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10 EYFS literacy activities to try in your setting

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A cosy corner with books and pillows

1. Reading Nook

The Early Years literacy activity – Reading Nook by Teach Mama

Learning to read has never been cosier. Making up a comfortable spot just for book time is a great trick to create positive reading connections even for the most resistant little ones. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, just gather some fluffy pillows, pile up some books and separate your snuggly corner with a cardboard wall.

What you need –

PillowsBooksLightCosy Accessories

literacy homework eyfs

2. Song Sticks

The EYFS literacy activity – Song Sticks by Pre-K Pages

Glue some simple symbols from your favourite nursery rhymes and songs to create the sticks. Then let kids choose one and guess what it stands for before they sing. Rhymes are not only a great way of developing listening and speaking skills but also work as a great social exercise. Perfect for quick interludes too!

  • Wide Craft Sticks (or just ice cream ones)
  • Labels (free printables available)

A kid tracing letter B with small stones.

3. Tracing Letters

The Early Years literacy activity – Alphabet Learning with Chalk Rocks by And Next Comes L

Practice those fine motor skills as you take the learning outside. Draw letters with chalk on the pavement so that the children can fill the spaces with pebbles or erase them carefully with a fizzy mixture. It’s immersive and makes children focus on each letter for a longer time.

  • Fizzy Mixture (check out the ingredients here )

A child colouring white piece of paper with paint.

4. Secret Letters

The EYFS literacy activity – Secret Letters by Busy Toddler

Sprinkle a little bit of magic into your children’s day. Take a white crayon and write some letters or short words on a white piece of paper. Hand kids some watercolour paints and watch their amazement when they discover secret marks coming up out of nowhere…

  • White Crayons
  • Watercolour Paint

A path of words on cards laying on the floor.

5. Follow the Word Path

The Early Years literacy activity – Sight Word Floor Game by Your Teacher’s Aide

Make a trail of cards with words that your kids have just learnt and turn them into a game. Let’s see who can get the furthest with spelling out all the words correctly!

To mix this activity up, you can use dice or get them to jump from one step to another on one leg to work on those gross motor skills.

  • Colourful Cards

Wooden train tracks on the floor.

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6. Train Track

The EYFS literacy activity – Train Track Word Building by Paper and Glue

A nifty way to sneak in some EYFS teaching to pure fun. Write letters on the toy train track parts and let kids’ imagination go wild with building the paths and connecting different letters to make up some familiar words. Later, encourage children to say the letters out loud when their vehicles drive over the writings.

  • Wooden Tracks

Kids playing Guess Who I Am.

7. Who Am I?

The Early Years literacy activity – Who Am I? by Ice Breaker Ideas

It’s a classic, adjusted to our EYFS literacy needs. Tell each kid to first write down a word they have learnt recently and then stick it to their friend’s forehead so that they can guess what the word is without looking at it. Feel free to play around with the questioning rules to make sure that all the little participants can get involved!

  • Sticky Notes

Colourful shelves with letters and some items.

8. Alphabet Museum

The EYFS literacy activity – Alphabet Museum by Parents.com

Create a DIY showcase with some cardboard boxes and write a big letter in the middle of each one of them. Have kids look for various, small items in the nursery and place them in a box corresponding to the letter they begin with. This activity can be a long lasting game if you change the ‘exhibition’ every now and then or move the boxes around.

  • Cardboard boxes
  • Colourful papers
  • Small items

A girl with a paper plate in her hands.

9. Letter Hunt

The Early Years literacy activity – Learning Letters On The Go by No Time For Flash Cards

Write letters around the edge of a paper plate and cut in between each letter. Next time you are somewhere outdoors, give the kids the plates and have them fold down the letters as they spot them in their surroundings. You can create groups and turn this activity into a playful competition.

  • Paper Plates

LEGO blocks with words written on them.

10. Spelling with LEGO

The EYFSs literacy activity – Spelling With Lego by Twinkl

Good, old LEGO comes to the rescue yet again. Write two to four-letter words on the long blocks and see if the little ones can recognise the marks and find single, corresponding blocks to stick on top of them.

The big ideas

download pdf

Official Danish Government Reopening Advice

Guidance from the Danish Health Ministry, translated in full to English.

Picture of a Guidance document

UK Nursery Covid-19 Response Group Recommendations

The full recommendations from a working group of over 70 nursery chains in the UK.

