Finger Gym – The Happy Learner

Christmas Fine Motor Skills Ideas

Sophie — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 22:14:53 +0000

I do love this time of year. The children are excited with the anticipation of Father Christmas visiting, the joy of watching the school nativity and lots of opportunities for arts and crafts and baking- what’s not to love? Well I am ignoring the stress of getting organised, making sure the right presents are bought, …

Christmas Fine Motor Skills Ideas Read More »

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. …

Autumn and Halloween Learning Adventures Read More »

Spellings!

Sophie — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 21:09:30 +0000

It has been a while since I have blogged due to a very busy summer. Isabel finished her chemotherapy, which was very exciting. Nick has been busy training for the ‘Ride across Britain’ bike ride from Land’s end to John O’Groats, which he completed last week. A gruelling 980 mile ride in all weathers over …

Spellings! Read More »

Phonics Through Play

Sophie — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 11:19:35 +0000

It has been a very busy few weeks leading up to the end of term so I haven’t had much time to blog. Luckily we have been playing lots of games at home so I have quite a lot to blog about. Something that has been brought to my attention a lot recently has been …

Phonics Through Play Read More »

Easter Themed Finger Gym Activities

Sophie Calienda — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 19:22:35 +0000

Continuing with the Easter theme we have been enjoying some finger gym activities over the last couple of days. Building and strengthening the muscles in children’s fingers are essential for them to hold a pencil in the future, and for older children like Isabel it is important for them to keep exercising those muscles just …

Easter Themed Finger Gym Activities Read More »

Easter Themed Maths Ideas

Sophie Calienda — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 20:23:36 +0000

With Easter approaching (and this year it seems to be taking forever) we have been taking advantage of all the Easter themed items available to develop our mathematical thinking. I read a quote yesterday which said that to learn something new it takes between 100-200 repetitions but when it is done through play it takes …

Easter Themed Maths Ideas Read More »

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 …

Valentine’s day special – maths and sensory play Read More »

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 …

Games for spellings and more phonics fun Read More »

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 …

Our Top 5 Accidentally Educational Fun Games! Read More »

Christmas phonics games

Sophie Calienda — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 21:38:59 +0000

With Christmas rapidly approaching I thought I would share some of my favourite Christmas phonics games with you. These games help to practise either individual phonics sounds or CVC words. They can also be adapted if you have children working on different phonics phases. These ideas have all been tried and tested on either my …

Christmas phonics games Read More »

Finger Gym Activities – what are they and how do they work?

Sophie Calienda — Wed, 09 May 2018 20:07:36 +0000

I’ve decided to share finger gym activities today as they have been a big focus in our house for the last couple of weeks. Finger gym are games and activities that help children to develop their fine motor skills and exercises the muscles in the fingers and hands that are used when writing. The activities …

Finger Gym Activities – what are they and how do they work? Read More »

Halloween

Sophie Calienda — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 21:10:12 +0000

As it was Halloween yesterday I thought I would share some of the things we did together. Our girls are not into anything remotely scary so everything we did was very gentle. This was the first time we had done anything other than carve a pumpkin and the girls really enjoyed themselves. The first thing …

Halloween Read More »