make an effort to learn and remember each individual family member’s name and details
about them, such as their interests and hobbies. Then find out about extended family and
friends, and take time to talk to children about these important people in their lives
• Ask parents every Friday about their weekend plans, and remember to chat to children each
Monday about what they did over the weekend
• Encourage children to bring in photographs of their activities, family, and friends. Make
books about each child, and share the books regularly at story times
• Make video clips of children doing activities in the setting, and share these with parents
online or on mobile phones or CD
• Take photos of children engaged in activities and print them or show them on the computer,
so that parents see the process, not just the product, of children’s efforts
• Invite parents to come in and have a cup of tea or a home-made biscuit at the end of the day
• Think about which parents might feel less involved, and think of ways to include them. For
example, have a ‘Lads and Dads’ morning to plant bulbs, dig gardens or paint a shed
U TIO
CA
Always check with parents before sharing photographs or recordings of their children,
N
particularly through electronic sources such as websites and emails

CA N
U TIO
page 58
Part Two
Supporting
independent learning
Step 1: Making maximum use of the environment
The organization of the learning environment
‘ The environment is a living, changing system. More than a physical

space, it indicates the way time is structured and the roles we are expected
’
to play. It conditions how we feel, think and behave; and it dramatically
affects the quality of our lives.

Jim Greenman32
Each practitioner has to work within the parameters of her environment, and some settings are
more ideally suited for independent learning than others. However, there are many things that
the practitioner can do to optimize the learning of the children in her care, and good organization
is the key. Small differences in organization can make a major difference to behaviour and can
influence the standard and quality of learning that takes place.
Jill is a childminder who is preparing for her day. She lives on the ground floor of a
high-rise block of flats. She minds three children – three-year-olds Bruce and Martin,
and Zena, who is just four. Each morning, Jill spends about thirty minutes arranging
her flat for the children, before they start arriving at 8:30am. First, she pushes her
coffee table back to the wall and pulls out a blanket box full of construction toys, cars
and a set of small world people. She then covers the coffee table with a circle of thick
felt, so that bricks, cars and other toys do not damage the glass. Her kitchen table is
similarly protected by a plastic cloth ready for painting, dough, sticking and cooking
activities.
page 59
Part Two
Part Two
A reading area appears behind the sofa with comfy cushions and a shelf of assorted
cardboard box, painted with white emulsion paint and complete with door
books, next to a role-play area, which is three sides of a large cardboard box, painted
and windows cut in the sides. Dressing-up clothes in a bag, cushions, a toy
with white emulsionphonepaintandand complete
a plastic with
tea set door the house. To encourage
complete
and windows cut in the sides. Dressing-
independence, dough is
kept in a plastic
up clothes in a bag, cushions, a toybag in the
phone
fridge; pencils, crayons and
and a plastic tea-set paper
complete
are inthe
the house.
bottom
To encourage independence, dough
kitchen drawer; books are
is kept in a plastic bag in the
on the fridge;
bottom shelf in the
living room; and water
pencils, crayons and paper are in the
and sand toys, fishing
bottom kitchen drawer;nets, books arewellington
kites and on
the bottom shelf in the
bootsliving
are inroom;
the halland
water and sand toys,cupboard, ready kites
fishing nets, for
expeditions to the play
and wellington bootsareaareorinthe
the hall
park. The
cupboard, ready for children
expeditions to the
can help
play area or the park. The children
themselves to can
the things
they need and know how
help themselves to the things they need,
to put them away.
and know how to put them away.
Today, Jill plans to take the children outside onto her small patio to wash
some the
Today, Jill plans to take dollschildren
and dolls’outside
clothes she
ontohas
herbought
small from a charity
patio shop,
to wash so she
some dolls
puts out a bowl for washing, a low clothes line and her peg bag. She is
and dolls’ clothes she has bought from a charity shop, so she puts out a bowl for
always on the lookout for new ideas for activities that will stimulate the
washing, a low clothes line and
children’s her peg
interests andbag.
help She
themistoalways
develop on theand
skills lookout
becomefor new ideas
more
for activities that will stimulateShe
independent. thebelieves
children’s
that interests
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shehelp
looksthem to develop
after should be
skills and become moreencouraged to be as independent
independent. She believes as that
possible,
the and she meets
children sheregularly with
looks after
other childminders to discuss her job and improvements she can make to
should be encouraged to be as independent as possible, and she meets regularly with
children’s experiences – but without turning her house into a school!
other childminders to discuss her job and improvements she can make to children’s
experiences – but without turning her house into a school!
One of Samantha’s favourite activities is bookmaking. The

reception classroom has an area specifically set out for this
One of Samantha’s favourite activities
activity. Children is bookmaking.
have The card
free access to paper, reception
and writing
materials. The teacher is always on the lookout for new ideas and
classroom has an area specifically set out for this activity. Children have
materials. For example, she recently found some packs of giant pencils in a
free access to paper, card
poundand writing
shop, which materials. The teacher
some of the children like to is always
use to writeon
giant-sized letters.
the lookout for new ideas and materials.
Samantha enjoys usingFor example,
them she
to write as recently
neatly as shefound some
can, which is quite a
packs of giant pencils challenge!
in a pound shop, which some of the children like to use to write giant
sized letters. Samantha enjoys using them to write as neatly as she can, which is quite a
The shelves are stocked with word books and children’s dictionaries for children
challenge! to check their spellings, and cue cards in boxes give keywords next to pictures
that can be copied if children choose. Hole-punchers, mini-staplers, treasury
The shelves are stocked tagswith
and word
lengthsbooks
of ribbon
andare available for
children’s them to bindfor
dictionaries their pages together.
children to check
Alternatively, some of them choose to ask an adult to help them to use the ring
their spellings, and cue cards in boxes give key words next to pictures that can be copied
binder. Completed books are often displayed in the book corner where they can
if children choose. Hole-punchers, mini-staplers,
be read, until children decide to treasury
take them tags
home.and lengths of ribbon are
available for them to bind their pages together. Alternatively, some of them choose to ask an
adult to help them to use the ring binder. Completed books are often displayed in the book
corner where they can be read, until children decide
The Thinking Child
to take them home.
page 50
Resource Book
In one nursery school the staff developed an area of the outdoor playground by using
just about every imaginable type of container to create a colourful display of fruits,
flowers and vegetables that the children helped to tend. Old sinks, plastic pots,
watering cans, baskets and barrels were painted by parents and filled with compost
ready for children to plant seeds. Plants were labelled with pictures and information
page 60
Supporting independent learning
about their origin and growth; tools that were safe for children to use were stored
on boards at child-level; watering cans sat ready for use by the garden taps; and
indoor displays described the produce that was being grown, along with books about
gardening. The produce that the children grew was used in cooking sessions, with
every child having the chance to sample the results of their hard work. In this way, a
difficult outdoor environment was put to good use.
Twenty-five qualities of settings that foster independent learning

1. Drawers, cupboards, and shelves are clearly labelled in pictures and words
2. Areas are clearly demarcated for different types of activities
3. There are sufficient storage containers for all the equipment
4. There is room for children to move around freely
5. There is a cosy area for sharing books and stories, where books are displayed imaginatively
and can be selected easily
6. There is an area with adequate room for whole class or large group activities such as story Mind maps
page 108
time or 3D mind mapping
7. Equipment and materials are stored within reach of the children so that they can work
independently
8. The language used by adults is supportive and assumes that children have good learning
behaviours
9. There are attractive and interesting displays that invite interaction
10. There are individual areas for children to store their own belongings
11. There are surfaces where children can leave their unfinished models or work
12. The furniture is suited to the size and number of children in the group
Organized areas for children’s belongings.
page 61
Part Two
13. There is a well-resourced area for writing and mark making
14. There is free and easy access to the outdoors
15. Display boards are at the children’s level
16. Children are encouraged to contribute to displays
17. Parents are welcomed into the setting for formal and informal visits
18. A listening post and CDs are available for children to listen to stories
19. Not too much equipment is stored on the shelves – it’s not easy to get the bottom box out of a
pile of six!
20. Children are involved in discussions of how and where things are kept
21. Protective clothing and dressing-up clothes have easy fastenings and loops for storage
22. Children have some choice of how and where they work, such as standing or sitting, on the
floor or a table, or indoors or out
23. Self care areas, such as toileting and hand washing, are easy to access and children don’t
have to ask an adult before using them
24. Children are encouraged to collect the things that they need for their projects and play
25. Children are encouraged to ask questions, think and talk about what they are doing, and
request additional resources
Providing a surface for unfinished models.
Practitioners who work using brain-based learning techniques often find that one of the
results is an increase in the confidence and ability of the children to work independently.
The following list gives suggestions of some basic items that can be used to implement brain-
based techniques in any setting.
page 62
Useful brain-based items

U TIO
CA
Some of these items are more suited for use with the older, more mature children.
N
For explanations about their use refer to the referenced pages in The Thinking Child.
CA N
U TIO
A copy of the brain-based learning circle (cf. The Thinking Child page 95)
A board at children’s eye-level for displaying the To Do list
A board for children to display their own pictures, captions or notices
A traffic light poster for checking understanding (cf. The Thinking Child page 96)
A whiteboard or pin-board for displaying the Big Picture (cf. The Thinking Child
page 96)
An MP3 player or a CD player with a number of CDs
Sound makers and simple musical instruments
A large amount of Blu-tac for sticking up posters, affirmations and mind maps
Sets of coloured pens or chalks for brainstorming sessions
Pieces of card and paper of various colours and sizes for mind maps
(cf. The Thinking Child page 109)
Sets of affirmation posters (cf. The Thinking Child page 64)
A range of hand puppets
A camera and plenty of spare film for recording events and successes
page 63
Part Two
A ‘Decibel Clock’ for showing children your expectations for the noise level
Props for circle time activities such as hats and soft toys
Magic wands and different types of pointers for Brain Gym® exercises
Cue cards for practitioners to use when leading Brain Gym® exercises
A list or ‘menu’ of brain break ideas
Lengths of ribbon and coloured pegs for displaying posters, pictures, or mind
maps
Posters outlining rules and ‘good sitting’ and ‘good listening’ (cf. The Thinking
Child page 87)
A list of movement songs and rhymes for use as brain breaks
A parachute and book of suitable games
Sticky labels for making affirmation badges
Activity: improving the environment

Take some time to evaluate the organization of your setting, being idealistic about what you’d
like to achieve. Take one area at a time: for example the home corner, the big brick area, or the
art area. On a sheet of paper, list all the desirable items for the area, and alongside this make
notes about how you might work towards achieving your ideal. It may be possible to obtain some
of these items at little or no cost by sharing your plan with parents and the community. It does
not matter if the improvements cannot be made all at once, as you can build on the plan as new
ideas emerge and finances become available.
For example, here are a practitioner’s notes about the improvements that she would like to make
to her home corner:
page 64
Colourful rug or carpet – need a new one! Ask a store for old carpet samples?
Repaint the table and chairs – parents’ working party
New dolls’ beds – made from wooden wine boxes, ask Mrs. G. to knit blankets
Need new dolls’ clothes – unpick old ones to make patterns for new sets, send out
note asking for fabric and ask PTA for volunteers to sew
Tidy and reorganize boxes of play food, utensils etc – need transparent boxes –
put on PTA wish list
Dressing-up clothes and easier storage for them
Scarves and pieces of fabric – note on parents’ board
Box of hats – note on parents’ board
Need more multi-cultural cooking items – put on PTA wish list
Need a real cordless telephone, radio etc – note on parents’ board
Then… have regular sessions with the children to model how to tidy up!
I must remember to do a session with the whole group when I introduce a new focus
for this area. They seem to need help in knowing exactly what to do and how to behave.
Perhaps I should plan to spend more time there when the focus is new?
A well-organized environment will encourage children to work independently. When children

can take care of most of their own needs, time is not wasted waiting for adult assistance.
Children can then be creative, for example by combining unusual materials in their play.
By providing a well-organized environment and teaching children how to use materials,
independent learning is fostered.
Children should be able to select materials independently.
page 65
Part Two
Twenty ways to organize the environment to foster independence

1. Label boxes or drawers with pictures or photographs of the contents
2. Use clear plastic containers to store items
3. Organize the garden shed to provide children with easy access to the equipment
4. Provide equipment that is very flexible so that it can be used in many ways
5. Provide clipboards and small whiteboards for children who choose to record their play
6. Ensure that aprons and dressing-up clothes have simple fasteners
7. Provide a low level mirror in the bathrooms for children to check their appearance
8. Provide footstools at sinks for children to wash their hands or the paint pots
9. Organize the writing and book making materials so that children can access them freely
10. Cover shelves with paper and draw outlines of the pots and containers that go on them
11. Teach children how to hang their paintings on the drying rack
12. Provide a shelf or table for unfinished models
13. Encourage parents to help their children remove and put on coats independently at the
beginning and end of the day
14. Use clear plastic wallets and wardrobe organizers to store items so that they are clearly
visible
15. Check scissors and other tools regularly to make sure that they do the job intended
16. Store outdoor toys where children can get them out unaided
17. Give children a range of tools, such as pens, pencils, felt pens, crayons, brushes and
highlighters, and a range of size and thickness, so they can choose the ones they need for
the work they plan to do
18. Provide baskets, bags and trolleys so that equipment can easily be taken outside
19. Watch the children using book racks, shelves and other storage areas, and note and rectify
any difficulties they might have
20. Remind parents to think about independence when they buy clothes and shoes for their
children
Provide footstools at sinks.
page 66
Display
Display has several purposes in the early years, not least that of showing off the work that
children have done and making them feel a sense of belonging and achievement. But displays
should also inform, teach, and challenge children to think. They should be interactive and should
enhance learning.
Display should:
create a sense of belon

ging
enhance learning
invite children to be
interactive
stimulate further thin

king
help children to make

connections between
concepts
motivate towards furth

er learning
aid recall
represent all the child

ren
be at child height
celebrate and affirm

su ccess
remind of rules and be

havioural codes
page 67
Part Two
One practitioner described her school’s policy on display by using a metaphor of the
ocean. The tide would lap away at the edges of the displays day upon day, meaning that
items would be added, taken away, or moved. The displays would evolve and become
more elaborate one week, then ebb away the next. But then suddenly there would be a
storm and the whole lot would be washed clean away, ready to start anew the next day.
When Carrie drew a picture of her mum playing tennis with her at the park,
her key person encouraged her to write a caption to go up on the wall with
the drawing, and to read it back to her. She commented about how well she
had formed the letter ‘C’ for ‘Carrie’, and how she had used a capital letter for
the beginning of the sentence, but she resisted the temptation to ‘correct’ her writing. The
purpose was for Carrie to work independently, which she had achieved. Carrie then proudly
read the caption to her childminder when she came to collect her at the end of the day.
Questions that you might like to address when you audit your display policy
• What is the purpose of display in our setting?
• In what way does display enhance the learning of children?
• How do our displays look from a child’s eye-view?
• In what circumstances should children’s work be displayed?
• Where are the key areas for display?
• Who is the audience for displays in each area?
• Who is responsible for the displays in each area?
• Are there additional areas and space that could be used for display?
• How might mind maps contribute to displays?
• When should displays be created and by whom?
• How should children be involved in making new displays?
• How do we ensure that all the communities within our school are represented in our display?
• How do we ensure equality and representation of disability, gender, and different ethnic
groups with our displays?
• Are all the messages from our displays positive ones?
• Are all children represented through our displays?
• How do we acknowledge bilingualism and cater for non-English speakers in our displays?
• How do our displays reflect the local area and community?
• Are our displays at an appropriate height for children to view them?
• How often should we add to and change our displays?
• Do we discuss the displays with the children?
page 68
• Do we encourage the children to show the displays to their parents and carers?
• Do we encourage parents and carers to contribute to our displays?
Fifteen ideas for organizing displays in shared spaces

1. Use free-standing boards to display work – one side can be used for interactive display and
the other for children’s own work
2. Build interactive 3D displays in front of a free-standing board or a wall, using cardboard

boxes of different sizes, covered with fabric or painted
3. Laminate titles for displays so that they can be taken down between sessions
4. Use a pin-pusher to minimize damage to notices that need to be taken down frequently
5. Put tags with children’s names on ribbons that can be hung on pegs or models
6. Use lengths of corrugated card for displays, which can be rolled up after each session
7. Keep clearly labelled storage boxes of artefacts
8. Categorize books and keep them in labelled boxes
9. Cut out letters and laminate them to make titles for displays
10. Cut the sides from big cardboard boxes, paint them with emulsion paint and pin things onto
them
11. Hang things from coat hangers suspended from hooks or picture rails
12. Use a clothes airer or indoor washing line covered with paper or fabric
13. Use small Velcro® ‘dots’ to fix sheets of card or paper over shared pinboards or display
screens
14. Hang canes, cardboard tubes or broom handles from the ceiling and suspend pictures or
models from them. (You may be able to leave these in place between sessions.)
15. Use a set of shoe pockets (the transparent sort that hang over a door) to display small things
in the pockets. Move it to the inside of a cupboard at the end of the session
An interactive 3D display.
page 69
Part Two
Part Two
Seventy-five
Seventy-five themes
themes for for interesting
interesting displays:
displays
animals balls bells
blue (or any

big and small birds
other colour)
bubbles and
bottles brushes
balloons
buttons and
camouflage circles
beads
clocks cogs and pulleys containers
dolls eggs eyes
favourite stories feathers footwear
freezing fruits with seeds glass jars
greeting cards hair hats
heavy and light herbs and spices holes
in the air in the garden jungle
kites leaves letters and cards
lids and tops lights magnets
page 60
page 7 0
The Thinking
The Thinking Child
Child Resource
ResourceBook
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Supporting
Supporting independent
independent learning learning
mini-beasts mirrors night-time
Noah’s ark pairs parties
pots and pans puppets rainbow colours
rough and
rectangles root vegetables
smooth
salad seasons seeds
shiny things smells sounds
spirals squares stars
story places teddy bears textures
things that things that use

things that bend
stretch batteries
transparent
tiny things tools
things
triangles underwater Watch it grow!
water wheels wooden toys
page
page 71 61
TheChild
The Thinking Thinking Child Resource
Resource Book Book
Part Two
Twelve extra places for display

Apart from the usual pinboards, many practitioners find that they need additional space to fit in
all their mind maps, posters and interactive displays. Here are suggestions of other spaces that
can be used for display.
1. The ceiling
2. The windows
3. The door
4. The kitchen
5. The cupboard doors
6. A washing line
7. Ribbons from the ceiling
8. A sheet hung from the ceiling
9. Corrugated card stretched between bookcases

10. The back of bookcases
11. A pile of cardboard boxes, covered in fabric or painted
12. ‘A’ frames covered in fabric
Step 2: H
elping children to develop good
attention skills
‘Good Good listening skills are essential for effective learning. Some children need considerable help to
sitting’
and ‘good learn to pay attention and respond appropriately. Listening and sitting are skills that often need
listening’ to be taught, just like literacy and numeracy skills. Many practitioners refer to these skills as
page 87
‘good listening’ and ‘good sitting’.
Listening skills are essential for learning.
page 72
It is statistically likely that out of our four children, three will suffer some
hearing deficit at some stage in their formative years. George frequently
suffered from ear infections in his first three years. His parents did not find
that he showed obvious signs of hearing deficit such as failure to respond when
they talked, but they did notice that he often struggled with learning to pronounce new
words, such as ‘video’, which he pronounced as ‘bideo’. George underwent a series of speech
therapy, which helped his language development and also helped his parents to better
understand how to monitor his speech and help him when his hearing levels were low.
Carrie lives with just her mother in a flat. There is rarely any background noise in the
home, and Carrie and her mother hold many long and detailed one-to-one conversations.
Carrie found it easy from a young age to engage in conversation with an adult and could
give good eye contact and read non-verbal cues of adults by the time she entered nursery
class. However, she found it more difficult to participate when several other children
wanted to talk. Turn-taking activities at circle time boosted her confidence in a larger group
setting and helped Carrie to develop this skill.
By contrast, Kishan’s home is much busier and noisier than Carrie’s. His grandparents live
with him, and several times a year the family hosts visitors from Bangladesh. Kishan is
used to having to speak out to make himself heard in this busy household, and his teacher
had to help him to learn to wait his turn in a class with more than 20 other children vying
for her attention! Kishan also found it more difficult to sit still to listen, and had to have
the support of an adult as he practised the skills of ‘good sitting’ for several months before
he could remain seated through an entire story time.
George, Carrie and Kishan each have skills that have evolved partly because of their
personality and partly through experience, and all of them will benefit from being explicitly
taught how to sit and listen effectively.
A father told us about his son’s repeated temper tantrums in the classroom:
‘Lewis has always been an intense child. He gets very involved in what he is doing and
builds really elaborate models. He plays imaginative games that involve a lot of talking
about the story, singing songs and making incredible sound effects. One day the teacher
asked to speak to me after school. Lewis had thrown a major tantrum at the end of
the day and had hidden under the table and refused to come out. When the classroom
assistant tried pulling him out, he had kicked her.
I was still not convinced that Lewis’ problem was a behavioural one. At home we rarely
had tantrums now that he had language to express himself. I went to see the headteacher,
who suggested that the teacher began keeping a diary to note what typically set Lewis off
with a temper tantrum. After a few weeks it became clear that his tantrums happened
at the end of sessions, usually when he was expected to clear up and didn’t want to. At
home we rarely put that sort of time limit on activities. We tend to have flexible mealtimes
and bedtimes, and if our children are involved in a project we let them finish in their
own time. Lewis was simply not accustomed to this more rigid timetable.’
The answer for Lewis was for the teacher and his father to work together. His father
worked to help Lewis learn to bring a game to an end once he had been given a time
warning. His teacher learned to give a signal to Lewis that the activity was due to end,
and set up systems for him to keep models until the next day or to show to his dad
before breaking them up. Gradually Lewis learned to manage his emotions.
page 73
Part Two
Jane was in her fourth week as an NQT when her school had an Ofsted inspection. She
told us:
‘The week before Ofsted arrived I was close to resigning. I was dreading the inspectors
seeing what I felt was a lack of attention from the children. It would take me so long
to get them to listen that by the time I had their attention, the session would almost be
over! I often felt that I was talking to myself.
I didn’t like to admit how I was struggling, because the other teachers were under such
pressure, especially my mentor who was the deputy. Luckily, my nursery nurse, bless her,
realized that things were not going well. At one of our planning sessions she suggested
that we asked for help. At the staff meeting I spoke up, and I was amazed by the
response! The teachers came up with a list of suggestions of ways to gain the children’s
attention. The headteacher came into the class the next day and we practised one or two
of the methods until the children understood my expectations. They actually enjoyed the
practice. I learned to wait until they were quiet before continuing to speak, no matter
how uncomfortable it felt.
By the time Ofsted arrived I had cracked it. We still had a few hair-raising moments
that week, but I waited it out and insisted that the children listened when I spoke. I
learned that there are many techniques for achieving the same goal, and that having the
right expectation was the most important thing.’
It is important to give instructions clearly. Here are some principles for ensuring that children
hear you and some interesting ways to get their attention.
Principles for ensu

ring that children
•
hear you
Make sure that you ha
ve the child’s attentio
•
n before speaking
Position yourself in fro
nt of the child and ge
•
t down to his level
Ensure that you can be
seen by facing towards
•
the light
Create systems for ke
eping the background
•
noise to a reasonable
Speak clearly and a lit level
tle more slowly than
•
your normal speech
Use whole sentences
to help children to gr
•
asp the context of wh
Pause between senten at you are saying
ces and repeat complex
•
sentences or words
Keep instructions shor
t and clear
• Ask the child to repeat

the instruction or expla
•
in the meaning in his
Check for understandin own words
g regularly
• Use appropriate facial
expressions and hand
•
gestures
Use visual cues to rein
force meanings
• Sit where there is no

distraction or moveme
nt behind you33
page 74
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Ten
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1.
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4.
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the nearest
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Part Two
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room.
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5.
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your
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inin quietly.
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joining ininquietly.
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10.
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children’s attention:
attention:
Touch your lips, touch your knees,
Touch
Touch
Touch
Touch
Touch your
your
your
your
your lips,
lips,
lips,
lips,
lips, touch
touch
touch
touch
touch your
your
your
your
your knees,
knees,
knees,
knees,
knees,
Touch
Touch your
your lips,
ears, touch
now your
listen, knees,
please!
Touch
Touch
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Touch your
your
your ears,
ears,
ears, now
now
now listen,
listen,
listen, please!
please!
please!
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Touch yourears,
your ears,now
ears, nowlisten,
now listen,please!
listen, please!
please!
Point
Point
Point
Point toto
to the
the
the ceiling,
ceiling,
ceiling, point
point
point toto
to the
the
the floor,
floor,
floor,
Pointto
Point tothe
to theceiling,
the ceiling,point
ceiling, pointto
point tothe
to the7floor,
the
page 5floor,
floor,
Point
The Thinking Child
Point
Point
Point toto
to the
the
the window,
window,
window, point
point
point toto
to the
the
the door,
door,
door,
Resource Book
Pointto
Point tothe
to thewindow,
the window,point
window, pointto
point tothe
to thedoor,
the door,
door,
Point
Point
Point
Point toto
to you,
you,
you, point
point
point toto
to me,
me,
me,
Pointto
Point toyou,
to you,point
you, pointto
point tome,
to me,
me,
Part Two
Point to the ceiling, point to the floor,

Point to the window, point to the door,
Point to you, point to me,
And turn and listen, quietly.
Hands on your head, fingers on your nose,

Thumbs on your ears, wiggle your toes,
Point to your friend, point to your chair,
Point to the teacher, hands in the air.
Hands on your head, fingers on your nose,
Thumbs on your ears, lips firmly closed.
Find a partner, find a partner,

Hold his hand, hold his hand,
Smile as you greet him, smile as you greet him,
Then sit down, then sit down.
(sung to the tune of ‘Frère Jaques’)
,
Let s all come and sit right down,
Sit right down, sit right down,
,
Let s all come and sit right down,
Ready for a story.
(sung to the tune of ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’)
Practitioner: Children, children, are you ready now?