Please note: here at Famly we love sharing creative activities for you to try with the children at your setting, but you know them best. Take the time to consider adaptions you might need to make so these activities are accessible and developmentally appropriate for the children you work with. Just as you ordinarily would, conduct risk assessments for your children and your setting before undertaking new activities, and ensure you and your staff are following your own health and safety guidelines.

literacy homework eyfs

Zuzanna Stańczewska

Zuzanna Stańczewska works at Famly, finding the best hidden gems from across the web and delivering them straight to you on social media and our blog.

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EYFS literacy activities – Ideas to try in your setting

  • Written By: Sally Neaum
  • Subject: Literacy
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EYFS literacy activities – Ideas to try in your setting

Use these EYFS literacy activities to immerse children in the language of everyday life and lay the foundations for lifelong learning, says Sally Neaum…

Young children who have rich experiences of spoken language and engagement with print in their everyday lives build strong foundations on which they can build the observable skills of reading and writing. Creating a literate environment in your Early Years setting helps all children build this strong foundation for literacy.

What is a literate environment?

A literate environment is one where there are high levels of talk. People say “more than is necessary” (Neaum, 2012). Reading and writing are everyday, purposeful activities.

Speaking and listening are the basis of becoming literate. So it’s vital that, alongside engaging children in early literacy practices, we maintain a strong emphasis on speaking.

Meaningful contexts

We know that children acquire and develop spoken language by being surrounded by talk. There is a powerful link between the quantity and quality of language we expose children to and the quality and quantity of their language (Risley and Hart, 2006).

Children need to hear and use talk in meaningful daily contexts. Young children learn about reading and writing as they observe and become actively involved in real, purposeful literacy activities in their everyday lives.

EYFS literacy activities to try at home

There are many opportunities to engage children in talk and EYFS literacy activities at home. What is important is that we encourage children to notice how literacy is used in our everyday lives. Here are some reading and writing ideas to share with parents:

  • Household jobs and routines:  lists, forms, emails, notes, reading labels and instructions, shopping online
  • Comunication:  texting, emails, cards and letters, social network sites, reading and writing for pleasure : books, magazines, newspapers, internet
  • Environmental print:  names of shops, streets, and places; street signs, labels and logos on clothes, bags, t-shirts, games and toys; print on transport, such as buses, trains and taxis
  • Work:  reading books, reports or plans; writing reports or preparing invoices, sending and receiving emails

It’s also essential that we talk to children in ways that go beyond a functional use of language. Encourage parents to engage in discussion, explanation, questioning and pondering.

Example of embedding reading and writing at home

A packet of herb seeds fell from a food magazine that Mia was reading. Her daughter noticed them and asked what they were.

Mia pointed out the picture on the front and explained about plants and how they grew from seeds. Her daughter was keen to plant them. Mia read the packet instructions to her daughter and they talked about what they would need to plant the seeds.

Together they collected what they would need and set it all up in the kitchen. Mia then read the instructions out one by one as they planted the seeds.

This is an example of embedding reading and writing in an everyday activity. As Mia engages her daughter in this activity she is talking to her. She is modelling reasons for reading and writing. T

This talk and engagement with literacy practices will enable her daughter to develop a range of skills and concepts necessary to becoming literate.

EYFS literacy activities to try at nursery

There are many ways we can involve children in authentic EYFS literacy activities at nursery:

  • Routines:  self-registration, name places, lists, naming paintings, labels on toy storage to help with selecting and tidying toys away, letters home
  • Reading and writing for pleasure: stories, poems, rhymes and songs
  • Around your setting:  peg labels, display labels, directions, instructions, labels on toy storage
  • Activities:  e.g. writing down the children’s descriptions of their models and reading them out at group time before putting them on display; look for a recipe online, read it out, and refer to it when baking
  • Child-initiated play:  books, pencils and paper, computers and tablets

And, as at home, alongside this we need to talk in ways that go beyond organisational talk and brief social interactions. We should actively engage children in playing with language and talk that uses commentary, discussion, questioning, pondering and explanation.

