Our project for the Autumn term is “All About Me”!
We will be kicking off the Autumn Term with our project ‘All About Me!’
This term at the Children’s House will be a tale of two halves. We will be starting off with a very popular project which is perfect for getting to know all of our new children who will join us in September.
‘All About Me’ helps children with discovering themselves as individuals. What makes us different or similar to others? This topic allows opportunities for incorporating learning about our families and their pets, emotions, health, wellbeing and mindfulness.
Learning about ourselves is a fundamental part of childhood development, especially as children start to ask questions about who they are and how they are the same, or different, from others.
We encourage our children to be aware of their bodies. Mirrors are a fantastic way for children to look at the differences between themselves and friends. They can also aid speech and language development as children concentrate on the shape their mouth needs to make to form the sounds.
We discuss what our bodies need to stay healthy. Exercise forms a very important part of this. Our Blast Sport, yoga and Dancing with Claire sessions are all fun ways for us to get our children moving and thinking about what keeps us fit.
‘All about Me’ discussions can be incorporated in these activities familiarising children with the names of their different body parts such as ‘Wiggle your hips!’ ‘Bend your knees!’ ‘Clap your hands while you jump up and down!’ Children are also encouraged to take note of how hot or cold the different parts of their body feel, and any changes to their breathing and heart rate before and after exercising.
If we’re to maintain a healthy body we also need to eat well. We teach our children about the different types of food and what food groups they fall into. Lunch and snack times are a great opportunity to talk about healthy eating, and also the things that we like to eat at family meal times. Cookery activities can explore different types of food and whether we can eat them freely, or just for special occasions.
This leads to great discussions about oral health and the importance of cleaning and looking after our teeth.
We also discuss the need to keep well hydrated. We encourage the children to drink water throughout the day, particular in warmer weather or after exercise, and we explain to them how our bodies need water to stay healthy.
At the Children’s House we are particularly mindful of our children’s happiness and wellbeing. As part of this topic, we will be exploring emotions and feelings with the children.
Understanding their emotions and helping children to manage any anxiety is enormously important for their overall development. It assists them in starting to self-regulate their behaviour and their responses to peers in nursery. It improves their self-confidence, and starts to develop empathy for others.
Simple yoga and mindfulness exercises are particularly good for helping to keep children calm and focus on their inner quiet space. This is so important for mental health and also for learning. Children learn best in a calm and prepared working space as recommended by Montessori. We encourage this with breathing exercises, and asking the children to listen to and focus on their breath.
This project is a fabulous way to teach children about diversity and inclusivity. Our Montessori ethos encourages children to explore and experience the full richness of the world, and all the many different people who live in it.
In the second half of the term, we will be talking to the children about ‘The Autumn’, ‘Transport’ and ‘Maths’.
Autumn provides lots of great opportunities to look at the changing seasons and how our local wildlife is affected by the shorter days and cooler temperatures. We take the children on woodland walks to collect natural items showing the signs of autumn. The beautiful coloured leaves make great resources for use in collages and arts and crafts projects.
Our discussions about the autumn will also include autumnal festivals such as Harvest, Halloween, Diwali and Fireworks night.
Transport is always a popular topic with the children. This is so broad ranging, giving them plenty of scope for choosing the different types of transport they’d like to include. We will encourage them to vote for different choices of transport and these might include cars, trains, lorries, tractors, boats or even rockets, to name a few!
There are many children’s songs and stories that tie in well with a transport theme. We’re certain you’ll soon all be loving ‘Row, row, row your boat’, ‘The Wheels on the Bus!’, ‘5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer’ and ‘Down at the Station Early in the Morning’ sung for you at top volume at home!
Our transport topic also gives us an important opportunity to speak to children about road safety, and how they can stay safe when out and about on the roadside. This can incorporate the people who help us to stay safe on the roads such as lollipop men and women, the police, ambulance and fire services.
Maths will be split into 3 weeks, focussing on Space and Measure, Numbers and Shapes.
The first few years of a child’s life are especially important for mathematical development. Research shows that early mathematical knowledge predicts later reading ability, and general education and social progress.
Firm foundations in maths gives children a range of transferable skills they can use in everyday life including problem solving, reasoning, explaining and justifying.
We include every opportunity to incorporate mathematical learning throughout our curriculum, and the activities offered to our children. Counting and number recognition are regularly practiced, and our Montessori resources are excellent for developing spatial awareness and pattern recognition which are so essential for mathematical progression.
During these 3 weeks we will be placing particular emphasis on the children’s maths learning, and we hope to tie this in with a visit from House of Maths to build on our skills further, which is always great fun.
As you can see, we will be having a jam-packed Autumn Term with lots of project ideas to keep our little ones excited to be learning.
If anyone has anything related to any of our topics that would be of interest, please do speak to a teacher. We love to include stories, songs or activities from home, and the children are always very proud to share these with their friends at group time.
We’re really looking forward to getting to know new friends in our ‘All About Me!’ project, and welcoming all of our new children and parents to the Children’s House family!
