Honey Bees - 3 years

Honey Bees

What to expect when you first visit the pre-school room

The environment

Colourful, attractive and stimulating.  Walls are decorated with colourful displays, including examples of the children's work connected with the current topic. Interest tables, or nature tables, are available at child height, with properly labelled objects for children to handle and explore.

The staff

Between the ages of 2 to 5 the ratio of staff to children is one to eight. Beehive Kindergarten staff are experienced and trained to deliver the Foundation Stage Areas of Learning.

All Beehive Supervisors are qualified to NNEB, DCE or NVQ3 standard and have experience of working with children aged up to eight years.

We are fortunate to have a pianist among our staff and at least half an hour each session is devoted to music, song, dance or joining in with the children's musical instruments. It seems that in some areas the old traditional nursery rhymes (our childhood heritage) are being allowed to die out, so we are doing our best to keep them alive. We also endevour to practice Manx songs/rhymes and other songs/rhymes in foreign languages.

The routine

Beehive Kindergarten Early Years Curriculum for under-fives includes every activity that takes place in pre-school.

From the moment children arrive; there will be a real choice of activities set out with materials that vary throughout the year.

The Honey Bees have a large range of resources set out in an attractive and varied way.

They will always include:
• Sand and water
• Book corner
• Role Play area
• Writing table
• Maths area
• Outdoor play
• Art and Craft section
• Construction area
• Small World toys
• Science area
• Music

Children will learn through a combination of planned activities, play and first hand experiences.

Preparing your child for infant school

Together, we will work to fully prepare your child for the challenges of infant school.

• We provide a safe, happy, play-based environment in which your child can learn to socialise and gain independence outside the family.  

• Our planning and record keeping refers to the Foundation Stage curriculum, which merge in to the National Curriculum at Key Stage 1 in Primary School.

• By close observation and continual assessment, we can identify any special problems a child has, so these can be addressed before they start school. (Progress report)

• We prepare children for the routines of a school day.

• We encourage children to become independent, and to develop their social skills by communicating and sharing with others.

• The Beehive maintains close relationships with local schools, and can provide information for parents about schools in your area.

Learning

Our Early Years Curriculum provides a framework to ensure that each child receives the best quality care and education for every aspect of their development. This will be achieved through a combination of planned activities, learning through play and first hand experiences.

Each child will have the opportunity to:

• Play as a member of a group in a secure and stimulating environment
• Talk and listen to adults and children
• Begin to enjoy early mathematical experiences
• Become self confident and have a good self image
• Run and play with others outside
• Be caring towards other people
• Respect the environment
• Enjoy using colour and making things
• Enjoy listening to and making music
• Test out ideas and discover how things work
• Express his or her own feelings
• Begin to understand right from wrong.

Early Learning Goals

From the ages of 3-5 all children at The Beehive follow our own Early Years Curriculum, the key principles of which are drawn from the Foundation Stage of education, a distinct stage with its own 'Early Learning Goals'.

This prepares them for the work on the National Curriculum at Key Stage 1 at Primary School, and creates a secure foundation for later learning, both in school and beyond.

The Early Learning Goals are a series of aims within six areas of a child's development and learning:

1. Personal, social and emotional development, which focuses on children learning how to work, play, co-operate with others and become more independent in a group other than the family.

2. Communication, language and literacy, covering communication with one another and developing skills in speaking, listening, writing and reading.

3. Mathematical development, using ideas relating to number, quantity, measurement, shape and space to gain basic mathematical skills.

4. Knowledge and understanding of the world, where children investigate and begin to understand the things, places and people around them.

5. Physical development, relating to improving control and co-ordination of their bodies.

6. Creative development, where children find ways to communicate using colour, shape, sound, texture, movement and stories.

Although the formal and planned part of the children's day is particularly concerned with these areas of learning, the informal part is just as important - talking to adults, eating meals together and playing outside all make up part of the curriculum because they all include learning.

Developmental Stages

Most children should achieve the Early Learning Goals in the Foundation Stage by the end of the reception year. However, a number of our children will achieve some goals by the time they leave pre-school. Our longer term objectives are to prepare children to be able to read a simple text, write simple sentences under pictures and write numerals correctly by the time they have completed their first year at school. However, our close observation of the children and accurate and individual record keeping helps us to monitor each child's progress and provide an appropriate programme of play and activities for your child's needs. We can then provide extra help for children who may need it, and provide new challenges for those who have already reached their goals.

