Adult-led activities
Packing to go away
Young children need support in expressing their feelings about going away. Even going away for one night can seem momentous to them. Going away may be exciting, but they also have to face the insecurity of the unknown. Some families do not have holidays, so a project on going away should be sensitive to this fact. Some children experience family members, rather than themselves, going away. Encourage children to share the joys of coming home as well as going away. Acting out all these feelings in role play helps children face the realities.
Key learning intentions
Respond to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings when appropriate
Using problem-solving skills to decide what to pack for going away, and how to pack things
Adult:child ratio 1:up to 6
Resources
* A selection of bags, cases and rucksacks * clothes and items to pack in them for going away (a variety of these for different purposes) * small bags and containers to hold items such as washing things and shoes
Preparation
* In advance, pack three different bags: a rucksack containing winter and wet-weather clothes such as Wellington boots, a jumper, a woolly hat, an umbrella; a suitcase containing baby clothes, nappies, and a rattle; and a small overnight bag containing things such as pyjamas, a cuddly toy, a pair of pants, socks, a T-shirt, and toothbrush.
Activity content
* Show children the three closed, packed bags. Ask them about who has ever been away, what they know about going away, and how they prepared for going away.
* Open up each bag in turn, and ask children to guess who the bag might have been packed for, and what sort of journey the bag might be for. Invite children to give reasons for their suggestions.
* Talk about the really important things you need when going away, even for one night. For example, children will have special toys or blankets that they want to have with them wherever they go. Ask children about taking washing things, and why we take our own toothbrush.
* Look at how each item is folded in the bags. Discuss why we fold clothes to put them away.
* Talk about packing heavy things (boots) and light things (socks), large things (coat) and small things (toothbrush), and where to put them.
* Give children a choice of bags and cases to pack for themselves, and a selection of clothes and other items that they might take away.
* When they have packed their bag, they can go to the outside area to the 'camping site' or the 'luggage transporter', or to the role play area to the 'holiday camp'.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Rucksack, suitcase, luggage, fits into, too big, too small, fold, pack.
Questions to ask
This person's packed some wellies, a thick jumper, and a raincoat. What do you think the weather will be like?
Why do you need so much luggage for a baby?
In this little bag there is only one pair of socks and one pair of pants. How many nights is the person going away for? How many pairs of pants do you need if you are going away for three nights?
What do you like to take away to help you go to sleep?
Which things are heavy? Which are light?
What else do you think you can fit in there?
How will you fold this T-shirt?
Where will you put the toothbrush to make sure you don't lose it?
Follow-up activities
* As a group activity, play 'In my bag I put...'. Have a bag or suitcase, and some items to put in the bag. Children take turns to add an item to the bag, and then list all the items: 'In my bag I put a shoe, a T-shirt, and a teddy' (looking at the items to help them remember).
* Children can pretend the small-world people go away, and pack very small items for them. They could use matchboxes as trunks, and pile all their luggage on to wagons and trailers.
* The soft toys could go away. Children can choose the right sized clothes for each toy, and pack a bag for each.
* Organise a packing table, with things to fold and wrap up, with cloth, paper, Sellotape, string.
* Play 'Guess what's in my bag'. Feel what's in it, or feel how heavy it is.
* Let the children plan where they are going with their suitcase, and work out a route by referring to maps and timetables.
Going to the seaside
If possible, organise a day trip to the seaside. Show a video of the seaside, and display pictures. Share children's experiences of going to the seaside.
Key learning intentions
Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, imaginative and role play and stories
Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions
Adult/child ratio: 1:up to 6
Resources
* Rubber sheet or ground sheet * silver sand * buckets * spades * diggers * sand moulds * rakes * flags * tapes of seaside music and seagull sounds * large shells for listening to the sound of the sea
Preparation
* In a corner of the room, spread out a rubber sheet or a ground sheet. Cover it with silver sand (make sure this is safe for children to use).
* Provide buckets, spades, diggers, sand moulds, and so on.
* Wet a section of the sand (as if the tide has just gone out).
* Decorate the area appropriately as the seaside.
* Organise the seaside sounds to be played when appropriate.
Activity content
* Ask the children to take off their socks and shoes and walk over the sand. Talk about how the sand feels between their toes and the differences between wet and dry sand.
* Ask children to close their eyes and to say how the sand feels.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Soft, smooth, hard, damp, warm, cold.
Questions to ask
How does the sand feel between your toes?
Shut your eyes: can you feel where the damp sand is?
How does the sand move?
What colour is the sand?
What does the sand make you think of?