Children: Of course we are, of course we are,
Let us show you how.
(sung to the tune of ‘Baa, Baa, Black Sheep’)
Six ways to acknowledge good attention skills

1. ‘I notice that Jamie is looking at Mitchell.’
2. ‘Good, Jonah has his hands in his lap.’
3. ‘Thank you, Claudia, for waiting until I finished speaking.’
4. ‘Now that everybody is quiet, I can explain what we are going to do.’
page 76
5. ‘Karla has put down the bricks and is looking at me.’
6. ‘Great! Blue Group is sitting down, ready to listen.’
Once children are busy playing and working, it can be a challenge to ensure that they maintain
a noise level that is appropriate to the activities taking place and conducive to learning. The list
below gives some ways in which practitioners can gain, and then maintain, a desirable noise level.
It is not possible to define the ‘appropriate’ noise level for the early years, as noise is often CA
U TIO
N
necessary for learning! Bear in mind that these suggestions are meant for those times when the
group is going off task or becoming too noisy for productive activity to take place. Some of the CA N
U TIO
suggestions are only appropriate for the older children. Also, remember that boys are more likely
to find it difficult to be quiet. Try not to make it a gender issue!
Ways to gain and maintain a desirable noise level
• Use your hands to illustrate the level of noise that is expected – wide arms mean free use of
voices, whereas closed hands mean silence. Encourage the children to do the actions with you
and repeat during the activity when necessary
• Use the ‘Decibel Clock’ with different types of activities described on it with
the level of noise for each type of activity
Decibel Clock
page 88
• Put individual cards on tables to show groups what type of voice would
be suitable for their activity, such as a series of faces with different
sized mouths: for example, closed for silence and wide
open for a noisy activity
• Use frequent affirmations that the children in

your care know how to use the right ‘sized’ voice
for each type of activity
• Practise using different levels of voice during

circle time, and role-play the right noise levels
for different activities
• Use an imaginary volume control to raise or

lower the volume. Let children practise turning
the volume up and down so they learn what it
feels like
• Talk about ‘quiet feet’ and ‘quiet voices’ so people who

are working, neighbours or others are not disturbed
• Make a sound or sign such as a raised hand or a small bell when

the volume gets too high, and help the children to respond when they notice the sign
• Be clear when you want children to play quietly and acknowledge them when they do
• Limit the time when children need to be very quiet. Do it in short bursts with more relaxed
sessions between. Remember that children need to talk about what they are doing
• Have two soft toys, one who likes quiet and one who likes noise, and get out the toy that likes
the noise level that you wish to establish for the activity
page 77
what they
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● Have
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● Have two soft
twosoft toys,
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andone who
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andget out
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●
● Have two soft toys, one who likes quiet and one who likes noise, and get out
the
the toy
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noise level
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to establish
establish for
for the
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the
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the noise
noise level
level that
that you
you wish
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establish for
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the activity.
activity.
Ten
Ten ways to
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ove from one
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lining up, but
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up, but but by
by
following a cue
1. Move
Move from
from one
one place
place to another without
without lining
lining up,
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but byby
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following a
a cue
cue to
to walk
walk quietly
quietly and
and calmly.
calmly.
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walk quietly
following and
cue to walk
walk quietly
tocalmly. quietly and
and calmly.
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2. Choose
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2. Choose leader and
and aa last person, then let others join the
2.
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leader and
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ine up
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to an upbeat
upbeat
an piece
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or aor
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or piece,
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or aa
or a foot-tapping
3. Line up
up to an
an upbeat
upbeat piece
piece of
of music, or aaa quiet
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or aa
foot-tapping
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4.
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4. LLine
Line up
ine up pretending
uppretending
pretending to
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cats,
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elephants
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or Supporting
elephantsgiraffes.
or giraffes.
giraffes.
4. Line up
up pretending
pretending to be cats,
cats, dogs,
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elephants or
or independent learning
giraffes.
Supporting
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5. LLine
5.
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ine up
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physical
physical attributes,
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those
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by those with with short,
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black
5. hair.
5. Line
Line up
up according
according
page
page
page 68
68
68
to
to physical
physical attributes,
attributes, such
such as
as those
those with
with
The
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page 68 Resource
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6. Line hair
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Line up first,
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with lace-up those
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6. 6. Lhair.
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shoes
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buckles,
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lace-up
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or lace-up
those
lace-up shoes shoes
wearing
shoesfirst,first,
then those
first, then those
sweatshirts,
then with
those shoes
short with
withor with
shoes with buckles, or those wearing sweatshirts, short or
shoes
buckles, with
or
long sleeves,
shoes sleeves,thosebuckles,
with buckles, wearing
or caps.
caps. or those wearing sweatshirts,
or those wearing sweatshirts, short orcaps.
sweatshirts, short or long short
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or
6. long
6. Line or
long sleeves, or caps. lace-up
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long up
up with
with
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those
or with
with
caps. lace-up shoes shoes first, first, then
then thosethose with with
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shoes
7. Line Line up with
with buckles,
up accordingbuckles,
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or those
those
to which wearing
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children chose short
chose that thator
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7. long
long sleeves,
sleeves, or
or caps.
caps.
7.
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Line up
morning:
upup
7. Lmorning:
ine according
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or thosechildren who worked
who painted in the sand tray
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who pictures.
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built with
with the
the bricks
bricks first,
first, then
then those
those
8. Line
8. Line upup according
according to to height,
height, shortestshortest to to tallest
tallest or or tallest
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8. who
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worked
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shortest.
shortest.
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back leader
leader –from
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middle ofaathe
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birthday
the line.
line.
9. Line up
in June
June according
first, followed
followed to birthdays
by those –
those –whose those
whose who
birthday have a birthday
9. in Line up first,
according to birthdays
by thosebirthday
who have isisaininbirthday
March,
March,
in June
orJune
in first,
May, first,
and so sofollowed by those whose
on. by those whose birthday is in March,
followed birthday is in March,
9. or
9. Line
Line May,
up and
up according
according on. to
to birthdays
birthdays –– those those who who have
have aa birthday
birthday
or May,
or May, and so
and so on.on.
9. Line up according to birthdays – those who have a birthday in June first,
in
in June
June first,
first, followed
followed by by those
those whose whose birthdaybirthday isis in in March,
March,
followed
or
or May,
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andthosesoso whose
on.
on. birthday is in March, or May, and so on.
10. Line
10. Line upup inin alphabetical
alphabetical order, order, then then choosechoose aa front front and and backback
10. Line up
leader.
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Line up in alphabetical order, then choose a front and back choose a front and back
leader.
leader.
10. LLine
10.
10. ine
Lineup upinin
up alphabetical
in alphabetical
alphabetical order,
order,
order, then thenchoose
then choose
choosea front and back
aa front
front and leader.
and backback
leader.
leader.
Liningup
Lining upsongs:
songs:
Lining up
Lining up songs:
songs:
Some
Lining
Lining lining
Ten
up
up songs:up songs
little
songs: children made aa line line one
one day,
day,
Ten little
Ten children
little children made
made a line one day,
Ten
Up totolittle children
theTen door made
and far aaway,
line one day,
away,
Up the door little
and children
far made a line one day,
Up to
Up tolittlethechildren
door and and faraaaway,
away,
Ten
Ten
Mrs X X the
Mrs little said,
said,
Up
door
children‘Oh
‘Oh
to well
the
made
made
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done,
door
line
and
line one
one day,
far
day,
away,
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‘Oh well far
well done,
UpMrs
Up
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to
so
I’m so said,
the door
proud
proud
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you, ,far away,
away,
everyone!’
everyone!’
I’m
Mrs
Mrs so
I’m so Mrs
proud
proud
XXtosaid,
said, ‘Oh
‘Oh X
of well
of said,
you,
well Oh
you, done, well
everyone!’
everyone!’
done, done,
(sung the
(sung to the tune ,tune of ‘Five Little Ducks’)
of ‘Five Little Ducks’) ,
(sung
I’m
I’m so
(sungsototoproud
the Itune
proud
the tune
m so ofof proud
of
of ‘Five
you, Little Ducks’)
of you,
everyone!’
you, Little
‘Five everyone!’
Ducks’) everyone!
(sung
(sung to
to the (sung
the tune to‘Five
tune of
of the tune
‘Five of ‘Five
Little
Little Little Ducks’)
Ducks’)
Ducks’)
WeWe are are going
going toto the
the hall,
hall, toto thethe hall,
hall,
We
We are
are going
going to
to the
the hall,
hall, to
to the
the hall,
hall,
WeWe are are going
going toto the
the hall,
hall, toto thethe hall,
hall,
WeWe
We areare going
are going
going toto
to thethe hall,
the hall,
hall, toto
to the the hall,
the hall,
page 7
8 hall,
So
The Thinking
So Child line up now beside the door,
line up now beside the door, Resource Book
So are
So line up nowto beside theto door,
We
We
WeWe line are up
are
are
now
going
going
going
going tobeside
to
to
the
the
the
the
the hall,
hall,
hall,
hall, todoor,
to
to
the
the hall,
the
the
hall,
hall
hall
SoWe
We line
So are
are up
line going
going
up now to
now to the hall,
the hall,
beside
beside the to
the to the hall
the hall
door,
door,
We are going to the hall, to the hall,

We are going to the hall, to the hall,
So line up now beside the door,
We are going to the hall, to the hall.
(or the park, story time or other destinations)
(sung to the tune of ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’)
Wind the bobbin up,

Wind the bobbin up,
Walk, walk,
Wait by the door,
Wind it back again,
Wind it back again,
Stand, stand,
Stand up tall
(sung to the tune of ‘Wind the Bobbin Up’)
I hear footsteps,
I hear footsteps,
,
Hark don t you?
,
Hark don t you?
Walking very quietly,
Walking very quietly,
To the door,
To the door. (or mat, wall, or path)
(sung to the tune of ‘I hear Thunder’)
Heads and shoulders

In the line, in the line,
Heads and shoulders
In the line, in the line,
And eyes and nose
must face the front
page 79
Part Two
Heads and shoulders

In the line, in the line.
(sung to the tune of ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’)
,
Let s make a line, diddle diddle,
,
Let s make a line,
When we are ready diddle diddle,
Things will be fine.
(sung to the tune of ‘Lavender’s Blue’)
Step 3: Helping children to stay on task
One of our principal aims in the early years is to help each individual child to develop good
concentration skills across a wide curriculum. By providing a curriculum that is stimulating and
engaging, each child should be able to spend his or her time engaged in purposeful activity. The
practitioner then needs to intervene whenever concentration is waning to re-engage the children,
or to adapt or expand the activity, or to redirect the children to do something new.
Kishan’s teacher is often amazed by the length of time that he can

concentrate on certain activities. Kishan loves to build and work in three
dimensions. When working on a task that involves construction toys, he
can concentrate for very long periods. Yet when his teacher wants him to draw a picture
or write a short sentence, he finds it difficult to concentrate for more than a few minutes.
Kishan is primarily a kinesthetic learner. His teacher needs to ensure that the paper and
pencil tasks that she sets for Kishan have a purpose that appeals to him. This makes
it easier for him to stay on task. For example, recently she encouraged him to draw a
picture of the robot that he made from a construction kit and to write a sentence about his
adventures. The classroom assistant stayed close by to make frequent affirmations about
Kishan remaining on task.
In her first term Carrie found the ‘big school’ daunting. When the class went to assembly,
Carrie sat on her teacher’s knee. Her teacher would find out the content of assemblies
before making the decision about whether the children should attend, and at first only
kept the class in the hall for the first five minutes. Gradually she built up the time that the
children were expected to stay, although if Carrie or any of her friends found it too difficult
to sit for that length of time, her classroom assistant would quietly bring them out. By the
end of the first term, Carrie was confident and happy about attending assemblies.
Samir’s childminder told us about the challenges that faced her when trying to help
Samir to settle to activities for longer than a few seconds. Samir’s parents explained to
her that he had always been an active child. He walked at nine months and ran by nine
and a half. He didn’t seem to stop running for the next two years, and still preferred to
page 80
Part Two be on the move. He would seemingly ignore both his mother and his childminder when
they spoke to him and would often throw spectacular tantrums if they insisted that he
followed their instructions.
what she thought was a reasonable action, such as taking his hand to
As Samir’s
makechildminder
him leave his worked withand
bicycle his parents to tryfor
come inside to solve
lunch,this problem,
would comeshe
like a
realized that his tantrums were usually caused by the fact that he had not
bolt out of the blue to Samir. Once the adults began to consciously wait for had sufficient
time toa process her instructions.
few moments Therefore
after speaking what she
to Samir, so thought
allowingwas a reasonable
plenty action,
of processing
such as taking
time his hand
before calmly to make him leave
repeating his bicycle
the request, and
the come inside
tantrums for lunch,
became less would
come like a bolt out of the blue to
frequent and eventually ceased. Samir. Once the adults began to consciously wait for
a few moments after speaking to Samir, so allowing plenty of processing time before
calmly repeating the request, the tantrums became less frequent, and eventually ceased.
The brain-based learning circle
The
Brain-based brain-based
This structure learning circle
can be used to help those children who are ready for the introduction
learning circle
page 81 This structure can be used to help those
of literacy and numeracy sessions. children who are ready for the introduction of literacy
and numeracy sessions.
Brain-based
learning
circle
T h e b ra in -b page 95
ased le a rn in g c ir
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Ch ec k fo r
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Bu ild in br ain
br ea ks
For full-size
For full-size photocopiable photocopiable
version, see end of version,
book. see end of book.
It is important that practitioners keep in mind the developmental needs of groups and of
individual children, especially when often working under pressure to cover a set curriculum in
It is important
a set amount that practitioners
of time. Taking keep
time to consider inquestions
the mind theoverleaf
developmental needs
can help to of groups
ensure that
the central focus remains the child, not the curriculum. The question, ‘How long should acover
and of individual children, especially when often working under pressure to childa
remain setoncurriculum inbe
task?’ should a set amount
answered of another
with time. Taking time‘How
questions. to consider the questions
appropriate is the task?’
opposite can help to ensure that the central focus remains the child, not the
curriculum. The question, ‘How longpage should a child remain on task?’ should be
81
answered
The Thinking Child with another question, ‘How appropriate is the task?’ Resource Book
page
Part Two
Questions to consider about how long a child should remain on task
• Is the task appropriate for the child’s needs?
• Does the task offer the right level of challenge for the child?
• What is the natural concentration span of the child, at this type of task?
• Is the child motivated to concentrate on the task?
• By what criteria would you judge the task to have been successfully completed?
• What adult support, if any, is available for the child undertaking the task?
• How frequently, and when, is feedback to be given to the child undertaking the task?
• Can the task be broken down into smaller chunks?
• Are brain breaks built into the session to give physical reprieve?
• At what time of day is the task being undertaken?
• What is the physiological state of the child as he undertakes the task?
Questions to consider when introducing more formal sessions in literacy and

numeracy
Remember, you are in control of the introduction of formal teaching of these

elements of the curriculum, and from 2011 there will be no legal requirement
to adopt any particular methods, although the Foundation Stage goals remain
in place. Your knowledge of the developmental stage and individual needs of the
children on your care should guide your professional decisions.
• Are the children capable of the concentration levels necessary for these sessions?
• How do we plan for enough variety of activity to cater for the needs of such young children?
• How are we incorporating the latest guidance and suggested activities for literacy and
numeracy as the curriculum changes?
• How do we decide which children are ready for the sessions?
• Are we meeting the needs of all the children in the class or group? How do we know?
• Are we offering all the aspects of Communication, Language and Literacy to all the children?
How do we check?
• How do we use observation to monitor progress and track development in these key skills?
• Do we provide for brain breaks and movement during the sessions?
• Do we monitor whether children are on or off task? What do we do about what we find?
• What do we do if a child appears to be finding the planned activities too difficult or too easy?
• How do we ensure that the detailed information we have about individuals is used to support
them as they move into new groups and classes?
page 82
• When do these concentrated sessions happen? Is it always at the same time of day? Do they
have a damaging influence on child-initiated learning?
Part Two
Part Two
Part Two
Part
Part Two
Two
PartTwo
Part
Part
•
Two
How can we plan integrated sessions where children have opportunities to practise their
developing skills in real life, hands-on activities?
Part Two
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Strategies to use as the children mature and their level of concentration improves
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Part Two
• Observe children carefully to ascertain where and when they find it easiest to concentrate,
and build on these successes
• Stop the class or a group or an individual to ask what they are doing and what they aim to
achieve next
• Use frequent affirmations about groups and individuals, describing how they concentrate
well on various activities and tasks
• Intervene to suggest further development of an activity when you sense that children are
starting to lose focus
• Make labels for children to collect as they start on their chosen activity
• Make labels on badges, lengths of wool or clips that children can attach to their clothing to
show what activity they have chosen to participate in
• Give challenges to groups that require sustained concentration for successful completion
• Group children with those with greater concentration skills working alongside others who
find it harder to remain on task
• Talk about what you are doing as you work alongside children, supporting them as they
think about how they might extend the task
• Use calming background music to create the mood for concentration
Step 4: Talking the language of learning
Giving positive feedback

The language that the child hears at home and within the setting creates for him a set of beliefs
about himself, which will strongly influence how he learns. Children need to hear explicit
descriptions about desirable behaviours and about themselves. This sort of clear, positive
feedback gives power to positive thinking, which in turn leads to high achievement.
A nursery nurse told the story of Cara, who was the fourth of six children:
‘Cara was four years old, going on forty. Her mum was doing her best to keep the children
fed and clothed in very difficult circumstances. I had taught the three older girls, but
Cara was not quiet and ‘easy’ like her older siblings – she was a very determined little
girl! Her mum simply couldn’t cope with a child who questioned her authority at every
turn. When her mother arrived early one day to collect the children, Cara did not want to
go. She was busy clearing up after a cookery session and wanted to stay until her biscuits
had come out of the oven.
Cara’s mum had clearly not thought it important to tell the children that she was going
to collect them early, and she lacked the skills to negotiate with Cara about needing to
leave. “Bad girls don’t get ice cream on the way home. Only good girls get ice cream,”
she said to Cara as she pulled her over to the cloakroom. “I like being a bad girl,”
shouted Cara, and she grabbed my hand. “My teacher likes bad girls too – don’t you,
Mrs. Simpson?”
page 84
I realized that Cara simply categorized herself as a “bad girl”, whereas her older sisters
were “good girls” who deserved ice cream. Cara imagined that I agreed with her mother
that she was a bad girl, but that I had no preference for either good or bad children.
I realized that we needed to be more explicit about giving positive vocabulary to Cara’s
good qualities and attributes. For example, if Cara raised her voice to tell another child
to return a snatched toy back to a friend, we would draw more attention to her having
a strong sense about fairness than to the fact that she had shouted. We started giving
labels to her positive behaviours, and gradually she stopped saying that she was “bad”.
It was interesting that her dominant behaviour diminished when she was given positive
labels for herself. Her mother also found her behaviour easier and their tempestuous
relationship gradually calmed down.’
After a role-play activity Carrie’s teacher encouraged the children to discuss

what they had liked about one another’s ‘performance’. ‘I liked it when
Zack pulled funny faces when he said the dinner was yummy,’ said Carrie.
‘Why exactly did you like that?’ questioned the teacher. ‘Cos he didn’t really like
it,’ replied Carrie. ‘Cos his face said it was dis-gusting!’ chipped in another child. So Zack
learned that his clowning act had been a success and that his audience had understood the
difference between what he had said and what he had really thought. He learned that this
technique worked and was motivated to use it again. His classmates learned something too,
and some of them were inspired to try out this technique at a later date.
A reception class teacher talked about how the practitioners at her school work hard to
speak only positively about the children in their care:
‘Our school is situated on a very tough estate and a very high proportion of our children
have free school meals. It is depressing to feel that we are sometimes expected to achieve
the same by the end of Key Stage 1 as other schools in the area. Many of their children
come into school already able to read. Some of the children in my class can barely speak
in sentences.
Yet we try very hard to never speak negatively about our pupils, either inside or outside
school. We focus on the positive. Sometimes it is difficult, but that’s where you need a
strong team and good support from the management. Our headteacher is always quick
to pick out the positive, and she comments on progress made, rather than on scores
attained. This makes an impact on the morale of the staff and has a positive knock-on
effect on the self-esteem of the children.’
Feedback is as important for the development of social skills as it is for

academic achievements. George’s key person had been pleased to observe
that on Monday George had walked across to the nursery without grasping
her hand. George had instead walked with his friend Dinesh. She had told
George how she had noticed and how pleased she was to see that he and Dinesh were
page 85
Part Two
becoming good friends. When it was time to walk across

the playground the following Monday, George came
to grasp her hand. His key person took his hand
gently and called to Dinesh. ‘Do you remember
how you walked across to the nursery with
Dinesh on Monday?’ she asked. George
nodded. ‘Would you like to do the same
today?’ she said, putting George’s hand into
Dinesh’s. George happily went across the
playground with Dinesh. After revisiting the
previous experience, George was helped to
repeat his success a week later.
Remaining 100 per cent positive can sometimes be challenging for busy practitioners. The activity
below can be a useful tool for auditing the language in your setting and ensuring that when you
are under pressure, you don’t fall into the negative trap.
Activity: The four-to-one-rule

By following the four-to-one rule, you will ensure that you use four positive comments for every
neutral one, and simply avoid using negative comments. This may seem a daunting task, and
sometimes it takes practice to keep the language in the setting only positive. Use the chart below
to monitor the talk in your setting. Ask a colleague or friend to observe you and note what sort
of comments you make to children during the normal course of the session. In the first column,
the observer should note the names of the child or children who are involved in the interaction.
Then she should tick one box, to show whether the comment was positive, negative or neutral.
In the right hand column, she may wish to make a brief note to remind her of the context, or of
anything
Part Two that she might wish to discuss after the observation.
Ob se rv at io n
sh ee t: Th e fo
ur -t o- on e ru
Ch ild ’s na m e
Po
le
sit ive Ne ga tiv e Ne ut ra l No te s

page 86
Examples of neutral comments:
● ‘Jamie, I would prefer to see you sit on the mat right now.’
● ‘Natasha, could you show me how you put the paintbrushes carefully in the pots?’

