Several times a year, we invite the children and their parents to visit us on a Saturday morning for a stay-and-play session and this Saturday was one of those workshops! We invited the parents to bring their children along for a stay-and-play session.
By inviting the parents in, they not only get to come into the classroom and see it in its full glory, but they gain an insight into what their children are doing when they are here as well as gain some ideas for how to keep their children engaged with focused activities over the weekend while also learning new skills. It is also a chance for their children to show all everything they have done! Our children were very proud to show their parents the new displays, their roleplay area, new toys, and all the wonderful artwork and activities they have been doing recently.
Our workshops consist of a wide range of activities in each classroom for the parents to enjoy with their children whilst having the staff there with them to not only explain how the activities are carried out but also to explain why we do these activities with the children and the learning outcomes we have for them. We keep in regular contact with the parents, through messages in the FamlyApp© as well as phone calls and chats at the door. These workshops give us an additional opportunity to talk to the parents in more detail about how we teach and the way we do it, as well as keeping up to date with what the children are doing at home with their families.
On Saturday morning, we set up all the classrooms and the garden with a wide range of activities, covering all areas of the EYFS to give the parents a well-rounded view of what the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum entails and how we go about implementing it daily. These activities are tailored to each classroom’s current topics and interests, all while being adaptable to the different abilities of the children. These sessions also allow the parents the chance to see their children’s classrooms as a working environment; as well as seeing how their children are and seeing their children sitting down together with their friends and families to do activities they would not be doing at home.
This Saturday, the Children, their parents, and the staff, came together to enjoy our most recent stay-and-play session. Every classroom set out activities covering the areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and explained to the parents how these areas are implemented daily in the classroom, the children also helped to demonstrate how the activities are carried out. The activities we chose to put out were related to our most recent topic: space! Some of the favorite activities of the day have been naming rockets for the children to create with their parents in the preschool room, as well as space bingo and making galactic playdough with their parents. The toddler room’s most popular activity was, setting up a table covered in planets, for the children and their parents to decorate and create their own planets, they looked amazing! And the babies loved using different coloured playdough to create their own cool planets!
We had an amazing time during our stay and play session, you could even say it was out of this world! We can’t wait to invite all the parents back for another stay-and-play session!
