As learning and teaching continue to evolve as children learn online due to the pandemic, our technical skills have also required upskilling, as well as increased teamwork amongst all Foundation stage staff. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning and developing my own skills when using a variety of applications, websites and tools such as ‘Canva’ and ‘iMovie’ to create animated and child-friendly videos and stories that the children will enjoy. This professional development has not gone unnoticed, parent feedback has been positive regarding the energy that we teachers bring and how engaging the videos are for the young learners during our Virtual School Experience.
The pre-recorded nursery rhyme video was made accessible to all F1 students. This allowed them to watch and rewatch the content with their parents and families, to help them acquire the language, inspire them to play the roles and engage with the counting aspect of the rhyme.
During our live calls, we revisited the nursery rhyme to extend on the children’s understanding and learning with support from our teaching assistants. The Foundation Stage teachers have found ways to create their own resources to make the live calls interactive. I found myself transforming from the usual Ms Christine into the baker from the rhyme, fashioning an apron and a baker’s hat to role-play interactions at the baker’s shop. As you can imagine, my students loved buying buns from me, pretending to pay me with their imaginary penny and trying to pull the bun from the screen. Furthermore, we personalised as we sang along by using our students’ names which improved engagement and even encouraged children to invent their own versions at home.