East London baby and kids' classes boosting expression through play.
What happens in class?
Part 1 : Sounds
This part is all about showing the little ones how to experiment with their breath, voice-box and mouth, working towards ease in pronunciation. We play around with a consonant sound, blending it with vowels and bouncing it around until we are ready to build a word with it.
Silliness rating : extreme silly
Part 2 : Words
Next, we focus on teaching vocabulary. With a mixture of group and parent-to-child activities we teach the concept and meaning of two functional words, and then we play together whilst modelling them in different contexts.
Silliness rating : medium silly
Part 3 : Stories
We read a picture book whilst we explore a sprinkling of a natural texture like leaves or sand. This part of the class is about enjoying a story together, and practicing being part of an audience.
Silliness rating : mild silly
Extra info...
In each session of the 6-week schedule, we also work on:
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Introduction to phonics - We see a letter-shape and sing about its name, and what it "says".
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Natural textures - We play with a different texture each week which might be flowers, soil, leaves or sand.
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We use at least one sensory regulation strategy in each session. My favourite part is giving everyone a full 3 minutes relaxing to gentle music whilst we slow the babies' heart-rates down before the story.
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The activities in class flow from stimulating to regulating and back again with the aim of supporting their concentration. We try to strip away distractions and carefully transition from one task to another.
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Emotional literacy - the ability to identify and label emotions.
