A day of progress

We arrived early for Day Care today to continue to role model setting up provocations. We were delighted to see the tables already outside with children sat around them all waving with huge grins when they saw us. It is such a warm feeling knowing we have made bonds with all the children and they get so excited when they see us, its really going to be hard to say goodbye next week!
Teacher Selvin was just setting up the table for the children with provocations, with this we hurried over and helped her continue. Some of the older children were inside and younger ones outside as we got told today the older ones (3-4 years) had exams today!! We were very curious to see what these exams entailed as we were surprised at this age they would be taking them. There exams were to start at 9.30, so we continued our free flow and provocations with the children until then.
Some of the children moved from each table exploring the things that were displayed, once again water play was a huge hit, and we are now thinking we really need to invest in water aprons here :-).
Exams started for the older Day Care children and one by one each child went to Teacher Celin whom had a piece of paper for each individual child and they had to say the pictures/ letters in English to her. This consisted of every day life things like car, cup, apple, sun and letters a,b,c,d,e. She ticked them as the child said it correctly. The exam finished in time for snack time which today we had outside. It was lovely sitting outside as there is so much space and it was nice and cool. At snack time the older children go and get their bags and get their own snack brought in from home (the school does not provide snacks, just lunch). We noticed that their bags are all piled in a corner or on one of the beds so after seeing this we asked James and Alice if we could provide some hooks for the children belongings (like our peg trolleys in Yellow Dot) so that each child can feel valued and have a sense of belonging. This also provides them with more responsibility as they are able to collect and return their their belongings as they need to. We found 2 planks of wood within the school playground and we will provide some hooks for them by the end of the week.
The builder Ben came to measure up a lockable cupboard for all the resources too today and we have asked if that could be made by the time we leave so we can help Teacher Selvin and Teacher Celin organise the cupboard so it provides free access for the children throughout each day.
Before lunch time we encouraged the Teachers to engage children in rings games so that someone was able to set up the lunch time tables. The children love rings games and will play for hours here, its a great social interaction had by all. Lunch time is going really well and we think we have pretty much mastered it!
Over the next couple of days we will be visiting the Day Care's routine to set a structured routine for the Teachers and children and support the transition times. We will also be visiting the WOW factor, Values and Schema's with the Teachers to help them understand each individual child and how they learn and how this can be supported through play.
Tonight we are off out for dinner, we think we have eaten the hotel menu twice over already (its not a very big choice of menu). James and Alice will be joining us to talk about future progression for the school.