Examples For
of neutral comments
full-size photocopiable version, see end of book.
• Examples of neutral comments:

‘Jamie,
Examples I would prefer tocomments:
of neutral
Examples of neutral comments:
see you sit on the mat right now.’
• ● ‘Jamie,
Examples
‘Natasha,
● ‘Jamie,
‘Jamie, I
I would comments:
of neutral
could Iyou show
would
would
prefer to see you sit on the mat right now.’
me how
prefer
prefer
you you
to see
to see
put the paintbrushes
sit on
you sit
youon
the mat right
thethemat
carefully
now.’in the pots?’
right now.’carefully in the pots?’
•
●● ‘Natasha, could you show me how put paintbrushes
‘Jasmine,‘Jamie,
do you
● ‘Natasha, I would
remember
could youpreferthattowe
show see
me youjust
take
how sitone
you on
putthe
themat
snack at aright now.’carefully in the pots?’
time?’
paintbrushes
●● ‘Natasha,
‘Jasmine, could
do you you show me that
remember how you put the
we take justpaintbrushes
one snack atcarefully
a time?’ in the pots?’
• ‘Andy,
●
‘Natasha, could
● remember
‘Jasmine,
‘Jasmine,
do you
that
do we
you
you show
remember
put our
remember
methat
own how
that
you
we
plates
we
putthe
take
into
take
the
just
just
paintbrushes
one snack
dishwasher
one
● ‘Andy, remember that we put our own plates into the dishwasher when we
lunch.’ ‘Jasmine,
● ‘Andy, do you remember
remember that we putthat ourweowntake justinto
plates
snack
one the
snack
whenat carefully
at
awe
a havein
time?’
time?’
at a time?’
dishwasher
the pots?’
finished
when we
have finished
● ‘Andy, remember lunch.’
that we put our own plates into the dishwasher when we
• ‘Ella,
● canhave
‘Andy,
● have
‘Ella,
finished
remember
youfinished
hang
can you
lunch.’
your thatupwe
coat
lunch.’
hang
put our
yourplease?
coat up,
ownright,
That’s
please?
plates it into
That’sgoes the dishwasher
on the
right, it green
goes on
when we
peg.’
the green peg.’
•
have finished lunch.’
● ‘Ella, can you hang your coat up, please? That’s right, it goes on the green peg.’
‘This
●● is‘Ella,
the way
‘This can you
we
is the wayhang
wipe we your
our feet, coat
wipe our up,
wipe ourplease?
feet, feet,
wipewipeThat’s
our our
feet, right,
feet; it
this
wipe ourisgoes
the on
feet;waythe green
weis
this wipe peg.’
the our
way
● ‘Ella,
‘This
feet,●before wecan
is theyou
wayhangwe your
wipe coat
our up,
feet, please?
wipe That’s
our feet, right,
wipe it
our goes
feet;on the
this green
is the peg.’
way
we wipe
‘This is come
ourway
the in from
feet,we the rain.’
before
wipe we
ourcome
feet, in from
wipe our the rain.’
feet, wipe our feet; this is the way
we
‘Thiswipe our
is the feet, before we come in from the rain.’
● we wipe our way
feet,we wipewe
before ourcome
feet,inwipe
fromourthefeet, wipe our feet; this is the way
rain.’
we wipe our feet, before we come in from the rain.’
Seeing negative
Seeing qualities
negative qualities as aspositives
positives:
Seeing negative qualities as positives:
Stubborn
Stubborn Persistent
Persistent
Stubborn Persistent
Stubborn Persistent
Stubborn Persistent
Disobedient Assertive
Disobedient
Assertive
Mischievous Curious
Mischievous Curious
Mischievous
Mischievous Curious
Curious
Mischievous Curious
Dogmatic Confident
Dogmatic Confident
Dogmatic Confident
Dogmatic
Dogmatic Confident
Confident Supporting independent learning
page 78 Supporting independent learning
The Thinking Child page 78 Resource Book
Thinking
The Naughty
Naughty
Child Enquiring
Enquiring Resource Book
Naughty Enquiring
Naughty Enquiring
Naughty Enquiring
Unco-operative Questioning
Unco-operative
Questioning
Dogged Resilient
Dogged Resilient
Dogged
Dogged Resilient
Resilient
Dogged Resilient
Bossy A natural leader!

Bossy
Bossy A
A natural leader!
natural leader!
Fo rt y p os it
Fo rt iv e ad je ct iv
to usyepw os itit
hivch
page 7ad je ct es
e8ild
The Thinking Child to
Fo rt
usyepw re n :iv es Resource Book
Fo rt y ac os itit
hivche ild
ad
to us e w itehiv e adre
p os
tiv it je ct
n :iv es
je ct iv
to us eac
af fe tiv
iteh
ch ild re
ch n es ge nt le
ct io na te ild re n ::
w
ac ge nt le
af fe cttiv e
io na gr ac ef ul
ac
ar tiv
tis t e te ge n
Part Two
Fo rt y p os it
iv e ad je ct iv
to us e w it h es
ch ild re n :
ac tiv e
ge nt le
af fe ct io na te
gr ac ef ul
ar tis tic
he al th y
as se rt iv e
he lp fu l
ca lm
im ag in at iv e
ca re fu l
in te lli ge nt
ca ri ng
ki nd
cl ev er
liv el y
co nf id en t
lo vi ng
co ns id er at e
m at he m at ic
cr ea tiv e al
m us ic al
cu ri ou s
ou tg oi ng
de te rm in ed
pe ac ef ul
en er ge tic
pe rs ua si ve
en te rt ai ni ng
po lit e
en th us ia st ic
qu ic k
ex pr es si ve
sc ie nt ifi c
fr ie nd ly
st ro ng
fu nn y
th ou gh tf ul
ge ne ro us
w ar m
For For full-size

full-size photocopiable
photocopiable version,
version, see endsee
of end
book.of book.
Activity: Positive thinking

Activity: Positive thinking
Using a group-list such as the one below, think of positive adjectives to describe each child. This
will Using
give you
a agroup-list
good idea such
of theas
children
the onewho
on might get page,
the next less ofthink
your positive attention
of positive duringtothe
adjectives
Part Twoday. describe each child. This will give you a good idea of the children whom it isadjectives
Alternatively, you might prefer to brainstorm a list and then see how many of the easy to
you praise,
can use and
in one session with the children.
those who might get less of your positive attention during the day.
Alternatively, you might prefer to brainstorm a list and then see how many of the
adjectives you can use in one session with the children.
Po sit ive th ink

ing
Ch ild’s na me
Po sit ive ad jec
page 79
The Thinking Child tive 1 Po sit ive ad jec Resource Book
1 tive 2 Po sit ive ad jec
tive 3
2
10

Activities using positive adjectives:

UTIO
page 88
CA
These activities should be used with discretion – some younger children find
N
CA
UTIO
N
adjectives confusing!
Activities using positive adjectives

U TIO
CA
These activities should be used with discretion – some younger children find adjectives confusing!
N
• At circle time, give each child in turn a card with an adjective printed on it. Read the
word and discuss its meaning, then ask the child to give it to somebody who matches the
CA
U TIO
N
description.
• At the end of the day, give children stickers with the adjectives written on them, to match an
achievement or activity done during the day. Ask them to explain to their parents why they
received that sticker.
• Before a task begins, discuss one or two attributes that might be useful and write the
adjectives up on the board or a poster.
• Create fun hats with positive descriptions pinned on them, such as ‘thoughtful friend’, ‘good
listener’ or ‘careful worker’. When a child is particularly successful, give him the hat to wear
for the rest of the session.
• Create a positive adjective board. Pin up a selection of adjectives, then put up photographs of
children as they display those attributes in everyday activities.
• Say, ‘I’m thinking of someone who is kind/friendly/funny’, then get the children to guess who
you are thinking about.
• Make a selection of character cards showing key attributes such as ‘Careful Cat’, ‘Gentle
Giraffe’, ‘Helpful Hamster’, ‘Strong Snake’, ‘Musical Monkey’, ‘Mathematical Mouse’, or
‘Scientific Shark’, and ask the children which characters they need to help them with the
work they have planned.
page 89
Part Two
Changing negative comments to positive comments

Making positive statements or asking positive questions encourages children to learn good
behaviour.
page 90
Useful phrases for giving verbal feedback to young children
• It’s interesting that......
• I like the way that you......
• I noticed that the......
• I see that this part is......
• The way that you......
• When you......I saw that the other children......
• How careful you were being when you......
• You were really thinking when you......
• You made Kerry feel so much better when you......
• Paleb felt so good when you said......
• I was looking round the garden when I saw you helping......
• Thank you, you stopped to think before you......
Useful phrases to open productive dialogue
• Can you tell me how you......
• What do you think would happen if you......
• Who might be able to help you to......
• If you did this part a little differently what might......
• Next time you do this activity what will you......
• How many ways could you......
• How would you tell your friend to do this......
• What do you know now that you didn’t know before......
• What did you do first/next/after that?
• What did you use for......
• Who was helping you......
• Which part was the best......
• Which part did you enjoy doing most?
• How did you work out the way to......
• When/how did you learn to......
• Why did you do it like that?
• Which bit are you really pleased with?
• Show me how you......
page 91
Part Two
Pole-bridging
‘ ‘Language is the most important cognitive skill because it is the child’s

first symbol system, which is then used to learn other symbol systems
such as math.

’
Ronald Kutolak34
Pole- Pole-bridging is when you talk about what you are doing, while you are engaged in an activity.
bridging
page 99 Toddlers do this quite naturally as they acquire the language to describe their actions. As
children get older they often become more self conscious about talking aloud, yet pole-bridging
can be one of the most effective ways of making learning concrete. Adding language to an activity
helps children to process their thoughts, link concepts, challenge their thinking, and commit the
learning to memory.
George’s key person noticed him working busily in the book corner, sorting
the books into categories. She sat down nearby and listened to him before
joining in sorting the books.
‘Hungry Caterpillar, now, he’s hungry – very, very greedy, he comes out an egg. Like ducks.
Quack quack, ducks, they come out of an egg too!’ (George puts the book Five Little Ducks
next to The Hungry Caterpillar) ‘Oh, here’s the brown bear book – yellow duck, yellow
duck, what do you see?’ (George puts Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? next to
The Five Little Ducks, which is now next to The Hungry Caterpillar. He then starts to look
for other books about ducks.)
George’s key person started to look for other books about ducks
and eggs. ‘Oh, here’s The Very Quiet Cricket,’ she said. ‘He
comes out of an egg too.’
George took the book
from her and put it next
to The Hungry Caterpillar.
She then sorted books
quietly, allowing George
to continue his task,
handing him other books
that seemed relevant
to his search. They
worked companionably,
both pole-bridging, until
George was satisfied with his
reorganization of the books.
page 92
To help children to
learn through pole
•
-bridging
Model the process your
self whenever you demo
•
nstrate how to do a ta
Encourage all the adult sk.
s working in your setti
undertake everyday ta ng to pole-bridge as they
sks.
• Practise pole-bridging
during circle time.
• In plenary sessions, dr
previous activity. Ask
aw attention to childre
how it helped their lea
n who pole-bridged du
ring the
•
rning.
Draw attention to the
specific language need Big picture
the Big Picture. ed for an activity when
giving page 96
• Prompt children to po
le-bridge when you mo
•
ve around the room.
Settle alongside child
ren as they play, makin
communication as yo g pole-bridging a two-w
u work together on a ay
•
practical activity.
Sit down to participat
e in an activity yourse
model, or roll out the lf – do a drawing, make
clay, pole-bridging as a
•
you do so.
Sit down and talk child
ren through the activ
how hard you are work ity, such as, ‘Kyle, I ca
ing to thread that bead n see
the string through th . That’s it, push the en
e hole. Now which on d of
slipped! Pick it up again e next? A green one?
, that’s right. Now tu Oh dear it’s
rn it round and find th
e hole.’
page 93
This page intentionally left blank
Part Three
Developing brain-
based techniques
Step 1: Teaching children to mind map
Mind mapping is one of the most powerful tools that can be used to enrich children’s learning. Mind
mapping
Young children find mapping very easy. A mind map is like a spider diagram or a flow chart, with page 108
the keyword – the topic – of the map written in the middle, supported by a symbol or picture. The
map then develops from the centre outwards, with keywords or pictures joined by lines or arrows
to show the connections. It can be built and rebuilt as often as children wish, as they talk through
their ideas and the connections that they have made between concepts.
page 95
Part Three
A practitioner on a brain-based learning training course told of her daughter’s ability

to map at the age of 13 months:
While I was pregnant I often listened to classical music. My daughter Chloe seemed to
recognize my favourite pieces of music from birth. One day we had been outside in the
garden and Chloe and I had been admiring the pretty flowers. Later that afternoon I put
on one of my favourite pieces. Chloe stopped what she was doing and listened intently,
moving her hands to the music. ‘Isn’t it pretty?’ I commented. ‘F-f- f-ower,’ she said, in
a hushed voice, moving her hands delicately in the air in the way that she had touched
the flowers in the garden. After that, classical music became known as ‘flower music’ in
our household.
At just 13 months old, Chloe had linked the concept of ‘pretty’ from the pretty flowers
in the garden to the pleasing music that her mother played in the house. She had
learned to categorize the music that she heard around her, as only classical music
earned the title ‘flower music’. Her ability to map and make links between concepts
was already strongly in place.
Carrie watched a television documentary with her mother about the plight
of the elephant and how the species is threatened.
At school the next day, Carrie went straight to the technology area. She
worked with concentration for almost half an hour, talking to herself as she worked. She
carefully stuck together two cardboard tubes, some lolly sticks and a cereal box. She also
made a small, highly decorated box, using carefully chosen items from the selection on
the shelves. Carrie was making maximum gain from this activity because she was adding
language to the experience. Her teacher encouraged her first to pole-bridge, then later to
describe her activity to others.
At the plenary session, Carrie explained her work to the group. ‘It’s a submarine for
rescuing elephants,’ she explained, holding up her model. ‘It can travel through the ocean
at the speed of light. It has propellers here that spin really fast. They also work to light
the way for the sailors. It can change into a land cruiser, but only when it is dark. It’s on
a secret mission to save the elephants from the bad men who want to kill them. I can’t
remember…’
‘Poachers?’ suggested her teacher. ‘Yes – poachers!’ continued Carrie, ‘so the submarine
takes the elephants down to a world at the bottom of the sea where they can be safe until
after all the, um, the poachers have gone home. Then the wise men will teach the poachers
that they must leave the elephants alone. Their wives will show them how to make
beautiful jewellery, which they can sell.’ Carrie held up her highly decorated box. ‘See? This
is the jewellery that the poachers will make from seashells. Then the submarine can take
the elephants back to their land where they are safe because the poachers won’t shoot them
any more.’
page 96
the poach ers will make from where seashethey lls. Then th the poachers won’t
elepha nts back to their land are safe because rine can take the
the poach ers will make
theirfrom from seashe
where lls.
they Then
are the
landseashells. Then the submarinethe
safe subma
becau se poach ers
the won’t
elepha nts
ersback
will to
make
more.’ can
can take
take the
the
shootpoachthem any where lls. Then the subma rine
se the poach won’t ers won’t
the poach
elepha ntsers willto
back their from
make land seashe they are safe becau ers
shootnts
elepha them any
back totomore.’
their
their
land
land where
where
they
they are
are safe
safe becau
becau
sesethethepoach
poachers won’t
elepha
shoot themnts back
any more.’ ideas onto
learning, her teacher later helped her to put her
Developing brain-based techniques
shoot
shoot
them
To buildthem anymore.’
any
upon her
more.’
her learni ng, her teache r later helped her to put her ideas
togeth
ontoer.
build upon the mind map
aTomind map. The her
teacher scribedteache
learni ng, her
for her as they builther
r later helped
they built the to put
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To build
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r consol d for
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her teache later helped her the mind put her
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Five main applicat

Five main applicatio ions of mind mappi
ng
Five main applications of mind mapping:
ns of mind mapping
Five m n applicatio :
FiFive maiai ns of mind mapping
ve mainnap pl ica tio
applications nsofofmmininddmmap
:
appiping
ng: :
AsAs se ss
sessinging rre currnten
Assessincu g curren kntowknled
owledan
t knowge
ged an
unddeunrstde
anrsdintagnding
Assessing current kn ledge and understanding
As owledge and unders
Assesessssininggcu currrrenent tknknow led tanding
ow ledgegean anddunundedersrstatand
ndiningg
Shar ing ideas and fos
ShSh arin arginide
g id tering group-work
asea ansdan fosdter
fos te grou
Shar ing ideas and fos g rin in g p-w
grou orp-
k work
Sh ar in g id te rin g gr ou p- work
Shar ing idea s an d fos te
eas and fosteringggr rin
grou
oup-p-wo
work
rk
Making connections
Making connections be tw een concep
Mak inginco nn between concepts ts
Mak g ec tio ns
nnectionstw be
MMaking coco beeetwn ee
connccoepnc
ts epts
aking conn ec tio ns be tw ee
nnections betweencoconcepts n
ncepts
Revisiting previous
Revisiting previous learning
learning
Re Re
vis vis iting pr ev iou s
Re iti ng pr lea rn
Re vis
visitiiting
ngpr
evevious lea
previouious slea
rnin g ing
learnrniningg
Challenging thinking
Challenging thinking and extending learning.
and extending learn
Challenging thinking ing.
Ch Ch an
alallenging thinking an d extending learning.
Ch all enlen
ginging th
g in
thkin
inki d ex te nd
ngdan
g an exdten exdin g in
tend ingrn
lea glea
inrn
leagrnining.g.
page 87 Resource Book

The Thinking Child page 87
The Thinking Child
page 97
Part Three
The following case studies are examples of how mind mapping can be used for five specific
purposes.
Assessing current knowledge and understanding
A pre-school group is going to begin a topic on mini-beasts next term. In order to

inform their planning, each key person spends some time drawing up a mind map
about mini-beasts with their group of children. They find that there is a gap between
the understanding and knowledge of the older children and those who recently joined
the pre-school. In fact, some of the older children are so knowledgeable that their
key person joked with them and started calling them ‘David Attenborough’! The
practitioners then planned their topic with this disparity in mind, with some more
challenging activities primarily designed for the older children.
Sharing ideas and fostering group work
A reception teacher works with a group of children to review their experiences of a

fair that visited the green opposite the school last night. The teacher uses a ‘fishbone’
mapping format to help the children use all their senses to remember the sensation of
being at the fair. Together, they think about what they heard, what they saw, what they
touched, tasted, smelled, and most importantly, how they felt. The teacher helps them
to record the experience on the big fishbone map using thick felt pens to make pictures
and words. When they have finished the map, it is displayed on a low level board where
all the children can see it as they go off to paint, draw and make models of the fair.
Some of the children begin to make a big model fairground in the technology area,
whilst others make little books in the writing area. In the garden groups of children
use the large apparatus to recreate rides and games.
For the rest of the week, the children continue to work on the map, adding words and
pictures as they share ideas in their groups. Mind mapping has enabled these children
to revisit all the sensations of the fair in a safe situation. The activity has enabled them
to share experiences, reinforce vocabulary and share their feelings – all preparation for
reliving those experiences in the variety of play activities available.
A ‘fish bone’ mind map.
page 98
Making connections between concepts
Carmen is two and a half, and she is fascinated by matching and naming similar
objects. She rushes into her childminder’s kitchen clutching a model elephant, which
she has brought from home. She goes to a drawer and begins to rummage around
among the tea towels, saying ‘Elephant, elephant’. She gets more and more frustrated
as she looks. Carol, her childminder, asks, ‘What on earth are you looking for?’
‘Elephant, elephant,’ says Carmen, getting more and more frantic. At last Carol
realizes what Carmen is looking for. The day before, they had been shopping and
Carol had bought a new tea towel with a border of elephants! At home, Carmen’s
memory had been triggered when she played with her zoo animals, and she had even
remembered to bring her elephant to Carol’s house the next day.
Carol found the tea towel, which Carmen carefully spread out on the table saying
‘Elephant, elephant, elephant,’ as she walked her elephant along the border, delighted
to match and reinforce the two images. Later Carol found a cuddly elephant and they
played feeding it a banana. Before Carmen went home, they read The Elephant and the
Bad Baby together, and Carmen borrowed the book and the tea towel to take home to
show her mum and dad.
Revisiting previous learning
Fintan is in reception class. In the autumn term the class spent some time learning
about harvest and why farmers often use scarecrows to protect their crops. Now it is
spring, and the teacher plans to do some work on growth and plants. She wants to help
the children to recall what they learned previously. She starts to build a mind map
with them, with the central topic being ‘plants’.
After a few minutes, Fintan puts up his hand and says, ‘The farmer makes a
scarecrow.’ ‘Yes!’ says his friend Bruce, ‘because it can scare the crows away!’ The
children start talking about scarecrows and harvest, and gradually, between them,
the learning that they did last year is recalled. By the end of the session, the teacher
is satisfied that all the children now remember most of what was covered last year.
The mind map is quite detailed and can be displayed alongside the old ones from the
autumn, and added to as the project work progresses.
page 99
Part Three
Challenging thinking and extending learning
A group of five-year-olds are preparing for a visit to the park. They go the park in
all seasons and weathers, sometimes to play and run and shout, sometimes for a
particular purpose. Tomorrow, they are going to look for signs of spring. After a
discussion with the teaching assistant, they begin a map, working as a group on a large
sheet of paper. Their map is a representation of where they might look for evidence of
spring. They draw the familiar features of the park – the paths, swings, pond, steps,
buildings and other places. As they draw, they mark the places where they will look for
evidence. They talk about plants growing, leaves coming out, birds and other creatures
they have talked about and begin to plan a route round the park, so that they don’t
miss anything. They make a pictorial list in one corner of the map of things they might
find at the park, and in another corner, a list of things they need to take.
The classroom assistant supports the children as they work. She also observes and
assesses their knowledge and understanding of the topic under discussion, their
expanding vocabulary and their emerging scientific methods. During the day children
come back to add details to the map, and collect the things they need to take with
them. The classroom assistant asks questions that challenge the way that the children
are thinking. ‘Oh, might we find new plants there?’ she asks, then ponders aloud,
‘I wonder if they will grow in the playground? What’s the playground made of, can
anyone remember?’ The children reconsider their idea that daffodils may be growing in
the tarmac. ‘But there might be some in the pots,’ says one of the boys, drawing in the
flower containers on the map. At home time, children bring their parents in to show
them the map and tell them about their plans.
When the children go to the park the following day, the map stays at school, but
they remember exactly what they are looking for. They look, photograph, draw and
collect their evidence, which they add to the map when they return to school. Further
discussions follow the visit as the children review the visit, extending their thinking
by shared experience and discussion, and using the growing map as a support to their
learning.
page 100
Part Three
PartThree
Part Three
Part Three
Part Three
Part Three Developing brain-based techniques
Part Three
Part Three
Part Three
Part Three
Good reasons to map

