Laughter & Learning!

Date: 29th Mar 2015 @ 6:13pm

On Monday, the upper junior corridor was filled with the wonderful sound of giggles.

Hearing children’s laughter is such a delightful way to start the week and it is even better when the fun is linked to their learning! The buzz of excitement was the result of a workshop from www.laughology.co.uk. The children were taught how happiness and humour can improve their performance both in and out of school. They were urged to believe in themselves and to never let fear prevent them from achieving their full potential. Our children learnt that people are not born intelligent, rather, intelligence is obtainable by all and generally the only thing stopping us is self-belief. 

 

On Wednesday school hosted a KS1 PE Course for 10 Cheshire West & Chester Teachers, who were learning about fundamental movement skills for young children. Mrs Grigg and Miss Berry enjoyed the course and our Y1 and Y2 pupils enjoyed being the children that the Teachers practised their skills on!

 

On Saturday we were very proud to welcome 100 delegates to the Early Education regional conference. Willow Wood had been chosen as the venue due to its acknowledged good practice in the Early Years.

 

The speaker was Elaine Bennett a trainer for Early Education who gave an inspirational talk about developing young children’s mathematical understanding through play and building on everyday routines.

 

Here were some of her key points.

 

1. Teachers and parents are great role models for using maths in everyday life.

2. Baking at home and school is a good time for maths to take place.

3. Maths learning can be active – outside using all the space such as playing with blocks, large construction.

4. Playing in the mud kitchen, sand and water is a great place for learning about concepts such as capacity.

5. Let’s talk maths – give children the key vocabulary such as longer, shorter, more, less, heavier, lighter, as you play together.

6. Encourage children to develop mark making for maths such as lines and crosses while counting.

7. Play lots of games that include maths such as cards and board games.

 

I hope lots of parents and carers will come along on Tuesday next week (31^st March) to join in some maths activities with their child and pick up lots of ideas about how to have maths fun at home as well as taking away some freebies!