Creating a literate environment

In settings, creating a literate environment means ensuring that children are surrounded by and engaged with talk and print. You can achieve this in a number of ways:

  • Actively engage in talk with the children – saying more than is necessary
  • Label toy boxes and cupboards – with both picture and word
  • Put up signs – ‘toilet’ ‘kitchen’ ‘cloakroom’, etc
  • Label displays – involve children in deciding what the captions should say
  • Label role-play areas with appropriate signs, captions and charts
  • Provide opportunities to engage with authentic literacy in play – e.g. provide menus, price lists, appointment books, maps, instructions, leaflets, notebooks and pencils, reference books, charts, etc
  • Read and enjoy books – both with children and independently
  • Include books as part of the resources at activities
  • Use a computer as an integral part of activities – e.g. to access information, to word process, for games and activities
  • Complete routinised tasks alongside the children – e.g. doing the register, naming and handing out letters, completing lists
  • Label children’s work as they observe you and explain why you are doing this
  • Make good use of opportunities for literacy in activities (see the case study below)
  • Draw children’s attention to reading and writing in the setting, both to enable them to notice it in their environment, and see when and how you engage in reading and writing

Example of actively engaging children in literacy

A storyteller visited nursery and told tales of knights, princesses and castles. After, the children wanted a castle as the role-play area. Initially, staff and children talked about what they would need to set up a castle in the nursery.

Staff collected books about castles and put them out with large sheets of plain paper. They encouraged children to come and record their ideas using the books and ideas from the discussion.

A member of staff helped the children to record their ideas in pictures, symbols and emergent writing. In addition, staff displayed websites on the computer. Children used these to find out information, look at pictures, and download and print information.

The practitioner then put the items that the children had suggested into a list. At group time, the children and staff read the list together. They decided which of these resources they already had in the nursery and which they would need to acquire.

One of the children highlighted the list in different colours to show what they already had and what was needed.

What do children learn from this?

As children are drawn into literacy practices in their everyday lives they learn about both the forms and functions of reading and writing.

They come to know what we use reading and writing for (the functions), and how we read and write (the forms).

As we read and write for a variety of purposes and engage children in this, we model different functions of literacy for children. For example, they come to know that we read and write:

  • for enjoyment
  • to find, convey, record and organise information
  • to understand directions and instructions

By engaging with spoken language and exploring reading and writing in real, everyday contexts, children begin to develop important concepts necessary. For example, they learn about the relationship between speech and print; that writing is the setting down, or recording, of speech (as squiggles-on-a-page).

They learn that reading is decoding writing (the squiggles-on-a-page) into speech. They also learn print-related terms, such as ‘letter’ and ‘word.’

In addition, by observing people read and write they come to know that, predominantly, we track left to right and top to bottom when we read and write.

Tracking left to right and top-to-bottom is not always the case. For example, tracking is different when reading from some websites and in some children’s books that use words and text creatively.

Modelling reading in these different ways enables children to come to know that there are, occasionally, different ways in which we track when we read and write.

Important concepts

Understanding forms and functions of literacy are important concepts for children as they become readers and writers.

It enables them to understand why we need to read and write, and some of the ways in which we read and write.

This means that when they move to more formal literacy learning they have an understanding of reading and writing as meaningful activities.

Example of developing literacy skills in child-centred play

Children at a setting love playing ‘police’. They play out elaborate narratives all ending with the police chasing ‘baddies’, arresting them, and taking them down to the police station.

The staff provided dressing up clothes and equipment. With the children’s help, they created a police station and cells. This included opportunities for reading and writing through labels, signs, directions, name badges, posters, paper and pens, and a computer.

Staff enhanced play by joining in and introducing specific vocabulary, such as ‘suspect’, ‘charge’, ‘interview’ and ‘crime scene’.

They also introduced the idea of using digital cameras and the computer to take pictures of the crime scene and suspects and label them.

Staff also introduced the idea of using police notebooks to record what happened at the crime scene, and what the suspects said when interviewed at the police station.

Sally Neaum is a lecturer in Early Childhood, and teaches Primary English in initial teacher training. She has worked as a nursery and primary school teacher and as an advisor in early years and inclusion. She has an M.Ed in Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs. Her doctoral research was in the pedagogy of early literacy.

