Contrary to some rumours, today’s Paint Pots Staff Away Day was not a “jolly” or skive. We worked hard!! but also enjoyed ourselves. 

We added another ‘L’ to ‘Love, Laughter and Learning’ – Listening, to one another, to parents and to children.  Especially to children. Did you know that research shows it can take some preschool aged children up to 7 seconds to formulate a response to a question? Try it – a 7 second pause, waiting for a reply, seems like an embarassingly long time. But we need to show children that we are attentive and that what they have to say is important to us. We all agreed that Time is vital for effective listening.

G ran an excellent session on story telling, with some practical puppet making. Shame he brought a tub of liquid soap instead of glue!! but it didn’t matter.

The afternoon was given over to music, courtesy of Major-Minor Music. Mervyn, had us moving, singing, clapping, writing our own songs and playing instruments. It was very hands-on and hopefully will inspire us on to more opportunities and increased confidence in using music in our activities and routines.

Once again, we considered how rhythm, rhyme and pitch are important in developing pre-reading and language skills.     

E won star of the day award for her incredible imitation of an elephant trumpeting!!

All in all, I thought it was a good day with some positive feedback.