Parenta Magazine March 2020
March is the month many of us have been waiting for since last October…the clocks ‘springing’ forward, giving us lighter evenings! This is also the time of year when people start thinking about their annual spring clean; and wanting to get rid of the old stuff in their homes and businesses. Taking part in ‘National Old Stuff Day’ on 2nd March is a great reason to get started with the spring cleaning in your setting! In Tamsin Grimmer’s article this month “Keep on talking and mind the gap”, she reveals that almost half of year one children lack the vocabulary they need to access the curriculum. Using a holistic approach, we have chosen some activities that you can implement in your setting that will help expand the children’s vocabulary, but at the same time covering many areas of learning and development in the EYFS. Have a great month and please don’t forget to put your clocks forward by one hour at 1am on Sunday 29th March! Happy reading!
March is the month many of us have been waiting for since last October…the clocks ‘springing’ forward, giving us lighter evenings!
This is also the time of year when people start thinking about their annual spring clean; and wanting to get rid of the old stuff in their homes and businesses. Taking part in ‘National Old Stuff Day’ on 2nd March is a great reason to get started with the spring cleaning in your setting!
In Tamsin Grimmer’s article this month “Keep on talking and mind the gap”, she reveals that almost half of year one children lack the vocabulary they need to access the curriculum. Using a holistic approach, we have chosen some activities that you can implement in your setting that will help expand the children’s vocabulary, but at the same time covering many areas of learning and development in the EYFS.
Have a great month and please don’t forget to put your clocks forward by one hour at 1am on Sunday 29th March!
Happy reading!
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maths. This means that the subsequent<br />
programme is full of amazingly diverse<br />
and varied events which are suitable<br />
for people of all ages and abilities,<br />
limited only by the imagination of the<br />
organisers. Thousands of people get<br />
involved every year, from teachers,<br />
parents and community groups to large<br />
organisations and industry. In 2019,<br />
there were over 82,000 downloads<br />
of the free activity packs, 700 media<br />
posts, 35,000 tweets, reaching an<br />
estimated 68.5 million people, which<br />
is approximately the number of people<br />
in the UK - so British Science Week is a<br />
big deal!<br />
How can you get involved?<br />
The BSW website has lots of<br />
information and advice on how to get<br />
involved and 3 specially designed<br />
activity packs aimed at early years<br />
pupils, primary pupils and secondary<br />
school pupils, based around the<br />
theme of ‘Our Diverse Planet’. You<br />
can download them here. There’s<br />
also a “Fun, Family Science” pack that<br />
parents, carers and grandparents can<br />
use if they want to do some science<br />
outside of an educational, nursery or<br />
school setting. And you can still access<br />
packs from previous years too, so<br />
there’s plenty to choose from.<br />
The packs include lots of activities<br />
based around the ‘Our Diverse Planet’<br />
theme, including word searches,<br />
crosswords, factsheets and colouring<br />
sheets as well as information about<br />
future career choices for older students.<br />
Science is all about experimenting,<br />
so you could also undertake a few<br />
simple experiments in your setting, or<br />
attend some organised events – the<br />
choice is yours. If you want to find out<br />
about local events in your area than<br />
you can use the Science Live area of<br />
the website or volunteer in Operation<br />
Weather Rescue, an ambitious project<br />
aimed at digitising old, handwritten<br />
weather records to preserve them.<br />
If you are organising your own event,<br />
there is a lot of information to help<br />
you as well including downloadable<br />
‘how-to’ guides, posters, logos and<br />
marketing materials. Although it may<br />
be too late for this year, small grants<br />
are available for some projects, so you<br />
can always read the funding guides<br />
and plan ahead if you’d like to apply<br />
for some funding for an event next<br />
year. Contact the organisers by email<br />
bsw@britishscienceassociation.org at<br />
any time for help too.<br />
Get your community involved<br />
We don’t often remember, but the<br />
impact of STEM is all around us and we<br />
often take it for granted without really<br />
thinking about how much science we<br />
rely on all day, every day. One way to<br />
get your children interested in science<br />
is to invite local community members<br />
into your setting to talk about or show<br />
how science has influenced them. Do<br />
you know any parents who are:<br />
• Doctors<br />
• Dentists<br />
• Nurses<br />
• Engineers<br />
• Architects<br />
• Builders<br />
• Chefs or cooks<br />
• Pharmacists<br />
• Accountants<br />
• Researchers<br />
• Data analysts?<br />
You could also partner up with your<br />
local primary school to deliver events<br />
as well which can help with crosscurricular<br />
work and forging new<br />
partnerships.<br />
Science, STEM and the EYFS<br />
There are obvious links to the EYFS<br />
when you try different STEM activities.<br />
Maths is an area of learning in its own<br />
right, but under the “Understanding the<br />
world” heading, you can do lots of STEM<br />
activities based around investigation<br />
and experimentation including growing<br />
things, building things and researching<br />
things. The internet is full of pre-school<br />
STEM activities, but we like some of the<br />
ideas here which are simple to set up<br />
and do.<br />
Some easy science<br />
experiments anyone can do<br />
You don’t need lots of money or<br />
resources either to make British<br />
Science Week fun. The website has a<br />
guide to “Science on a shoestring” for<br />
those on limited budgets, where the<br />
most important thing is to remember<br />
to have fun and be creative!<br />
Think about investigating some<br />
everyday things in your setting, and<br />
you’ll be well on the way to making<br />
British Science Week a success:<br />
• Solids, liquids and gases using ice,<br />
water and steam<br />
• Setting up a weather station<br />
• Growing some plants<br />
• Searching for mini beasts<br />
• Making slime<br />
• Working out how and why things<br />
float or sink<br />
• Growing crystals<br />
• Thinking about geology by looking<br />
at different stones<br />
• Going on a nature walk and<br />
spotting some wildlife<br />
• Building different towers to see<br />
which ones stay upright<br />
• Looking at the properties of<br />
different materials e.g. wood,<br />
cotton wool, wire<br />
• Investigating magnets<br />
parenta.com | <strong>March</strong> <strong>2020</strong> 33
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