Although we work in a primarily play-based environment, sometimes our activities and our days can lack lustre and excitement. You can feel it when your team has almost run out of enthusiasm and you can see some of the same ideas being reworked.
Recently, I’ve been challenging my practitioners to ‘make nursery work fun’.
The challenge I set practitioners was to simply think about ways to really rejuvenate their practice, make activities that they were not only excited to teach but were relevant and created enthusiastic learners. Using the principle “if you’re bored, they’re bored”, I sent the practitioners off to come back with plans and ideas that would give our practice a shot adrenaline. I was excited to see the results.
Inspired practitioners, inspiring children
One practitioner decided that the way lunch is served was mundane, so decided to change the experience, laying the tables differently and making it seem like the children were going to a fancy restaurant. She put flowers and napkins on the table and made it a surprise for the children. The class were all so excited and thought that they had been invited to a party.
The practitioners noted on their reflection sheets a big change in behaviour, with children much calmer and controlled. However, they also decided that this was not a long term solution but a special treat that they could use again. The main outcome was that lunch became a pleasure again and not just a chore.
Another brilliant idea came from a fairy tale week in the preschool, which had included activities about the real royal family. A practitioner had told the children that the Queen was coming to nursery. This prompted a group discussion and the children decided that they needed to make hats, invitations and a present.
The whole class enthusiastically spent the morning preparing for the royal visitor’s arrival. Later, the practitioners changed the room around, laid a red carpet, made a throne and set up for a tea party (yes, the children love a party!). A member of staff dressed up as a Queen and made her grand arrival to the children, who did their bows and curtseys.
The questions the children asked were amusing, to say the least, and I honestly do not know who had more fun, the children or the adults.
Infectious early years enthusiasm
I could go on with recent ideas that have revitalised the class, from making a role play area that looked like an amazing castle, to an experiment that led to the creation of a new type of messy play (yeast playdough anyone?), to the simple exercise of taking the children on a shopping trip to buy ice cream. It’s been lovely to simply see practitioners laugh and smile more often and just see the enjoyment of doing something that they love as equally as the children. The enthusiasm is infectious.
So why don’t you take up the challenge? Plan something you know will strike a chord with the children and throw yourself into it!
Heather Stallard
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I saw the yeast play-dough. It looked like a LOT of fun and a whole lot more mess!