What will happen if you stand on tiptoe? If you twirl round? If you jump up and down?
Follow-up activities
* Take photographs of the children on 'holiday' on the beach.
Make a sand poem, using the words children have used to describe the sand. Tape them while they are playing, and play the words back to them.
* Make sand paintings. Paint a picture with glue, and pour fine sand on the glue while it is wet. Leave it to dry.
* Thicken paints with sand for children to paint textured pictures.
* Make musical instruments using dry sand in different containers with lids on.
* Have a collection of pebbles on a tray for children to look at and feel. Children can add water to the tray to see how the pebbles change when they are wet.
* Bury objects in the sand tray to find.
Child-initiated learning
Encourage children to develop their own interests and ideas across the curriculum by adding topic resources to the basic provision.
Outdoors
Additional resources
* Wheeled trucks and trolleys for children to load luggage on * large boxes and crates to carry the luggage to the train or plane * block and tackle to lift luggage * large dressing-up clothes and boxes in which to pack things * large boxes in which to pack children * blankets and structures to make tents * real tents for a camping site * sleeping bags * cooking and eating utensils * picnic table for the camp site * collection of large bags, rucksacks and holdalls * large labels to attach to them * a line of footsteps, or a taped line, as in airports, to show people the way * seats to represent a bus or train or plane * bathroom scales to weigh luggage * a quiet, relaxing area for holidaymakers, with sun loungers and towels
Possible learning experiences
* Exploring the weight, size and shape of large objects, by weighing luggage, and lifting and carrying it.
* Packing large items into crates and trucks, and fitting them into the space available; balancing large objects safely.
* Imaginative role play in constructing, equipping and playing in a camp site; 'cooking' and serving a camp site meal.
* Moving with control and co-ordination by fitting themselves into sleeping bags inside tents and by packing themselves into a tent or a large box.
The practitioner role
* Introduce the vocabulary of spatial relationships, such as 'above', 'inside', 'between' and 'through'.
* Teach children skills to help them fit into a sleeping bag by bending, rolling and stretching.
* Introduce language that helps children to talk about their experiences of going away and coming back in greater depth and detail.
* Ask children to give opinions about the camp site and whether it is practical and attractive as a holiday place.
Writing area
Additional resources
* Luggage labels * tickets * travel documents * old passports * postcards * travel brochures and holiday posters * 'Hello' tape in different languages * long pieces of paper for writing lists * small photo albums for holiday snaps * timetables and maps * name labels
Possible learning experiences
* Learning about reading and writing for a purpose: filling in forms and labels and official documents, and inventing their own versions of these.
* Writing their own names as labels to identify their own luggage.
* Learning that words have meaning, by listening to 'Hello' in different languages.
* Learning that information can be relayed in the form of print, and in forms such as timetables and maps.
The practitioner role
* Discuss the sort of things you might write on a postcard home.
* Talk about what labels are for and why they are useful; discuss the information you need on a label.
* Help children make individual passports, using their own photographs, their names, and any other information they decide is useful.
* Suggest that children write lists of what they need to take away with them, and tick off the items as they pack them.
Role play area
Additional resources
* Travel agent: holiday brochures, booking forms, telephones, computer, timetables for buses, coaches, ferries, air travel, and so on, holiday posters, calendars, maps, desk and chairs.
* Hotel or guest house: reception area with bell, telephone, signing in book, calendar, pigeon holes, numbered keys on numbered hooks, table and chair, breakfast facilities, bed with sheets and duvet, room numbers.
* Aeroplane: seats, seat numbers, luggage holders, tickets, passports, forms to fill in, small trays for dinners with foil containers and plastic cutlery, money (foreign coins), drinks trolley.
Possible learning experiences
* Beginning to understand that some parts of the world are far away.
* Being able to express fears or relive anxious experiences in controlled and safe situations.
* Co-operatively as part of a group, acting out a story about going away.
* Engaging in imaginative and role play based on their own first-hand experiences of going away.
The practitioner role
* Discuss how to reach various places - you have to go over the sea to get to some places but not others.
* Support children's ideas by modelling being a group member on holiday.
* Letting children record their own interviews on to cassette tapes, for a holiday radio programme.
BOOKS
We're going on a bear hunt by Michael Rose and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books, 3.99)
Here comes the train by Charlotte Voake (Walker Books, 5.99)
The wheels on the bus by Rosanne Litzinger (Gullane, pounds 8.99)
I'd rather go to Grandad's by Ian Whybrow and Sarah Massini (Gullane, pounds 9.99)