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The Thinking Child page
page92
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TheThinking Child page 92
01 Resource Book
The Thinking Child
Part Three
Step 2: Adventures in play
Balance One of the practitioner’s principal challenges is providing the right environment for a balance
in play
page 112 of play activities. Providing opportunities for good quality play enables children to develop
physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially. There needs to be a balance between child-
initiated and adult directed play; between indoor and outdoor play; and between the types of
play activities. The practitioner’s role is to observe, interact, and provide for the development
and enrichment of play activities. Sensitive intervention is an art, not a science. Successful
intervention depends upon careful observation and knowledge of the individuals and groups
within a setting.
A nursery nurse described an experience that reinforced for her the importance of
allowing children time and space to organize their own learning. She asked some
children to help her take down a travel agent display that had a role-play element.
She left the area briefly to put away some fabric and books. When she returned, the
children were sitting on a row of chairs, gazing at the blank wall. ‘What are you doing?’
she asked. They told her, ‘We’re at the cinema, watching Jungle Book. You can come
if you like. Get a ticket, it’s 10p.’ The cinema was such a success that it remained the
focus for role-play for several days, with different ‘films’ on each day, tickets, ice cream,
popcorn and ushers with torches to show the customers to their numbered places.
The children’s experience was considerably richer than it would have been if she had
ignored their ideas and simply organized her display.
page 102
In the nursery a group of children were busy playing with the toy cars on
the mat. Carrie was working nearby, building a large construction from the
Duplo® and was trying to decide what to do with it. ‘What is it?’ asked one
of the children from the mat. ‘A petrol station,’ replied Carrie, and the children
helped her to lift it down onto the mat. A game then ensued using the cars and the petrol
station, and the Duplo® box was lifted down so that the children could extend the game. At
that moment, the student who was organizing the art activity came over. ‘Who hasn’t done
their bubble painting yet?’ she asked. ‘Me,’ replied three of the six children. They went off
with her to put aprons on. The game on the mat fizzled out, and Carrie and the other two
children wandered off to play elsewhere. A well-intentioned but ill-timed interruption had
put an end to independent play.
Some reasons for the provision for high quality play

The main reason for play is that, for a young child, it is work. Play is a child’s method of learning
about his world and processing events in his life. The following case studies are examples of how
everyday play situations help children to develop physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally.
Play helps children to learn to manage their emotions
This morning 20-month-old Susie is lining up her teddy bears to feed them. First
she offers a plastic apple, ‘Yum yum’, then a drink of water, ‘Tup tup tup’. Next she
offers a pretend bowl of porridge, ‘No, no, no, me don’t like!’ squeals the first teddy.
The imaginary porridge ends up on the floor. Susie is working through a scene from
breakfast time, when she had decided that she would prefer a banana to porridge.
Mummy didn’t have any bananas. Susie had cried and thrust the porridge at her
mother. She is still cross, and this game is helping her to process her feelings and make
sense of what had happened. ‘B’na-na later,’ she tells teddy.
Susie’s mother is paying attention and realizes that Susie is working through the
episode from that morning. ‘I know you were upset that I don’t have any bananas,’ she
says, ‘shall we go to the shops as soon as you’re dressed to buy some for lunch?’ Susie
beams a smile at her mother. ‘B’na-na later,’ she says. ‘Yes,’ laughs her mother, ‘we’ll
have banana later.’ She validates Susie’s feelings and reassures her that it is acceptable
to feel anger, but that it is good to find a way to work through that anger and find a
solution to the problem.
Play helps children to develop independence
TJ’s favourite game at the moment is to run away whenever his mother wants him to
get dressed. Although sometimes his mother gets very frustrated by this, TJ’s play is
serving a particular purpose in his development. He is playing out being in charge –
being the adult. He is exploring how it feels to be in control. When his mum finally
persuades him to get dressed, he insists on doing everything himself, thus practising
the activities that he sees adults doing and learning to become independent within the
security of his mother’s presence.
page 103
Part Three
Play helps children to practise new skills
George often acts out various situations after the event. After an incident
at pre-school where he was asked by his key person to share the crayons
with the other children in his group, he played a game where he shared out
his books in piles for himself, his mum and his dad, making sure that the piles
were the same height and that everybody was happy. As he did this, he was processing the
earlier experience in the most natural way – through practical play activity that allowed
him to experiment with the emotional impact that today’s incident had upon him. ‘Thank
you, George, for making sure that we all had the same amount of books,’ said his dad.
This reinforced for George the concept that sharing is good and that it brings pleasant
consequences.
Play helps children to make sense of past experiences
One of Kishan’s favourite games is playing ‘school’. In the evening, he

often lines up his soft toys and involves them in complicated rituals, which
are his versions of what he sees adults doing during the day. He acts out
snack time, praising ‘good sitting’ and ‘good sharing’. He tells stories, holding up the book
so the toys can share the pictures. He leads them in singing his versions of favourite songs.
This play activity enables Kishan to revisit his day, making sense and order of what he has
experienced.
Play helps children to practise behaviours
One of Carrie’s favourite activities is domestic play. She will set up house
in the garden at home or school, selecting a few friends to join her, using
leaves for plates and flowers or stones as food. She organizes her friends,
playing parent roles with extremely accurate language, tone and action. Her friends love
playing with her because she is a natural mimic, and they often end up in heaps of giggles
at the things she says! This type of play enables Carrie to ‘try on’ all the behaviours she
sees at home and school – to be other people, feel what they feel, try on voices, words,
movement and relationships in the same way as she might try on her mother’s shoes or
talk on the phone like her childminder. This is the way children make sense of the world,
by playing it out over and over again with infinite variations, until they can fit it into their
understanding.
page 104
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Following careful observation of children’s play, skilful intervention can enrich and extend the
activity.
Twelve ways that an adult can intervene with good effect in play activities
U TIO
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Remember – always stop and look at what is going on before you intervene. You should always
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know! U TIO
1. By joining the domestic play saying, ‘I’m going to make myself some toast. Anyone else want
some?’ In this way the practitioner can demonstrate new activities that will enrich play,
without directing it.
2. By taking the role of a waiter in a café setting, with an imaginary pad and pen, saying, ‘How
can I help you madam? Would you like to see the menu? Would you like juice or tea?’
3. By asking a group of children outside, ‘Can you think of a way to play football together, so
that you don’t get in each other’s way?’
page 105
Part Three
4. By asking a group of children playing with the bricks, while another child hovers at the edge
of the group. ‘Can Jason bring his digger into your building site? I think he needs to deliver
some more sand.’
5. By sitting by children in the sand and asking, ‘What do you think will happen if you throw
the sand?’ or, ‘How do you think Travis feels when you keep taking all the sand?’
6. By offering a basket of pens, small cards and playground chalk to children involved in small
world zoo play, to spark interest in mark making.
7. By putting on sunglasses on a sunny day and lying down on a beach towel with a book, and
then when the children show interest, asking, ‘Do you want to come and relax with me?’
8. By leaving surprises – such as putting ice blocks in the water tray, sequins in the sand or
dried pasta in the saucepans in the home corner.
9. By offering a simple resource during play – such as some hose pipe and guttering for children
experimenting with waterways.
10. By offering support without taking over, such as by asking, ‘Would you like me to hold that
while you cut it?’ or, ‘Shall I fetch you some sticky tape?’
11. By asking children if you may join their play, suggesting they should tell you what your role
is and how you can fit in.
12. By giving children time and space for their games, even though this may mean reorganizing
your own intentions to accommodate their interests.
Ice blocks in the water tray add an element of surprise.
page 106
Often practitioners have to work in less than ideal conditions. The following list gives suggestions
for those who have to share their accommodation with other groups.
Ten ways to maximize play opportunities in shared accommodation

1. Let the children help to set out the apparatus, following their suggestions about what should
go out and where.
2. Put the equipment out in a different way and in different places.
3. Combine equipment in unusual ways, such as putting zoo animals in the water tray, gloop
with cups and saucers, or lengths of ribbon or string with the bricks.
4. Use old cardboard cartons and boxes, the bigger the better! Just leave them for the children
to play with and respond if they ask you to help with joining, cutting, painting, sticking or
fixing.
5. Cut big boxes such as washing machine cartons to make houses, screens, or shops.
6. Use builder’s trays or grow bag trays for sand, small world play or dough. In this way you can
provide for children who want to play independently.
7. Scarves, net curtains, fabric pieces and hats make dressing up more fun – provide some
clothes pegs so children can fasten pieces independently to their own clothing.
8. Put a pop-up tent indoors for a quick role-play area.
9. Use washing up bowls for water, sand, gloop, or dry pasta.
10. Offer a basket with some puppets, a tea-set and blanket, or a purse and money. Stand back
and watch what happens.
Taking indoor activities outside.
page 107
Part Three
Maintaining a balance between indoor and outdoor activity can be challenging. Strategies for
combining and linking activities across both areas can help to lessen the gap for some children.
Twenty-one ways to bring the outdoors in and take the indoors out
1. Put a plastic tunnel over the threshold and have entry and exit through the tunnel (children
only!)
2. Put a pop-up tent just outside the door, joined to the tunnel over the threshold. This is good
for wet days.
3. Leave a basket of playground chalk, a few white boards and pens, or a basket of clipboards to
encourage writing and drawing outside.
4. Make up a picnic basket with a blanket, plates, cups and so on, and leave it by the door so
that children can set up house wherever they want.
5. Make a shop outside, and encourage children to move between the inside and outside
situations.
6. Put sign-making equipment in the technology area and encourage sign-making for outside
games.
7. Have a post office inside and a parcel sorting room outside.
8. Get a length of hose with two funnels and talk through it through a window or other hole in
the wall.
9. Spread a blanket or some carpet squares outside, and encourage children to play there with
construction toys, books or puzzles.
10. Leave a basket or bowl on an inside table with a sign saying, ‘Brown things in here please,’
or, ‘Red leaves today.’
11. Put a flipchart or easel outside for drawing or painting.
12. Leave some magnifying glasses out for close looking inside and out, along with paper and
mark makers.
13. Encourage children to build railway lines, roads and constructions that link the inside and
out.
14. Take some tables outside for reading or drawing.
15. Encourage children to feel free to take inside equipment outside.
16. Bring leaves, sticks, and stones inside for children to look at.
17. Encourage children to use reference books to research birds, insects or animals.
18. Make shelters, homes, shops and dens inside as well as outside.
19. Make sure you have some boots and waterproof clothes so that children can go out every day.
20. Look outside every day – at the weather, the birds, or people passing.
21. Grow plants, seeds and bulbs indoors.
page 108
Children love to mimic their play on real life, which helps them to make sense of their world
and process their experiences. Providing real items helps to make role play realistic and more
fulfilling.
Real life items that promote high quality play
• Mobile phones and cordless phones with the batteries removed
• Lengths of fabric, scarves, hats, caps and other real clothes for dressing-up
• Real cutlery and crockery for domestic play
• Kitchen appliances with the wires and batteries removed
• Hole punchers and tape dispensers in the writing area
• Calculators for real maths.
• Real tools (small size if possible) for gardening or woodwork
• Decorators’ paintbrushes for painting with paint, water or paste
• Reflective safety waistcoats and hard hats
• Fine markers, ballpoints and gel pens
• Clipboards for making notes and keeping scores
• Musical instruments
• Old fashioned artefacts
• Pairs of glasses with the lenses removed, wigs, badges, overalls, purses, bags and cases
• Boxes, baskets and containers
• Small rucksacks and bags
• Post-it notes and stickers
• Forms, envelopes, junk mail, newspapers and magazines
Many practitioners find themselves under pressure to cut back on the provision for high quality
play experience for the young children in their care. The principles below should help you to
remain committed to a child-centred early years curriculum.
Monitor your planning for play
• Ensure that your agenda doesn’t over-ride the need for children to play and experience
things first hand.
• Don’t let the rush and hurry of the new curriculum squeeze out the need for time for high
quality play.
• Don’t let the demands of the new curriculum squeeze out the time for high quality play.
• Don’t give in to ‘top down’ pressure from colleagues who do not understand the importance
of play in the early years.
page 109
Part Three
Step 3: Maximizing learning through music
Learning Music constitutes a very important part of any early years curriculum. Generally, any music that
through
music is a ‘good’ example within its genre is suitable for use with young children. In recent years there
page 116 have been many unrealistic claims made about music making children brainier by raising their
IQs. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to music can indeed improve performance in
tests, and can lead to improvements, for example, in maths skills. But listening to Mozart will
not automatically make a child brilliant. Music should be used in a variety of ways to enrich and
enhance learning, without any pressure on children to become mini-Mozarts! Children, just like
adults, enjoy hearing familiar pieces of music over and over again. This can be utilized so that
music can be used at certain times of the day, such as to signal an activity, or reassure, relax, or
energize and excite children. Music can also be used to encourage discussion, to teach concepts,
and to create the right atmosphere for learning.
It is useful to collect a ‘library’ or list of music, collecting a wide variety, such as opera, pop, film,
classics, jazz, dance, and world music. Many practitioners mark individual CDs with stickers
noting the numbers of good tracks or keep a
notebook in the box with the CDs and ask
children to bring favourite music from
home to add to the collection. It is illegal
to copy these recordings, but borrowing
CDs can enable you to make a ‘wish list’ of
recordings to buy in the future. Internet
resources for downloading music onto
an MP3 player have made it far easier
than in the past to build up a good, varied
collection of music for use with children.
Fascinating Fact
In 1998, Zell Miller, the Governor of Georgia, USA, proposed allocating over
$100,000 for the creation of a CD of classical music entitled Build your
Baby’s Brain Through the Power of Music, to be distributed free to mothers
of new babies across the state, even though nobody has actually determined
if this is increasing their IQs.36
Fascinating Fact
In October 2009, after threats of a class-action lawsuit by consumer groups,
The Walt Disney Company announced that they would give full refunds to
parents who purchased some of their Baby Einstein DVDs, where babies are
exposed to classical music along with television images of toys and animals.
The New York Times reported that the DVDs, ’may have been a great
electronic baby sitter, but the unusual refunds appear to be a tacit admission
that they did not increase infant intellect.’ 37
page 110
Careful preparation might help less musically experienced practitioners to avoid the
mistake of this reception class teacher:
‘The first time I led an assembly I thought I had prepared everything down to the final
detail. I was very nervous, as at that stage the Year 1 and 2 children looked enormous
to me! I had borrowed some CDs from the school collection and had selected what I
thought was a really calm, soothing piece of music to play at the beginning and end
of the assembly. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to listen to the whole piece. Even more
unfortunately, the Year 2 class was late arriving, so we were well into the track before
they had all sat down.
That was when I discovered that the piece did not remain calm and soothing – it picked
up tempo and became really energetic and rousing. By the time I was ready to begin the
assembly, I had 80 children sitting in front of me ready to get up and boogie! I learned
two lessons that day: one – that children are profoundly affected by the sound of music,
and two – to always listen to a complete track before using it for a specific purpose. I
can laugh about it now, but at the time I was mortified. Thankfully my colleagues were
really nice about it and told me of their embarrassing mistakes as NQTs, which made
me feel better!’
A mother told the story of her son’s introduction to classical music:
‘During my pregnancy I was working alone at home on a project that demanded

total concentration. I found that if I worked to certain pieces of classical music such
as Mozart, I could focus more fully on the task. I am by no means a music “buff”,
but by the end of my pregnancy I was familiar with five or six CDs. My yoga teacher
recommended that the women in our class used familiar music to help them to relax
during childbirth, and so my son Aiden was born to the sound of Mozart.
His birth was peaceful and calm. I didn’t think much about the music, until my
husband put on a CD the next morning. I was holding Aiden and was amazed to see
his head turn towards the music immediately. We later experimented by playing CDs
that I had listened to regularly and some unfamiliar ones. Aiden definitely preferred
the familiar tunes: they would calm him if he was upset, whereas the unfamiliar ones
would have little effect. I realized that it was not only me who had been listening to
Mozart for those nine months – I had helped develop my son’s listening skills before he
was even born!’
General guidance
In their book Music in the Early Years38, Susan Young and Joanne Glover give some guidance on
choosing music as well as some tips for selecting and using music for young children.
Choosing music for young children
• Children can listen to music of different lengths depending on familiarity and liking.
• Children are often open to music that adults could find challenging. They are not so ‘set’ in
their ideas of what is/isn’t music.
page 111
Part Three
• Children often like music with a ‘strong’ element: a clear leading/solo instrument/voice;
strong beat; gentle dynamics; or ‘funny’ sounds.
• Children shouldn’t be expected to ‘like’ music because we think they should like it.
• Children shouldn’t be expected to see or ascertain the composer’s vision. This is sometimes
expected with some commonly utilized music, for example Peter and the Wolf, The Planets,
or Carnival of the Animals. However, they can be asked for their ‘pictures’ and learn of the
composer’s intentions.
Selecting and using music for young children
• Choose music with a vivid timbre (a single voice, one, or two contrasting instruments)
drawn from a range of times, places and cultures
• Choose music with clear melodies and rhythms
• If using short sections of a piece, fade it in at the beginning and out at the end so children
know there is more of the piece. Young children can listen to and enjoy quite lengthy pieces
if they know them well.
• Use a wide range of types of music. Use the music you like, but add some different types and
be aware of what children hear at home and in the community.
• Children don’t need pictures or stories to understand and enjoy music. ‘They have no
trouble in listening to music just as music.’
Listening to music gives the following opportunities
• Getting to know the music
• Talking about individual responses to music
• Moving to music
This will lead to
• Careful listening, concentration and attention
• Following the music and noticing changes
• Remembering what is heard
• Responding to music in words, representations and music
Different types of music to use in the early years

Classical music
‘Classical’ is a word used generally to describe music composed in Europe, Australia, and the
Americas that is not folk or popular music although it may build on these traditions or borrow
from them. From around the nineteenth century, music was more often composed to represent a
story or picture. However this sort of music should be used with care as a lot of orchestral music
moves the melody around between parts, and young children can find it difficult to engage with it.
Pieces with a strong element of rhythm or tune are a good way into classical music.
page 112
Pop music
Children usually like current pop music and are aware of ‘pop idols’ very early on, such as
winners of TV reality shows. They often know the words and some of the dance steps, which they
can learn or show each other. Pop music with its repeated sections can develop movement and
knowledge of words, and actions can be introduced by the teacher or leader. Some pop music of
the past can also often prove popular, such as The Beach Boys or The Beatles.
Music from other cultures

Children respond well to music with a good beat, even if the rhythms are complex. They will
enjoy moving, for instance, to Latin American music, African music, and music from Asia and the
Caribbean, as well as fusion music, popular music that fuses with world music, such as Afro Celt
Sound System.
Film music
Songs from films are often popular, and again offer the opportunity to learn words and create
movements. An example would be using Let’s Go Fly a Kite from Mary Poppins, with children
using ribbons to make shapes in the air. Films occasionally use music with ‘classical’ links, which
can be a good way to introduce pieces of classical music. For example, If I had Words from the
film Babe is based on the final movement of Saint Saëns Concerto No.3 for Organ.
Part Three
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page 113
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page 104
page 104
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• Quiet, lyrical music to relax the children, such as ballads, quiet classics, or instrumentals
• Lively, jolly music to energize the children, such as marches, lively dance music, or salsa
• Simple, easily recognized, short pieces of music to signal the start or end of an activity, such
as TV and film themes, advertisement jingles, nursery rhymes and songs
• Music to demarcate the time needed for a task, such as short pieces of classics or film music
• Music to celebrate achievements, such as fanfares, circus music, opera or catchy pop songs
• Songs that teach certain skills, such as number or alphabet rhymes
• Music for adding actions, clapping, tapping and clicking fingers, such as jazz or lively dance
or pop music
page 114
Useful classics
• A Midsummer Night’s
Dream – Mendelssohn
• Cassation in G (Toy Sy
mphony) – attrib. Leop
•
old Mozart
‘Clog Dance’ from La
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• The Little Train of th

e Caipira – Villa-Lobos
• The Nutcracker Suite

– Tchaikovsky
• The Sorcerer’s Appren

tice – Dukas
Step 4: Teaching and learning through movement
Young children need to interact with the world in a physical way, and need plenty of opportunities
for exploration and movement. There are physiological reasons for this. Aerobic movement Brain Gym®
page 121
increases the oxygen supply to the brain. Movement also reduces stress. There is also evidence
that specific types of controlled, organized series of cross-lateral movements, called Brain Gym®,
can help with learning by connecting both hemispheres of the brain and strengthening neural
pathways. The need for children to move as they learn has been recognized with the development
of phonics programmes such as Jolly Learning and Letters and Sounds.
Kishan is a strongly kinesthetic learner. He is lively and often boisterous,

choosing frequently to engage in physical play outdoors. He shows
more interest in activities that involve a practical approach than those
that require a lot of looking or listening. For example, Kishan really enjoys
3D mind mapping, where he can gather artefacts, pictures and labels and physically
manipulate them. This method of working suits him far better than making a mind map
on paper or on a whiteboard. His teacher gives him plenty of opportunities for physical
movement during each session. By building in movement and practical activities, she is
catering to his natural learning style while also helping him to gradually develop better
skills in visual and auditory learning.
page 115
Part Three
A practitioner told a story about how she had to create more opportunities for physical
movement when she took over a reception class:
‘I had always taught in Key Stage 2, but moved to teach Year 2 to fill in for a maternity
leave. I thought it would be just for the short-term, but I was surprised to find that
I really enjoyed the younger children. When my headteacher asked me if I would be
willing to take on reception class the following September, I was excited, although
somewhat apprehensive!
The first thing I learned was that, although I had provided for brain breaks and
practical activities for my older classes, with these young children, I had to work
from the basis of practical experience, then build in ways to verbalize and record their
learning. The physical activity is the grounding of learning, not an “add-on”. In a
roundabout way, I realized that I should have been doing more practical activities with
my older classes. If I return to Key Stage 2, that is a lesson that I will take with me.’
Twelve brain break activities:
1. Helicopter spin (gets the fluid in the inner ear moving)

Stand in a space with arms outstretched. Spin in one direction, to a count of ten. Spin in
the opposite direction, to a count of ten.
2. The owl (cross lateral movement

that releases stress and
improves hand-eye co-
ordination; particularly
good for during fine motor
activities)
Cross one arm to put hand
on opposite shoulder, and
squeeze. Turn head in
the direction of the same
shoulder. Take a deep
breath and pull shoulders
back. Turn head to look
over other shoulder,
keeping chin level and
tracking with eyes. Turn
head back to centre. Drop
head to chest and take a deep breath,
making a ‘whoo-oo’ when breathing out. Repeat with
other arm and shoulder.
3. Miss a word (develops ‘inner speech’ and helps comprehension and reading skills)
Choose any familiar song with repetition, such as ‘Row, Row, Row the Boat’, and explain
to the children that you are going to practise singing the song inside and outside their
heads. Choose a word that is to be sung inside their head, such as ‘merrily’. Sing the song
through once with all the words. Sing the song with the chosen word missed. Sing the
whole song again.
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4. Body blither (good brain break

or energizer)
Vigorously wiggle the hands.
Add the shoulders, arms, hips,
legs and feet. Accompany with
the sound that is made when
cheeks and lips are relaxed
and shaken.
5. The voice (stimulates and

increases oxygen to the
brain; good preparation
for concentration)
Stand in a circle. Give three
loud sighs using the ‘ah’ sound
and breathing out on each. Pick a mid-range tone and sustain this using ‘ah’ for a count
of ten. Switch to a high pitch and the ‘ee’ sound for a count of ten (breathing where
necessary!). Switch to a low sound and ‘oooo’ for a count of ten. Now let the children
choose the sound and the pitch, freely moving from pitch to pitch and sound to sound for a
count of 20. Gradually increase the time for each part of the exercise.
6. Fire engines (good brain break or energizer)

Sing ‘ah’ with the voice as low as it can go,. Sweep it up to as high as it can go. Sweep
down again. Repeat four or five times.
7. Lazy eights (co-ordinates both eyes,

improves balance and co-ordination)
Reach out with one hand and
draw a big ‘8’ on its side,
starting in front of the
nose. Draw the same kind
of ‘8’ with the other hand,
making it as large as
possible. Follow the hand
with the eyes. Repeat each
one four or five times.
8. The swing
(loosens muscles after
sitting, improves balance and
co-ordination, increases breathing rate)
Stand up and relax knees slightly. Let the head and shoulders hang forward. Swing slowly
to the left and right like a pendulum. Repeat up to five times, then slowly uncurl back to
standing. Try this standing with legs crossed at the ankles for children with good balance.
9. Bee’s knees (cross-lateral activity)

Stand with legs slightly bent and apart. Put hands on knees. Move knees together and
as they touch, change hands to opposite knees. Move back as knees come apart. Repeat
several times.
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Part Three
10. Rub your tummy (concentration and focus)

Stand up. Rub tummy with one hand, pat head with other. Continue for a count of 20.
Change hands and repeat.
11. Secret shapes (sensory learning, concentration, fine motor skills)

In pairs: one child draws on the other child’s back (a shape, letter or picture). The partner
guesses what it is. Swap and repeat.
12. Finger fun (fine motor control, hand-eye movement)

Make a steeple with the fingers in front of the face. Lift each pair of fingers apart in turn.
Action rhymes and

songs that can be us
•
ed for brain breaks
Heads, shoulders, knees
and toes
• In a cottage in a wood
• Two fat gentlemen
• Down in the jungle
• There was a princess

long ago
• The farmer’s in his de

n
• In and out the dusty blu

ebells
• Here we go round the
mulberry bush
• Ring-a-roses
• One finger, one thumb

keep moving
• This old man, he playe

d one
• I am the music man
• Two little dickey birds
• The wheels on the bus
• If you’re happy and yo

u know it
• Teddy bear, teddy bear,

touch your nose
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, once I caug
ht a fish alive
• Five little monkeys
• When Goldilocks went

to the house of the bear
•
s
Miss Polly had a dolly
• Wind the bobbin up
• Twinkle, twinkle, little

star
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Step 5: The place for technology
‘ Investment by schools in computers and other electronic paraphernalia –

at least 55 billion dollars in the USA in the 1990s alone – has made no
’
noticeable impact and, despite the blandishments of software manufacturers
and the optimism of politicians, standards have not soared.