Early learning goals for this age group include:

• Being sensitive to the needs and feelings of others
• Dressing and undressing on their own
• Being able to handle and read books correctly
• Understanding the concept of a word
• Experimenting with and experiencing numbers from 1 to 10
• Understanding their own writing as a means of communication
• Knowing how simple objects work - wind up, switch or battery
• Distinguishing between sea and land on a map
• Using vocabulary associated with the passing of time - yesterday, tomorrow, last week, a long time ago
• Having an awareness of the cultures and beliefs of others
• Jumping and landing safely from low apparatus
• Playing and clapping a steady rhythm

Children With Different Needs

Children with special needs will find themselves a respected and valued member at the Beehive. They follow the same curriculum, but with all the extra help they need to learn at their own pace. Other children in their company will be encouraged to help but not patronise them, and to be understanding without being over protective. Activities will be structured to allow them to be as fully involved as possible.

Honey Bees Routine

8.00 We welcome the children as they arrive at the nursery and encourage them in various 'settling' activities such as jigsaws, games, home corner, dressing up, sand and water

9.00 Circle time, the children have a chance to take part in speaking and listening activities to help them develop their social skills. We explain to the children what they will be doing throughout the day and what they will learn.

9.30 Activities We go into the garden with the children for outside activities.

Activity time for the Foundation Stage Curriculum. We interact and help the children as they take part in Early Years' play activities, including practical early mathematics, pre-reading skills and computer work

10.30 We all join in with rhymes, songs and music, we go to the toilet and wash our hands

11.00 Everyone sits down to a nutritious and tasty lunch

12.00 We go into the garden with the children for outside activities

The children take part in practical activities in order to develop their creative skills and their understanding of the world

2.30 We work with the children to help them stretch their imaginations with creative activities, stories and singing

3.00 Tea time

4.00 Circle time, the concluding session of the day in which we give children opportunities to encourage independence, as well as personal and social development. As parents arrive, we give them informal feedback on their child's activities during the day

6.00 Beehive closes for the day

Weekly Activities

All areas of the curriculum are covered by our activities every day, often with a particular focus on one of them.

Because we recognise that young children do not learn in tidy subjects, we believe that the most effective way of learning is through a topic. Each topic is carefully planned to cover all the six areas of learning in order to meet the requirements of the Early Learning Goals.

Throughout the year, activities are linked with special days, such as Christmas, Easter, Mothering Sunday and Bonfire Night. We also celebrate festivals from other countries and cultures, like the Chinese New Year, giving the children an opportunity to learn about other cultures and even to cook the food they eat. Close observation and knowledge of the children means that we can tailor activities to meet the needs of each different child.

Daily topic-related activities are chosen from the wide resources available in all our Kindergarten:

• Sand and water
• Imaginary play
• Art and Craft
• Construction building
• Outdoor play
• Small world toys
• Music and movement
• Maths
• Science and Technology
• Writing
• Cooking
• Computer
• Physical play

As well as the range of activities we offer each day, children at the Beehive have the opportunity to go out in our Bumble busses on visits to:

• Farm
• Cooil Ny Marrey residential home to deliver harvest baskets to the elderly
• Wildlife Park
• The Beach
• Onchan pleasure park
• We also sometimes get visitors coming to us, such as:
• Visits from police and firemen

Monitoring Progress

At the Beehive parents can expect various reports on their child's progress. The main one is the ongoing Progress Report, but we also provide a variety of other regular formal and informal feedback to you:

By keeping regular written reports of each child's activities and progress and sharing these with the parent, we can identify each child's needs and what learning activities should be available to them.

Progress Report

Every child at The Beehive has a Progress Report, covering every aspect of his/her intellectual, physical and social development. Progress reports are updated every four weeks, giving staff the opportunity to gear activities to the needs and abilities of individual children. Progress reports are always available for parents to look at.

The Progress report highlights various milestones in a child's development. It gives staff as well as parents the opportunity to chart the progress of a child as well as helping to identify any area where further support may be required.

Typical milestone events for Honey Bee's include: 

Play & Cognitive Skills

· Uses language in imaginative play
· Engages in detailed conversations
· Plays with other children, makes up games
· Remembers recent events and recalls important past events
· Improves with the game of memory

Language & Speech Skills

· Child may stutter*
· Understands concepts hard/soft, rough/smooth, front/back
· Answers question forms, "What do you do when you're hungry? Sleepy?"
· Asks many who, what, where, why questions
· Uses four- to five-word sentences most of the time
· Imitates whispering
· Relates two events in correct sequential order
· Completes simple verbal opposites
· Uses verb forms is, am, are
· Uses possessives ("mummy's car")

Fine & Gross Motor Skills

· Manipulates a wind up toy
· Cuts along a straight line
· Draws a cross and a square
· Traces simple lines and designs
· Begins to cut out circles
· Removes clothes completely
· Puts on own socks and shoes
· Washes and dries hands with little help
· Rides a tricycle 10 feet
· Stands on one foot for 5 seconds
· Jumps forward 30 inches
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