By creating a veterinary role-play area alongside your home corner you can give children the opportunity to pretend to be a vet, nurse or pet-owner.
Other ideas in the final part of this wide-ranging project demonstrate how pets provide a focus for developing language and the ability to care about others.
This project:
3Identifies adult-led activities, to introduce or develop children's understanding of the topic through stimulating, meaningful experiences which offer challenge
3Suggests ways to enhance areas of core provision, to consolidate children's learning about the theme. It is the practitioners' role to make daily observations of children's learning which inform individual child profiles and future planning. Children should be encouraged to use the resources to support their own learning. This means that the possible learning outcomes will be wide-ranging and varied
3Advocates that settings should be organised and resourced using a 'workshop' approach so that children can access resources autonomously and independently.
Adult-led activities
Six Dinner Sid
Key learning intentions
To listen with enjoyment and respond to stories
To count reliably up to ten everyday objects
To use programmable toys to support their learning
Adult:child ratio 1:up 4
Resources
3Bee-Bot programmable toy and shell (see resources) 3Six Dinner Sid by Inge Moore 318 card squares measuring 15cm 3photographs of local houses and/or shops 3glue stick 3six empty film containers
Preparation
3Ensure that the children are familiar with the book Six Dinner Sid.
3Take digital photographs of local houses and shops with the children and print 15cmx10cm images.
3With the children, decorate a Bee-Bot shell to look like the cat Six Dinner Sid.
3Use the 15cm squares to create a 'road' with photographs of shops and homes on either side.
3Cover the film containers with paper and draw pictures to represent cat food.
Activity content
3Re-read the story to the children.
3Remind the children how the Bee-Bot programmable toy works. Discuss the purpose of the arrow keys, 'clear' button, 'pause' 'and 'go'.
3Look at the photographs of the shops and homes and discuss where Sid might like to go for his dinner if he lived near to the setting. Put the cat food 'tins' on those buildings.
3Support the children as they program the Bee-Bot 'Sid' to move from one location to another.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Forward, backward, stop, go, arrow, clear, left turn, right turn, switch, memory
Questions to ask
3Where do you think Sid would like to go for his dinner? Why?
3Can you think of a way to move Sid from the post office to the block of flats? What do you have to do first? And next?
3How do you think you can make Sid turn around?
3What would happen if you forget to press the clear button?
3Why do you think that happened then?
Extension activities
3Encourage the children to make their own road plan to use with the Bee-Bot.
3Use a transparent grid (see resources) over children's own maps or drawings or a floor play mat.
3Act as a scribe as the children verbalise the instructions they use to program the Bee-Bot. Read the instructions so they can repeat the manoeuvre.
Black kitten rhyme
Key learning intentions
To respond to and use an increasing repertoire of rhymes
To say number names to five
To move with confidence, imagination and in safety
Adult:child ratio 1:up to 10
Resources
3Five black kittens and 'wall' magnetic props 3Five kitten 'hats' 3'Five black kittens' words (sung to tune of 'Ten green bottles')
Rhyme:
Five black kittens playing on a wall
Five black kittens playing on a wall
And if one black kitten should accidentally fall
Meow!!!!
There'd be four black kittens playing on the wall.
Four black kittens...
Three black kittens... and so on
Preparation
3Make five cardboard 'hats'. Cut strips of coloured card which fit around children's heads, and laminate them. Put a long strip of Velcro on each end of the card, so that the hat will fit on to any child. Put one piece of Velcro on the front of the hat so that any prop can be attached to support the singing of any number song or rhyme - kittens, bottles, buns, aliens, ducks, frogs. Cut out the outlines of five kittens on black card and laminate them.
3Cut out smaller outlines of five more kittens, laminate and attach magnetic tape. Draw brick-like marking on a piece of A4 red or orange card.
Cut in half lengthways and make a 'wall' magnetic prop (which can also be used for 'Two little dicky birds' or 'Ten green bottles').
Activity content
3Introduce the rhyme to the children, encouraging them to sing along. Sing through again.
3Choose five children to be the five black kittens to play on the 'wall'.
3Sing the song, with one kitten (indicate by touching the child's shoulder) 'falling' off each time. Encourage the children to make loud 'meow' sounds as the kitten falls.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Cat, kitten, playing, fall, meow, black, white, tabby, tortoiseshell, 'sounds like'
Questions to ask
3How do you think the kittens got on to the wall?
3Why do you think the kitten might fall?
3Where do you think their mother is?
3What would happen if their mother couldn't find them?
3Why do you think the kittens don't hurt themselves when they fall?
Extension activities
3Encourage the children to retell the rhyme using the magnetic props.
3Support the children as they retell the rhyme independently, jumping from a low wall, plank or chalked 'wall'.
3Make a number book with photographs of the children, wearing the kitten hats.
