Nursery World - Nursery activities (77)

A puppet named Jasper and a simple message board attached to the wall acted as a stimulus for the children of Little Learners Day Nursery in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, to put pen to paper Despite spending two years developing the office area of the nursery, children were not making use of it. So we decided to look for other ways of motivating them to write.

Despite spending two years developing the office area of the nursery, children were not making use of it. So we decided to look for other ways of motivating them to write.

We sectioned this part of the nursery off with screens and gave the children a wide range of office equipment to play with. We then introduced individual message boxes, which gave children a 'real' purpose for writing.

Each child had their own named box that hung on a screen on the wall. They started writing messages to staff and friends, and within a week some of them recognised each other's names. Adults spent time in the area reading messages with the children and writing notes to individuals. Many children were eager to check their messages during the day.

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