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North SomersetEarly Years Foundation Stage(EYFS)

Effective Provisionand Planning Booklet

Introduction

Effective PracticeThe guidance on effective practice to support children’s development isbased on the EYFS Principles and the examples given in the EYFS PracticeGuidance and collated in this booklet, illustrate just some of the possibilities.

The examples of effective practice provide ideas on activities and initiativesthat practitioners can engage in to support and extend children’s learningand

development, based on their interests and needs. As well as leadingactivities and encouraging child-led activities, you should support andextend all children’s development and learning by being an active listenerand joining in and intervening when appropriate.

The EYFS CD-ROM and the cards both give further examples of effectivepractice.

Planning and resourcing(Principles into Practice card 3.1)Good planning is the key to making children’s learning effective, exciting,varied and progressive. It enables practitioners to build up knowledgeabout how individual children learn and make progress. It also providesopportunities for you to think and talk about how to sustain a successfullearning environment. This process works best when all practitionersworking in the setting are involved. Practitioners who work alone will benefitfrom opportunities to discuss their plans with others working in similarcircumstances.

Planning should include all children, including those with additional needs.However, it is important to remember that no plan written weeks in advancecan include a group’s interest in a spider’s web on a frosty morning or aparticular child’s interest in transporting small objects in a favourite bluebucket, yet it is these interests which may lead to some powerful learning.

Plans should therefore be flexible enough to adapt to circumstances.

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EYFS Quality Provision and Planning

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Putting the Principles into practiceThe principles which guide the work of all early years practitioners aregrouped into four themes:

A Unique Child – every child is a competent learner from birth who can beresilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

Positive Relationships – children learn to be strong and independent from abase of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person.

Enabling Environments – the environment plays a key role in supporting andextending children’s development and learning.

Learning and Development – children develop and learn in different waysand at different rates and all areas of Learning and Development areequally important and inter-connected.

Play(Principles into Practice cards 3.3 4.1)Play underpins the delivery of all the EYFS. Children must have opportunitiesto play indoors and outdoors. All early years providers must have access toan outdoor play area which can benefit the children. If a setting does nothave direct access to an outdoor play area then they must makearrangements for daily opportunities for outdoor play in an appropriatenearby location.

The EYFS CD-ROM also contains information suggesting innovative ways toengage children in outdoor play.

Play underpins all development and learning for young children. Mostchildren play spontaneously, although some may need adult support, and itis through play that they develop intellectually, creatively, physically, sociallyand emotionally.

Providing well-planned experiences based on children’s spontaneous play,both indoors and outdoors, is an important way in which practitionerssupport young children to learn with enjoyment and challenge. In playing,children behave in different ways: sometimes their play will be responsive orboisterous, sometimes they may describe and discuss what they are doing,sometimes they will be quiet and reflective as they play.

The role of the practitioner is crucial in:

l observing and reflecting on children’s spontaneous play;

l building on this by planning and resourcing a challenging environmentwhich:

ll supports and extends specific areas of children’s learning;

ll extends and develops children’s language and communication intheir play.

Through play, in a secure but challenging environment with effective adultsupport, children can:

l explore, develop and represent learning experiences that help them tomake sense of the world;

l practise and build up ideas, concepts and skills;

l learn how to understand the need for rules;

Meeting the diverse needs of children (Principles intoPractice cards 1.2 2.1)Meeting the individual needs of all children lies at the heart of the EYFS.Practitioners should deliver personalised learning, development and care tohelp children to get the best possible start in life. The EYFS CD-ROMprovides some examples of ways in which you can achieve this.

You must promote positive attitudes to diversity and difference within allchildren. In doing this you will help them to learn to value different aspectsof their own and other people’s lives.

This includes making sure that all children and families feel included, safeand valued; that all children and adults are treated as individuals and arenot discriminated against; and that all children are listened to andrespected.

Practitioners must plan for the needs of children from black and otherminority ethnic backgrounds, including those learning English as anadditional language, and for the needs of any children with learningdifficulties or disabilities. Providers must actively avoid gender stereotypingand must challenge any expression of prejudice or discrimination, bychildren or adults.

You must plan for each child’s individual care and learning requirements.The focus should be on removing or helping to counter underachievementand overcoming barriers for children where these already exist. You shouldalso identify and respond early to needs which could lead to thedevelopment of learning difficulties. There must be appropriate challengesfor gifted and talented children.

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Personal, Social and Emotional Development• Value and support the decisions that children

make. Encourage them when they try newthings.

• Be aware of cultural differences in attitudesand expectations.

• Continue to share and explain practice withparents, ensuring a two-way communicationusing interpreter support where necessary.

• As children differ in their degree of self-assurance, plan to convey to each child thatyou appreciate them and their efforts.

• Consult with parents about children’s varyinglevels of confidence in different situations

• Describe what different children tried to do, orachieved, emphasising that effort isworthwhile.

• Support children’s symbolic play, recognisingthat pretending to do something can help achild to express their feelings.

• Record individual achievements which reflectsignificant progress for every child: one mayhave stepped on the slide, another may bestarting to play readily with others.

• Seek and exchange information with parentsabout young children’s concerns, so that theycan be reassured if they feel uncertain.

• Ensure that children have opportunities to joinin.

• Create areas in which children can sit andchat with friends, such as a snug den.

• Support children’s growing independence asthey do things for themselves, such as pullingup their pants after toileting, recognisingdiffering parental expectations.

• Allow children to pour their own drinks, servetheir own food, choose a story, hold a puppetor water a plant.

• Choose some stories that highlight theconsequences of choices.

• Provide pictures or objects representingoptions to support children in making andexpressing choices.

• Talk to children about choices they have made,and help them understand that this may meanthat they cannot do something else.

• Enlist support to ensure children learningEnglish as an additional language can expresspreferences.

• Interact with children in support of their interestsand give them scope to learn from many things,including their mistakes.

• Encourage children to see adults as a resourceand as partners in their learning.

• Support children in developing positiverelationships by challenging negative ordetrimental comments and actions towardseither peers or adults.

• Teach children to use and care for materials,and then trust them to do so independently.

• Vary activities so that children are introduced todifferent materials.

• Plan activities that require collaboration.

• Make materials easily accessible to allchildren, to ensure everybody can makechoices.

• Ensure that key practitioners offer extra supportto children in new situations.

• Create positive relationships with parents bylistening to them and offering information andsupport.

• Encourage children to talk about their ownhome and community life, and to find out aboutother children’s experiences.

