Rainbow Shelfie – Feelings & Independence

Feelings and Emotions

If you’ve followed our shelfies over the last couple of weeks you’ll know that we’ve decided to have a dedicated shelf for supporting feelings and activities to help bring about a little calm.

Shelfie - early years - toddler play - Preschooler - Grimms - Grapat - Eric&Albert - books - stories  - Wooden Toys - Construction - Stacking- Mindfulness - Puzzles - Colours - Rainbow - Matching - Language - Words - Loose Parts - Farm Animals- Stories  - Mushrooms - Story Stones  - Small World - Feelings - Emotions - Number - numeracy - Books - Stories - Hape - Grimms

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All children are unique, playing and learning in their own way. Some children are happy to dive in and explore in their own way and others are more cautious and reticent. Floss is more often the later. It’s important that we observe little ones closely to see how they like to play and learn, so that we can provide the right environment through nurture and resourcing. Floss prefers to watch and study others from a distance, she’s cautious – risk-averse, thinks deeply and likes to take her time to make a judgment and respond.  In play she predominantly joins in with a familiar adult or child when ready and replicates what she has seen.

Courage and Independence

Independence in thoughts and/ or actions isn’t something that always comes naturally to children. Allowing them the time to play as they feel comfortable builds confidence. Recently, Floss has been showing us her developing independence through her play. She’s still cautious and considered, but now is starting to find her own new ways to play with familiar resources and initiates play more frequently on her own. The modelling she watched to start (from us, other adults and peers), selecting, using and changing play has helped to give her the courage to play in her own way and be resilient when faced with challenges.

Increasingly, stacking, sorting, puzzles and books are all things that Floss is enjoying more independently. Some of the resources are very familiar to her from play together and others not so much. We’re really looking forward to seeing where she takes her play this week – we’re so lucky to have this front row seat!

What’s On Our Feelings Shelfie?

It could be because our whole household had to go gluten free, but the Grimms Rainbow is really reminding us of a croissant right now! Have you seen the book ‘Mirror’ before? Jeannie Baker is one of my favourite authors, her books are so cleverly thought out. This book has a left and right side that are meant to be read simultaneously. It’s beautifully illustrated and shows us the lives of two boys – one living in Australia and one in Morocco. It’s a must read book! The story and nursery cubes are a custom order from the lovely Sian at Story Props.

Books and Bobbins

We’ve chosen two books from the ‘That’s not my…’ Usborne collections as they are great for independent exploration and give an excellent sensory experience. ‘That’s not my puppy…’ and ‘That’s not my unicorn’ are two of the favourites. The Grimms Large Bobbin set is an activity that Floss has always been quite rigid with, the colours go on the matching pegs and that’s that. However, I’m interested to see if her new feelings of freedom in play mean these may be used in a different way. Are there any toys that your little ones will only use one way?

Feelings Eggs

These feelings eggs from Hape are such a fantastic resource. They get used as small world play, but are so helpful when helping Floss to understand how she and others are feeling. The book, ‘How Are You Feeling Today?’ is a lovely way of talking about why you might be feeling a particular way and helping little ones see that it’s OK to have a range of feelings.

Another Hape puzzle – shape sorter. This one is great for learning about size and colour. Using a separate tray for the pieces is more inviting than leaving the puzzle complete. This puzzle allows for self correction of shape, but gives freedom on how you organise the pieces either by colour or size. 

Shelfie - early years - toddler play - Preschooler - Grimms - Grapat - Eric&Albert - books - stories  - Wooden Toys - Construction - Stacking- Mindfulness - Puzzles - Colours - Rainbow - Matching - Language - Words - Loose Parts - Farm Animals- Stories  - Mushrooms - Story Stones  - Small World - Feelings - Emotions - Number - numeracy - Books - Stories - Hape - Grimms

Floss loves building and knocking things down. These are the Grimms Pebbles and Mushrooms. We really enjoy playing with her as we all do this together or watching her as she begins to do this independently. We love the noises that she makes as she stacks higher and higher; she’s equally as thrilled at stacking as with the tumbling. The squeals of delight and the pause in her breath as she waits to see if the tower will hold firm or fall makes us smile every time. What is it that has your little one squealing with delight?

You might be interested in this post about feelings – click here.

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