Sue Palmer39
Teach children how to use a stopwatch to time themselves.
There are many applications of technology that are appropriate for the early years, in addition to
computers and high-tech equipment. Authors and researchers such as Jane Healy give guidance
about how to monitor the use of technology and ensure that it is used to encourage good learning Technology
page 122
behaviours. Children need to become competent in using a wide variety of types of technology,
while also developing the essential skills that enable them to operate independently of it when
appropriate. This can be done through the seizing of everyday opportunities to use technology,
such as simply letting children switch on the dishwasher, take photographs with a digital camera,
or teaching them to use a stopwatch to time themselves riding the bikes, in addition to a more
structured approach towards computer use.
One pre-school leader described how she was concerned that her group of children did
not have access to a computer and worried that the children in her care were missing
out on an important aspect of their early education:
‘When prospective parents came to visit, they would invariably ask about computers.
Whereas the nursery school down the road has an impressive array of technology, we
are still somewhat limited, mainly due to funds, but also due to the lack of storage and
security for such expensive equipment.
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Part Three
I was always acutely aware that we simply don’t measure up to what is provided in
many other settings. Then one day a family visited with their three-year-old son. The
dad told me that he was a computer engineer, so I waited for the inevitable question
about our provision for technology, but it didn’t come. This puzzled me, and when the
family were about to leave, I commented that he hadn’t asked me about technology and
computers.
He looked at me in surprise, and said that technology involves far more than computers.
He pointed out some ways that he had seen children using technology during their visit:
the children who were using the tape recorder and headphones to listen to stories in
the book area; the cookery group who helped to set the timer on the oven; and the child
who switched on the music at clearing-up time. After this, I made a list of ways that the
children in our group used technology on a regular basis, and included it in our pack of
information for new parents.’
Groups from George’s pre-school sometimes visit the nursery class in the
school, where they use the roamer turtle and simple paint programs on the
computer. This is a new and unfamiliar experience for George, whose family
does not own a computer. However, George’s friend Jo has been using her mum’s computer
in a wide variety of ways since she was very young, and can independently produce pictures,
edit them, and print them. The pre-school practitioners are careful to monitor the pairings
of children who work together because of this wide range of skills within the group. George
learns from Jo’s lead, and Jo listens to their key person, who suggests that she shows
George what to do rather than taking control of the activity.
This method of allowing one child to teach another has been proved to be highly effective
and is used extensively by the pre-school staff. However, they were still surprised by
George’s actions when one day the CD player would not work. George took the remote
control from his key person, removed the back, and took out the batteries. He then asked
for new batteries, which he carefully installed in the correct positions, while explaining
what he was doing to his key person. He pressed ‘Play’, and the music started. George
clearly had knowledge and skills in technology that his friend Jo, and even some of the
practitioners, possibly lacked!
Fascinating Fact
Before the age of five children cannot separate fact from fiction, for
example in television viewing. By the age of seven, most children have begun
to understand the difference between appearance and reality. However, this
development is inversely related to the child’s exposure to television – the
more he watches, the less well he can discriminate. Some children still believe
that the computer is ‘alive’ at the age of eight or nine!40
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Fascinating fact
A study into children as consumers showed that until they are at least eight
years old, children do not understand the difference between adverts and
normal television broadcasting. Researcher Dr. Caroline Oates from the
University of Sheffield reported to the British Psychological Society in
2002 that until the age of eight or even ten, children rarely understand
the intention of adverts. Before the age of eight, many children think that
advertisements are shown not only to give viewers a break, but also to give
the characters on the television a rest!41
Twenty-four ways to introduce children to ICT without the use of a computer

1. Teach children to help you to set clocks and alarms for
timed activities. ICT =
Information and
2. Provide recorders such as ‘Talking Tins’ and teach
Communications Technology
children to use them independently.42
3. Allow children to use the telephone under

supervision, to make a call or send a message.
4. Allow children to help to set the microwave, dishwasher or

washing machine.
5. Create a balance in cookery sessions between making things

by hand and using modern appliances.
6. Provide equipment for role-play in the home corner, such as telephones, mobile phones with
the batteries removed, or remote controls.
7. Allow children to play with pieces of equipment, for example disconnected keyboards from
old computers, hairdryers and toasters with the plugs and wires removed.
8. Help children to take apart and fit together old pieces of equipment such as radios or CD
players.
9. Borrow a karaoke machine and let the children have fun using it
10. Point out the use of technology in everyday

situation such as the
weighing scales or scanning
equipment at the
supermarket.
11. Provide toys such as

remote control cars or
robots for occasional
play sessions.
12. Ask children to help you

to set the timer on the DVD
player.
13. Encourage children to take digital

photographs or help with a video
camera on important occasions.
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Part Three
14. Involve children in real-life situations where you use a calculator and talk through and
explain what you are doing.
15. Provide calculators for children to use in play situations, for example when playing ‘shop’.
16. Encourage children to help with everyday tasks, such as using a remote control or the MP3
player to switch on the music for tidy-up time.
17. Go on a technology walk to see what you can find, such as street lights, cameras, automatic
doors, checkout tills, parking meters, cash machines, telephones, satellite dishes and petrol
pumps.
18. Use a watch with an alarm to time activities.
19. Use an overhead projector or interactive whiteboard to project pictures on walls and screens.
20. When you buy new role play equipment select up-to-date models, even if they don’t really
work, such as hands-free or cordless phones rather than ones with wires, and microwaves in
addition to traditional ovens.
21. Use electronic bathroom scales to weigh people, teddies and toys.
22. Involve children in making a PowerPoint presentation.
23. Use a digital camera to make books and sequences of pictures of recent experiences, or put a
series of photographs onto a digital photo frame.
24. Make a scrapbook of equipment that has digital displays or buttons. Use junk mail and free
catalogues to find pictures.
Make use of all different types of technology.
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Guidelines for pre-schoolers who use computers

If you have access to computers and the policy in your setting is to use them, these
guidelines from Jane Healy’s book43 are a useful basis for monitoring their use.
• Starting children on computers too early is far worse than starting them too late.
• A child should be able to understand the cause-effect relationship of moving a mouse or

touching the screen to get a reaction before she starts to use a computer.
• Look for software that makes the child feel independent.
• Downplay skill-and-drill maths and phonics activities in favour of interactive problem-solving

or more open-ended uses.
• Discourage impulsive clicking. Stop the program occasionally to encourage the child to talk
about what is happening, what he is doing and why.
• Supplement ‘eyes-on’ with ‘hands-on.’ Find real-life experiences that extend and complement
the virtual ones.
• Help the child understand how the computer works and what’s going on as he manipulates a
program. Let him see how you physically connect computer, printer, and other components.
Keep emphasizing that people control the computer, not the other way around.
• Don’t let screen time substitute for lap time and don’t expect books on CD-ROM to
substitute for interactive reading with loving adults.
• Consider eliminating the use of clip art if you decide to let your child use digital drawing
tools.
• Evaluate the aesthetic qualities of software, including, of course, CD-ROMS.
• If your child goes on the internet, closely supervise him.
• Whenever possible, make computer use a social experience by putting two chairs at the
machine and encouraging conversation and collaboration with peers, siblings or adults.
• If your young child begins to show signs of computer addiction, cut down on or eliminate
screen time and make sure plenty of alternative activities are available.
• Don’t ever forget that the best multimedia, interactive environment is the real world.
Make computer use a social experience whenever possible.
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Part Three
Twenty-one questions to ask when evaluating the use of computers in your setting
1. Are all programs evaluated before use?
2. Do the programs actually develop the skills claimed by the producers, or are they ‘empty of
real learning’?
3. Do the programs move too fast, or too slowly?
4. Are the children encouraged to think before answering?
5. What happens if a child responds impulsively?
6. How are thoughtful responses rewarded?
7. How would children know if their responses were appropriate?
8. Could a child be rewarded for repeatedly guessing?
9. Do the programs encourage independent use by children?
10. Do the adults spend time getting to know the programs before the children use them?
11. Do all the adults have the necessary skills to help children with ICT?
12. Do we promote ICT as a positive, exciting tool or a frightening ‘male’ thing?
13. Are the chairs for children and adults the right height? (Children should be able to sit with
their feet on the floor, looking straight ahead at the screen.)
14. Do the computers have enough memory to run the programs without crashing or working so
slowly that children become frustrated?
15. Are the mouse mats big enough?
16. Have we considered the use of alternatives such as track balls and larger ‘mice’ for small
hands?
17. Have we looked for programs that are interactive and thought provoking?
18. Have we taught children how to adjust the volume of the music and speech so they can hear
but not disturb others?
19. Do we offer children headphones to use with the computer to enable them to concentrate?
20. Do we ask children to feed back at group and plenary times, giving ICT status in discussion?
21. Have we shown the children a simple way of recording time spent on ICT, such as tick charts,
signing up boards, or Velcro® labels?
The dangers of information and emotional overload

The world is very different now from that world that most adults grew up in. High speed internet
means that we are able to access information in a way that was unimaginable even twenty years
ago. Television shows bring us close to different countries and lifestyles that in the past were
too distant to seem real. Children know more about the world outside their homes than we can
imagine, and often amaze us with their demonstrations of this knowledge.
In many ways, this early knowledge and understanding of the world can be a positive thing.
But in many cases, the information that is freely available may be inappropriate for the child’s
age and stage of development and it may cause confusion or anxiety. Well-meaning educational
writers and designers create television shows, computer games and activities to teach children
page 124
about the dangers to our planet and to themselves, intending to encourage them to be safe and
responsible citizens. Unfortunately, the result is that children often feel frightened and helpless
instead of enlightened and empowered.
Children do not need to suffer from overload. Instead, they need to be given practical ways that
they can contribute to their community. This empowers them to feel that they can really make a
difference and have some control over their lives.
Samantha’s teacher realized that her class was filling up at least one
plastic rubbish bin each day with food waste from snack, lunch, and
cooking projects. She set up a composting system, where children would
empty their plates into correct containers and then help take the compost
bucket outside to the compost bin. Over time, they could watch the materials decay and
eventually dig for worms and look for other bugs. It became a science project in addition to
being a lesson in environmental responsibility.
A childminder talked about how she managed to involve children in recycling paper
and plastic at her home. She bought crates for sorting recyclables, and taped pictures
of items that could be recycled on the front of each crate. When children finished
eating a yoghurt or helped her open a package, they would wash the containers and
then help her sort the materials into the correct crates:
‘After a few months, I noticed that even the youngest toddler was making it clear that
she wanted to sort items into the correct boxes. It was like a game to her and often I’d
collect items over the weekend for her to help sort on Monday morning. Her mum was
amazed and told me that she’d had to set up a similar system at home as her daughter
would no longer agree to throw plastics into the bin!’
A parent was concerned that her children were deeply upset by a news story about a
group of abandoned pet rabbits that were being chased by dogs and hunted by youths
with pellet guns. She contacted the animal organization that was conducting the
rescue and asked how her family could help. A few days later, they took delivery of two
very frightened and malnourished foster rabbits. Over time, children from her son’s
pre-school class became involved in the rehabilitation of these pets – saving vegetables
from snack, visiting the rabbits at their home, making them chew toys, and supplying
towels and blankets. Instead of feeling angry and confused about the cruelty that the
animals had suffered, the children were enabled to help in a positive way. Several
months later, the two rabbits were adopted by a family who wrote to the children to
thank them for their kindness and commitment to animal welfare.
Some ways to empower children so that they make a difference in their world
• Collecting practical items for charity, such as blankets and towels for an animal shelter or
food for a homeless shelter
• Creating meal-delivery rotas for families in temporary need, such as after the birth of a new
baby or sickness in the family, and encouraging children to help their parents to prepare and
deliver a meal
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Part Three
• Recycling paper and plastics in the classroom or nursery
• Composting leftover food from snack and mealtimes
• Collecting pennies for a local charity and seeing how fast they build up
• Creating a recycling system for shared mealtime areas
• Delivering baked goods regularly as treats for senior citizens in their homes or at a
community centre
• Creating a garden where you grow vegetables and fruit
• Writing letters with the children to local politicians about issues that affect them, such as
broken play equipment in the park
• Brainstorming with children about ways to improve their local area, for example, organizing
a fun day workforce to pick up litter or to plant flower gardens for senior citizens
• Organizing a community lunch or tea for local elderly people, where the children help to
prepare and serve the food
• Collecting and re-using such things as CDs and plastic water bottles to make bird scarers for
the garden, or bird feeders for the winter
• Making posters to alert parents and other children to recycling projects in their setting
• Decorating simple cloth bags for their families to use as shopping bags, shoe bags or toy bags,
reducing the use of plastic carriers
Empower children by involving them in their community.
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Part Four
Teaching for
intelligence
Step 1: Creative teaching for better learning
One of the most effective ways to challenge children’s thinking and enrich learning is to provide Better
learning
unusual, exciting activities. When the unexpected happens, children need to draw on past page 129
experiences to make sense of the new. They need to reconsider their current understanding of
the concept and check it against new criteria, often leading to a new level of understanding. The
importance of active learning is far greater than simply its influence upon levels of academic
attainment. Active learning also positively effects children’s emotional and moral development.
It has been shown that the actual process of learning is as important as the learning outcome.
By thinking creatively, practitioners provide a stimulating and exciting environment that is best
suited to the natural brain development of young children.
As Carrie plays with the cornflour and water mixture, she talks quietly
under her breath, ‘Oooh, it’s all ucky, ucky, ucky! Oh, sticky – ugh! Aaah,
now it’s – ha, ha, (laughs), it’s soggy now!’ Her teacher plays in the tray next
to her. ‘Oh, ugh! It’s quite hard in the tray,’ she says to herself, ‘I have to scrape it up with
my fingernails. Oh, but when I hold it up, it gets runny – it’s turned into a liquid!’ After a
few minutes, Carrie starts to use the word ‘runny’ in her description. She does not pick up
on the word ‘liquid’ but her teacher makes a mental note to introduce that word again in
the future with her group.
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Part Four
When contractors arrived one morning to work on the school grounds, the children in
the nursery were really interested in what they were doing. They spent long periods of
time hanging on the fence talking about the diggers and machines.
The next day, the practitioners made a pile of sand on the nursery playground. Next
to it, they put various toy trucks, diggers, shovels and buckets, along with clipboards,
pens, tape measures and rulers. The children immediately started working with the
sand, measuring, shovelling, and moving it from place to place. Soon they started
constructing with the bricks, and two children fetched cones to block off areas of
danger.
At the end of the session, the group spent twenty minutes sweeping the sand and
tidying it back into the sandpit for the next day, when construction work started again.
Forty ways to get creative

1. Put sponges in the sand tray.
2. Put coloured fish tank gravel at the bottom of the water tray.
3. Tie lengths of cardboard tubing around the room and provide a big bag of balls to roll down
them.
4. Freeze some ice cubes with food colouring to play with in plastic bowls or in the water tray.
5. Put out ‘bath crayons’ with the water tray.
6. Fill trays with wet, oozy mud from the garden.
7. Put out a variety of paper towels and tissues beside the water tray.
8. Mix cornflour in shallow trays with a small amount of water and food colourings and let
children enjoy it oozing through their fingers.
9. Lay out seeds, pots and compost for planting – but add some pasta shells, plastic buttons,
wooden beads, marbles and other items that will not grow.
10. Blow bubbles outside or inside.
11. Hang or pin notes and messages on doors, branches, on chairs, or in sheds.
12. Leave a piece of special material such as velvet, sequinned fabric or bright satin for children
to discover.
13. Freeze water in wellington boots, rubber gloves and other interesting containers, and then
float them in the water tray.
14. Leave something in an unusual place – a teddy in the bathroom, a single shoe in the reading
corner, a fireman’s hat in the garden. Ask the children why they think it is there.
15. Use spray bottles or paint brushes with water or weak paint on huge pieces of paper pinned
to walls or fences.
16. Make a wormery or an ant farm. Send for a butterfly box so you can watch the caterpillars
grow.
17. Leave a small backpack on the outside door handle. Add items such as a pair of binoculars, a
disposable camera, a compass or a clipboard to spark imaginative play.
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Teaching for intelligence
Challenge children’s thinking by supplying unusual materials.
18. Leave a nest of gold-sprayed eggs (hard boiled) in a corner of the garden.
19. Take time to watch things, such as fish in a tank, ants on the playground, shadows or clouds.
20. Go on listening, smelling or shape walks.
21. Give children carbon paper to experiment with. It emphasizes the permanence of marks and
is an old technology that can provide hours of exploration and fun.
22. Have a treasure hunt with picture clues.
23. Write letters to a real or imaginary person.
24. Make a postbox.
25. Watch a puddle evaporate.

26. Bring in some flowers, an unusual plant or some seeds, and leave them on a table.
27. Bring in some unusual fruits or vegetables and let children help to cut them up and look at
what is inside.
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Part Four
28. Fetch unusual things from recycling centres. Don’t worry if you can’t think of a use for
them – the children will, and this is part of the fun!
29. Make a dragon from a cardboard box. Tell the children that he wants to talk to them – but he
is rather deaf, so they have to write him notes and feed them to him.
30. Combine unexpected things – string in the water tray, stones buried in the sand.
31. Ask the children to help you rearrange an area of the room or the whole room. Draw plans
and discuss how you should do it.
32. Hang sound-makers in bushes and on fences.
33. Draw arrows or lines on the floor or outside.
34. Plan an outing with the children. Make lists and preparations, timelines, letters or
invitations.
35. Put a message in a bottle.
36. Make a sandwich with a strange filling such as sequins, grass or plastic spiders, and then talk
about who it might be for.
37. Bring a small suitcase packed for a story book character’s holiday.
38. Bury things in the garden and let the children dig them up, such as old coins, shells or shiny
marbles.
39. Sort out a button box.
40. Put things in a feely bag, such as dough or gloop (a mixture of cornflour and water to make
consistency gloopy) in a plastic bag, feathers, a lumpy or spiky seed, or some fur fabric.
Children need little encouragement to go on an adventure!
page 130
Twenty-five items to collect for creative teaching

1. Boxes and containers of all sizes and shapes
2. Baskets and bowls
3. Bags of all sizes and shapes
4. A feely bag or box
5. Beads, buttons and badges
6. Ribbon, tape and coloured string
7. Wrapping paper, gift tags and cards, gift ribbon
8. Stickers of all sizes and shapes
9. Food colouring
10. Junk mail, catalogues and phone books
11. Empty envelopes (used or new)
12. Books, papers and leaflets in other languages

13. Tickets and labels
14. Foreign coins
15. Menus and guidebooks
16. Shiny card and paper for badges and labels
17. Small whiteboards and clipboards
18. Clothes pegs
19. Zip-lock bags
20. Magnifying glasses
21. Felt pens from thin to mega thick
22. Feathers, shells and shiny stones
23. Puppets (finger, hand and bigger)
24. Pieces of interesting fabrics
25. A flip chart to use inside and out
page 131
Part Four
Part
Part Four
Four
Part
Part Four
Four
Part
PartFour
Part Four
Part Four
PartFour
Part
Part Four
Four
Four
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all night?
night?
night?
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would if we
happen moved
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would if we
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would
spring?
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spring?
spring?
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would happen ifififif
would happen
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out?
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would happen
happen ififif we
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put
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colouring in the
in
in the water?
the water?
water?
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in the
the water?
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the water?
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water?
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would happen if
happen ifif we
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painted in the
in the rain?
the rain?
rain?
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happen if we painted
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painted
painted in rain?
in the
the rain?
rain?
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would happen
happen ifif we
we painted
painted in
in the
the rain?
rain?
What would
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What would happen
happen we put
we put leaves
put leaves or
leaves or grass
or grass in
grass in the
in the freezer?
the freezer?
freezer?
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What wouldhappen
would
would
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or
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or grass
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in the
the freezer?
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the freezer?
freezer?
freezer?
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would happen if
happen ififwe
we wrote
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to the Queen
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or the Prime
the Prime Minister?
Prime Minister?
Minister?
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or the
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the Prime
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happen we mixed
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mixed sequins in
sequins in the
in the sand?
the sand?
sand?
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Whatwould
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in the
sequins
sequins in the
in
in the sand?
sand?
the
the sand?
sand?
sand?
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we could
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could write backwards?
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happen ifif we
if we could
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write
could backwards?
backwards?
backwards?
backwards?
write backwards?
page
page
page 122
page 122
page
122
The Thinking
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Step 2: Fostering the beginnings of group-work
The importance of fostering good group-work skills is now seen as an important aspect of early Group-work
years education. Co-operation in groups leads to better quality language and interactions. During page 132
the EYFS, there is naturally a mixture of time spent in different types of groups. The balance of
time spent in different types of groups will largely depend on the aims of the practitioner, who
needs to bear in mind the fact that each child will be at some stage on the continuum between
playing alone and working confidently in a group. The practitioner needs to organize activities
that help children to develop the social skills that group-work demands, at whatever stage of
development they have reached.
When George went through a phase of playing alongside one particular

boy in the sand tray for long periods every morning, his key person decided
to encourage the boys to interact more by altering the equipment that was
provided. She set up the tray one morning with just one very large sand wheel and a
selection of spades, moving the buckets to another shelf where the children would have
had to actively seek them out if they had wanted them. At first, George and his friend both
wanted the sand wheel to themselves, and a gentle tussle took place. Neither boy could pour
any sand in and make it spin, because they were too busy trying to dominate the wheel! The
key person stepped in and took a spade herself. She stood the wheel back up and started
to pour sand in. The wheel spun and both boys were excited. ‘Hey, if you two help, we’ll be
able to get it going faster,’ she suggested. George and his friend started to shovel sand into
the top of the wheel. After a few minutes the key person withdrew, leaving the children
playing together.
page 133
Part Four
Part Four
Activity: monitoring group-work
Activity:
Either whenMonitoring
planning orgroup-work
when reviewing the week’s activities, use the checklist
Either
below when planning
to monitor or when
the variety of reviewing
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self selected,
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some and combinations, some self selected, some directed.
directed.
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For full-size photocopiable version,For

see full-size
end of book.
photocopiable version, see end of book.
Children love jobs such as unpacking the shopping.
Children love jobs such as unpacking the shopping.