• Ensure that children learning English as anadditional language have opportunities toexpress themselves in their home languagesome of the time.

• Anticipate the best from each child, and bealert for evidence of their strengths.

• Plan extra time for helping children in transition,such as when they move from one setting toanother or between different groups in thesame setting.

• Provide role-play areas with a variety ofresources reflecting diversity.

• Establish routines with predictable sequencesand events.

• Encourage children to choose to play with avariety of friends, so that everybody in thegroup experiences being included.

• Prepare children for changes that may occur inthe routine.

• Provide stability in staffing and in grouping ofthe children.

• Provide time, space and materials for childrento collaborate with one another in differentways, for example, building constructions.

• Provide a role-play area resourced withmaterials reflecting children’s family lives andcommunities.

• Give children time to try before intervening tosupport and guide them.

• Create an atmosphere where achievement isvalued.

• Encourage children to solve problems, andsupport them by clarifying the problem withthem.

• Plan opportunities for children to take theinitiative in their learning.

• Provide means for children to keep track of,and share, their achievements.

• Build on children’s ideas to plan newexperiences that present challenges.

• Give children opportunities to completeactivities to their satisfaction.

• Encourage children to explore and talkabout what they are learning, valuing theirideas and ways of doing things.

• Give time for children to pursue theirlearning without interruption, and to return toactivities.

• Provide experiences and activities that arechallenging but achievable.

• Explain why it is important to pay attentionwhen others are speaking.

• Give children opportunities both to speakand to listen, ensuring that the needs ofchildren learning English as an additionallanguage are met, so that they canparticipate fully.

• Plan regular short periods when individualslisten to others, such as singing a short song,sharing an experience or describingsomething they have seen or done.

• Invite people from a range of culturalbackgrounds to talk about aspects of theirlives or the things they do in their work, suchas a volunteer who helps people becomefamiliar with the local area.

• Support children’s growing ability to expressa wide range of feelings orally, and talkabout their own experiences.

• Encourage children to share their feelingsand talk about why they respond toexperiences in particular ways.

• Explain carefully why some children mayneed extra help or support for some things,or why some children feel upset by aparticular thing.

• This helps children to understand that when itis required their individual needs will be met.

• Help children and parents to see the ways inwhich their cultures and beliefs are similar,encouraging them to contribute to thecurriculum by sharing and discussingpractices, resources, celebrations andexperiences.

• Make a display with the children, showingall the people who make up the ‘community’of the setting.

• Collect information that helps children tounderstand why people do things differentlyfrom each other, and encourage children totalk about these differences.

• Share stories that reflect the diversity ofchildren’s experiences.

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• Support children in linking openly andconfidently with others, for example, to seekhelp or check information.

• Provide activities that involve turn-taking andsharing.

• Involve children in agreeing codes ofbehaviour and taking responsibility forimplementing them.

• Help children to understand their rights to bekept safe by others, and encourage them totalk about ways to avoid harming or hurtingothers.

• Have agreed procedures outlining how torespond to changes in children’s behaviour.

• Share policies and practice with parents,ensuring an accurate two-way exchange ofinformation through an interpreter or throughtranslated materials, where necessary

• Share with parents the rationale ofboundaries and expectations to maintain ajoint approach.

• Set, explain and maintain clear, reasonableand consistent limits so that children can playand work feeling safe and secure

• Be alert to injustices and let children see thatthey are addressed and resolved.

• Ensure that children have opportunities toidentify and discuss boundaries, so that theyunderstand why they are there and whatthey are intended to achieve.

• Help children’s understanding of what isright and wrong by explaining why it iswrong to hurt somebody, or why it isacceptable to take a second piece of fruitafter everybody else has had some.

• Involve children in identifying issues andfinding solutions.

• Make time to listen to children respectfullywhen they raise injustices, and involve themin finding a ‘best fit’ solution.

• Provide books with stories about charactersthat follow or break rules, and the effects oftheir behaviour on others.

• Affirm and praise positive behaviour,explaining that it makes children and adultsfeel happier.

• Encourage children to think about issuesfrom the viewpoint of others.

• Give children opportunities to be responsiblefor setting up, and clearing away, someactivities.

• Praise children’s efforts to manage theirpersonal needs, and to use and returnresources appropriately.

• Provide opportunities for self-chosenactivities, and for choices within adult-initiated activities.

• Strengthen the positive impressions childrenhave of their own cultures and faiths, andthose of others, by sharing and celebrating arange of practices and special events.

• Encourage children to talk with each otherabout similarities and differences in theirexperiences, and the reasons for these,supported by props for telling stories,reflecting experiences of children who areboth like them and different from them.

• Develop strategies to combat negative biasand, where necessary, support children andadults to unlearn discriminatory attitudes.

• Give children opportunities to be curious,enthusiastic, engaged and tranquil, sodeveloping a sense of inner-self and peace.

• Ensure that all children are given support toparticipate in discussions and to be listenedto.

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Communication, Language andLiteracy• Display pictures and photographs showing

familiar events, objects and activities and talkabout them with the children.

• Provide activities which help children to learnto distinguish differences in sounds, wordpatterns and rhythms.

• Talk about things which interest young childrenand listen and respond to their ideas andquestions.

• For children learning English as an additionallanguage, value non-verbal communicationsand those offered in home languages.

• Respond by adding to words, gesture, objectsand other visual cues to support two-wayunderstanding.

• Use talk to describe what children are doingby providing a running commentary: “Oh, Ican see what you are doing, you have to putthe milk in the cup first”.

• Provide opportunities for children to talk withother children and adults about what they see,hear, think and feel.

• Encourage children to learn one another’snames and to pronounce them correctly.

• Ensure all staff can pronounce the names ofchildren, parents and other staff members.

• Include things which excite young children’scuriosity, such as hats, bubbles, shells, storybooks, seeds and snails.

• Provide activities, such as cooking, where talkis used to anticipate or initiate what childrenwill be doing, for example, “We need someeggs. Let’s see if we can find some in here”.

• Plan to encourage correct use of language bytelling repetitive stories, and playing gameswhich involve repetition of words or phrases.

• Encourage repetition, rhythm and rhyme byusing tone and intonation as you tell, recite orsing stories, poems and rhymes from books.

• Use rhymes from a variety of cultures and askparents to share their favourites from theirhome languages.

• Use puppets and other props to encouragelistening and responding when singing afamiliar song or reading from a story book.

• Find opportunities to tell and read stories tochildren, using puppets, soft toys, or realobjects as props.

• Provide stories, pictures and puppets whichallow children to experience and talk abouthow characters feel.

