Roo’s room
In Roo’s room we make sure to continue to follow home routines and make sure babies feel safe and secure in their new environment, children are loved and well cared for, the child’s experience is always central to our thinking. Toys are all at child height and accessible for children to explore which continues to help build self-confidence and independence. We use this time to play alongside children building positive key worker relationships and model cooperative play. Roo’s is a happy and exciting place for children to develop and express their individuality. We continue to help children work through big new feelings with lots of reassurance and cuddles, by modelling language associated with big feeling and by giving techniques to help manage them. We practise self-regulation and executive function skills as part of our everyday routine.
Roo’s children love singing rhymes, and we know how important this is to promote language development. We find out about children’s favourite rhymes and stories through observation and talks with parents and we often sing throughout the day encouraging children to join in with songs and rhymes, copying sounds, rhythms, tunes and tempo. We provide lots of opportunities for the children to develop use of sounds and words by providing lots of sensory tray/ experiences based around interests to encourage them to become increasingly curious about their world and explore it.
We provide opportunities for Roos children to develop early maths skills by singing finger rhymes like ’two little dicky birds’. We develop counting-like games such as counting fingers and/or toes.
The children in Roo’s are beginning to gain confidence in their gross motor skills. We promote this by giving lots of opportunities to access walkers and outdoor climbing equipment. We encourage core muscles by using sit on scooters, without pedals during outdoor play and soft play equipment. We provide opportunities for running, kicking and jumping. To promote fine motor skills by providing opportunities to feed themselves by providing activities driven by their interests.
When the children are ready to leave Roo’s room, we hope they are confident cruisers who have a love of stories and singing and a passion to express themselves and their interests.