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Home learning EYFS 'All About Space'

Home learning EYFS 'All About Space'

Subject: Understanding the world

Age range: 3-5

Resource type: Unit of work

EYFSwithMissB's Shop

Last updated

11 January 2021

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literacy homework eyfs

A two week set of home learning ‘All About Space’ for EYFS reception learning. This set of work includes planning - phonics, literacy, maths and topic. It is simple and easy for families to use at home. Some resources for the planning is included with the planning (Tricky words Noughts and crosses, a letter from the aliens, a story map template etc) However some resources have not been included as they have been found online or edited from online resources. It also includes an example Timetable for families to use day-to-day.

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Explore issues at the heart of literacy in education with our Bedrock Talks podcast. New episodes now available.

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Literacy | Parents

Literacy in early years: strategies for teachers and parents

By Dylan Davies

21 Nov 2022

Improving literacy in early years through reading

In this article:

Literacy in early years: parents and guardians

Literacy in early years: teachers, structured conversations, direct, tracked vocabulary instruction.

A child’s vocabulary by the age of 4 is a significant predictor of success at the age of 18.

A limited vocabulary in a child’s early years can lead to language gaps during education, preventing them from accessing the language of their academic lives.

The average GCSE paper, of any subject, has a reading age school of 15 years and 5 months. One third of learners in the UK do not have this reading level when they sit their exams - the language gap , established in early years, has a drastic effect on a child’s success in school and beyond.

This doesn’t mean that there’s nothing that can be done about it. Interventions such as explicit vocabulary teaching have great success in closing the literacy gap. However, this doesn’t negate the fact that literacy in early years is crucial for ensuring this gap doesn’t arise in the first instance.

Before education, the building blocks of improving literacy are formed at home. In fact, at age three, between 80% and 96% of the vocabulary a child knows comes from their parents’ or guardians’ vocabulary. This demonstrates that one of the main factors for how children develop their literacy in early years is an exposure to words.

There’s some debate around how many words the gap is between children exposed to ambitious vocabulary at home and those who aren’t - for example, some believe this gap is in the thousands, whereas some cite it as 30 million (Hart and Risley) - the gap is present nonetheless.

One of the main strategies for improving literacy in early childhood is exposing children to a wide range of reading materials. This involves reading to your child, generating excitement around books and practising inference skills, even before your child is able to read themselves - eg. questions such as, “What might happen next? What do you think this means?” The power of doing silly voices for the characters can’t be underestimated either - it helps increase fluency in your child’s spoken language.

Books aren’t the only way to improve literacy in early years! You can reinforce your child’s literacy skills further by using spoken language, such as listening to audiobooks, having conversations with your child in full sentences and singing nursery rhymes. All of these examples of oracy strengthen your child’s literacy skills, setting them up for success throughout their lives.

But how do you make time for this high-quality communication around books? Often, parents and guardians struggle to find time to prioritise literacy, especially those working long hours, and this can lead to feelings of worry and guilt.

To this we say, “Don’t worry!” Research by Law et al. (2017) has found that it’s the quality of time spent working on a child’s literacy skills, not quantity, that has the greatest impact on their progress. No matter how much or how little time you have to spend, make sure you’re spending it involving your child in high-quality discussion and enthusiasm about books. In doing so, you’re setting them up for a lifetime of success.

A quote from Alex Quigley about reading and talking about reading.

“Each interaction between teacher and pupil can lift the print from the page and make it better understood. It is why reading and talking about reading needs to play a fundamental role in each school day.”

As a teacher, you can’t guarantee that a child is going to experience a literacy-rich environment at home. No matter how many strategies we use to involve parents, there’s no quick fix for bringing a love of literacy into a learner’s home. Looking at the research for how literacy in early years impacts learners in later life , it’s easy to feel worried about the implications of that lack of involvement.

But the language gap doesn’t have to define a learner’s life. There are intervention strategies to close that gap, giving struggling learners the key to unlocking their potential both in education and beyond.

High-quality conversations aren’t just a strategy for the home. Back and forth conversations between children and teachers have a significant positive impact on their vocabularies, especially when those conversations are structured around ambitious language.

When talking to learners, try levelling up their vocabulary through your responses .

Drawing to demonstrate levelling up vocabulary.

Upgrading the word "small" to the word "miniscule".

This introduces learners to ambitious vocabulary in contexts they can understand, as well as incorporating inference skills - an understanding of these skills forms the building blocks of what makes reading fun, encouraging positive attitudes towards literacy that last for life.