• Provide dual language books to raiseawareness of different scripts. Try to matchdual language books to languages spoken byfamilies in the setting. Remember not alllanguages have written forms and not allfamilies are literate either in English, or in adifferent home language.

• Draw attention to marks, signs and symbols inthe environment and talk about what theyrepresent. Ensure this involves recognition ofEnglish and other relevant scripts.

• Provide materials which reflect a culturalspread, so that children see symbols andmarks with which they are familiar, forexample, Chinese script on a fabric shoppingbag.

• Encourage children to handle and manipulatea variety of media and implements, forexample, clay, finger-paint, spoons, brushesand shells.

• Vary the range of tools and equipment locatedwith familiar activities, for example, put smallscoops, rakes or sticks with the sand.

• Talk with children to make links between theirgestures and words, for example, “Your facedoes look cross. Has something upset you?”.

• Support children in using a variety ofcommunication strategies, including signing,where appropriate.

• Listen to children and take account of what theysay in your responses to them.

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• Choose stories with repeated refrains, dancesand action songs involving looking andpointing, and songs that require replies andturn-taking such as ‘Tommy Thumb’.

• Encourage children to express their needs andfeelings in words.

• Provide opportunities for children whose homelanguage is other than English, to use thatlanguage.

• Find out from parents how children makethemselves understood at home; confirm whichis their preferred language.

• Set up a listening area where children canenjoy rhymes and stories.

• Introduce ‘rhyme time’ bags containing booksto take home and involve parents in rhymesand singing games.

• Ask parents to record regional variations ofsongs and rhymes in other languages.

• Share rhymes, books and stories from manycultures, sometimes using languages other than

• English, particularly where children are learningEnglish as an additional language.

• Give children clear directions and help them todeal with those involving more than one action,for example, “Put the cars away, please, thencome and wash your hands and get ready forlunch”.

• When introducing a new activity, use mimeand gesture to support language development.Showing children a photograph of an activitysuch as handwashing helps to reinforceunderstanding.

• Provide practical experiences that encouragechildren to ask and respond to questions, forexample, explaining pulleys or wet and drysand.

• Introduce new words in the context of play andactivities.

• Show interest in the words children use tocommunicate and describe their experiences.

• Help children expand on what they say,introducing and reinforcing the use of morecomplex sentences.

• Introduce, alongside books, story props, suchas pictures, puppets and objects, to encouragechildren to retell stories and to think about howthe characters feel.

• Help children to build their vocabulary byextending the range of their experiences.

• Ensure that all practitioners use correctgrammar.

• Talk to children about what they have beendoing and help them to reflect upon andexplain events, for example, “You told me thismodel was going to be a tractor. What’s thislever for?”.

• Set up shared experiences that children canreflect upon, for example, visits, cooking, orstories that can be re-enacted.

• Help children to predict and order eventscoherently, by providing props and materialsthat encourage children to re-enact, using talkand action.

• When singing or saying rhymes, talk about thesimilarities in the rhyming words.

• Make up alternative endings and encouragechildren to supply the last word of the secondline, for example, ‘Hickory Dickory boot, Themouse ran down the...’.

• When making up alliterative jingles, drawattention to the similarities in sounds at thebeginning of words and emphasise the initialsound, for example, “mmmmummy”,“shshshshadow”

• Encourage children to use the stories they hearin their play.

• Discuss with children the characters in booksbeing read.

• Encourage them to predict outcomes, to think ofalternative endings and to compare plots andthe feelings of characters with their ownexperiences.

• Focus on meaningful print such as a child’sname, words on a cereal packet or a booktitle, in order to discuss similarities anddifferences between symbols.

• Help children to understand what a word is byusing names and labels and by pointing outwords in the environment and in books.

• Read stories that children already know,pausing at intervals to encourage them to‘read’ the next word.

• Create an attractive book area where childrenand adults can enjoy books together.

• Provide some simple poetry, song, fiction andnon-fiction books.

• Include books containing photographs of thechildren that can be read by adults and thatchildren can begin to ‘read’ by themselves.

• Create an environment rich in print wherechildren can learn about words, for example,using names and labels.

• Introduce children to books and other materialsthat provide information or instructions.

• Carry out activities using instructions, such asreading a recipe to make a cake.

• Ensure access to stories for all children by usinga range of visual cues and story props.

• Plan to include home language and bilingualstory sessions by involving qualified bilingualadults, as well as enlisting the help of parents.

• Make books with children of activities theyhave been doing, using photographs of themas illustrations.

• Write poems and short stories with children,scribing for them.

• Support children in recognising and writingtheir own names.

• Provide activities during which children willexperiment with writing, for example, leaving amessage.

• Include opportunities for writing during role-playand other activities.

• Encourage the children to use their phonicknowledge when writing consonant vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

• Provide activities that give children theopportunity and motivation to practisemanipulative skills, for example, cooking andplaying instruments.

• Provide opportunities for large shouldermovements, for example, swirling ribbons in theair, batting balls suspended on rope andpainting.

• Encourage children to make anti-clockwisecircles and up and down strokes in the air andin their play, for example, with sand and waterand brushes or running around anti-clockwise.

• Encourage conversation with others anddemonstrate appropriate conventions:turntaking, waiting until someone else hasfinished, listening to others and usingexpressions such as “please”, “thank you”and “can I…?”. At the same time, respondsensitively to social conventions used athome.

• Show children how to use language fornegotiating, by saying “May I…?”, “Wouldit be all right…?”, “I think that…” and “Willyou…?” in your interactions with them.

• Model language appropriate for differentaudiences, for example, a visitor.

• Encourage children to predict possibleendings to stories and events.

• Encourage children to experiment with wordsand sounds, for example, in nonsenserhymes.

• Give time for children to initiate discussionsfrom shared experiences and haveconversations with each other.

• Give thinking time for children to decidewhat they want to say and how they will sayit.

• Set up collaborative tasks, for example,construction, food activities or story-makingthrough role-play.

• Help children to talk about and plan howthey will begin, what parts each will playand what materials they will need.

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• Provide opportunities for talking for a widerange of purposes, for example, to presentideas to others as descriptions, explanations,instructions or justifications, and to discussand plan individual or shared activities.

• Foster children’s enjoyment of spoken andwritten language by providing interestingand stimulating play opportunities.

• Provide word banks and writing resourcesfor both indoor and outdoor play.

• Resource role-play areas with listening andwriting equipment and provide easy accessto word banks.

• Encourage children to sort, group andsequence events in their play, using wordssuch as: first, last, next, before, after, all,most, some, each, every.

