New Explorify Early Years activities
Calling all Early Years teachers! Explorify has just published over 40 new activities which have been designed especially for children aged 3 -5 years old.
“My class particularly love the 'wow’ factor that the Zoom In, Zoom Out activities provide - I hear them express loads of ideas, and vocabulary I didn't know they understood.” - Jane Catto, Reception teacher and PSTT Fellow
The new Zoom In, Zoom Outs cover the different areas of the Early Years curricula across the UK and have been developed with guidance from a group of expert practitioners in the Early Years.
Zoom in on the tail of a rabbit with Fluffy and white, created in collaboration with Cotswold Farm Park. Start at another feature, the ears, and zoom out to the same rabbit in Brown hair. This idea came from our team of Early Years teachers, who know how much children gain from revisiting ideas. There are a number of other animals where we have created two versions including a dog, horse and even a squirrel co-created with Science Oxford.
The activities that focus on materials use familiar objects from Early Years settings. See if the children recognise them in Brown cracks, Scratchy and silver and Black bumps. The changing materials activities Oozing with flavour and Party time will also keep your tinies guessing.
Physics has not been forgotten, with activities on space, Looking at you; shadows, Dark marks; forces including, Yellow moves; and electricity including, Time to unwind.
Each activity has the familiar format of information for teachers in the Background science and ideas for how to Take it further. The suggested follow up activities reflect the different aspects of Early Years settings and have optional questions for the adults involved in supporting children’s play, as well as story book ideas.
To get started, click on classroom view which will give you an enlarged image and ask everyone:
- What do they think the image is and why?
- What does the image remind them of and why?
Each time you zoom out, ask:
- Can they describe the colours, shapes and textures?
- What do they think the image is now – have they changed their minds?
You can easily find these activities by using the new category in the age group filter and then key word searching in the right-hand box. We have organised all the activities by the following topics:
- animals
- dinosaurs
- plants
- habitats (biodiversity, environment)
- changing materials
- materials
- electricity
- forces (movement)
- humans
- food (fruit)
- senses
- life cycles
- light (shadows, rainbow)
- seasons (weather)
- sound (sounds)
- space
This is the first stage of content creation for our new Early Years category. New What’s Going On? and Listen What Can You Hear? activities are still to be developed and, in the Autumn, we will be bringing a brand-new activity type created especially for children aged 3 – 5 years old.
Please make sure your Early Years team know about these new resources and encourage them to sign-up to Explorify if they don’t already have an account. The Explorify team is keen to have your feedback. Do let us know what you think by contacting us on Explorify@stem.org.uk or through our social media channels.
Image credit: Sarah Hall