As well as having high-quality conversations between teachers and learners, the Education Endowment Foundation’s guidelines for improving literacy in KS1 recommend direct, tracked vocabulary instruction, along with spelling and phonics.

Even in KS1, a great way to think about teaching learners to read - and improving their literacy overall - is through the extended metaphor of the Reading House. See the diagram below, originally coined by Hogan, Bridges, Justice and Cain, and taken from our webinar on improving learners’ ability to read complex academic texts.

image-6b0b8045881caad4b3ededd871b85cf83c7a8cff-1068x632-png

The Reading House by Hogan, Bridges, Justice and Cain.

When teachers at your school have sufficient CPD in literacy, phonics, spelling and vocabulary, they can use this Reading House to identify areas learners are struggling to develop.

Once learners progress to KS2 and above, it becomes clearer when fundamental literacy blocks in KS1 haven’t been consolidated . This is when explicit literacy interventions, such as Bedrock’s core curriculum, become increasingly important.

The consistent, algorithm-driven curricula Bedrock Learning provide help to close the vocabulary gap , unlocking learning through literacy for learners with an initial disadvantage due to socioeconomic background. To top it off, Bedrock’s self-marking algorithm collects diagnostic data you can use to guide your interventions, giving teachers clear visibility of learners’ progress.

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Skill development: is literacy the gateway, the curriculum-wide impact of improving literacy, improve literacy in school or at home, the uk's #1 literacy solution.

Improve learners' literacy through explicit vocabulary, grammar and English instruction

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Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) covers the Nursery and Reception years. It's the start of an exciting journey for your child and you'll be keen to help them every step of the way. To do this, you'll need to understand what they are being taught in the EYFS curriculum and have the right resources at hand to support learning at home. 

Get your child's learning off to the best start in EYFS 

From the first day in Nursery and throughout Reception , your child will start to gain vital skills like understanding phonics , forming letters , using number lines and doing addition and subtraction and starting to learn about ourselves . 

In this section you'll find all the information you need, as well as hundreds of EYFS English worksheets , EYFS maths worksheets and EYFS science worksheets to help you support learning at home and get your child’s education off to a great start!

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All about phonics.

From recognising letters of the alphabet to being able to read words, your child's reading ability will come on in leaps and bounds during their years in Nursery and Reception and you'll be expected to give them lots of support at home. You'll find lots of resources to help phonics learning on the website, including:

  • Lots of phonics worksheets
  • Fabulous phonics – a complete overview of how and why phonics is taught, as well as teacher tips to help you make phonics learning part of your child's everyday life and 50 printable games and activities
  • Phonics games pack - 10 games and activities to put phonics skills into practice
  • What parents need to know about the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check
  • The best phonics learning tools

Nursery and Reception eBook Bundle

Is your child about to start Nursery or Reception? If so, TheSchoolRun has designed an Early Years book bundle just for you and your child that will ensure you have all the support and educational resources you need to make this important transition. The Nursery and Reception Activity eBook is a beautifully illustrated guide linked to early learning goals for children under five. With fun and familiar themes divided into six activities per section, this book puts the fun into learning from the word go. Each activity is short to keep your child engaged, and so you can limit your time investment to just as long as you have. With easy-to-follow instructions, a clear description of the areas of learning and development along with age groups for attainment, your child will love learning while they play. Starting school can be as exciting for parents as it is for their children. The Essential Guide to the First Years of School aims to answer the questions that you might ask about your child’s time in primary school. This book is every parent’s indispensable guide to managing the first years at school. You’ll refer to it time and again for useful information for new starters, as well as how to tackle issues, what all the jargon means and how to get help for special needs children and manage your child’s wellbeing.

Learning journey

Support your child's progress in Reception with a unique Learning Journey programme

The Reception English Learning Journey and Reception Maths Learning Journey each comprise 40 worksheets that will help your child review and master all the core areas of learning that they’ll be taught in the National Curriculum in Reception. By following the programme, which closely mirrors what your child is being taught in school, you’ll quickly be able to spot any topics that your child hasn't fully grasped and reinforce learning that is happening in the classroom at home. Your child will feel more confident in their own abilities and you’ll know you are giving your child the very best chance of succeeding in school. You can also see if your Reception child's learning is on track with the Reception Maths Progress check and Reception English Progress check .

