Communication – The Happy Learner

Autumn and Halloween Learning Adventures

Sophie — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 21:18:50 +0000

It is that spooky time of year again and love it or hate it the children are certainly interested and want to get involved. We don’t do anything remotely scary as the children are very sensitive, but we do read our favourite books ‘Room on the Broom’ and ‘Pumpkin Soup’ and base activities around these. …

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Why we love jigsaw puzzles!

Sophie — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 20:41:12 +0000

The humble jigsaw puzzle can be largely under rated but we absolutely love them in our house. As with all things the children go through phases with them, but I would say each child will complete at least one jigsaw puzzle a week. They help to develop such a wide range of skills and a …

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Children Take Over The Weekly Shop!!!

Sophie Calienda — Mon, 06 May 2019 13:00:25 +0000

I have been thinking about letting the children take over the weekly shop for a while and during the Easter holidays a conversation started over breakfast about what they would like to eat, which turned into what they would put on their own shopping list. It started to develop into meal planning and so I …

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5 Quick and Easy Role Play Ideas

Sophie Calienda — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 20:33:24 +0000

Role Play is one of our favourite things to do at home. We have spent hours and hours as different characters and in different scenarios and to be honest that ability to disappear into a different world has definitely helped Isabel through some lengthy hospital stays. Role play helps to support children to work through …

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Valentine’s day special – maths and sensory play

Sophie Calienda — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 21:45:09 +0000

Valentine’s day is arriving and there are hearts everywhere so I thought it would be a good way to incorporate some maths games and sensory play. We have had a lot of fun with these games and love is definitely in the air now! Sensory Tray Resources: Coloured rice, coloured oats, range of red items …

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Games for spellings and more phonics fun

Sophie Calienda — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 21:22:37 +0000

Since the last blog I have been working pretty much full time so it has been hard to fit in all the normal day to day bits as well blogging, but luckily things are now back to normal and back to part time work so I get more time to explore games and try them …

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Our Top 5 Accidentally Educational Fun Games!

Sophie Calienda — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 22:20:46 +0000

It is that funny week between Christmas and New Year when nobody has a clue what day it is. We have also been in semi hibernation because of a chicken pox outbreak (it is very dangerous for Isabel to catch while she is still on treatment) so there have been lots of opportunities to play …

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Initial sound phonics games

Sophie Calienda — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 22:13:09 +0000

It has been a little while since I last blogged, mainly due to me preparing for a phonics information session with parents at school. So I thought it would be good to share some of the games and activities on here. Most children will now have learnt most of the phase 2 sounds which is …

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Problem Solving Maths Activities during the summer holidays

Sophie Calienda — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 20:49:07 +0000

We have been having a lot of fun over the last week, either staying at home or out and about. I wanted to put together some of the maths activities we have been doing that focus on problem solving. Isabel is really keen to count and is interested in numbers, but problem solving is a …

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Summer Holidays Reading- Fun reading activities to keep children interested and motivated to read

Sophie Calienda — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 20:50:45 +0000

This week we are focusing on reading. We have had lots of fun with books and some phonics games to keep Isabel interested in reading and also motivated to read. The summer holidays can be long and as children do not get any school reading books for the summer, it can be a long time …

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Summer holiday support – fun ideas for writing

Sophie Calienda — Sun, 22 Jul 2018 20:22:06 +0000

The long summer holidays are here and while the children are looking forward to their well deserved rest I know that many of us parents are wondering how we are going to fill all those days. As a teacher I know that the long summer holidays are needed for the children to rest and recuperate, …

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Learning the days of the week – Early foundations for telling the time

Sophie Calienda — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 19:45:05 +0000

The last couple of weeks have been all about the days of the week. It started with Megan randomly saying the day such as “is it Wednesday? Is it nursery day?” She then started singing a days of the week song which they had been learning at nursery. A few days later we went to …

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Recognising your name – great play ideas for pre-schoolers

Sophie Calienda — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 19:40:02 +0000

I haven’t written a blog for a little while, we have been struck down with a sickness bug that has slowly worked it’s way around us. Nick and Charlie seem to have escaped this round so hopefully we are all back to normal for now. Its always a bit worrying when we have an illness …

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The Royal Wedding! More Finger Gym and Emergent Writing

Sophie Calienda — Fri, 18 May 2018 11:32:50 +0000

The Royal Wedding is happening on 19th May and Isabel is very very excited about it (they have been learning about it in school.) We have been doing some activities in the lead up to it and I suspect her interest will go up even further once we have seen the wedding on Saturday. As …

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Alien words and slime!

Sophie Calienda — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 20:27:50 +0000

Isabel has been wanting to make slime for a while, but I haven’t been organised enough to buy the borax needed for normal slime. I found a recipe that used shampoo instead and so we gave it a go! The recipe we used was: Put 1/2 cup shampoo and 1/4 cup of cornstarch in a …

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Easter Phonics Ideas

Sophie Calienda — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 21:00:02 +0000

I am excited about this post as we have really enjoyed these activities in the lead up to Easter and I can see us continuing playing them long after Easter has finished. The games focus on identifying long vowel sounds and blending letter sounds to make a word. A friend recently asked me for ideas …

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