The Yellow Door Blog

Creating a Risk-Friendly Classroom

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It is vital for children’s optimal development that they have opportunities to take developmentally-appropriate risks in play. Being able to do so and experience the related benefits are crucial aspects of every child’s development. An environment that is risk-friendly is the best context for this to take place in. The pointers below will help to create a positive approach to risky play.

Assessing Language Skills

Speech and Language Therapist Wendy Lee shares with us her advice and suggestions for checking out children’s early speech and language skills.

Ideas For Outdoor Learning

Every outside classroom is alive with stories just waiting for our children to become part of the drama.If we pause in the outdoor spaces of our contexts and look closely we will notice how they invite us and our children to become part of their stories.

Subitising and Early Number Sense in Early Years Children

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Subitising is a term that was coined by the theorist Piaget and defined the ability to instantaneously recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them. An example often used to explain this, is to think of a die – we immediately recognise the number of dots without having to count each one individually.

Introducing Sensory Stones

Sensory Stones enable children to have sensory experiences by experimenting with raised and indented shapes and patterns. Here, author and play specialist Wendy Usher shares her ideas on introducing the stones into a setting and some sensory play activities.

What Happens when a Bear Comes to Visit?

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen is a firm favourite for many settings. In this blog, independent literacy consultant Jane Bunting, explores the idea of the bear coming to visit…

A Bear Related Book List

There are a huge number of bear stories. Here are a few bear necessities for any book corner. The children will have their own favourites too.

Phonics Pebbles – Blending and Segmenting

Get the most out of our Phonics Pebbles with these great ideas and activities from teacher and consultant, Christine Barker.

Phonics Pebbles – Phoneme Recognition Games

Phonics Pebbles offer an engaging visual and tactile way of introducing young children to letters and sounds. They can be used in many ways, both indoors and outside, to support phonics teaching, and give children opportunities to independently show you what they can do.

Set up your own superhero training camp

Helen Bromley invites you to unleash the positive power of superhero play for some powerful learning outdoors. Superheroes and superhero play hold enormous fascination for most young children. Using the outdoor area to explore a superhero theme allows children to ‘go large’, being messier, louder and moving around with greater freedom than is possible inside.