Category Archives: Practice
Carrot and stick?
Classroom Carrots is a ‘unique’ new app that enables teachers to ‘easily’ and ‘immediately’ reward pupils with matching virtual and physical stickers. Each student is assigned their own avatar, a computer-generated, virtual identity, and when rewards are given out teachers simply drag and drop a virtual sticker on to the relevant avatar. Immediately the pupil’s name and reward flash up on the classroom whiteboard or computer. Pupils are then given the matching physical sticker, and if requested, an email can be automatically sent to parents to keep them informed. Read More
Mud is on the menu
I’ve always watched in horror as children push handfuls of soil into their mouths while their parents turn a blind eye to their child’s new habit. The hypochondriac in me has always thought about what dangers lurk in the mud and whether they could do a child more harm than good. However could a new study by Cornell University in New York, featured in the Daily Mail, which says that eating mud or clay might even be good for children’s stomachs, be about to prove me wrong?According to the study, eating dirt may act as a shield against ingested parasites and plant toxins, as well as provide nutrients that children or adults lack such as iron, zinc or calcium. Who knew?
Prime moves
‘There is much to be proud of …’, says Dame Clare Tickell in her eagerly-awaited review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, reflecting the views of the majority of the early years sector about the current framework.
The first signs are that there is also much to be proud of in the work of Dame Clare and her review team in coming up with recommendations that can build on the successes of the EYFS so far. There are some suggestions for amendments that would be significant, without causing huge upheaval and disruption for a workforce that has faced much change and challenge in the past few years.
Tarantulas for tea
After writing several articles over the past few years on our ‘cotton wool culture’ and increasing aversion to risk, seeing some Venezuelan children go out hunting on the BBC documentary Human Planet did make me chuckle.
In the episode, entitled Trees, the children, of whom all look no older than ten, go wandering off into the jungle, without adult supervision, in search of tarantulas that they plan to eat for dinner.
Drinking responsibly
The nanny state strikes again with the news that a Hampshire children’s centre has banned parents from drinking tea or coffee because of the threat it poses to toddlers.
Apparently mums and dads attending Mill Hill Children’s centre in Waterlooville are restricted to drinking only cold drinks at the weekly sessions. The centre’s co-ordinator was quoted saying that they felt it was a sensible way of keeping children safe.