page 124
page 134
Thirty-five practical jobs for children

1. Watering the indoor and outdoor plants
2. Sweeping up the floor at the end of the day
3. Preparing snack food, cutting and peeling fruit, counting out biscuits and cups
4. Pouring drinks at snack time
5. Washing up after cookery sessions or snacks
6. Cleaning the pets’ cages or fish tanks
7. Handing out notes to parents at the end of the day
8. Mixing paint for the art area
9. Washing paint pots and brushes
10. Tightening bolts on equipment such as tricycles when they work loose
11. Packing the dishwasher and putting it on
12. Unpacking the shopping after a trip to the supermarket
13. Washing and sorting maths equipment
14. Reorganizing the role-play area and choosing a new theme
15. Washing the dolls and dolls’ clothes from the home corner
16. Weeding or sweeping up leaves in the garden
17. Putting up displays – they will soon learn how to do this, if helped
18. Collecting and putting away outdoor apparatus and toys
19. Cleaning whiteboards and putting them away
20. Putting out chairs, mats or cushions for group time
21. Writing shopping and To Do lists
22. Helping to assemble new pieces of equipment
23. Organizing and reorganizing equipment on shelves
24. Making labels and notices
25. Feeding the pets
26. Putting wellington boots in pairs and clipping them with pegs
27. Using a small bell to signal that it’s time to pack up, go to assembly or have snacks
28. Filling water trays and bowls
29. Wiping down tables at the end of the session
30. Helping to carry boxes of equipment to the cupboards at the end of the session
31. Helping to choose new equipment for the setting
32. Filling planters with soil
33. Planting things such as cress, bulbs, cuttings, and plants
34. Sweeping up puddles after rain
35. Sprinkling salt on frosty paths
page 135
Part Four
Twenty ways to organize groups

1. By first names beginning with certain letters of the alphabet
2. By surnames beginning with certain letters of the alphabet
3. By alphabetical order
4. By register order
5. By the types of shoes that the children are wearing
6. By the months of children’s birthdays
7. By pets: who has a dog, a cat, a hamster, or no pets
8. By who has brothers, sisters, both, or no siblings
9. By where the children live
10. By clothing, such as tights, dungarees, cardigans or sweatshirts
11. By how the children travelled to school
12. By favourite colours

13. By what the children ate for breakfast
14. By eye colour
15. By curly, straight, long or short hair
16. By what activity the children did that morning
17. By what the children chose to eat at snack time
18. By asking them a question
19. By passing a soft toy round with a song playing – whoever is holding the toy each time the
music stops, joins each group in turn
20. By tapping the children on the head and counting to ten – the tenth child joins each group in
turn
page 136
The High/Scope model of ‘Plan – Work – Recall’ Teaching for intelligence

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Step 3: Teaching through VAK
Step 3: Teaching through VAK
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page 116
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page 116
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page 127
page 127
page 127
page 137
TheThe Thinking
Thinking Child Child Resource
Resource Book
Book
Part Four
Carrie’s mother is often asked how she ‘taught’ Carrie to recognize her
letters and read some words. Her mother is puzzled, because Carrie
effectively taught herself. But she read to Carrie from the age of four or five
months, she takes her to the library every week, she talks about words and signs as they
go about their daily routine, and she provides toys and plays games that encourage visual
learning.
Carrie also had a set of foam letters that she plays with in the bath, building blocks with
letters and numbers on them, and an alphabet puzzle. When engaged in play with these
toys, her mother adds information about the letters and numbers as she talks, along with
information about colours and shapes: ‘Oh, you’re putting the blue brick on top of the
yellow one – uh-oh! Will it balance?’ ‘Yep, I think so, anyway, it might do, it might not go
crash,’ Carrie says, and her mother comments, ‘You’re right! Well done! You’ve balanced the
blue letter “D” on top of the yellow letter “J”!’
For Carrie’s mother this was an instinctive part of the way that she communicated with
her child. She did not consider herself to be ‘teaching’ Carrie, but if we analyse what
information she was giving in just that short interaction, we can see the potential for
Carrie’s learning. She identified the colours of the bricks, along with the positioning of the
blue one ‘on top’ of the yellow one. She used the word ‘balance’ and asked Carrie a question
about what she thought the outcome would be as she put the final brick on the top. She
then responded to Carrie’s reply, and drew her attention to the letters on the bricks that
Carrie had balanced, along with repeating the names of the colours.
A nursery teacher was frustrated by the fidgeting that went on during every story
time. It seemed that she could never finish a story because she was constantly having
to stop to ask children to let go of one another’s clothing or to stop playing with the
Velcro® fastenings on their shoes! She asked a colleague to observe a story time to give
an insight into what was happening. She was surprised when her colleague told her
that the fidgeting always started with the same two children, then ‘spread’ outwards
until the whole group was more interested in their shoe fastenings than the story!
The colleague suggested giving the children, particularly these two active ones,
something more physical to do during story time, such as using more props or
involving children in lifting the flaps of the book or doing actions to go with the stories.
She also suggested that she could sometimes offer the children beany toys or teddies to
hold at story time so they had something to do with their hands and were less likely to
disturb others.
page 138
Thirty ways to exploit visual learning
1. Display mind maps for a variety of topics and concepts.
2. Take photographs of activities for group discussions and reflection.
3. Label everyday items around the room.
4. Play lots of visual memory games such as ‘Snap’ and ‘Pairs’ with flashcards and ‘flash
pictures’.
5. Use small world toys, puppets or soft toys as props when you tell stories.
6. Use visual cues for labelling places and belongings.
7. Draw maps and plans of journeys and places.
8. Encourage children to add pictures and captions to mind maps.
9. Draw attention to patterns in everyday experiences and give children the chance to copy and
repeat them.
10. Make displays and books of photographs of previous experiences.
11. Use pictures and photographs of classroom materials for labelling and organizational
purposes.
12. Make posters that demonstrate what has been learned, for example a poster with lots of
coloured triangles or squares.
13. Provide a wealth of books and reading resources.
14. Encourage children to play matching games.
15. Go on ‘spotting’ walks to look for shapes, letters, colours or patterns.
16. Use visual recall to help with mapping out memories of experiences, such as, ‘What did you
see at the fair?’ or, ‘What did the animals at the zoo look like?’.
17. Encourage children to draw pictures of the things they make, or of events and activities
Encourage different ways of recording, such as labelled diagrams, pictures, comic strips, or
making little books with no words.
18. Use mirrors to help children look for detail when they draw themselves or things. Visual
skills can be encouraged by the use of mirrors.
19. Encourage children to play with jigsaw and other pictorial puzzles.
20. Use close up photographs or partially covered pictures for games, such as guessing the object
from a picture showing just a detail or a part of the object.
21. Play ‘I spy with my little eye’, adapting the game to use categories such as, ‘Something with
stripes’, ‘Something round and blue’ or ‘Something with a silver top’.
22. Play ‘Guess the person.’ Describe a person in the room in detail, encouraging the children to
look at each other carefully.
23. Put some objects on a tray, cover them with a cloth, remove the cloth for a short time, cover
it again and see who can remember all the objects.
page 139
Part Four
Visual skills can be encouraged by the use of mirrors.
24. Next, show the objects, then ask the children to shut their eyes while you remove one, and
see who can tell which object is missing.
25. Label children’s coat pegs, snack plates, water bottles, drawers or lockers. Use just a picture
to start with, then a picture with the child’s initial, then a picture and the name, then just
the name.
26. Play ‘Spot the difference’ each day as the children arrive. Remove or move one or two things,
and see if they can spot what has moved. Start with big, obvious things!
27. Play ‘Spot the difference’, but asking the children to notice what is new. Add an item such as
a vase of flowers, an unusual fruit in the fruit bowl or a new picture on the wall each day.
28. Make visual links with the stories and events that children experience, such as coloured
checks on wrapping paper with Elmer stories, a flower with a walk to the park, or a packet of
porridge with The Three Bears.
29. Use story sacks to help children to visualize stories.
30. Wear something significant that is linked to the theme of the day or week, such as red socks,
scarf and cap if you are learning about colours, or a floppy hat and big sunglasses if your
theme is ‘Summer’.
page 140
Thirty ways to exploit auditory learning

1. Encourage children to pole-bridge.
2. Work alongside children, talking about what you are doing.
3. Allow plenty of time for review sessions.
4. Review mind maps verbally.
5. Give opportunities for learning through music.
6. Go on listening walks in the garden or around your setting. Auditory skills are practised on a
listening walk.
7. Use recordings of stories and songs alongside books.
8. Use different voices when you read stories and poems.
9. Ask children to talk through their plans before embarking on an activity.
10. Ask children to talk about what they are doing at various stages of a task.
11. Demonstrate new skills while explaining clearly what you are doing.
12. Talk through mind maps while you make them.
13. Encourage children to put new vocabulary and concepts to music.
14. Make up short ‘raps’ about activities and what has been learned.
15. Use ‘each one teach one’ where each child talks to a friend about what he has discovered.
16. Record children talking, singing or reading, and then play the recordings back and guess
‘Who is this?’
17. Allow children plenty of time to discuss what they plan to do either with an adult or another
child.
18. Pause during stories and group discussions to enable children to talk in pairs about what has
happened and predict what comes next.
19. Use pre-recorded CDs to play games such as, ‘Sound lotto’, ‘Spot the animal’, ‘Whose baby is
this?’ ‘What is the street sound?’ or ‘Guess which instrument is playing’.
20. Encourage children to make sounds and music to accompany stories, either with you or in
small groups to perform to others.
21. Use music sessions to develop skills such as listening, turn taking and sound patterns.
22. Use puppets and soft toys to help establish characters and different voices.
23. Use recall of sound to help with mapping out memories of experiences, such as, ‘What did
you hear at the fair?’ or ‘What did the animals at the zoo sound like?’
24. Use instruments or body sounds to play a version of ‘Simon says’ where you clap or stamp or
play a rhythm, and the children copy.
25. Sing songs with a strong rhythmic beat.
page 141
Part Four
26. Clap, click or make another small noise as you count or spell.
27. Talk through letter and number formation as you draw in the air, such as, ‘Round the ball
and down the stick’.
28. Sound out letters as you spell or write them.
29. Use music to recreate or establish a mood or event.
30. Use music or a sound, such as a little bell, chime bar or squeaker to indicate snack time or
clearing up time.
Auditory skills are practised on a listening walk.
page 142
Thirty ways to exploit kinesthetic learning

1. Encourage children to manipulate pictures and objects for 3D mind maps.
2. Build 3D practical aspects into your displays.
3. Incorporate movement and actions into story-telling sessions.
4. Practise fine motor skills such as handwriting through large motor activity.
5. Act out stories. If you can get the hall or another big space, use it!
6. Have story or discussion time outside so that children can move and spread out.
7. Encourage children to help to move and rearrange the outside apparatus regularly.
8. In the winter, bring some of the big blocks inside.
9. Provide plenty of opportunity for role play.
10. Include lots of practical music-making in music sessions.
11. Encourage children to make big, extravagant gestures as they tell stories or talk about their
play.
12. Give children opportunities to play with and manipulate wooden, foam or magnetic letters
and numerals.
13. Encourage children to draw letters and numbers in the air, in sand, on the whiteboard or in
finger paints. Writing in the air particularly benefits kinesthetic learners.
14. Teach new playground games and incorporate new concepts into the physical activity.
15. Use recall of movement to help with mapping out memories of experiences, such as ‘What did
you do at the fair?’ or ‘How did the animals at the zoo move?’
16. Use fabrics and other textures to help children to recall experiences.
17. Make or buy a feely bag and use it to explore in three dimensions.
18. Make lots of big, extravagant gestures as you explain an activity or tell a story.
19. Make sure the outside toys and apparatus have multiple uses. Guttering and pipes, ropes,
tyres, boxes and crates give far more scope for play than fixed apparatus.
20. Provide plenty of manipulative toys, things with moving parts and construction toys, both
large and small.
21. In music sessions, make sure that there is plenty of movement. Accompany movement with
sound, make movement in response to sounds, and practise stopping and starting, changing
speed and moving in patterns.
22. Provide plenty of malleable materials such as clay, dough, slime, pasta, bubbles, sand, water
and finger paints. Try as many of these activities as you can out of doors, with bigger paper,
bigger quantities and bigger movements.
23. Offer playground chalk, or paint and big brushes to make tracks and roads on the path
outside.
page 143
Part Four
24. Include children in lots of physical gardening activities.
25. Include tunnels, bridges, balance bars, stepping-stones, and cones in your play equipment.
26. In the winter, try to give children opportunities to use this apparatus in the hall or another
big space if you can’t get outside.
27. Provide blankets, rope and pegs and encourage the children to build camps outside or, if the
weather is inclement, clear space for them to do it indoors.
28. Make opportunities for children to read and write in role play activities, such as clipboards
and whiteboards to use indoors and out, message pads, parking tickets, score pads, telephone
books and menus.
29. Provide plenty of equipment for fine motor control, such as bead threading, lacing and
sewing cards, marble rolls, sorting and counting apparatus.
30. Encourage children to use their hands and fingers to count, draw and write.
Writing in the air particularly benefits kinesthetic learners.
page 144
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page 135
The Thinking Child page 135page 145 Resource Book
The Thinking Child 135
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Part Four
Each individual child has a combination of different intelligences in different strengths, and the
early years environment will influence how these different intelligences develop and flourish. As
with seeking a VAK balance, the practitioner needs to monitor the activities in order to give equal
emphasis to the different forms of intelligence and ways of learning. A checklist with the initials
for the multiple intelligences can be used when planning to monitor those that are covered
within a session, and those that might need more emphasis at a later stage. Caution should be
taken, however, against the temptation to identify individual children as being particular types
of learners. There is no such thing as a ‘Linguistic’ person any more than there is a ‘Spatial’
or an ‘Intrapersonal’ person. The important thing is to value each type of intelligence, not just
traditional ‘school’ achievements, and to ensure that over a period of time, children are offered a
wide variety of experiences that engage all the multiple intelligences.
Each of our four children has particular strengths in several areas,

and different ability levels in the others. Samantha clearly has a strong
linguistic intelligence, but she also has a strong musical intelligence. She has
a good sense of rhythm and pitch and can recall a simple pattern and tune after hearing it
just once. George, on the other hand, has a leaning towards the naturalist intelligence. He
is very interested in nature and notices details about the natural world. For example, he
once collected a bucket full of snails from his garden and took them to show the children in
his pre-school. Together they took the snails to the wild area at the back of the school to set
them free.
Carrie has a totally different intelligence profile. One of her greatest strengths lies in her
interpersonal skills. This is possibly partly due to her home environment. She spends a lot
of time with her childminder, both after school and during the holidays. Carrie loves the
attention of the childminder’s two teenage daughters and spends a lot of time following
them around. In doing so, she is developing her interpersonal skills. She knows how to take
turns in a one-to-one conversation and asks personal questions like, ‘Oh, do you like that?’
and makes comments such as, ‘I bet you want that cake too, don’t you?’ Carrie is beginning
to be able put herself in somebody else’s place and imagine what they might be thinking
and feeling. Her intrapersonal skills are also a strength. She talks frequently about how
she feels and has a strong sense of right and wrong. She will often verbally challenge other
children in the nursery if she feels that they have been unfair to her or to somebody else.
Kishan, on the other hand, has a strong bodily-

kinesthetic intelligence and is good at activities
that demand logical-mathematical thinking.
Samantha’s least developed intelligence
is bodily-kinesthetic, whereas Kishan’s
least developed intelligences are the
interpersonal and intrapersonal
intelligences. Their teacher realizes this,
and works with Samantha to encourage
her to take part in more outdoor and
physical, hands-on activities, and with
Kishan to help him to learn to manage
the moment of impulse and discuss his
feelings before acting upon them.
page 146
A light-hearted way to look at children using Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences

If you want to address the multiple intelligences in a more light-hearted way, you
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Part Four
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page 138
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page 148
Step 5: Taking the time for learning
‘ The individuals and societies of the West have rather lost touch with
the value of contemplation. Only active thinking is regarded as productive.
’
Sitting gazing absently at your office wall or out of the classroom window
is not of value.

Guy Claxton46
‘ When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.

Robert Frost47
’
As modern life becomes increasingly hectic, children are often paying the price as they are put
under increasing pressure to ‘succeed’. Children are spending an increasing number of hours
in school at a younger and younger age. The overemphasis on academic attainment and testing
has led to a narrowing of the curriculum and increasing pressure upon children to perform
inappropriate tasks at an inappropriate age. Opportunities for children to learn outside the
classroom have decreased drastically. We have now reached the point where the government has
produced a ‘Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto’ to attempt to address the social trend
that their policies largely created.48 The fact is that many children are now quite literally being
denied the time and space to think.
Children’s home lives have also undergone dramatic changes. Unreasonable work expectations
upon adults and difficult economic times have led to an increasing lack of time and attention
for many children at home. An industry of organized activities and classes has taken the place
of free play for many children. Many parents have been conditioned by an overzealous media to
fear ‘dangers’ that are being allowed in many cases to cripple childhood. In many areas, children
are completely out of touch with nature as they have lost the freedom to play unhindered
out of doors. Serious efforts need to be made to reverse these trends, as we are in danger of
raising a stressed-out, needy generation of young people who will grow up to be unable to think
independently or take care of themselves. Moreover, these young people who grow up lacking the
connections with community and with nature are not having the experiences that build strong
characters with empathy and healthy consciences.
The importance of thinking skills has been more formally recognized in recent years, with
sustained shared thinking now being a requirement as part of the commitment to the EYFS
principle of ‘Learning and development’.49 In his book Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, Guy Claxton
describes three different speeds of thinking: the instinctive response type of thinking that
stops you from hitting a cyclist who swerves into the path of your vehicle; the deliberate form
page 149
Part Four
of thinking that you use when figuring out a maths problem, and then a third speed – a slow,
unconscious process where the thinker may appear to be aimless, yet after a period of time has
come up with a solution to a problem or has developed a deeper understanding of an earlier
experience. This ‘tortoise mind’ has become seriously undervalued in our culture, yet has been
responsible for many of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind. We need to resist the
pressure to rush children during their formative years, in order to ensure that they have the
space and time for this third kind of thinking.
Fascinating Fact
A 2008 survey asked 1800 children to name the one thing that they could
not live without. More than one in three responded that they could not live
without their computer, and one in five answered that they could not live
without television.50
Fascinating Fact
In a 2009 survey of school staff, over 44% thought that health and safety
regulations ‘negatively affect pupils’ education’. Among the extreme safety
measures described were: a ban on running in the playground, having to wear
goggles if using Blu-tac, a ban on egg boxes due to the risk of Salmonella
poisoning, wet grass stopping PE lessons, and Year 11 swimmers being forced
to wear armbands at a beach in France.51
The Chicago Wilderness alliance in the USA has gone as far as adopting a ‘Children’s
Outdoor Bill of Rights.’52 This states that every child should have the right to:
Discover wilderness – prairies, dunes, forests, savannas and wetlands
Camp under the stars
Follow a trail
Catch and release fish,

frogs and insects
Climb a tree
Explore nature in
neighbourhoods and
cities
Celebrate heritage
Plant a flower
Play in the mud or a stream
Learn to swim Help children to explore their local outdoor space.
How about creating your own Outdoor Bill of Rights for the children in your setting?
page 150
A childminder told how she had read an article about sustained shared thinking,
and started to consciously analyse her interactions with children. She recorded this
conversation between herself and James, a child in her care, as they watched a bowl of
tadpoles together:
‘’wimming’ says James.
‘Yes, they are swimming. Can you see their wiggly tails?’ says Amanda.
‘Ossat?’ says James.
‘That’s frogspawn. Those are little tadpoles in their eggs. Can you see that one wiggling
about? Why do you think it is doing that?’ replies Amanda.
‘Can’t get out,’ says James.
Amanda asks, ‘Shall we get a magnifying glass and see if we can find out what it’s
doing?’
They then went off together and return with a magnifying glass and a book about
tadpoles to read.
One day, Kishan’s class enjoyed a visit from a music group who played
some Irish jigs to the children. Later that day, his teacher heard a thumping
sound coming from the book corner. She stood up and noticed that Kishan
was lying down on his back, with his legs raised in the air, crashing them together with a
slapping sound. She started towards him, bothered by the fact that Kishan was not engaged
in the task that she had intended for him, but then she stopped to just observe more
carefully. Kishan was lowering his legs, one at a time, before clomping them together. She
realized that he was also humming one of the tunes that he’d heard the Irish band play. Yet
at first sight – and sound – it had seemed that Kishan was doing nothing more than rolling
around and making a noise.
Maybe Kishan’s brain was working double-speed to make sense of the musical experience
that he’d had that morning. Maybe his legs were moving as he tried to work out how one
knee could raise while the other hit the ground as he had attempted (unsuccessfully) to do
that morning. We can’t say what was happening in his brain, and maybe he wasn’t really
‘thinking’ at all. Maybe he was just taking a break from the activity, and just enjoying the
clomping of his feet, not even aware that he was humming a tune.
Kishan’s teacher was tempted to move in and start a conversation. Of course, she would
have done so using all the right questioning techniques. After all, she is trained to be sure
that every interaction she has with the children in her care is meaningful! However, she
had recently read about the need for a balance between different types of thinking, so she
backed off. After a further five minutes, Kishan got up and took a book from the shelves,
which he started reading.
page 151
Part Four
Like most young children, George can find very unusual uses for everyday
materials. One morning, he wandered over to a table where an art activity
had just finished. A pile of paint-covered baking trays were still stacked on
the table, along with two trains that another child had left there. George absent-mindedly
picked up the trains, one in each hand. He proceeded to roll them over the table, banging
them gently into the stack of baking trays. He then started fiddling with the trays, and
turned one upside down to make a bridge. The game continued, he added more trays until
he had four in a line, then he put the trains down and went off to wash his hands for lunch.
George’s key person did not come over to ask what he was doing. Maybe a few days later
George got out those trays again and experimented with them to make a longer bridge. But
maybe he never returned to explore the concept of trains and baking trays again. Maybe
as he was banging the trains, he was thinking about something completely different. If you
think about doing a jigsaw, sometimes you need to stand back and look hazily at the parts.
Maybe George was just taking a mental break from another task, which became clearer to
him as he stood back, rather like the way that sometimes the answer to a crossword puzzle
will come to you as you are cooking dinner or mowing the lawn!
A nursery teacher in a school described why she decided to redesign her outside play
area:
‘I had always thought I was very fortunate because my class has a large outside area
with a ton of play equipment. We have a big sandbox, a large climbing structure with
safety mats below, a water play area, space for bikes and trucks, and lots of room for the
children to play and run. Then one day I went to visit another school in a very different
area to mine. Their playground was not, on first glance, as attractive as mine. They did
not have the commercial or purpose-built items that I have. It all looked, to be honest, a
bit scruffy.
But then I started to watch what the children were doing. One group of children had
built a camp in the middle of a scrubby bush area, using branches for a roof and
straw for flooring. Another group were digging in the mud, filling buckets and tubs,
adding water and using big strainers to sift through their mixtures. Another group
were helping a parent to clean out a chicken coop and look for eggs. Two children were
sitting on a tree branch in an area that they called “The Forest”. The teacher looked
quite relaxed as she stood beneath the tree talking to them. It was such a contrast to my
own manicured and manufactured playground!
I realized that, while my children were lucky to have such a wonderful space to play
and such great equipment, they were missing out on any natural experience. My
playground had no connection with nature. Obviously, I could not take out all our
equipment – and nor would I want to do so. But we did start to create some natural
areas of the playground, giving the children an area to dig freely, and handing over
some of the garden bushes to the children for playing in. This took some negotiation
with senior management, who were horrified at first at the idea of the children playing
in the bushes! I had to explain to parents why I was redesigning the area. But over
time we gained a good balance, and now I feel that our playground truly encourages a
connection with nature.’
page 152
Twelve ways to get children in touch with nature