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25 Fun EYFS Space Activities

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Most of us parents are always on the lookout for ideas of activities to keep our kids entertained and happy. Especially at the moment, when lots of us find ourselves in the position of attempting to homeschool our children to some extent while schools are closed. If you have a space-mad little one and you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, then look no further! Here are 25 fun and easy EYFS space activities you can do at home with your child.

literacy homework eyfs

I’ve aimed this post at EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) aka Reception children, just because that’s the age of the twiglets (4-5 years). So I feel it’s what I know most about at the moment. I’m sure lots of these activities could be used with children of various ages though! 🙂

Art and Craft EYFS Space Activities

1. design your own alien.

space-themed eyfs activities

This was a really fun task and we had a giggle over how many eyes, antennae etc their aliens could have 🙂

2. Make a simple craft rocket

easy eyfs space activities

This simple rocket craft looks lots of fun and really effective.

3. Make space bookmarks

space bookmarks

A super easy activity – just give kids a strip of card or paper and some colouring pencils.

4. Do some space colouring

eyfs space activities

Another super easy activity that requires basically no preparation. I love these space-themed mindfulness colouring pages 🙂

DT/Construction Activities

5. make a junk modelling rocket.

EYFS space activities

All parents’ dream – junk modelling! Personally I bloody hate it but kids seem to love it so there we go! Useful to use up some of the recycling anyway. The twiglets did not make this independently, just to be clear! Theirs was heavily, erm, guided by Daddy 😉 But with our two, if they had no help, they’d just hand us a cardboard box and say finished!

eyfs space activities

6. Make a Duplo rocket

duplo rocket

The twiglets loved this challenge and spent ages making a launchpad to go with their rocket. I did have to give them a bit of help with making the actual rocket but they did really well. If your child was a bit older, they could do this with actual Lego rather than Duplo.

* affiliate link

7. Make a split-pin astronaut

space-themed EYFS activities

This split-pin astronaut activity looks really fun. We haven’t tried it as we didn’t have any split pins, but it looks fab. Just print the resource onto card if possible so it’s a bit more sturdy.

8. Make a model solar system

EYFS space activities

This is a bit more involved than some of the other activities but kids would definitely enjoy it. Check out this post by Gift of Curiosity for instructions. Or you could try this slightly simpler version 🙂 Or even try this kit from Baker Ross:

Baker Ross AR676 Solar System Wooden Mobile Kits (Pack of

9. Do some space baking

space-themed baking

This recipe for making space rock cakes with edible glitter looks fab! If you had some space-themed cookie cutters, you could make space biscuits too!

Literacy EYFS Space Activities

10. read space books.

space reading

Always a great idea to start with reading to immerse children in the topic. We read a few pages from a vintage Ladybird space book we had – it was a bit too advanced but the twigs seemed to enjoy it anyway. This Usborne book is great for little ones:

space reading

Available from Amazon (* affiliate link):

11. Role play

space role play

Before doing any writing, particularly stories, it’s often a great idea to try a little role play. It helps the child to get into the character and try to feel what they would feel. Make sure you join in too! You can guide the kids by demonstrating pretending to look around and talking about all the things you can see. We pretended to get in our rockets and take off then landed on the moon and walked around.

12. Write a space setting description

space-themed eyfs activities

After our little role-play, we wrote about what it was like in space. I asked the twigs to write some sentences about what they could see and how they felt. I reminded them about capital letters, full stops and finger spaces.

13. Write a space story

space story

The twiglets had already done a mind map of a space story at school before the pandemic struck and home learning began. A mind map is basically a series of little pictures that help a child remember the sequence of a story so they can retell it and eventually write it. The child can refer back to it as they’re writing, to help them structure their work. I encouraged H and C to challenge themselves to use some descriptive language – ie adjectives like ‘green.’

14. Write a list of what they’d take to space

space-themed eyfs activities

Talk to children about what they would take to space with them. Remind them they’d be going for a long time. This writing frame from Twinkl is lovely for this activity.

15. Write a description of their own alien

alien writing

I prompted the twiglets with questions as they did this task, but let them write independently. For example, what’s your alien’s name? What does it look like? What does it like doing?

16. Write about an imaginary planet

literacy homework eyfs

Get children to imagine a new planet – think about what it’s like (cold/hot etc) and what it’s made of. You could use this Twinkl resource sheet to help.

