Mark making in the home corner by Hayley

I began by creating a mood board with a variety of continuous provisions, which I have an interest in. One in particular was the Home Corner – I like to change the area around implementing new themes; train station, post office, vet surgery etc. Currently, we have a restaurant/kitchen. While, the Home Corner was my area of choice, I wanted to link this area to Mark Making. The children in my setting love our Mark Making Area, but the two areas are situated on opposite sides of the classroom. I have also recently attended an ‘Encouraging Mark Making’ course, which would be able to influence and support my project.

Office Home Corner 2016

Post Office Home Corner 2015

Mark Making 2012

Child Initiated Mark Making n.d.

Mark Making Home Corner n.d.

These pictures helped to inspire my decision with Mark Making in the Home Corner. I particularly like the ideas of setting up an area with resources which children have free access to, which really complements my aim to encourage child led, independence in this area.

Planning and Creating the Project:

With the Home Corner and Mark Making my main theme for this project, I must consider how to effectively link them to ensure the children would benefit.

One thing I learnt on my recent course, was to provide labelled pictures. In some parts of my Home Corner this is firmly in place, while there are some aspects only labelled with a caption – therefore I wanted to make my home corner more meaningful, so ensured the pictures I selected to use, were relatable to the resources in this area. The picture cards vary between foods, equipment and descriptive words too.

I decided that the resources would be set up and replenished daily and left for the children to discover and explore, as I’m heavily focussing on this being a child initiated project – with adult interactions and modelling when needed.

Resource List:

Plain paper

Printer/Ink

Laminator/Sheets

Scissors/Gilloutine

Felt Pen

Menus

Props-Jam/Tins/Pan

Outcome and Reflection:

I feel as though, I had managed to achieve what I had set out to do. Through many mini observations, I witnessed child initiated mark making and captured conversations between peers relating the picture cards to their home life. While I am pleased with the outcome and independent involvement of the children, I would have liked to have been able to involve my colleagues more, unfortunately time restraints and work loads meant this wasn’t possible this time round, but is something I will continue to work on with my team in the future. 

References:

Child Initiated Mark Making. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://earlyyearsmaths.e2bn.org/gallery_86.html [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].

Mark Making Home Corner. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.kidspirationleeds.co.uk/latest_pictures.html [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].

Mark Making. (2012). [image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60833011@N03/6236390903/in/photostream [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].

Office Home Corner. (2016). [image] Available at: http://popinstagram.com/Photo/1196359567950009942_2986959916 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].

Post Office Home Corner. (2015). [image] Available at: http://www.twinkl.co.uk/classroom-display-photo/post-office-roleplay-display-classroom-display [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].

Tassoni, P. (n.d.). Making Their Mark - Children's Early Writing. [online] Early Education. Available at: https://www.early-education.org.uk/sites/default/files/Making%20their%20mark%20-%20children's%20early%20writing.pdf [Accessed 16 Apr. 2016].

The National Strategies Early Years, (2008). Mark Making Matters. Nottingham: Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).