1. Create a wild garden area. If you don’t have a large earth area, use containers and pots of all
shapes and sizes and grow plants that will attract insects for the children to observe.
2. Raise bugs inside the classroom and observe their life cycle before setting them free. There
is no need to always catch your own bugs – commercial sites sell complete kits to successfully
raise creatures such as earthworms, ladybirds or butterflies.53
3. Go on regular nature walks in the local environment. Take containers to collect interesting
specimens and then use magnifying glasses to observe them. Make sure that you always
return items to their original habitat and stress the importance of conservation to the
children.
4. Create an area where children are free to take shovels and just dig. Put out buckets for them
to fill with mud, sticks or rocks. Supervise closely and model respect for any living creatures
that they might find.
5. If you are planning an outing, try going for a hike in a field or some woods rather than a
museum, farm or zoo.
6. Try replacing some manufactured play items in the playground with natural ones, for
example, by creating stepping stones with logs from a felled tree.
7. Ask gardeners to leave piles of leaves for children to play in, then work together to clean
them up.
8. Take spontaneous walks around the neighbourhood to look at trees, flowers, bugs or birds.
Do this even in bad weather – wrap up well, but be prepared to get wet and muddy as part of
the experience!
9. Keep wellington boots and raincoats at school, with the expectation that you will go outside
regardless of the weather.
10. Bring natural items into the classroom for children to look at, for example, branches with
moss, or twigs with new growth and buds. Let the children handle items and encourage them
to look carefully. Do not always ask them to draw or write about it – this turns the experience
for some children into ‘work’, and can detract from the experience.
11. Leave a log, a piece of guttering, or a plank in a secluded corner of your garden or play area.
Periodically, let the children lift it to see what they can find. Help them to gently lift the
creatures into containers so that they can be examined.
12. Put an old sink or plastic bowl on bricks in the open. Let it fill with water and see what
colonizes your wildlife pond.
page 153
Part Four
Messy activities that every child should experience
• Playing with shaving foam. Give lots

of opportunities for free play and
exploration. Float foam on bowls of
water. Paint the foam over balloons.
Spray foam on trays and add watered
down paint or food colours. Try mixing
it with food colours and white glue, or
with paint and sand for an unusual
painting material.
• Getting gooey with Glarch. Mix 2 parts

white glue to 1 part liquid starch in a
bowl. Once it becomes too thick to use a
spoon, continue mixing with your hands. Shaving foam provides endless
This works quicker if your hands are warm. opportunities for messy play!
• Experimenting with cornflour gloop. Gradually add water to a bowl of cornflour until it
turns into a strange liquid-solid texture. Encourage children to lift handfuls up and let it
run through their fingers. Add food colours and watch them disperse. Try creating a big
‘swamp’ in a box and add toy dinosaurs or animals for free play.
• Finger painting with instant whip pudding, thick custard, or chocolate mousse. Try adding
sand and paint to create different colours and textures.
• Finger painting – with feet! Put paper down and let children walk in paint and make
footprints. (Take care as this can get slippery). Try pushing toy cars through the paint, then
try pushing push-along toys or riding bikes through. Then have fun creating a car wash with
buckets of warm, soapy water!
• Playing with ice. Freeze big blocks in unusual containers. Try putting a small jewel or toy
animal in the middle before freezing. Put blocks on trays and try dripping food colours or
water colours onto them.
• Getting gooey with gak. Mix 1½ cups water, 2 cups white glue and water colour paint. In a
separate bowl mix together 1 cup of water and 5 tablespoons of Borax, then pour the Borax
mixture slowly into the glue and water mixture. Mix and knead until it becomes one big gak
ball. Blow bubbles in gak with short straws, or hang strawberry baskets up high, fill them
with gak, and watch what happens!
• Exploring different foods and textures such as mashed potatoes, cooked spaghetti (add a
little oil) or jelly. Put it on a tray or in a bowl and encourage children to squish freely.
• Experimenting with compost or soil. Buy new, sterilized bags of compost or ‘Growbags’, and
tip these into builders’ trays or tarpaulins for free play with hands, feet and fingers.
• Making their own dough of all sorts and textures. Find hundreds of recipes on the internet
or in books such as The Little Book of Dough.54
• Getting wet with big buckets of soapy water and sponges, with buckets and other containers
or chalk circles on walls and patios to throw sponges at.
CA
U TIO Check ingredients of food items before allowing children with allergies to touch them. Some of
N
these activities have contents that are toxic if consumed in quantity, and so are not suitable for
CA
babies and young toddlers. Read labels carefully and always supervise children to ensure that
N
U TIO
they don’t put soaps or other ingredients in their mouths.
page 154
Endnotes
Endnotes
1. Christchurch Health and Development Study, Christchurch School of Medicine, New
Zealand, ‘Pediatrics’, vol 101, January 1998
2. Pollitt, E, (1993) ‘Iron deficiency and cognitive function’, in Annual Review of Nutrition, vol
13, pp 521–537
3. Study by Harlene Hayne et al, University of Otago, New Zealand, reported in Psychological
Science, May 2002
4. Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind – The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, New
York, 1993
5. Maslow, Abraham, Towards a Psychology of Being, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 1998
6. Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, Welfare Requirements, DCSF,
May 2008
7. The Further Evaluation of The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, NFER, September 2007
8. Letters and Sounds, Primary National Strategy, DfES, 2007
9. Jolly Learning at www.jollylearning.co.uk
10. Report by Datamonitor, December 2007, quoted at www.foodsciencecentral.com
11. Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, DCSF, May 2008
12. The Further Evaluation of The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, NFER, September 2007
13. Emma Chichester Clark, Follow My Leader, Andersen Press Ltd., 1999
14. Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, We’re going on a Bear Hunt, Walker Books Ltd., 1993
16. ‘Lamb Enquiry – Special Educational Needs’, DCSF, 2009
17. The Foundation Stage Forum at www.foundation-stage.info
18. Dr. Stanley Greenspan, child development researcher, George Washington University medical
school, quoted 14th November 2002, news article, ‘How to boost babies’ brainpower’, www.
cnn.com
19. Excellence and Enjoyment: social and emotional aspects of learning, DfES, 2005
20. Goleman, Daniel, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Bloomsbury, 1995
21. Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., Mindset – The New Psychology of Success, Random House, 2006
22. Song used with kind permission of Mindy Dirks of BACAP Pre-school Groups, Los Gatos,
California
23. The Children’s Plan – Building brighter futures, DCSF, 2007
24. Tim Gill, No Fear – Growing up in a risk averse society, Calouste Gulbenkien Foundation,
2007
25. ‘Keep it Friendly, Keep it Safe’ are cornerstone philosophies of Parents Nursery School in
Palo Alto, California
26. Information about Social Stories™ can be found at the website for The Gray Center at www.
thegraycenter.org
27. Lepper, M. R, and Hodell, M,, ‘Intrinsic motivation in the Classroom’. In R. Ames and C.
Ames (Editors), Research on motivation in education (Vol. 3): Goals and cognitions, Academic
Press, 1989
28. The Early Years Foundation Stage, Effective Practice: Parents as Partners, DCSF, 2007
page 155
Endnotes
29. The Children’s Plan, One Year On, DCSF, 2008

30. Implementing an Early Years Single Funding Formula: Practice Guidance, DCSF, July 2009
32. Jim Greenman, Caring Spaces, Learning Places: Children’s Environments That Work,
Exchange Press, Redmond, Washington, 1988
33. Further ideas can be found at National Deaf Children’s Society’s website, at www.ndcs.org.uk
34. Ronald Kotulak, Inside the Brain. Revolutionary discoveries of how the mind works, Andrews
McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, 1997
35. Tina Bruce, Learning through Play, Babies, Toddlers and the Foundation Years, Hodder and
Stoughton, London, 2001
36. The Myths and Promises of the Learning Brain, Harvard Graduate School of Education
News, 1st December 2004
37. (1) ‘No Einstein in your Crib? Get a Refund’, The New York Times, 23 October 2009
(2) Prior to the offer of a refund, in 2007 the Federal Trade Commission investigated the
matter but decided not to take any formal action
38. Susan Young and Joanne Glover, Music in the Early Years, Falmer Press, London, 1998
39. Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood – How the Modern World is Damaging our Children and What
We Can Do About It Orion Books Ltd, 2007
40. Wright, J.C. et al, ‘Young children’s perceptions of television reality’, quoted in Failure to
Connect – How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds – for Better and Worse, Jane M.
Healy, Ph.D., Simon and Schuster, New York, 1998
41. ‘Youngsters Unaware TV Ads are Sales Pitch’, Reuters Health, 16 April 2002, (article at
www. story.news.yahoo.com)
42. ‘Talking Tins’ can be found at http://www.talkingproducts.co.uk
43. From ‘Guidelines for Young Children Using Computers.’ Reprinted with permission of Simon
and Schuster from Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds – for
Better and Worse by Jane M. Healy, PhD Copyright (c) 1998 by Jane M. Healy.
44. The High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, at www.highscope.org
45. Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind – The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, New
York, 1993
46. Guy Claxton, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, How intelligence increases when you think less,
HarperPerennial, 2000
47. Robert Frost, 1874–1963, ‘Birches’
48. Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto, DfES, 2006
50. Childwise Monitor Survey, 2008/2009, www.childwise.co.uk
51. ‘Wearing Goggles when Using Blu-tac – Health and Safety Playing it too Safe?’ Teachers’ TV,
19 June 2009, www.teachers.tv/
52. Chigago Wilderness alliance, at http://kidsoutside.info/
53. Try sites such as www.insectlore.co.uk for purchasing nature kits
54. Lynn Garner, The Little Book of Dough, Featherstone Education Ltd., 2004
55. Traffic Lights, Good Listening posters and other brain-based learning resources can be found
at www.alite.co.uk
page 156
Appendices
Appendices
Some principles for planning
• Planning should be a team exercise involving all individuals who work in the setting.
• Plans should be shared with parents and carers.
• Detailed plans for the day should be shared with all adults who work in the setting.
• Children should have the opportunity to contribute to plans through helping to write the To
Do list.
• What is planned should be connected to what has gone on before.
• What is planned should be connected to what is likely to happen next.
• Plans should be linked to group and individual targets.
• Plans should be clear enough for an outsider such as a supply teacher to follow.
• Planning should link in clearly to assessment and record keeping, and should identify
opportunities for observation and assessment.
• Plans should be flexible enough to allow for a response to the developing needs and interests
of the children.
• Consideration should be given to meeting physiological needs when planning.
• Plans should be made for involving children in everyday routines in addition to activities
planned by adults and those that children initiate themselves.
• Consideration should be given to addressing the needs of a wide range of groups and
ensuring equal access and opportunity.
• Plans for indoor and outdoor areas should be linked so that the outdoors becomes an
extension of the indoor environment.
• Consideration should be given to the creation of a healthy balance between child-initiated

and adult directed play.
• Children should be told of the plans for the day or the session when given the Big Picture.
• Consideration should be given to aspects of brain-based learning such as VAK, the multiple
intelligences, use of music, brain breaks and mind mapping.
• Plans should encompass the emotional and social needs of children along with the cognitive,
for example, the promotion of self-esteem and emotional intelligence.
page 157
Appendices
Key vocabulary
Brain-based learning: a term used to describe how to apply theories about the brain to help
children to learn more effectively
Brain-based learning circle: a structure to use for the more formal learning sessions
Give the Big Picture
Assess the starting point
Deliver the session in chunks through VAK
Build in brain breaks
Check for understanding and acknowledge achievements
Review the session
Brain break: a short, physical activity to break up a session and refocus and activate the
children
Brain Gym®: a brain break activity that involves controlled, cross-lateral movements to connect
right and left hemispheres of the brain
Brain stem: the ‘primitive brain’ which is responsible mainly for survival systems
Cerebral cortex: the largest part of the brain where most high-level thinking processes take
place
Decibel clock: a clockface that indicates various noise-levels. The practitioner turns the hand to
point to the required noise-level for that session
Emotional intelligence: Daniel Goleman’s five aspects of emotional intelligence are

self-awareness
management of emotions
self motivation
handling relationships
empathy
Good listening and good sitting: a system for explicitly helping children to develop good
attentional skills
Good questioning strategies: (cf. The Thinking Child page 101)

Observe carefully
Embed processing cues
Ask open-ended questions
Allow processing time
Listen attentively
Reflect back
Summarise
Limbic system: the ‘mid-brain’, which is responsible for some basic functions, such as managing
our emotions and some aspects of memory
page 158
Appendices
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: The basic physical needs that must be met if learning is to take place
Hydration
Nutrition
Sleep
Movement
Attentional systems
Metacognition: having an understanding of the way that you personally learn
Mind mapping: a method of creating a diagram, rather like a flow chart, that allows the brain
to work freely and creatively, whilst making links between concepts
Mindsets: Carol Dweck’s definitions of the growth mindset and the fixed mindset, which
influence an individual’s approach to challenge, and ultimately their level of success
Multiple intelligences:
Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Musical
Bodily-kinesthetic
Spatial
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalist
Neuron: a brain cell
Pole-bridging: talking aloud as you work, describing what you are doing as you actually do it
POSITIVE feedback is: (cf. The Thinking Child page 102)

P ersonal
O bjective
S pecific
I nformative
T imely
I nspiring
V aried
E nthusiastic
SMART targets are: (cf. The Thinking Child page 58)

S pecific
M easurable
A chievable
R ealistic
T ime bonded
Synapse: the connection made between the axon of one brain cell to the dendrite of another
Sustained shared thinking: when an adult works with a child to think about a concept,
problem or activity, sharing their ideas and developing and extending their thinking
page 159
Appendices
The Big Picture: the overview of the content of the forthcoming session
The Three As: a motivational system using Acknowledgement, Approval and Affirmation
To Do list: a list developed by the children with an adult at the end of a session, a day or a week,
describing what activities and learning they next wish to undertake
Traffic Light: a system for checking understanding – red for ‘I don’t understand yet’, amber for
‘I’m not sure’ and green for ‘I understand’55 (cf. The Thinking Child page 96)
VAK: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic learning, or ‘seeing, hearing and doing’
Recommended reading
Five books about music and learning

1. The Mozart Effect for Children – Awakening Your Child’s Mind, Health and Creativity with
Music, Don Campbell, HarperCollins Publishers Inc, New York, 2000
2. Music with the Under Fours, Susan Young, Routledge, 2003
3. Music Materials for Early Years, Leicestershire Music Publications, at www.LMPi.co.uk
4. Three Singing Pigs – Making Music with Traditional Stories, Kaye Umansky, A&C Black,
London, 1994
5. Three Tapping Teddies – Musical Stories and Chants for the Very Young, Kaye Umansky,
A&C Black, 2005
Five books about the brain and learning

1. Jossey Bass Reader on the Brain and Learning, Jossey Bass, 2008
2. Endangered Minds – Why Children Don’t Think – and What We Can Do About It, Jane M.
Healy, Ph.D., Touchstone Books, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1990
3. What’s going on in there? How the brain and mind develop in the first five years of life, Lise
Eliot, Ph.D., Bantam Books, New York, 1999
4. Start Smart – Building Brain Power in the Early Years, Pam Schiller, Gryphon House, Inc,
Beltsville, Maryland, 1999
5. The Brain’s Behind It – New knowledge about the brain and learning, Alistair Smith,
Network Educational Press Ltd., 2002
Five books about movement and learning

1. Smart Moves – Why Learning is not all in your Head, Carla Hannaford, Ph. D., Great Ocean
Publishers, Arlington, Virginia, 1995
2. Brain Gym, Paul E. Dennison and Gail E. Dennison, Edu-Kinesthetics, Ventura, California,
1989
page 160
Appendices
3. The Learning Gym – Fun-to-do Activities for Success at School, Erich Ballinger, Edu-
Kinesthetics, Ventura, California, 1992
4. Rhythms of Learning, Chris Brewer and Don Campbell, Zephyr, Tucson, Arizona, 1991
5. Hopping Home Backwards: Body Intelligence and Movement Play, Penny Greenland,
Jabadao, Leeds, 2000
Five books about play

1. Creating a Space to Grow – Developing your outdoor learning environment, Gail Ryder
Richardson, David Fulton Publishers Ltd., 2006
2. Like Bees, Not Butterflies – Child-initiated Learning in the Early Years, Ros Bayley et al,
Featherstone Education Ltd., 2008
3. Learning through Play, Babies, Toddlers and the Foundation Years, Tina Bruce, Hodder and
Stoughton, London, 2001
4. Educating Young Children, Mary Hohmann and David P Weikart, High/Scope Educational
Research Foundation, Michigan, 2002
5. Child Care and Early Learning – Good practice to support young children and their families,
Jennie Lindon, Thomson, London, 2003
Five books about intelligence

1. Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind – How Intelligence Increases when you Think Less, Guy Claxton,
2. Emotional Intelligence – Why it can Matter More than IQ, Daniel Goleman, Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc, London, 1995
3. Frames of Mind – The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner, Basic Books, New
York, 1983
4. Intelligence Reframed – Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, Howard Gardner, Basic
Books, New York, 1999
5. The Unschooled Mind – How children think and how schools should teach, Howard Gardner,
Basic Books, New York, 1993
Five books about infant and child development

1. The Philosophical Baby – What Children’s Minds Tell us About Truth, Love and the Meaning
of Life, Alison Gopnik, Bodley Head, 2009
2. Building Healthy Minds – the Six Experiences that Create Intelligence and Emotional
Growth in Babies and Young Children, Stanley Greenspan, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1999
3. The Secret of Happy Children, Steve Biddulph, Harper Collins, London, 1998
4. The Social Toddler – Promoting positive behaviour, understanding toddlers and why they
do the things they do, Helen and Clive Dorman, The Children’s Project, Richmond, London,
2002
5. Child Development – An Illustrated Guide 2nd edition, Carolyn Meggitt, Heinemann, 2006
page 161
Appendices
Five books about self-esteem and motivation

1. Mindset – The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., Random House, 2006
2. What Young Children Need to Succeed – Working Together to Build Assets from Birth to Age
11, Jolene Roehlkepartain and Nancy Leffert, Ph. D., Free Spirit Publishing, Minneapolis,
2000
3. Self esteem and Early Learning, Dr Rosemary Roberts, Sage, 2006
4. Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Marion Dowling, Sage, 2006
5. Early Childhood Education, Tina Bruce, Hodder Arnold, 2005
Five books about outdoor play

1. Creating a Space to Grow – Developing your outdoor learning environment, Gail Ryder
Richardson, David Fulton Publishers Ltd., 2006
2. Nature’s Playground, Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield, Frances Lincoln, 2005
3. Go Wild! – 101 Things to Do Outdoors Before You Grow Up, Fiona Danks, Jo Schofield,
Frances Lincoln, 2009
4. Forest Schools and Outdoor Learning in the Early Years, Sara Knight, Sage, 2009
5. Learning Outdoors: Improving the Quality of Young Children’s Play Outdoors, Helen Bilton,
David Fulton, 2005
Five books about Inclusion and the key person approach

1. Key Persons in the Nursery: Building Relationships for Quality Provision, Goldschmeid,
Elinor, Elfer, Peter, and Selleck, Dorothy, David Fulton Publishers, 2003
2. Penny Tassoni’s Practical EYFS Handbook, Heinemann, 2008
3. Contemporary Issues in the Early Years: Working Collaboratively for Children, Dame Gillian
Pugh, Sage, 2006
4. Involving Parents in Their Children’s Learning, Ms. Margy Whalley, Sage, 2007
5. Early Years Foundations: Meeting the Challenge, Janet Moyles, Open University Press, 2007
Five books about preserving and protecting childhood

