Wallpaper!

This ones a bit random, but hopefully some great ideas all the same. On Friday, I received a most unusual delivery of about 30 rolls of wallpaper- a parent at my school works at B&Q and they were throwing away a load of end of line rolls of wallpaper that they couldn't sell. She bought them in, knowing that I'd find some use for them- so here's a few ideas:-

1- attach pieces of wallpaper (wrong side out) onto the wall in your role-play area. Children can draw or write on it to decorate the role-play area to match the theme

2- use the paper with any big outdoor art tools like those sold by TTS (we have wheelie painters, foot printers & big mops/sponges). The bigger the paper, the better as otherwise the paint gets everywhere (I speak from experience here!)

3- new idea that I tried last week and my kids loved was mixing a small amount of paint with water in a spray bottle and letting them mark make onto paper. They tried lots of colour mixing and there was also lots of great communication about ideas going on too. Only problem was that paper got so saturated, it stuck to my tuff spots and is taking quite a bit of getting rid of! Wallpaper should be thicker so will work much better next time (I hope)

4- if the paper has any pattern to it e.g. flowers, let the children simply cut them out and use them for cutting and sticking activities. Great for practising scissor skills on a larger scale than usual- good if their fine motor skills aren't great yet

I'm sure there will be lots of other uses as time goes by and my brain has a chance to think but it shows that it is definitely worth asking at big stores if they've got anything useful that they would otherwise throw away. They are usually more than happy for you to have it!

Using 'Windows Live Photo Gallery' for storing FSP evidence

As a FS teacher, it is a miracle to be seen at any point of the day without a camera attached to my hand. Any FS practitioner knows how important photographic/video evidence has become especially when taking part in moderation activities at the end of the year.

I used to print out all of my photos and annotate them by hand but it was such an unbelievable waste of paper (and ink) that I've changed my practice a bit over the last couple of years. I now use my Windows Live Photo Gallery to keep track of the photos and to annotate them.

I started by creating a folder for each child in my class. As I upload photos onto the laptop, I tag the children that are in each photo and then put them into each childs individual folder. I number them and name them with CI/AI/AL (child initiated/adult initiated/adult led) and also record the type of activity e.g. 1- CI role-play. The numbers then help me to code the photos to my records against the FSP Early Learning Goals (see 'revised EYFS' post). I have circle stickers (ESPO) with a camera stamped onto it (rubber stamp from NEC craft show-see my other blog) that I record the photo number onto and then stick this in the appropriate section of my record sheets. Within the photo gallery, I then use the comments section to record what was actually going on in that photo and why it was relevant for that child.

It does take time to upload and label the pictures, if you take as many as I do anyway, but you save an awful lot of paper, hand annotating and filing time. It also makes a nice use of the IWB during a parents evening to show the photos & videos and I have also been thinking that the photos could be put onto a cd and given to the child/parents as an end of year gift (depending on how many pictures you take).

I've found it to be a simple way of collating evidence and most schools will have access to the programme already so it's free- and that is my most favourite 4 letter word (although not the one that I use the most, at certain times anyway)!

Storing Tuff Spot Mats

Most FS/KS1 classrooms that I've seen in recent years, have a tuff spot/builders tray (large circular/hexagonal plastic tray) that has all manner of uses. Catalogues like TTS sell a huge range of mats to go inside it related to different topics. I've been lucky enough over the last few years to build up a bit of a collection of them as they are generally quite cheap and my children enjoy using them as a basis for small world play.

My only problem with them is the difficulty of storage as they are quite large. I always store mine rolled up simply in an old box which regularly falls over! I thought that all my problems had been solved when, in  the most recent TTS catalogue, I saw a specially designed trolley with a square mesh at the top and a tray at the bottom, allowing you to put one mat in each slot. "Great", I thought but at almost £40 I was a little dubious- I could get an awful lot with that money.

Here's the TTS version-

and this was my much cheaper solution-

It came from the ESPO catalogue for about £10 and is very sturdy. It was flat pack, but incredibly easy to put together. It will hold at least 20 mats and each compartment is the perfect size, meaning that even when the children roll the mats, slightly dodgily, they will still fit. Next plan is to get the kids to decorate it a bit as it is a bit plain at the moment but for 1/4 of the price, I can live with that! Anything for a bargain and I'm sure they'll enjoy it.

Outdoor role-play petrol pump

My kids love to be outside and we are really lucky to have an excellent outdoor area for them to use. Even though it is already great, I'm always looking for something to make it even better. I do sometimes have an issue with the amount of children that just want to ride around on the scooters/bikes and do nothing else, so it's a case of trying to entice them into doing something else as part of that play. This is where the petrol pump came in!

We regularly have out buckets, water & sponges for a car wash as the children love anything that involves getting wet but the petrol pump has helped to add a new role-play element to the ride-ons. It is very simply an old hoover pipe (from a neighbours rubbish), a piece of garden hose and a garden hose spray gun (wilko's have one that is shaped just like a proper petrol pump). The trick is to put the garden hose onto the spray gun and then hide the green hose inside the hoover pipe. All you then have to do is seal the top and there you have your own petrol pump! Simple but very effective (and great for hearing some of that all important capacity language for the FSP)! The fabulous 'cosy' catalogue also sells the pipe if you've not got neighbours who throw away these useful items!

Here's a couple of pics to show you how mine looks-

I attached the garden hose to the nozzle and then put that inside the hoover pipe. To secure, I cut slits into the top of the pipe meaning that I could squash it and then taped with black insulation tape. The whole thing was tightened with the silver screw key thing (technical term) that came from Wilko's- in their hardware range with the screws etc.

Baker Ross photo hanging

A great idea that I'm going to use as an activity to help me get to know the children in my new class this September is a product that has come from the Baker Ross catalogue. It is essentially a fabric wall hanging with pockets that photos can be put into. Each child gets their own square and the kit includes ribbons to tie the squares together. As a school, we have made one (without the photo pocket) and it looks very effective hung in our school hall.

I'm using it as a way to get to know the children by having ordered a whole range of different foam stickers (dinosaurs, pirates, sports, pets, transport etc.) and one of our very first adult led sessions will involve me taking photos of the children for the pockets and them choosing some of their favourite things/stickers to decorate it. I also ordered some small glittery alphabet stickers so their names can go on it too. I will then display it in our cloakroom/entrance hall area of the classroom for parents/carers & everyone to see.

The whole kit (incl. the stickers I ordered) came to less than £50 and I'll have enough stuff there for 2 year groups (I have 15/16 in my class each year). I also thought they would make a great/funny end of Year 6 leaving gift too- "This is what you looked like when you first got here! Look at you now!"

I'll post some pictures when we've got it finished (hopefully next week), if all goes to plan- it rarely does!