Nita is shy and quiet in many situations. She has recently started reception class, and while she shows no overt signs of distress, speaks rarely to adults or children. Practitioners are also concerned about her lack of interest in activities. On day four, she ventures into the home corner and begins to play with a doll, which she whispers to. Other children join her and begin talking to her. She acknowledges their presence, but continues to play with the doll.
She returns to the home corner several times during the day and is observed talking animatedly to the doll. The following day she goes straight to the home corner and the practitioner later sees her laughing loudly and engaging in vocal play with another child.
She continues to engage in home corner play often and her confidence and enthusiasm grows rapidly. Practitioners are able to engage her in conversation when they participate in the role play and are able to form assessments of her language, developing cognitive and social skills.
Contrary to first impressions, she displays high-level social skills, and her language skills are impressive. In their assessments, practitioners acknowledge her continuing need to engage in role play, particularly with dolls, and draw up a short-term action plan for her that reflects this. The well-planned home corner and linked 'baby clinic' provides Nita with a wealth of opportunities to explore early literacy and numeracy while building her confidence and extending her collaborative skills.
Joe: all-round learning
Joe goes in and out of the setting, taking home-corner equipment to an area of the garden where his friend Cairo is arranging them on the grass. The wind keeps blowing the blanket and the boys struggle to keep it in place. After a while, Joe goes inside and returns with several large books that he places around the edge of the blanket. He tells Cairo to go and get more, saying, 'We need heavy ones.' The number of books soon reduces the amount of space available on the blanket and the boys giggle as they try to sit together on the little patch in the middle. Joe begins to push the books off the blanket. Cairo says, 'No, like this', and shows him how to use just the edge of the book to hold down the blanket. They begin to organise the cups for a picnic and are joined by other children who come and go. Joe and Cairo are observed later sprawled on the blanket, reading the books to each other.
During the session they have worked collaboratively, engaged in problem-solving and mathematical exploration, participated in social play, communicated effectively, sustained the activity well and initiated purposeful reading - a good morning's work!
