At Tops Day Nurseries we strongly support the learning and development of children and so preparing them for school. We would like to share with you some examples of the activities we have on offer across the settings to help children develop their literacy skills.
Recently, Tops Newport have created a story area in the garden. They have recycled bottles and placed a book inside each of them before hanging them on the trees outside allowing the children to access them; this has created a new exciting way of displaying books. They have also produced a weaving area with lots of different coloured ribbons available for the children to weave through the gaps of the trees. The nursery based at the Isle of Wight College have also made puppets and scenarios based on the children’s favourite books so they can use the props to act out the story.
One week, the nursery had a dinosaur theme. An activity was set up with different letters written on ‘dinosaur eggs’ 
and the children were asked to find their ‘special letters’ that spell out their names.
The pre-school children at Tops Boscombe had lots of fun using their imagination when writing their own stories. A ‘self-registration’ area was set up for the children so they have to look for their name peg on the string, and then place their name on to the tree. The children have the opportunity to practice writing their name on the whiteboard, which is a great activity that helps promote the children’s independence and writing skills in preparation for school.
Every Child a Talker (ECaT) is a national project to develop the language and communication of children from birth to five years of age. The project was set up after concern about the high levels of ‘language impoverishment’ in the UK, and how this affects children’s progress in school and chances in life. Explorer’s at Tops Poole’s Every Child’s A Talker (ECAT) focus is Painting. Painting gives the children endless opportunities to extend their vocabulary from learning to describe the feel of the paint to labelling different colours. Practitioners are also providing physical opportunities to build on their hand-eye co-ordination and moving from a palmar grasp to an early tripod grasp.
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