When you come into playgroup you will often see our tuff tray, and it is always a popular activity with all the children. It might look pretty and colourful, and quite honestly a recipe for a giant mess, but the tuff tray is so much more! So on top of showing off our fun tray creations, we're going to take a minute to explain exactly what your children get out of it.
The EYFS is split into 7 areas of development, the three prime areas : Communication and Language, PSED (Personal, Social and Emotional development) and Physical Development, and the four specific areas of development : Literacy, Maths, Understanding the World and Expressive Art & Design, and a well designed tuff tray will give the children the opportunity to explore and develop all of those areas at once. Lets take a closer look at the three prime areas of development.
Communication & Language - All of the trays pictured give valuable opportunity for children to talk to their friends about what they see, the games they could play. They give the grown-ups opportunity to model language to promote critical thinking and extend vocabulary. They give fantastic opportunity for Sustained Shared Thinking (The ability to work together to solve a problem, clarify a concept or evaluate an activity)
Personal, Social and Emotional Development - Tuff trays give the children the opportunity to play collaboratively, to learn to take turns and share. They give children chance to work with each other to solve conflict and discuss their emotions. Tuff tray's can be designed to invoke discussion around a specific theme such as emotions, my family, people who help us etc, without losing their open-ended play appeal.
Physical Development - The importance of gross motor skills are evident from birth, learning to support your own head, rolling over, sitting and walking. But fine-motor skills are just as important. Building the muscles in your shoulders, arms, hands and fingers comes from manipulating small objects, using tools and exploring sensory materials like sand, water, slime, oats, pasta, spaghetti, and mud!
On top of developing those vital prime areas of development, these learning tools give opportunity for maths in terms of counting, shape, colour recognition and sorting. Literacy skills such as retelling a story, mark making and learning new vocabulary. The children develop knowledge of the world around them, exploring natural materials, understanding insects, plants and animals and their life cycles, exploring forces and different materials. I could go on forever, but in short a tuff tray is possibly one of the strongest tools in a teachers' shed!!!
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