• Encourage language play, for example,through stories such as ‘Goldilocks and theThree Bears’ and action songs that requireintonation.

• Value children’s contributions and use themto inform and shape the direction ofdiscussions.

• Provide opportunities for children toparticipate in meaningful speaking andlistening activities.

• Ask children to think in advance about howthey will accomplish a task.

• Talk through and sequence the stagestogether.

• Use stories from books to focus children’sattention on predictions and explanations,for example, “Why did the boat tip over?”.

• Help children to identify patterns, forexample, what generally happens to ‘good’and ‘wicked’ characters at the end of stories;to draw conclusions, “The sky has gonedark. It must be going to rain”; to explaineffect, “It sank because it was too heavy”; topredict, “It might not grow in there if it is toodark” and to speculate, “What if the bridgefalls down?”.

• Set up displays that remind children of whatthey have experienced, using objects,artefacts, photographs and books.

• Provide for, initiate and join in imaginativeplay and role-play, encouraging children totalk about what is happening and to act outthe scenarios in character.

• Take an interest in what and how childrenthink and not just what they know.

• Talk to children about the letters thatrepresent the sounds they hear at thebeginning of their own names and otherfamiliar words. Incorporate these in games.

• Demonstrate writing so that children can seespelling in action.

• Encourage them to apply their owngraphemephoneme knowledge to what theyread and write.

• When children are ready (usually by the ageof five) provide systematic regular phonicssessions. These should be multisensory inorder to capture their interests, sustainmotivation and reinforce learning.

• Ensure that role-play areas encouragewriting of signs with a real purpose.

• Plan fun activities and games that helpchildren create rhyming strings of real andimaginary words, for example, Maddie,daddy, baddie, laddie.

• Create imaginary words to describe, forexample, monsters or other strong charactersin stories and poems.

• Discuss and model ways of finding outinformation from non-fiction texts.

• Explain to parents the importance of readingto children, ask about favourite books, andoffer book loans.

• Encourage children to add to their first-handexperience of the world through the use ofbooks, other texts and information, andinformation and communication technology(ICT).

• Provide story boards and props whichencourage children to talk about thesequence of events and characters in a story.

• Help children to identify the main events in astory and to enact stories, as the basis forfurther imaginative play.

• Make story boxes with the children.Practitioners should maximise theopportunities that these reading activitiespresent to reinforce the intrinsic pleasure instories and books as well as applyingchildren’s developing phonic knowledge andskills.

• Encourage children to recall words they seefrequently, such as ‘welcome’, their own andfriends’ names, ‘open’ and ‘bus stop’.

• Play word bingo to develop children’sgrapheme correspondence, so that they canrapidly decode words.

• Provide story sacks and boxes for use in thesetting and at home.

• Provide varied texts and encourage childrento use books for pleasure and information.

• Provide some simple texts which children candecode to give them confidence and topractise their developing phonic skills.

• Provide picture books, books with flaps orhidden words, books with accompanyingCDs or tapes, and story sacks.

• Act as a scribe for children. After they say asentence, repeat the first part of it, say eachword as you write, and include somepunctuation.

• Encourage children to use their ability tohear the sounds at the beginning of wordsand then in the order in which they occurthrough words in their writing.

• Play games that encourage children to linksounds to letters and then write the lettersand words.

• Encourage children to re-read their writingas they write.

• Provide materials and opportunities forchildren to use writing in their play, andcreate purposes for independent and groupwriting.

• Plan occasions where you can involvechildren in organising writing, for example,putting recipe instructions in the right order.

• Provide word banks and other resources forsegmenting and blending to support childrento use their phonic knowledge.

• Teach children to form letters correctly, forexample, when they label their paintings.

• Encourage children to practise letter shapesas they paint, draw and record, and as theywrite, for example, their names, the namesof their friends and family, or captions.

• Provide a variety of writing tools and paper,indoors and outdoors.

• Give children practice in forming letterscorrectly, for example, labelling their work,making cards and writing notices.

• Provide opportunities to write meaningfully,for example, by placing notepads by phonesor writing parent notes.

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Problem Solving, Reasoning andNumeracy• Show children how we use counting to find out

‘how many’.

• Talk about how the symbols and marks youmake stand for numbers and quantities.

• Ask questions such as “Would you like onesandwich or two?”.

• At mealtimes, talk about portions of food sothat children learn about quantities, such as‘enough’, ‘more’, ‘how many’.

• Introduce number labels to use outdoors forcar number plates, house and bus numbers.

• Create a ‘number rich’ environment in thehome play area.

• Introduce numbers as they are used at home,by having a clock, a telephone, a washingmachine, number plates, birthday cards etc

• Encourage parents of children learning Englishas an additional language to talk in theirhome language about quantities and numbers.

• Keep a diary with the children about theirfavourite things.

• Talk about how many like apples, or which ofthem watches a particular TV programme athome.

• Plan to incorporate a mathematical componentin areas such as the sand, water or other playareas.

• Play games which relate to number order,addition and subtraction, such as hopscotchand skittles.

• Talk about and help children to recognisepatterns.

• Draw children’s attention to the pattern ofsquare/rectangle/ square which emerges asyou fold or unfold a tablecloth or napkin.

• Be consistent in your use of vocabulary forweight and mass.

• Sort coins on play trays into interestingarrangements and shapes; sort them intobags, purses and containers.

• Measure for a purpose, such as finding outwhether a teddy will fit in a bed.

• Collect pictures that illustrate the use of shapesand patterns from a variety of cultures, forexample, Arabic designs.

• Provide opportunities for children to measuretime (sand timer), weight (balances) andmeasure (non-standard units).

• Vary the use of volume and capacityequipment in the sand, water and other playareas to maintain interest.

• Use number language, for example, ‘one’,‘two’, ‘three’, ‘lots’, ‘hundreds’, ‘how many?’and ‘count’, in a variety of situations.

• Model and encourage use of mathematicallanguage by, for example, asking questionssuch as, “How many saucepans will fit on theshelf?”.

• Allow children to understand that one thing canbe shared, for example, a pizza.

• Give children a reason to count, for example,by asking them to select enough wrist bands forthree friends to play with the puppets.

• Enable children to note the ‘missing set’, forexample, “There are none left” when sharingthings out.

• Provide number labels for children to use, forexample, by putting a number label on eachbike and a corresponding number on eachparking space. Include counting money andchange in role-play games.

• Demonstrate language such as ‘same as’, ‘less’or ‘fewer’.

