As this was the last Friday of the term, the schedule for the day was slightly different. The briefing was held by T since the deputy head was away. Today was Christmas jumper day and there was a winter fair right after nursery finishes.
During the day, I was playing and interacting with children indoors, helping them to make paper crowns. In particular, I played with a boy who’s family I knew; I had seen him in the nursery on my previous visits, interacted with him but tried to distance myself and give all children an equal chance in regards to giving them my attention.
Today, however, I spent most of the morning with him as he had quite a distressing drop off; he only stays for half days at the nursery. He felt comfortable with me, interacting with me and seemed quite happy for me to guide him and support his play.
He mostly wanted my attention and when he was excited to show me something he would take my hand and attempt to guide me.
During group time, I usually sit with his group. During this time, he was sitting close to me as I usually sit at the back, every so often touching me which I presumed was his way of reassuring himself that I was still behind him, there to support him. During group time, the group leader/key worker suggested that I try to distance myself from him so he does not become too attached which had actually crossed my mind so when his attention drifted from the group, I diverted his attention back to the key worker and other children.
Themes: Group Time, Friendships, Relationships, Attachment Distress, Free-flow Play
This morning was stressful in terms of arriving at the nursery due to traffic and slow service however I made it to the nursery on time although the briefing had already started. As we were preparing the resources for the children before they started their day at nursery, a few of the staff members were laughing with me saying things like ‘oh I saw you and thought it was Friday, I was getting happy for a minute’… since I was at the nursery on a Thursday.
I was then asked if I wanted to spend the afternoon in the affiliate pre-school for children aged 2-3 as they are understaffed which I had actually planned on asking about, I said yes.
I read the focuses for the week, there was a particular emphasis on play with play-dough and mark-making play (sticking, building). One of the key workers said that we need to make the play-dough which I was surprised about as I thought it was ready made. She then explained that the play-dough was actual dough, made of flour, salt, oil, food colouring and hot water. I then headed over to the kitchen and started mixing the ingredients making a dough. Upon understanding this, I was very impressed as it is not only fun for the children but also regards the children health and safety as if they were to swallow/eat the dough it wouldn’t be too dangerous. I was told the salt was added to prevent the children from eating it but was then told that some children actually like the taste of the salt. Later on in the day, I actually saw a child putting the dough into his mouth and told him to refrain from doing so.
Later in the morning, I was by the children’s snack table which is a corner in the nursery where children have toast, water and milk. I spent time with some children who wanted to eat and drink. They could only do so before 10:30 as lunch started at 11:30. There was an issue later on though as some more children wanted toast, so I plugged the toaster in and forgot to unplug it despite it being turned off. The deputy head saw this and almost scolded me for leaving the toaster plugged in which I understood as although the plug was out of reach, it is still a safeguarding issue. This made me feel slightly embarrassed and silly as this was the first time I had made a mistake on my placement; I didn’t want to disappoint.
After this, it was lunch time for the children and I. After lunch, T showed me over to the preschool which is about a minutes walk from the nursery where I recognised the practitioners as they attend the briefings in the nursery in the morning rather than at their site. Everyone seemed very friendly, but I was warned that this setting is likely to be slower-paced compared to the nursery.
As I met some of the children, I found it slightly harder to interact with them. Although the ages between the nursery and preschool children is relatively small, the level of language that the 3-4 years old’s in the nursery had was a lot more advanced as the 2-3 year old’s in the preschool did not yet have the ability to interact at this level. In terms of communicating verbally, it was harder for me to understand what some of the children were trying to say however it was endearing to see that some children had no trouble sitting on my lap, indicating they wanted a story read to them or holding my hand to take me to something they wanted but was out of reach.
There were three parts to this particular preschool. One of these parts was the main nursery where block-play, pretend play, play-dough and story time occurred. There was a door that lead to another room where heuristic play took place; the children could freely move from room to room. The third part of the nursery was the outdoor area/garden which we later went to as we waited for the rain to ease up a little. Generally, it was really interesting to see how both settings highly emphasised and encouraged the concept of free-flow play perhaps giving the children a sense of independence and autonomy.
Themes: Transitions into Preschool, Free-flow Play, Autonomy, Relationships, Partnerships, Safe-guarding
I began the day by attending the briefing. As the briefing finished, I looked to the pin board as I usually do where I saw that I was in the Garden (outdoor play in the nursery) both in the morning and afternoon. I had met a lovely practitioner, named ‘T’ who had started work again this week as she was off sick recovering from an operation.
I immediately took a liking to her as she spoke clearly and was able to give me tasks and challenge me throughout the day whilst still maintaining friendliness and professionalism. She had asked me to observe 3 children throughout the day: I observed one child, particularly looking at his social development in terms of communicating his needs with children and adults, and his use of language. I was observing the second child for his physical developmental growth, for example the way he climbed the climbing frame, and I was observing the last child’s ability to play with modelling materials and his language.
Having been asked to write observations was very exciting for me as I could finally implement the skills I have learnt on previous and current courses into actual practice to gain an outcome that directly helps children and their parents understand their child’s development better as practitioners would use the observations for their reviews.
A boy, ‘J’ who is supposed to currently be in reception was excluded and sent back to the nursery as he had trouble adjusting; J is autistic. He attended for an hour on Friday with his father in the room close by while he played outside with T who is his key worker. When I interacted with J, he seemed very well spoken, smart and authoritative (perhaps this was the issue) as he played and interacted with his key worker and 2 other children.
Throughout the day, I was outdoors and noticed the free flow of children’s play more as children came outside so was easier to notice as opposed to being inside (the nursery room) since it’s noisier and more focused on a specific group of children.
At the end of the day, I attended the briefing which was very brief although the importance of it was emphasised. I was also told that the following Friday was a Parent Review Day so it was unnecessary to attend, therefore I offered that I attend on the Thursday instead as university would’ve officially finished for the term and I was available to which the deputy head was very happy and grateful for.
Themes: Free-flow Play, Friendships/Relationships, Re-adjusting, Theory in Practice