Term 3; week 7 & 8

We have had a busy couple of weeks at Kidsize and as always our Kidsizers have been having fun, making friends and learning more. This is in line with our aims and objectives for Kidsize and we are proud to say that we see the children fulfilling them with our support daily. Some parents may have noticed this policy has been our policy of the month and that we provided an opportunity for feedback on this at pick up and drop off. We always value your feedback and we try our absolute best to take on board everything our children and parents suggest and ask for.

We have been doing a lot of cooking during this term which the children have been very enthusiastically involved in. So far we have made things like hummus, pasta, mini pizzas, tacos etc which you may have seen from previous weeks posts. At Kidsize we are committed to children's choice being incorporated into snack time. We have created a 'cooking box' solely purposed for the children to have everything they need to cook the snack option of choice for the week. We have also purchased a variety of safe knives that the children can use independently which provides them with the opportunity to self-serve snack. This allows the children to learn the important skill of handling knives safely. We also encourage the children to share their opinions regarding their snack experience and love when they ask for new snack options, this is something we always try to provide.

At Kidsize we love seeing the children play together and we have noticed the benefits from the opportunity the children have to interact and play together at club. When the children at club make friends and have fun together they are learning important social skills which will help them in the future. Children can learn how to share, be kind and work together which we can support through the activities we provide at club. Sometimes children bring toys from their homes which they can share with other children at club encouraging important interactions.

At club we always provide the opportunity for children to do their homework with support from our staff if it's required. As the children have reached the middle of this term they have been receiving plenty of homework which may be challenging them further. We have encouraged our Kidsizers to make the most of being able to complete their homework at club. We use a homework chat to provide an incentive to do their homework. Once a child completes their homework they are able to put a sticker on the chart with the date. The child with the most stickers on the chart by the end of the term receives a prize for all their hard work.

We have also been doing even more fun and engaging activities for our term topic 'Me and my body.' Recently our Kidsizers loved a blood and plasma experiment. Our Kidsizers filled a plastic bottle with water and a couple drops of yellow food colouring to represent plasma. They then added red blood cells which consisted of cheerios dyed with red food colouring. After this also turned the plasma red they added mini marshmallows to represent white blood cells and purple pompoms to represent platelets. This produced a gross but thrilling result for the children who gained more of an understanding of what makes up the blood that flows through their veins. We have also been testing some of our Kidsizer's senses this has conveniently tied in with some of the children's current class topic. Some of the children undertook a test regarding their hearing sense using sound cancelling headphones while a peer read a short sentence to them. The child with headphones on then had to try and lipread what their peer had said to them. This turned out to be more difficult than they thought and we discussed how important our sense of hearing is to us and how we communicate. We also tested the sense of smell at club. Some of the children smelled a variety of items while blindfolded to see if they could guess what they were. The children that smelled cinnamon tended to say that they thought it was gingerbread. This showed the children that what they associate a smell with can influence what they identify through smell if their sense of sight is compromised. We have loved seeing our Kidsizer's interest in their term topic and how much they have been learning.

With the turn of events in the world recently we have also supported our Kidsizers as they have had to adjust and take in the overwhelming information and changes to their everyday lives because of Covid-19. At Kidsize we have always implemented strict hygiene measures and all of our kidsizers understand the importance of hand washing before meals. We have also ensured that the children have been washing their hands as they come into our setting and throughout their time with us to limit any potential spread of the virus. Our Kidsizers have understandably had lots of questions regarding these uncertain times and we have done our best to answer these questions sensitively and supported the children having an understanding of the situation. Recently we carried out an experiment to demonstrate the importance of hand-washing using water, pepper and soap. The children first put ground pepper on top of the water in the bowl to represent bacteria. They then took soap on their finger and put that finger in the bowl. As soon as their finger touched the surface of the water the pepper moved away from the soap and left clean water around their finger. This helped the children see why it is important to use soap when they are washing their hands as it kills real bacteria.

We hope that all our Kidsize families are keeping safe and healthy and that our Kidsizers are working hard on their online classwork while still having fun. We look forward to welcoming you all back when this is all over.