• Create opportunities for children to separateobjects into unequal groups as well as equalgroups.

• Demonstrate the language for shape, positionand measures in discussions, for example, ‘ballshape’, ‘box shape’, ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘inside’, ‘under’,‘longer’, ‘shorter’, ‘heavy’, ‘light’, ‘full’ and‘empty’.

• Find out and use equivalent terms for thesemeasures in home languages.

• Encourage children to talk about the shapesthey see and use and how they are arranged.

• Have large and small blocks and boxesavailable for construction both indoors andoutdoors.

• Play games involving children positioningthemselves inside, behind, on top and so on.

• Provide rich and varied opportunities forcomparing length, weight and time.

• Value children’s constructions by helping todisplay them or take photographs of them.

• Organise the environment to foster shapematching, for example, pictures of differentbricks on containers to show where they arekept.

• Use stories such as Rosie’s Walk by PatHutchins to talk about distance and stimulatediscussion about non-standard units and theneed for standard units.

• Show pictures that have symmetry or patternand talk to children about them.

• Encourage estimation, for example, estimatehow many sandwiches to make for thepicnic.

• Encourage use of mathematical language,for example, number names to ten: “Haveyou got enough to give me three?”.

• Provide collections of interesting things forchildren to sort, order, count and label intheir play.

• Display numerals in purposeful contexts, forexample, a sign showing how many childrencan play on a number track.

• Use tactile numeral cards made fromsandpaper, velvet or string.

• Ensure that children are involved in makingdisplays, for example, making their ownpictograms of lunch choices. Develop this asa 3D representation using bricks and discussthe most popular choices.

• Add numerals to all areas of the curriculum

• Make books about numbers that havemeaning for the child such as favouritenumbers, birth dates or telephone numbers.

• Use rhymes, songs and stories involvingcounting on and counting back in ones,twos, fives and tens.

• Emphasise the empty set and introduce theimportant concept of nothing or zero in ournumber system.

• Create opportunities for children toexperiment with a number of objects, andthe written numeral.

• Develop this through matching activities witha range of numbers, numerals and aselection of objects.

• Use a 100 square to show number patterns.

• Make number games readily available andsystematically teach children how to usethem.

• Display interesting books about numbers -ensure there is a representation of smallerand larger numbers beyond 100.

• Play games such as hide and seek thatinvolve counting.

• Show interest in how children solve problemsand value their different solutions.

• Make sure children are secure about theorder of numbers before asking what comesafter or before each number.

• Discuss with children how problems relate toothers they have met, and their differentsolutions.

• Encourage children to record what they havedone, for example, by drawing or tallying.

• Use number staircases to show a startingpoint and how you arrive at another pointwhen something is added or taken away.

• Provide a wide range of number resourcesand encourage children to be creative inthinking up problems and solutions in allareas of learning

• Encourage children to make up their ownstory problems for other children to solve.

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• Encourage children to extend problems, forexample, “Suppose there were three peopleto share the bricks between instead of two”.

• Use mathematical vocabulary anddemonstrate methods of recording, usingstandard notation where appropriate.

• Give children learning English as anadditional language opportunities to work intheir home language to ensure accurateunderstanding of concepts.

• Encourage children to make links betweencardinal numbers (quantity) and ordinalnumbers (position).

• Make number tracks available for referenceand encourage children to use them in theirown play.

• Help children to understand that five fingerson each hand make a total of ten fingersaltogether, or that two rows of three eggs inthe box make six eggs altogether.

• Ask ‘silly’ questions, for example, show atiny box and ask if there is a bicycle in it.

• Play peek-a-boo, revealing shapes a little ata time and at different angles, askingchildren to say what they think the shape is,what else it could be or what it could not be.

• Make books about shape, time andmeasure: shapes found in the environment;long and short things; things of a specificlength; and ones about patterns, orcomparing things that are heavier or lighter.

• Ask children to give you instructions to get tosomewhere. Let them have a turn.

• Provide a range of boxes and materials formodels and constructions such as ‘dens’,indoors and outdoors.

• Provide examples of the same shape indifferent sizes.

• Have areas where children can explore theproperties of objects and where they canweigh and measure, such as a cookerystation or a building area or real objects ofvarying weight in the role play area e.g. tinsof food of different sizes

• Plan opportunities for children to describeand compare shapes, measures anddistance.

• Provide materials and resources for childrento observe and describe patterns in theindoor and outdoor environment and in dailyroutines, orally, in pictures or using objects.

• Provide a range of natural materials forchildren to arrange, compare and order.

• Introduce children to the use of mathematicalnames for ‘solid’ 3D shapes and ‘flat’ 2Dshapes and the mathematical terms todescribe shapes.

Knowledge and Understandingof the World• Recognise that when a child does such things

as jumping in a puddle, they are engaging ininvestigation.

• Make use of outdoor areas to giveopportunities for investigations of the naturalworld, for example, provide chimes,streamers, windmills and bubbles toinvestigate the effects of wind.

• Recognise that children’s investigations mayappear futile, but that a child may be on thebrink of an amazing discovery as theymeticulously place more and more things ontop of one another.

• Build on children’s particular interests byadding resources to sustain and extend theirefforts.

• Talk about ICT apparatus, what it does, whatthey can do with it and how to use it safely.

• Let children use the photocopier or camera tocopy their own pictures.

• Provide safe equipment to play with, such astorches, transistor radios or karaoke machines.

• Make a diary of photographs to record aspecial occasion.

• Use the language of time such as ‘yesterday’,‘tomorrow’ or ‘next week’.

• Provide opportunities for children to workthrough routines in role-play, such as putting a‘baby’ to bed.

• Tell stories about places and journeys, forexample, Whatever Next! by Jill Murphy.

• Provide story and information books aboutplaces, such as a zoo or the beach, to build onvisits to real places.

• Encourage children to take on different rolesduring role-play.

• Support children’s friendships by talking tothem about their characteristics, such as beingkind, or fun to be with.

• Provide a soft toy for children to take homeovernight, in turn.

• Talk with children about what the toy has doneduring these excursions.

• Encourage and respond to children’s signs ofinterest, and extend these through questions,discussions and further investigation.

• Give additional support to children who arelearning English as an additional language,through pictorial support, or from familiar adultswho can interpret for them.

• Use the local area for exploring both the builtand the natural environment.

• Provide opportunities to observe things closelythrough a variety of means, includingmagnifiers and photographs.

• Introduce children to appropriate tools fordifferent materials.

• Provide ideas and stimuli for children, forexample, photographs, books, visits and closeobservation of buildings.

