Children sitting for too long
Have realistic expectations of how long children can sit and engage and hold attention for. Longer than 10 minutes is likely to be too long. Where children are engaged and interacting then 15 minutes may be manageable. If children are struggling, change your plan rather than trying to ‘force’ the focused activity (eg – circle time, carpet time etc). Try to bring children together for ‘carpet’ or circle times – where they all have to join in for no more than twice daily.
Thursday afternoons
No organisation of space should happen while children are awake. Staff’s time must be 100% focused on the children and there should always be engaging opportunities to support children’s attention.
Take out all the furniture (to the garden) and set out the chairs in a circle whilst the children are sleeping. Set the room up for a full blown ‘Heuristic Play’ session. Create a ‘basket’ with everything that will be needed for Shabbat Shalom (table cloth, candles, wine, cups etc).
After children wake up on Thursdays, they can play outside on things that have been set up on the tables, or in the Heuristic play room. As it becomes time to start the Shabbat Shalom ceremony, pack up the Heuristic play (no more than 5 minutes before the ceremony starts), roll up the carpet and lay out a tray of fruit in the middle of the floor. Invite children to gather round.
As the parents then come in – children can join them with ‘fruit-in-hand’.
Use of large swimming pool
The sides can be held up with sensory bottles in a circle. Inside this large swimming pool will be where ‘messy play’ takes place from now on – if its scheduled to be outside. This will mean that children can be freer with how they use the materials within a more confined space.
Afternoon Fruit Time
The snack table will be ‘flowing’ children will roll in and out. The table will be open from when they wake up until 3:40. Children will usually only visit the table for snack once, although you may exercise some flexibility. Children will usually spend around 10 – 13 minutes only at the table. Staff will warn the children “You take one more piece before you go off to play… what will you choose – oooooh! The peach – great choice!”
ONE table in the kitchen (far table) will be dedicated to fruit – whilst the other table will have play animals out on it, with a range of ‘adventure’ materials (such as leaves and stalks from the cauliflower).
Sensory Tray
On Mondays and Wednesday mornings, this will now be inside, and to the left of the doors (where the magnet board is). The rug and furniture will be moved outside for that morning. It will contain a nice range of real sensory things. The doors will be shut, so the sensory materials are very likely to be well contained. When the sensory trays are outside, they will be used for physical play, and the plastic boxes removed.
Boundaries and Bahaviour management
Focus on the positive always; reinforce when children are doing things well – use specific praise (eg ‘Well done Tamir for waiting your turn”, “Thank you Kfir for picking up the paper”. Use the firm “NO biting!” for biting, and turn around. Try to understand the context for children’s behaviour; and remember children will communicate with their bodies when their language is limited. Play cues might take inappropriate forms, like pushing other children. Try to stay positive, and refocus children and demonstrate how to initiate play with others in more appropriate ways. Try to eliminate opportunities for fighting over materials or resources by ensuring that there are enough to go round, or there is a pre-established turn taking system (like writing names on the chalk board for taking turns on the Bimbas). If children are struggling with their behaviour in a particular space, try resettling them in a different area, and provide more focused adult attention to support them. Ensure that there is consistency across the team; you do this by talking and communicating with each other, and telling other staff about action you have taken.
Shoes
Children can wear their gan shoes if they wish or remove them, and put them in the special shoe box. If children remove their socks, they should keep them in their drawer.
Leaving the lunch table
If children wish to leave the lunch table too quickly (within 5 minutes of being seated), our new policy is to encourage them once to try more food. When children are ready to leave the table, and have eaten, they should wash their hands, face as soon as they’re ready, and then head off to bed. It will be a trickle trickle approach, rather than large numbers of children at a time.
Waking up from sleep
Emma has quite rightly identified that children need to rest of a significant period after lunch, and even if they wake up early, they should spend time until 1:45 resting. The staff member in the sleep room will encourage children to return to sleep/rest before this time. Avoiding conversation and eye contact, and recovering children with the blanket and reminding them firmly (but in a nurturing and caring voice) that its still rest time, with a little pat to the back, will help them resettle.
Story Time – End of day
The end of the day is for a story, not to repeat or replay a circle time. Red and Blue group should be situated with one staff member in one room, and Yellow and Green in the other room with a different team member (this will always be pre-decided and announced by the team leader– so that they can properly prepare their story). Of the other three staff; one will go immediately outside and prepare the garden with the buggies, the other two will help settle the children, and then leave to the garden to greet the parents and come in/out to get the children.
4:00 – 4:05 – Settle the children. Children will be seated in a circle and will each get a scooped cup of raisins.
4:05 – 4:15 – The practitioner will read a story to the children while they eat their raisins
*** Staff from outside, will slip in from the outside doors in each room, and quietly and gently pick out the children as their parents arrive, in a way which does not interrupt the story***
4:15 – 4:25 – remaining children will have THREE baskets in each room, in the middle of the carpet, and children will choose from the baskets and play with the things on the carpet. They will also be books available.
4:25 – Any remaining children will be taken outside, and get their bags, and other items so that they can leave immediately as their parents arrive. And Late children will remain inside and play.