17. Space wordsearch

Wordsearches are always a winner! This solar system space wordsearch looks great.

Numeracy EYFS Space Activities

18. do some space-themed counting.

space counting

We started by doing some physical counting of toys and cars, then used this Twinkl resource to do some space-themed counting. This was trickier than it looks as the twigs needed to be quite systematic to make sure they counted every item once.

maths space activity

19. Make a rocket using 2D shapes

literacy homework eyfs

Help develop children’s shape and space understanding by making this rocket out of 2D shapes.

Science Space Activities

20. make a squeezy rocket launcher.

space rocket experiment

This simple science experiment looks fab! Children can create a rocket then launch it into the air using the squeezy bottle launcher.

21. Test which planets float or sink

planet science experiment

This floating and sinking experiment looks super fun too, to give children an idea of the density of different planets.

Physical Activity/P.E.

22. cosmic kids yoga.

cosmic kids yoga

Cosmic Kids Yoga sessions are so lovely – we use them all the time. The twigs really enjoyed the space-themed episode.

23. Space Rap

This hip-hop space rap from Go Noodle is super fun for kids to watch. You could even challenge older kids to create their own space rap! Or try this StoryBots solar system song from Netflix Jr.

24. Make a space sensory bin

literacy homework eyfs

Open-ended sensory play is really great for kids. This space-themed sensory bin with homemade moon sand looks great to encourage kids to use their imaginations and just play without a particular end goal. I’m sure you could also use kinetic sand if you couldn’t be bothered to make your own (ie – me!)

25. Fizzy alien planet sensory play

alien sensory play

This fizzy alien sensory play looks like loads of fun too!

Thanks for reading my list of space-themed EYFS activities. I really hope it was useful!

Til next time,

PS If you enjoyed this post, please share it using the buttons at the bottom 🙂 Or share on Pinterest:

EYFS space activities

Check out some of my other crafty posts:

  • Under the sea crafts
  • Spring crafts
  • Rainbow crafts
  • Paper plate crafts
  • Toilet roll crafts

Related Posts

10 exciting rainbow science experiments, 15 easy spring craft ideas, 25 fun and easy indoor activities for kids, 14 comments.

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These are such lovely ideas for little ones! Absolutely adore the photos too, looks like alot of fun!

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Ah thank you – we had a fun week 🙂

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They look like they had great fun doing these – we must try the squeezy rocket launcher!

Ah thank you – that was one of the ones we hadn’t tried yet but it looks great 🙂

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With a 3 year old in the house I need all the help I can get – great ideas! #DreamTeamLinky

Ah fab, so glad it’s useful! 😀 xx

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I love all these ideas! I remember the space themed learning that mine did when she was in Reception… it was so much fun. She actually made a solar system model a bit like the one in your list. Thank you for joining us for the #DreamTeamLinky xx

Ahh lovely, yes we didn’t quite manage the whole solar system model but it would have been amazing 😀

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Oh I love these, what great ideas. We’ve done a space-themed mobile before and have been learning about the first Moon landings recently so did a bit of crafting and small world play to support that. #KidsandKreativity

Fab, sounds lovely 🙂 x

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My little boy is completely space obsessed! We have done junk modelled rockets before, but will have to give some of the other ideas a go. Thanks again for sharing at #KidsandKreativity

Thank you – space is a popular theme for little ones isn’t it 🙂

Pingback: Top 7 For 2020 - Hannah and the Twiglets

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What a fantastic resource! Thank you for sharing these creative and educational space activities for Early Years Foundation Stage. Your ideas are truly inspiring and will undoubtedly spark curiosity and learning in young minds. https://thingsfrommars.de/

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Holistic Growth: The Power of BSG Nurturing EYFS Curriculum

Holistic Growth: The Power of BSG Nurturing EYFS Curriculum   - EYFS Curriculum

At The British School of Guangzhou, we follow The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. It is a comprehensive framework in the UK that sets the standards for learning, development, and care for children from birth to five years old. It is designed to ensure all children have a solid foundation in the early stages of their education. The EYFS curriculum is divided into seven key areas of learning:

1. Communication and Language: Developing listening, speaking, and understanding skills.

2. Physical Development: Enhancing coordination, control, and movement, fine and gross motor skills alongside fostering healthy choices.