• Provide a range of construction materials,including construction kits containing a varietyof shapes, sizes and ways of joining, andsupport children in their use.

• Provide a range of tools, for example, scissors,hole punch, stapler, junior hacksaw, gluespreader or glue gun, rolling pin, cutter, cuttingknife, grater, and encourage children to handlethem carefully and use their correct names.

• Draw young children’s attention to pieces ofICT apparatus they see or that they use withadult supervision e.g. metal detectors, walkie-talkies.

• When out in the locality, ask children to help topress the button at the pelican crossing, orspeak into an intercom to tell somebody youhave come back to the setting.

• Talk about and show interest in children’s livesand experiences.

• Use, and encourage children to use, thelanguage of time in conversations, for example,‘past’, ‘now’ and ‘then’.

• Plan time when children can discuss past eventsin their lives.

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• Encourage discussion of important events in thelives of people children know, such as theirfamily.

• Make books of events in settings, for example,summer fair, building a climbingframe,shopping expedition or learning about afestival.

• Encourage role-play of events in children’s lives.

• Observe changes in the environment, forexample, through the seasons or as a buildingextension is completed.

• Ask parents to share photographs from homethat show how things change over time e.g.plants, garden, height charts

• Ensure the full participation of children learningEnglish as an additional language by offeringadditional visual support and encouragingchildren to use their home language.

• Arouse awareness of features of theenvironment in the setting and immediate localarea, for example, make visits to shops or apark.

• Introduce vocabulary to enable children to talkabout their observations and to ask questions.

• Plan time for visits to the local area.

• Provide play maps and small world equipmentfor children to create their own environments.

• Introduce language that describes emotions, forexample, ‘sad’, ‘happy’, ‘angry’ and ‘lonely’,in conversations when children express theirfeelings about special events.

• Use group times to share events in children’slives.

• Listen carefully and ask questions that showrespect for children’s individual contributions.

• Explain the significance of special events tochildren.

• Visit workplaces and invite people who work inthe community to talk to children about theirroles. Wherever possible encourage thechallenging of stereotypes by, for example,using a male midwife or a female firefighter.

• Plan time to listen to children wanting to talkabout significant events and give them time toformulate thoughts and words to expressfeelings.

• Provide the support of adults who sharelanguages other than English with children.

• Provide ways of preserving memories of specialevents, for example, making a book, collectingphotographs, tape recording, drawing andwriting.

• Invite children and families with experiences ofliving in other countries to bring in photographsand objects from their home cultures includingthose from family members living in differentareas of the UK and abroad.

• Help children to notice and discuss patternsaround them, for example, rubbings fromgrates, covers, or bricks.

• Encourage children to raise questions andsuggest solutions and answers.

• Examine change over time, for example,growing plants, and change that may bereversed, for example, melting ice.

• Give opportunities to record findings by, forexample, drawing, writing, making a modelor photographing.

• Provide a range of materials and objects toplay with that work in different ways fordifferent purposes, for example, egg whisk,torch, other household implements, pulleys,construction kits and tape recorder.

• Encourage children to speculate on thereasons why things happen or how thingswork.

• Discuss purposes of design and makingtasks.

• Teach joining, measuring, cutting andfinishing techniques and their names.

• Encourage children’s evaluations, helpingthem to use words to explain, such as‘longer’, ‘shorter’, ‘lighter’.

• Make links with children’s experiences toprovide opportunities to design and makethings.

• Provide opportunities for children to practiseskills, initiate and plan simple projects, andfind their own solutions in the design andmaking process.

• Ensure that the organisation of workshopareas allows children real choices oftechniques, materials and resources.

• Teach and encourage children to click ondifferent icons to cause things to happen in acomputer program.

• Ensure safe use of all ICT apparatus andmake appropriate risk assessments for theiruse.

• Provide a range of programmable toys, aswell as equipment involving ICT, such ascomputers.

• Sequence events, for example, photographsof children from birth.

• Use stories that introduce a sense of timeand people from the past.

• Encourage children to ask questions aboutevents in each other’s lives in discussions,and explore these experiences in role-play.

• Compare artefacts of different times, forexample, garden and household tools.

• Make the most of opportunities to valuechildren’s histories.

• Involve families in sharing memories.

• Provide long-term growing projects, forexample, sowing vegetables from seed orlooking after chick eggs.

• Provide reference material for children touse, for example, comparing old and recentphotographs.

• Draw on the local community to supportprojects about the seasons. Tap intoknowledge and expertise of local farmers,gardeners, allotment holders and so on.

• Use appropriate words, for example, ‘town’,‘village’, ‘road’, ‘path’, ‘house’, ‘flat’,’temple’ and ‘synagogue’, to help childrenmake distinctions in their observations.

• Help children to find out about theenvironment by talking to people, examiningphotographs and simple maps and visitinglocal places.

• Encourage children to express opinions onnatural and built environments and giveopportunities for them to hear different pointsof view on the quality of the environment.

• Ensure all children have opportunities toexpress themselves and learn the vocabularyto talk about their surroundings, drawing onand encouraging the home language tosupport the learning of English.

• Encourage the use of words that helpchildren to express opinions, for example,‘busy’, ‘quiet’ and ‘pollution’.

• Provide stories that help children to makesense of different environments.

• Provide stimuli and resources for children tocreate simple maps and plans, paintings,drawings and models of observations ofknown and imaginary landscapes.

• Give opportunities to design practical,attractive environments, for example, takingcare of the flowerbeds or organisingequipment outdoors.

• Introduce children to a range of cultures andreligions, for example, tell stories, listen tomusic, dance and eat foods from a range ofcultures.

• Use resources in role-play that reflect avariety of cultures, such as clothes, symbols,candles and toys.

• Provide opportunities for children to samplefood from a variety of cultures.

• Provide books that show a range oflanguages, dress and customs.

• Use appropriate resources to enable childrento learn positive attitudes and behaviourtowards people who are different tothemselves, emphasising more that is thesame across all cultures than different.

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• Extend children’s knowledge of cultureswithin and beyond the setting through books,videos and DVDs, and photographs;listening to simple short stories in variouslanguages; handling artefacts; invitingvisitors from a range of religious and ethnicgroups, and visiting local places of worshipand cultural centres.

• Ensure that any cultural assumptions andstereotypes that are already held arecountered in activities.

• Ensure the use of modern photographs ofparts of the world that are commonlystereotyped and misrepresented.

Physical Development• Be aware that children can be very energetic

for short bursts and need periods of rest andrelaxation.

