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Yoga
Yoga and mindfulness provides so many benefits including supporting learning, healing, stress release and everyday life. We encourage the children to use different yoga movements which enable them to see changes through noticing and controlling their breath; moving and resting their body; and developing an awareness of the mind’s chitter chatter through meditation and mindful practices. By taking part in yoga classes, children develop important inter and personal characteristics. A regular yoga practice offers effective help for learning disorders, hyperactivity, stress and exercise!
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A love for Languages
Italian with Fiore provides an opportunity to learn a new language and understand about a different language used in the world. The children engage with open singing and story telling, in Italian that they can join in with and learn new words from. Fiore, our talented Italian practitioner who originates from Urbanya in Italy provides age appropriate sessions for the children across the setting to join in with each week.
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Funky Fitness
‘Funky Fitness’ movement sessions are an opportunity for children to move their bodies and enjoy a physical development activity to move, stretch and exercise their bodies. The children join in a range of different Funky Fitness sessions that cover different topics such as balancing, dancing, movement and yoga. An opportunity for the children to engage with a different experience alongside their peers, moving to the music.
Exercise can be anything that makes children’s breathing faster and their heart beat quicker. Health benefits for children can include development of healthy bones, muscles and joints. Support their coordination, strength and muscle control will improve. Exercise will also mean their brain will develop vital connections, leading to improved concentration and thinking skills.
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Sign and Explore
Many children’s understanding develops ahead of their speech and using signing can help empower them to express what they want to say and ease communication frustration. Symbols can be used to support communication in many different ways. Children sing and sign sessions are usually music and rhyme based, with a focus on encouraging children signing in response to known and repeated words and phrases.
Messy Play
Messy play is important for young children just as much as it is a lot of fun, giving them endless ways to develop and learn. All types of play are crucial for children’s development and early learning. We ensure that play gives children the opportunities they need to improve their physical skills and co-ordination, work co-operatively and collaboratively, use all their senses to discover and explore their environment, as well as develop their imagination, creative thinking and ability to problem solve. Playing with toys alone can limit opportunities to develop imagination, creativity and critical thinking. Messy play is open-ended and children discover an enormous range of opportunities for learning and play, through timeless and accessible messy play activities.
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Outdoors
The outdoors is the very best place for pre-schoolers to practice and master emerging physical skills. It is in the outdoors that children can fully and freely experience motor skills like running, leaping, and jumping. It is also the most appropriate area for the practice of ball-handling skills, like throwing, catching, and striking. And children can perform other such manipulative skills as pushing a swing, pulling a wagon, and lifting and carrying movable objects. We do all of this and more in our specialist Forest School too. There are some really interesting statistics around outdoor play here at www.loveoutdoorplay.net. Did you know that 99% of parents (of 5-6 yr olds) think that children are better behaved in lessons if they are allowed to play at break time?