1. Last Child in the Woods – Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv,
Algonquin Books, 2005
2. Toxic Childhood – How the Modern World is Damaging our Children and What We Can Do
About It, Sue Palmer, Orion Books Ltd, 2007
3. The Hurried Child – Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon, David Elkind, Ph.D., Perseus
Publishing, 2001
4. No Fear – Growing up in a Risk Averse Society, Tim Gill, 2007
5. Too Safe for their Own Good? Helping Children Learn about Risk and Life Skills, Jennie
Lindon, National Children’s Bureau, 2003
page 162
Appendices
Bibliography
Abbott, Lesley and Nutbrown, Cathy (Ed), Experiencing Reggio Emilia, Open University Press,
2001
Ballinger, Erich, The Learning Gym, Edu-Kinesthetics 1996
Basic Skills Agency, Securing Boys’ Literacy, Basic Skills Agency, Tel 0870 600 2400
Biddulph, Steve, Raising Babies – Why Your Love is Best, HarperThorsons, 2006
Biddulph, Steve, Raising Boys, Thorsons, 2003
Biddulph, Steve, The Secret of Happy Children, Thorsons; Harper Collins Publishers, 1998
Bilton, Helen, Outdoor Play in the Early Years, David Fulton, 1998
Boyd Cadwell, Louise, Bringing Reggio Emilia Home, Teachers College Press, 1997
Brewer, Chris and Campbell, Don, Rhythms of learning, Zephyr 1991
Bruce, Tina, Learning through Play, Babies, Toddlers and the Foundation Years, Hodder and
Stoughton, 2001
Bunting, Madeline, Willing Slaves – How The Overwork Culture Is Ruling Our Lives, Harper
Perennial, 2005
Buzan, Tony with Buzan, Barry, The Mind Map Book- How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximise
Your Brain’s Untapped Potential, Penguin Books, 1993
Campbell, Don, The Mozart Effect, tapping the power of music to heal the body, strengthen the
mind, and unlock the creative spirit, HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1997
Campbell, Don, The Mozart Effect for Children – Awakening Your Child’s Mind, Health, and
Creativity with Music, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 2000
Ceppi & Zini, Children, spaces, relationships – metaproject for an environment for young children,
Reggio Children, 1999
Claxton, Guy, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind – How intelligence increases when you think less,
Cousins, Jacqui, Listening to Four Year Olds, National Early Years Network, 1999
De Becker, Gavin, Protecting the Gift – Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane),
Dell Publishing, 1999
Dennison Paul E. & Gail E., Brain Gym, Edu-Kinesthetics, 1989
Donaldson, Margaret, Children’s Minds, Penguin
Dweck, Carol S., Ph.D., Mindset – The New Psychology of Success, Random House, 2006
Eliot, Lise, Ph.D., What’s going on in there? How the brain and mind develop in the first five years
of life, Bantam Books, 2000
page 163
Appendices
Elkind, David, Ph.D., The Hurried Child – Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon, Perseus Publishing, 2001
Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind – The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, BasicBooks, 1993
Gardner, Howard, Intelligence Reframed – Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, Basic Books,
1999
Goer, Henci, The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, The Berkley Publishing
Group, 1999
Goldschmeid, Elinor, Elfer, Peter, and Selleck, Dorothy, Key Persons in the Nursery: Building
Relationships for Quality Provision, David Fulton Publishers, 2003
Goleman, Daniel, Emotional Intelligence, why it can matter more than IQ, Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc, 1995
Gopnik, Alison, Meltzoff, Andrew, and Patricia Kuhl, How Babies Think, The Orion Publishing
Group Ltd, 1999
Gopnik, Alison, The Philosophical Baby – What Children’s Minds Tell us About Truth, Love and
the Meaning of Life, Bodley Head, 2009
Gottman, John, The Heart of Parenting, Bloomsbury, 1997
Greenman, Jim, Caring Spaces, Learning Places: Children’s Environments That Work, Exchange
Press, 1988
Greenspan, Stanley M.D., Building Healthy Minds – The Six Experiences that Create Intelligence
and Emotional Growth in Babies and Young Children, Perseus Publishing, 1999
Gurian, Michael, Boys and Girls Learn Differently! Jossey Bass, 2002
Hannaford Carla, Ph. D., Smart Moves – Why Learning is not all in your Head, Great Ocean
Publishers, 1995
Hart, Betty and Risley,Todd, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young
American Children, Paul H Brookes Pub Co, 1995
Harter, Susan, Teacher and classmate influences on scholastic motivation, self-esteem, and level
of voice in adolescents, in J. Juvonen and K. R. Wentzel (eds), Social Motivation, Understanding
Children’s School Adjustment, Cambridge University Press, 1996
Healy, Jane M., Ph.D., Endangered Minds – Why Children Don’t Think – and What We Can Do
About It, Touchstone Books, Simon & Schuster, 1990
Healy, Jane, Ph.D, Failure to Connect – How Computers affect our Children’s Minds – for Better
and Worse, Simon and Schuster, 1998
Hendrick, Joanne, The Whole Child, Prentice-Hall Inc, 1996
Howe, Christine, Gender and Classroom Interaction – a research review, The Scottish Council for
Research in Education, 1997
Jensen, Eric, Teaching with the Brain in Mind, ASDC (USA), 1998
Kohn, Alfie, Punished by Rewards – the trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, As, praise and
other bribes, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1993
page 164
Appendices
Kohn, Alfie, Unconditional Parenting – Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and
Reason, Atria Books, 2005
Kotulak, Ronald, Inside the Brain. Revolutionary discoveries of how the mind works, Andrews
McMeel Publishing, 1997
Lindstrom, Martin, Brand child – Remarkable insights into the minds of today’s global kids and
their relationships with brands, Kogan Page Limited, 2003
Louv, Richard, Last Child in the Woods – Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006
Miles, Elizabeth, Tune your brain – using music to manage your mind, body and mood, Berkley
Publishing Group, 1997
Miller, Judy, Never too young – How young children can take responsibility and make decisions,
National Early Years Network, 1996
Mosley, Jenny, Quality Circle Time in the Primary Classroom, LDA, 1999
Nutbrown, Cathy, Threads of Thinking, Paul Chapman,1999
Ouvry, Marjorie, Exercising Muscles and Minds, National Early Years Network, 2000
Palmer, Sue, Toxic Childhood – How the Modern World is Damaging our Children and What We
Can Do About It, Orion Books Ltd, 2007
Pantley, Elizabeth, Hidden Messages – what our words and actions are really telling our children,
Contemporary Books, 2001
Pascal Chris and Bertram Tony, Effective Early Learning (Case Studies in Improvement), Hodder
& Stoughton, 1997
Paul, Pamela, Parenting Inc. – How We Are Sold on $800 Strollers, Fetal Education, Baby Sign
Language, Sleeping Coaches, Toddler Couture, and Diaper Wipe Warmers – and What it Means
for Our Children, Times Books, 2008
Pinker, Steven, How the Mind Works, Penguin, 1998
Reggio Children, The Hundred Languages of Children, Reggio Children, 1996
Richardson, Gail Ryder, Creating a Space to Grow – Developing your outdoor learning
environment, David Fulton Publishers Ltd., 2006
Roehlkepartain and Leffert, What Children need to Succeed, Free Spirit, EY Network, 1996
Schiller, Pam, Start Smart! Building Brain Power in the Early Years, Gryphon House, Inc, 1999
Sears, William, MD and Martha, RN, The Baby Book, Little, Brown and Company, 1993
Smith, Alistair, The Brain’s Behind It – New knowledge about the brain and learning, Network
Educational Press Ltd., 2002
The Jossey Bass Reader on the Brain and Learning, Jossey Bass, 2008
Tizard, Barbara and Hughes, Martin, Young Children Learning, Harvard University Press, 1984
Trythall, Andrew, Managing ICT from Birth to 7, Featherstone Education Ltd., 2006
page 165
Appendices
Some useful websites

www.acceleratedlearning.co.uk
Nicola Call’s website. This website gives more information about brain-based learning and
updated information about books and resources. There is also a link for contacting Nicola directly
www.opitus.uk.com
Sally Featherstone’s website where you can find information about her writing, courses and
training. You can also email her directly at sally @opitus.uk.com
www.dcsf.gov.uk
For current government initiatives in education
www.publications.dcsf.gov.uk
For all government publications
www.qcda.gov.uk
For curriculum and assessment information in England
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/thinkingskills
DCSF site for thinking in primary classrooms
www.teachers.tv
For TV, video and information on teaching at all ages and stages
www.early-education.org.uk
The website of the British Association for Early Childhood Education, a voluntary organization
www.inclusion.org.uk
The website for Inclusion UK – a consortium of four organizations supporting inclusion in education
www.thegraycenter.org
Website for The Gray Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to individuals with autism
spectrum disorders, in particular through the development of Social Stories™
www.alite.co.uk
Alistair Smith’s website. Useful site for brain-based articles and publications, researching
training options, and purchasing resources. Alistair is one of the UK’s leading trainers in brain-
based learning
www.braingym.com
The official Brain Gym® website
www.brainresearch.com
An extensive website about brain research, with hundreds of links to related websites and articles
www.creative-partnerships.com
Creative Partnerships fosters innovative, long-term partnerships between schools and creative
professionals, including artists, performers, architects, multimedia developers and scientists.
www.foundation-stage.info
A site with articles, links and an early years discussion forum
page 166
Appendices
www.richardlouv.com
The official website of Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, with a wealth of
information about ways to protect childhood
www.suepalmer.co.uk
Sue Palmer’s website, with information on publications and links to articles in various
publications
www.naturalchild.org
The website for The Natural Child Project, whose motto is ‘All children behave as well as they are
treated.’ Interesting articles about child development and the respectful care of young children
www.dana.org
The website for the Dana Foundation and the Dana Alliance, an organization of scientists
dedicated to advancing education about brain research.
www.jlcbrain.com
Eric Jensen’s website containing information about training, publications and subscription to a
monthly newsletter
www.circle-time.co.uk
The website for Jenny Mosley’s ‘Quality Circle Time’, containing answers to frequently asked
questions about circle time, some free resources and online bookshop
www.tactyc.org.uk
Training, Advancement and Co-operation in Teaching Young Children
Photocopiable material
The following pages contain photocopiable templates of charts and illustrations shown in the
book which you may find useful in your early years setting.
page 167
The five aspects of emotional literacy
Self-awareness
Management of emotions
Self-motivation
Handling relationships
Empathy
page 168
The The
Thinking Child
Thinking Child Resource BookBook
Resource
page 169
The
The Thinking
Thinking Child Child Resource Book
Resource Book
page 170
The Thinking
The Thinking Child
Child Resource
ResourceBook
Book
Questions for your volunteer visitor:
Was your initial telephone call dealt with efficiently and in a
friendly manner?
Was the building easy to find?
How easy would access be for somebody with a disability?
Were street directions in literature accurate and easy to

follow?
Was the entrance welcoming?
How long did it take for an adult to approach you?
How welcoming was the first interaction with staff?
Were you asked to wear a badge or other identification?
Were you asked to sign the visitors’ book?
Was there somewhere comfortable to wait?
Was documentation available in a range of community

languages?
Were signs or notices written clearly and in positive language?
Were signs and notices written in community languages in

addition to English?
Did you find any documentation or literature about the setting

useful?
Did it seem consistent with the impression from the visit?
Was adequate information given about children’s activities or

the curriculum?
Did the environment seem tidy and orderly?
Did the children seem confident and relaxed about

meeting you?
Was it clear that the setting encouraged the involvement of

parents?
Did the staff seem confident and relaxed about the visit?
Did people smile?
Was there a parents’ notice board to look at?
Was the information on the notice board up to date?
Was the setting welcoming to both adults and children?
Were you welcomed and included in the activities?
page 171
TheChild
The Thinking Thinking Child Resource
Resource Book Book
The brain-based learning circle
Give the Big

Picture
▲
▲
Assess the
Review the starting point
session
▲
▲
Check for
Deliver the
understanding and
session in chunks
acknowledge
through VAK
achievements
▲
▲
Build in brain
breaks
page 172
The Thinking
The Thinking Child Child Resource
Resource BookBook
The Thinking
The Thinking
Observation sheet: The four -to-one rule

Child Child
Child’s name Positive Negative Neutral Notes

page 173
Resource
Resource
Book Book
Forty positive adjectives
to use with children:
active gentle
affectionate graceful
artistic healthy
assertive helpful
calm imaginative
careful intelligent
caring kind
clever lively
confident loving
considerate mathematical
creative musical
curious outgoing
determined peaceful
energetic persuasive
entertaining polite
enthusiastic quick
expressive scientific
friendly strong
funny thoughtful
generous warm
page 174
The Thinking Child
The Thinking Child Resource Book Book
Resource
The Thinking
TheChild
Positive thinking
Thinking Child
Child’s name Positive adjective 1 Positive adjective 2 Positive adjective 3
3
page 175
9
Resource
10
Resource
Book Book
The
The Thinking
Observation sheet: Monitoring group-work

ThinkingChild
Single gender pairs

Child
Mixed gender pairs
Friendship pairs
Single gender groups
Mixed gender groups

page 176
Older child with younger child
Single aged groups
Mixed aged groups
Teacher selected groups
Peer selected groups

Resource
Other:
ResourceBook
Book
Index
Note: Page numbers in italics refer to photocopiable material.
acknowledgement 57, 59, 86–7 Brain Gym® 125, 168

action rhymes and songs 128 brain stem 168
active learning 137
adjectives 97–8, 99, 184 ‘can do’ attitude 50–2, 76
affirmation 57, 58, 59–60 outdoor activities 52–3
aggressiveness 34 positive self-talk 54
allergies 164 cerebral cortex 168
amines 22 challenge 57
approval 57, 59 charity 135–6
assertiveness 34 child development 171
attention skills childhood, preserving and protecting 172
acknowledging good skills 86–7 childminding 19, 43, 69–70, 135
gaining children’s attention 84, 85–6 circle time
giving instructions 84, 91 activities 46–8
good listening 82, 168 basic rules 45
good sitting 82, 168 ending activities 48–50
lining up strategies 88–90 props 47
noise levels 87 self-esteem 45
attentional systems 22–3 uses 26, 45
auditory learning 151–2 warm up activities 45–6
axons 11, 12 clowning 95
cognitive development 11, 12
behaviour communication with parents 29, 62–3, 179, 180
aggressive 34 community involvement 135–6
assertive 34 composting 135, 136
auditing your interactions 55–6, 98 computers 130
impulsive behaviour 33, 35, 38 evaluating use 134
intrinsic motivation 37, 57 guidelines 133
managing 55–60 information and emotional overload 134–5
passive 33 concentration 90–1
positive comments for 55, 96–8, 100 brain-based learning circle 91, 168, 182
practising through play 114 how long? 91–2
rules 55 increasing time on task 93
self-management 33, 35, 36, 38 intervention 90
social awareness 36, 56 literacy and numeracy sessions 92–3
temper tantrums 83, 91 older children 93–4
Big Picture 170 strategies 93–4
bodily-kinesthetic intelligence 125, 153–4, 157 confidence 42–3, 50, 72
brain 11–12 conflicts 36
brain-based learning 11, 168 connections, making 109
mind mapping 105–11, 125, 169 control 57
movement 125–8 cooking 17, 24, 27, 71, 131
music 120–5 creative teaching 137–8
play 112–19 ideas 138–40
recommended reading 170 items 141
technology 129–36 questions 142
useful items 73–4 cultures 17, 123
brain-based learning circle 91, 168, 182 curiosity 57
brain breaks 126–8, 168
page 177
Index
Decibel Clocks 87, 168 practical jobs for children 145

dendrites 11 social skills 37, 143
display
changing 78 health 23–8
child participation 71, 72 hearing deficit 83
equipment 79, 82 hierarchy of needs 15, 169
extra places 82 home–school partnerships 29–31, 61–2, 67–8
policy 78–9 hydration 16–17
purposes 77
shared spaces 79 impulsive behaviour 33, 35, 38
themes 80–1 inclusion 28–9, 172 see also special needs
independent learning
emotional intelligence 32–3, 168 attention skills 82–90
empathy 33, 36, 156 concentration 90–4
five aspects 33, 178 environment 71–2, 75–6
management of emotions 33, 35–8, 83, 113 language 94–103
mindsets 40–2, 169 play 112–13
promoting emotional literacy 39 infant development 171
relationships 33, 35, 36, 37 information and emotional overload 134–5
self-awareness 33 instructions, giving 84, 91
self-motivation 33, 37, 57, 172 intelligence and nutrition 12
strategies 33–7 intelligence, teaching for
empathy 33, 36, 156 creative teaching 137–42
empowerment 135–6 emotional intelligence 32–42
environment group-work 143–7
brain-based items 73–4 multiple intelligences 155–8, 169
display 77–82 recommended reading 171
improving the environment 74–5 taking time for learning 159–64
independent learning 71–2, 75–6 teaching through VAK 147–54
organization 69–72, 75–6 interpersonal intelligence 156, 158
shared environment 79, 117 intrapersonal intelligence 158
see also outdoor activities
equipment jobs for children 145
brain-based items 73–4
circle time 47 key person approach 67–8, 172
creative teaching 141 key vocabulary 168–70
display 79, 82 kinesthetic learning 125, 153–4, 157
outdoor activities 27–8, 50, 52–3, 162
real life items 119 language
and clowning 95
fact vs. fiction 130–1 comments 97, 100
fantasy 57 four-to-one rule 55, 96, 183
feedback 41, 94–8 for growth mindset 41, 42
four-to-one rule 96, 183 in the home 94–5
POSITIVE feedback 169 importance of 102
useful phrases 101 and memory 12
four-to-one rule 55, 96, 183 mimicry 114, 119
opening phrases 101
gardening 53, 68, 70–1 pole-bridging 102–3, 169
group-work positive adjectives 97–8, 99, 184
importance of 143 positive feedback 41, 94–8, 101, 169
mind mapping 108 positive thinking 98, 185
monitoring 144, 186 positive vocabulary 97–8, 99–100
organizing groups 146 processing time 91
Plan – Work – Recall 147 questioning 41, 51, 110, 142, 168
page 178
Index
limbic system 168 preparation 121

linguistic intelligence 157 purpose 120
lining up strategies 88–90 recommended reading 170
listening skills 82 resources 120
activities 151–2 using 56, 120, 122, 123–4
good listening 82, 168 variety 120, 124
good sitting 82, 168 see also songs
hearing deficit 83 musical intelligence 157
music 122 myelination 12
turn-taking 83
see also auditory learning naturalist intelligence 158
literacy sessions 92–3 nature 159, 160, 162–3
logical mathematical intelligence 157 needs, hierarchy of 15, 169
neurons 11, 169
mealtimes 24, 25–6 noise levels 87
memory 12 numeracy sessions 92–3
messy activities 164 nursery class 13–14
metacognition 169 nutrition 12, 17–18, 23–5, 26–7
mimicry 114, 119
mind mapping 105–7, 169 outdoor activities 24, 27
3D mind mapping 125 for ‘can do’ attitude 52–3
applications 107 connection with nature 159, 160, 162–3
assessing knowledge and understanding 108 equipment 27–8, 50, 52–3, 162
challenging and extending learning 110 indoors and outdoors 118
group-work 108 recommended reading 172
making connections 109 Outdoor Bill of Rights 160
reasons for 111
revisiting previous learning 109 pair work 51, 130, 144
sharing ideas 108 parents and carers
mindsets 40–2, 169 communication 29, 62–3, 179, 180
motivation 33, 37, 57, 172 extended provision 66–8
movement 20–1, 24, 27–8 home–school partnerships 29–31, 61–2, 67–8
brain break activities 126–8, 168 involving parents 64–6
physiological need for 125–6 key person approach 67–8, 172
recommended reading 170–1 of special needs children 29–31
multiple intelligences 155, 169 welcoming systems 63, 181
assessing profiles 157–8 workshops 64
balance in teaching 156 passive behaviour 33
bodily-kinesthetic 125, 153–4, 157 pets 51, 135, 145
interpersonal 156, 158 photocopiable material 178–86
intrapersonal 158 photographs of children 68
linguistic 157 physical needs 15
logical mathematical 157 attentional systems 22–3
musical 157 hydration 16–17
naturalist 158 movement 20–1, 24, 27–8, 125–8, 170–1
spatial 158 nutrition 12, 17–18, 23–5, 26–7
see also emotional intelligence; VAK sleep 19–20
music Plan – Work – Recall 147
choosing 121–2 planning 119, 167
classical music 121, 122, 125 play
film music 123 adult intervention 112–13, 115–16
listening skills 122 balance 112, 118
‘Mozart’ effect 120 important features 115
other cultures 123 independence 112–13
pop music 123 indoors and outdoors 118
page 179
Index
making sense of experience 114 songs

management of emotions 113 for brain breaks 128
messy activities 164 for circle time 46, 48, 49–50
planning 119 for gaining attention 86
practising behaviours 114 for lining up 88–90
practising new skills 114 spatial intelligence 158
purpose 113–14 special needs 28–9
real life items 119 choosing the setting 31–2
recommended reading 171, 172 communication 29
in shared accommodation 117 home-school partnerships 29–31
see also outdoor activities social awareness 56
pole-bridging 102–3, 169 support systems 32
POSITIVE feedback 169 staying on task see concentration
positive language 97–100 sustained shared thinking 159, 161, 169
adjectives 97–8, 99, 184 synapses 11, 169
comments 97, 100
feedback 41, 94–8, 101, 169 technology
four-to-one rule 55, 96, 183 computers 130, 133–5
self-talk 54 information and emotional overload 134–5
positive thinking 98, 185 skills 129, 130, 131–2
pre-school 13 television 130, 131, 134–5
puppets 22, 36, 46, 61, 149 variety 129–30, 131–2
without a computer 131–2
questions television 130, 131, 134–5
for ‘can do’ attitude 51 temper tantrums 83, 91
challenging thinking 110 The Three As 55, 57–60, 170
open-ended 41, 51 Acknowledgement 57, 59, 86–7
strategies 168 Affirmation 57, 58, 59–60
‘What would happen if?’ 142 Approval 57, 59
thinking, positive 98, 185
reception class 13, 14 thinking skills 159–60, 161–2
recommended reading 170–2 sustained shared thinking 159, 161, 169
recordings of children 68 thinking places 34
recycling 135, 136 time for learning 159
relationships 33, 35, 36, 37 connection with nature 159, 160, 162–3
relaxation 20 messy activities 164
rhymes recommended reading 172
for brain breaks 128 thinking skills 159–60, 161–2
for gaining attention 85–6 time on task 91–2, 93
rules 55 ‘To Do’ lists 51, 145, 170
‘Traffic Light’ system 170
safety 50–1, 68, 160, 164 turn-taking 35, 83
self-awareness 33
self-belief 50 VAK (visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning)
self-control 33, 35, 36, 38 147–8, 170
self-esteem 42–5, 51, 95, 172 auditory learning 151–2
self-motivation 33, 37, 57 balance in teaching 147
self-talk 54 kinesthetic learning 125, 153–4, 157
sensory integration disorders 21 visual learning 149–50
shared spaces 79, 117 visual learning 149–50
sharing 114
sitting, good 82, 168 water (hydration) 16–17
sleep 19–20
SMART targets 169
social skills 33, 36, 37, 56, 95, 114, 143
page 180

Nicola Call Sally Featherstone The Thinking Child Resource Book - Brain Based Learning For The Early Years Foundation Stage Second Edition Continuum 2010 PDF

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Nicola Call Sally Featherstone The Thinking Child Resource Book - Brain Based Learning For The Early Years Foundation Stage Second Edition Continuum 2010 PDF

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Brain-based learning for the early years foundation stage

© Nicola Call with Sally Featherstone 2010

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

ISBN: 9781855397415 (paperback)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Typeset by Ben Cracknell Studios

Introduction: Understanding the child’s brain 1

Step 1: Let’s meet a brain 1

Step 2: Meeting the children in their settings 2

Part One: Preparing the climate and context for learning 5

Step 1: Addressing children’s physical needs 5

Step 3: Developing emotional intelligence 22

Step 4: Providing children with the tools for learning 32

Step 5: Managing behaviour positively 45

Step 6: Fostering partnerships with parents and carers 51

Part Two: Supporting independent learning 59

Step 1: Making maximum use of the environment 59

Step 2: Helping children to develop good attention skills 72

Step 3: Helping children to stay on task 80

Step 4: Talking the language of learning 84

Step 1: Teaching children to mind map 95

Step 2: Adventures in play 102

Step 3: Maximizing learning through music 110

Step 4: Teaching and learning through movement 115

Step 5: The place for technology 119

Part Four: Teaching for intelligence 127

Step 1: Creative teaching for better learning 127

Step 2: Fostering the beginnings of group-work 133

Step 3: Teaching through VAK 137

Step 4: Engaging the multiple intelligences 145

Step 5: Taking the time for learning 149

Some principles for planning 157

Key vocabulary 158

Recommended reading 160

Some useful websites 166

Photocopiable material 167

This book is intended to be used as a companion to The Thinking Child – Brain-based

Step 1: Let’s meet a brain

Step 2: Meeting the children in their settings

Let’s meet Carrie

Let’s meet Kishan

Let’s meet Samantha

Step 1: Addressing children’s physical needs

Love and belonging needs

Safety and security needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

To ensure that child

• Provide jugs of water

A child’s comment alerted a nursery teacher to poor

• Provide more regular

• Involve the children in

• Read books and tell sto

• Provide healthy prete

• Plant seeds from fruit

Prvide an area for children to rest.

• Plan activities to make

• Use brain breaks and

• Keep diaries about be

• Read stories about sle

• Do a whole group proje

• Provide an area for tir

• Promote bedtime and

Step 5: Taking the time for learning 149