• Encourage and guide children to persevere ata skill.

• Value the ways children choose to move.

• Give as much opportunity as possible forchildren to move freely between indoors andoutdoors.

• Talk to children about their movements andhelp them to explore new ways of moving,such as squirming, slithering and twistingalong the ground like a snake.

• Encourage children to move, using a range ofbody parts, and to perform given movementsat more than one speed, such as quickly,slowly, or on tiptoe.

• Encourage body tension activities such asstretching, reaching, curling, twisting andturning.

• Provide a range of large play equipment thatcan be used in different ways, such as boxes,ladders, ‘A’ frames and barrels.

• Plan time for children to experiment withequipment and to practise their skills.

• Undertake risk assessment and provide safespaces where children can move freely.

• Create ‘zones’ for some activities and explainsafety to children and parents.

• Plan to respect individual progress andpreoccupations.

• Allow time for exploration and for children topractise movements they choose.

• Provide real and role-play opportunities forchildren to create pathways.

• Provide CD and tape players, scarves,streamers and musical instruments so thatchildren can respond spontaneously to music.

• Introduce the vocabulary of spatialrelationships, such as ‘between’, ‘through’ and‘above’.

• Plan activities that involve moving andstopping, such as musical bumps.

• Involve young children in the preparation offood.

• Encourage repetition in movements andsensory experiences.

• Give children the chance to talk about whatthey like to eat, while reinforcing messagesabout healthier choices, and to learn abouteach other’s preferences.

• Remember that children who have limitedopportunity to play outdoors may lack a senseof danger.

• Ensure children’s safety, while not undulyinhibiting their risk-taking.

• Display a colourful daily menu showinghealthy meals and snacks and discuss choiceswith the children, reminding them, forexample, that they tried something previouslyand might like to try it again.

• Be aware of eating habits at home and of thedifferent ways people eat their food. For

• example, some families use hands to eat andsome cultures strongly discourage the use ofthe left hand for eating.

• Resource the home play area with cookingutensils and babies’ clothes so that childrencan handle tools and materials meaningfully intheir imaginative play.

• Provide ‘tool boxes’ containing things thatmake marks, so that children can explore theiruse both indoors and outdoors.

• Teach skills which will help children to keepthemselves safe, for example, respondingrapidly to signals including visual signs andnotes of music.

• Encourage children to move with controlledeffort, and use associated vocabulary such as‘strong’, ‘firm’, ‘gentle’, ‘heavy’, ‘stretch’,‘reach’, ‘tense’ and ‘floppy’.

• Use music to create moods and talk about howpeople move when they are sad, happy orcross.

• Lead imaginative movement sessions based onchildren’s current interests such as space travel,zoo animals or shadows.

• Motivate children to be active through gamessuch as follow the leader.

• Plan opportunities for children to tackle a rangeof levels and surfaces including flat and hillyground, grass, pebbles, asphalt, smooth floorsand carpets.

• Ensure that equipment is appropriate to the sizeand weight of children in the group and offerschallenges to children at different levels ofdevelopment.

• Plan activities where children can move indifferent ways and at different speeds.

• Provide balancing challenges, such as astraight or curved chalk line for children tofollow.

• Mark out boundaries for some activities, suchas games involving wheeled toys or balls, sothat children can more easily regulate their ownactivities.

• Provide sufficient equipment for children toshare, so that waiting to take turns does notspoil enjoyment.

• Provide construction materials such as crates,blocks or boxes to create personal and sharedspaces and dens.

• Create opportunities for moving towardsindependence, for example, have hand-washing facilities safely within reach, andsupport children in making healthy choicesabout the food they eat.

• Encourage children to notice the changes intheir bodies after exercise, such as their heartbeating faster.

• Provide a cosy place with a cushion and a softlight where a child can rest quietly if they needto.

• Plan so that children can be active in a rangeof ways, including while using a wheelchair.

• Introduce the vocabulary of direction,including, where appropriate, ‘clockwise’ and‘anticlockwise’.

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• Make equipment available and accessible toall children for the whole of the day or session,if possible.

• Provide activities that give children theopportunity and motivation to practisemanipulative skills, for example, cooking,painting and playing instruments.

• Provide opportunities for children to sometimesuse all their fingers or the whole hand

• Provide objects that can be handled safely,including small-world toys, construction sets,threading and posting toys, dolls’ clothes andmaterial for collage.

• Encourage children to use the vocabulary ofmovement, such as ‘gallop’ and ‘slither’; ofinstruction, such as ‘follow’, ‘lead’ and‘copy’; and of feeling, such as ‘excited’,‘scared’ and ‘happy’.

• Help children communicate through theirbodies by encouraging expressive movementlinked to their imaginative ideas.

• Talk with children about body parts andbodily activity, teaching the vocabulary ofbody parts.

• Help children to think about how theirmovements and actions can impact onothers.

• Plan target throwing, rolling, kicking andcatching games.

• Plan games where children can use skills indifferent ways, such as hopping backwardsand galloping sideways.

• Provide open-ended resources for large-scalebuilding.

• Use whole-body action rhymes such as‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.

• Provide time and space to enjoy energeticplay daily, either indoors or outdoors,visiting parks if other spaces are limited.

• Ensure children know the rules for being safein different spaces.

• Pose challenging questions such as “Can youget all the way round the climbing framewithout your knees touching it?”.

• Talk with children about the need to matchtheir actions to the space they are in.

• Encourage children to be active andenergetic by organising lively games.

• Provide opportunities for children to repeatand change their actions so that they canthink about, refine and improve them.

• Help children to be aware of risks and toconsider their own and others’ safety.

• Take time to review individual needs forspace and equipment for a child who mayrequire modifications to either or both.

• Regularly check resources for safety, forexample, ensuring that fabric is clean andthat planks are free from splinters and roughedges.

• Provide a range of equipment at differentlevels, such as an overhead ladder, a tunnel,a bench and a mat.

• Provide large portable equipment thatchildren can move about safely andcooperatively to create their own structures.

• Plan imaginative, active experiences, such as‘Going on a bear hunt’.

• Ensure that children who get out of breathwill have time to recover.

• Place water containers where children canfind them easily and get a drink when theyneed one.

• Plan opportunities, particularly after exercise,for children to talk about how their bodiesfeel.

• Discuss with children why they get hot andencourage them to think about the effects ofthe environment, such as whether opening awindow helps everybody to be cooler

• Encourage children’s large arm and handmovements and activities that strengthen theirhands and fingers, for example, throwingand catching.