Child-initiated learning
Role-play veterinary surgery
Additional resources and adult support
3Ensure the children are familiar with a veterinary surgery, through a small group visit and/or viewing a video (see resources) and where possible, meeting a vet or assistant/nurse in the setting.
3Develop a veterinary surgery role-play area alongside the home corner.
3Provide dressing up clothes - white vet's coat, surgeon's gown, male and female veterinary nurse suits, fabric ears and tails.
3Provide resources to support role play such as an appointment diary and cards, name badges for staff, animal carriers, rugs, blankets and towels, first aid boxes, empty plastic pots, food packets and tins, animal soft toys, collars and leads, cages, clock, till, money, 'swipe cards', information texts, pet 'food', cat litter trays, bandages, plastic 'head'
protectors, computer 'monitor and 'keyboard', 'caring for your pet' posters and leaflets from a vet's surgery.
3Model the use of vocabulary and behaviour specific to the role play - an angry or concerned pet owner or a busy receptionist.
Play possibilities
3Taking on the role of a vet, nurse or pet owner
3Putting 'pets' in and out of cages
3Counting the animals
3Mark-making or writing in appointment book, cards or bills
3Caring for the pets
3Taking the pets 'home' to the home corner or for a walk outdoors Possible learning outcomes
Shows an increasing awareness of the needs of others
Experiments with the use of new vocabulary
Uses language to recreate roles and experiences
Uses marks to show meaning
Uses numbers to support role play
Questions why things happen and gives explanations
Uses imagination in role play
Give a dog a bone
Additional resources and adult support
3Provide four plastic/soft toy dogs, four feeding bowls, a dice and a wicker basket of dog biscuit bones.
3Encourage the children to explore the resources and devise their own games.
3Ask questions that extend children's play and encourage them to develop rules for their game, such as, what happens if you throw a '6'? How do you know who is the winner?
3Urge children to discuss their own dogs at home and what they like to eat.
Play possibilities
3'Feeding' the dogs with biscuits
3Counting the biscuits
3Throwing the dice, and taking the correct number of biscuits
3Making up rules for a game - throwing the dice for each dog and taking biscuits for their bowl
3Telling stories about dogs
3Singing the song 'This Old Man' ('...give a dog a bone').
Possible learning outcomes
Shows care and concern for others
Initiates conversations
In practical activities, begins to use the vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting
Makes connections between the small world provision and events in their own lives and those of familiar others
Expresses creativity through imaginative play
Puppet theatre
Additional resources and adult support
3Provide a puppet theatre (which could be made from a large cardboard box, with the back cut away and painted) and assorted animal puppets.
3Put the puppet theatre and puppets on a low table outdoors and two rows of chairs in front as seats for an audience.
3Support the children as they take turns as 'puppeteers' or audience members.
3Act as a member of the audience, clapping where appropriate.
3Encourage children to make links with previous experiences, such as a visit to the setting by a puppet show, or puppets they may have seen while on holiday.
Play possibilities
3Taking on the role of a puppeteer or member of the audience
3Making up story lines for the puppets
3Exploring the use of different 'voices' for the puppets
3Developing new ways of manipulating the puppets
Possible learning outcomes
Displays high levels of involvement in activities
Speaks clearly and audibly with confidence and control
Manipulates resources to achieve a planned effect
Plays alongside children who are engaged in the same theme
Introduces a storyline or narrative into play
Creative workshop
Additional resources and adult support
3Provide assorted pictures of cats, dogs and other pets; pet accessory catalogues; strips of cards; markers; collage materials; glue sticks and glue; stuffed toys; real cat and dog collars; posters of cats and dogs wearing collars.
3Model the use of key vocabulary - glittery, shiny, sparkling, shimmering, dazzling, gleaming, metallic, sequins.
3Design and make collars for the 'pets'.
Play possibilities
3Designing and making collars
3Cutting out pictures of animals
3Making collage patterns using pictures and/or glittery materials
3Making collections of 'cats' or 'dogs'
Possible learning outcomes
Persists at an activity of own choosing
Initiates conversations and takes account of what others say
Uses shapes for tasks
Manipulates materials to achieve a planned effect
Explores colour and texture in two dimensions
On the computer
Additional resources and adult support
3Load 'Pets' (Early Vision) CD on the computer. Develop a writing format, 'I used the computer today', and provide a clipboard and pencil for children to record their use of the computer.
3Model the use of the program.
3Support children's independent use of the computer program.
3Encourage children to record their use of the computer on the writing format.
Play possibilities
3Exploring the functions of the program
3Browsing through the program to select an activity which interests them
Possible learning outcomes
Persists at an activity of own choosing
Follows and responds to instructions
Completes a simple computer program
Manipulates the mouse to create planned effect