• Introduce and encourage children to use thevocabulary of manipulation, for example,‘squeeze’ and ‘prod’, and the language ofdescription, for example, ‘spiky’, ‘silky’,‘lumpy’ and ‘tall’.

• Justify and explain why safety is animportant factor in handling tools, equipmentand materials, and have sensible rules foreverybody to follow but do not makechildren too risk-averse.

• Teach skills where necessary and then givechildren the chance to practise them.

• Talk with children about what they aredoing, how they plan to do it, what workedwell and what they would change next time.

• Provide a range of left-handed tools,especially left-handed scissors, for childrenwho need them.

• Provide a wide range of materials, such asreal clay, that encourage manipulation.

• Offer different tools, techniques or materialswhen the available tools are inadequate toachieve the desired effects.

• Provide tweezers, tongs and small scoops foruse in play and investigation.

• Provide a range of construction toys ofdifferent sizes, made of wood, rubber orplastic, that fix together in a variety of ways,for example by twisting, pushing, slotting ormagnetism.

Creative Development• Provide appropriate materials and extend

children’s thinking through involvement in theirplay, using questions thoughtfully andappropriately.

• Encourage children to describe theirexperiences.

• Ensure that there is enough time for children toexpress their thoughts, ideas and feelings in avariety of ways, such as in role-play, bypainting and by responding to music.

• Choose unusual or interesting materials andresources that inspire exploration such astextured wall coverings, raffia, string,translucent paper or water-based glues withcolour added.

• Help children to listen to music and watchdance when opportunities arise, encouragingthem to focus on how sound and movementdevelop from feelings and ideas.

• Invite dancers and musicians from theatregroups, the locality or a nearby school so thatchildren begin to experience liveperformances.

• Draw on a wide range of musicians and story-tellers from a variety of cultural backgroundsto extend children’s experiences and to reflecttheir cultural heritages – use tapes / videos ifvisitors are not a possibility.

• Sometimes speak quietly, slowly or gruffly forfun in pretend scenarios with children.

• Offer additional resources reflecting interestssuch as tunics, cloaks and bags

• Be interested in children’s responses, observingtheir actions and listening carefully.

• Encourage children to discuss and appreciatethe beauty around them in nature and theenvironment.

• Make time and space for children to expresstheir curiosity and explore the environmentusing all of their senses.

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• Introduce vocabulary to enable children to talkabout their observations and experiences, forexample, ‘smooth’, ‘shiny’, ‘rough’, ‘prickly’,‘flat’, ‘patterned’, ‘jagged’, ‘bumpy’, ‘soft’ and‘hard’.

• Talk to a child about images or effects that theysee, such as the effect of light hitting a shinypiece of paper.

• Talk to children about colours they like and whythey like them.

• Demonstrate and teach skills and techniquesassociated with the things children are doing,for example, show them how to stop the paintfrom dripping or how to balance bricks so thatthey will not fall down.

• Introduce children to a wide range of music,painting and sculpture.

• Encourage children to take time to think aboutpainting or sculpture that is unfamiliar to thembefore they talk about it or express an opinion.

• Make suggestions and ask questions to extendchildren’s ideas of what is possible, forexample, “I wonder what would happen if…”.

• Support children in thinking about what theywant to make, the processes that may beinvolved and the materials and resources theymight need, such as a photograph to remindthem what something is like.

• Provide a wide range of materials, resourcesand sensory experiences to enable children toexplore colour, texture and space.

• Document the processes children go through tocreate their own ‘work’.

• Provide a place where work in progress can bekept safely and allow children to return to theircreations whenever possible..

• Talk to children about where they can seemodels and plans in the environment, such asat the local planning office, in the town square,or at a new building site down the road.

• Support children’s excursions into imaginaryworlds by encouraging inventiveness, offeringsupport and advice on occasions and ensuringthat they have experiences that stimulate theirinterest.

• Tell stories based on children’s experiences andthe people and places they know well.

• Offer a story stimulus by suggesting animaginary event or set of circumstances, for

• Support children in expressing opinions andintroduce language such as ‘like’, ‘dislike’,‘prefer’ and ‘disagree’.

• Be alert to children’s changing interest andthe way they respond to experiencesdifferently when they are in a happy, sad orreflective mood.

• Introduce language that enables children totalk about their experiences in greater depthand detail.

• Provide children with examples of how otherpeople have responded to experiences,engage them in discussions of theseexamples and help them to make links andconnections.

• Provide and organise resources andmaterials so children can make their ownchoices in order to express their ideas.

• Be sensitive to the needs of children whomay not be able to express themselves easilyin English, using interpreter support fromknown adults, or strategies such as picturecards to enable children to expresspreferences.

• Help children to gain confidence in theirown way of representing ideas.

• Talk to children about ways of finding outwhat they can do with different media andwhat happens when they put different thingstogether such as sand, paint and sawdust.

• Help children to develop a problem-solvingapproach to overcome hindrances as theyexplore possibilities that media combinationspresent.

• Offer advice and additional resources asappropriate.

• Alert children to changes in properties ofmedia as they are transformed throughbecoming wet, dry, flaky or fixed.

• Talk about what is happening, helping themto think about cause and effect.

• Provide resources for mixing colours, joiningthings together and combining materials,demonstrating sensitively where appropriate.

• Introduce pieces of wood, stone, rock orseaweed for children to feel and discover.

• Provide children with opportunities to usetheir skills and explore concepts and ideasthrough their representations.

• Have a ‘holding bay’ where 2D and 3Dmodels and works can be retained for aperiod for children to enjoy, develop, orrefer to.

• Support children’s developing understandingof the ways in which paintings, pictures andmusic and dance can express differentideas, thoughts and feelings.

• Encourage discussion about the beauty ofnature and people’s responsibility to care forit.

• Help children to support other children andoffer another viewpoint.

• Extend children’s experience and expandtheir imagination through the provision ofpictures, paintings, poems, music, danceand story.

• Provide a stimulus for imaginative recreationand composition by introducing atmosphericfeatures in the roleplay area, such as thesounds of rain beating on a roof, or placinga spotlight to suggest a stage set. Providecurtains and place dressing-up materials andinstruments close by.

• Be aware of the link between imaginativeplay and children’s ability to handlenarrative.

• Carefully support children who are lessconfident.

• Introduce descriptive language to supportchildren, for example, ‘rustle’ and ‘shuffle’.

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Information about council services is available in large print,audio, easy read and other formats.

Help is available for people who require council informationin languages other than English.

Contact 01934 ??? ???

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