3. Personal, Social, and Emotional Development: Building self-confidence, managing feelings, and establishing positive relationships.

4. Literacy: Encouraging reading and writing skills.

5. Mathematics: Introducing numbers, shapes, space, and measures and problem solving.

6. Understanding the World: Exploring people, places, technology, and the environment.

7. Expressive Arts and Design: Cultivating creativity through art, music, movement, and role-play.

Holistic Growth: The Power of BSG Nurturing EYFS Curriculum   - EYFS Curriculum

   

The importance of the EYFS curriculum lies in its holistic approach to child development. It ensures children are nurtured in a secure and stimulating environment, allowing them to thrive and grow. By focusing on these critical areas, the EYFS helps children develop essential skills that will serve as the building blocks for their future learning and overall well-being. Furthermore, the EYFS framework supports early identification of any developmental needs, enabling timely interventions that can significantly enhance a child's educational journey.

Early years education is the cornerstone of lifelong learning and development. During these formative years, children acquire essential skills in communication, social interaction, and problem-solving that set the foundation for future academic success and personal growth. High-quality early education fosters creativity, curiosity, and confidence, ensuring children are well-prepared to navigate the complexities of the modern world. By investing in early education, we nurture the next generation of thinkers, innovators, and leaders, empowering them to reach their full potential and contribute meaningfully to society.

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literacy homework eyfs

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IMAGES

  1. EYFS Literacy Activity Booklet (Hecho por educadores)

    literacy homework eyfs

  2. EYFS Literacy: Understand and Talk About Their Reading Home Learning

    literacy homework eyfs

  3. Simple Early Literacy Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten Kids

    literacy homework eyfs

  4. EYFS Display

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  5. Preview

    literacy homework eyfs

  6. EYFS Goals Display

    literacy homework eyfs

COMMENTS

  1. EYFS Literacy Activity Booklet (teacher made)

    EYFS Literacy Activity Booklet. In a Sentence: This PDF booklet is designed to help EYFS children develop a range of literacy skills, including blending, word building, writing simple sentences, pencil control, and reading comprehension. Key Features What is this EYFS Literacy Activity Booklet? Our EYFS Literacy Activity Booklet is a fantastic resource that aims to encourage a wide range of ...

  2. Literacy

    Teaching EYFS Literacy in early years. Literacy is one of the seven Areas of Learning which practitioners focus on at Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).As one of the Specific Areas of Learning, it builds on skills children have been learning to expand children's ability to read and write.If you'd like to know more about the EYFS learning journey with an extensive look at the curriculum ...

  3. Home Learning Activities

    20 Screen-Free Activities for Home Learning (Ages 3 - 5) 4.9 (7 reviews) EYFS PSED ELG Home Learning Challenges Activity Pack. Under the Sea Home Learning Challenge Sheet Nursery FS1. 4.0 (1 review) Colour Home Learning Challenges Nursery FS1. 4.5 (2 reviews) Farm Home Learning Challenges Reception FS2.

  4. EYFS Literacy

    Early Years Writing Activities. These fantastic Early Years Writing Activities will allow your EYFS children to find practising their literacy skills easy-peasy!. Our lovely library of Emergent Literacy Activities includes materials for upper and lowercase letters, worksheets, mark-makings, phonics, phonemes, and so much more!

  5. 10 EYFS Literacy Activities to Make Development Fun

    Chalk. Pebbles. Fizzy Mixture (check out the ingredients here) ‍. 4. Secret Letters. The EYFS literacy activity - Secret Letters by Busy Toddler. Sprinkle a little bit of magic into your children's day. Take a white crayon and write some letters or short words on a white piece of paper.

  6. EYFS Literacy: Understand and Talk About Their Reading Home ...

    Trying to find suitable literacy homework activities for reception can be a difficult task. These literacy homework activities have been written specifically for reception children and are simple, quick and fun. The sheet provides parents with six suggested activities that encourage children to 'understand and talk about their reading'. Simply print off the resource and send it home! Parents ...

  7. EYFS literacy activities

    EYFS literacy activities to try at nursery. There are many ways we can involve children in authentic EYFS literacy activities at nursery: Routines: self-registration, name places, lists, naming paintings, labels on toy storage to help with selecting and tidying toys away, letters home Reading and writing for pleasure: stories, poems, rhymes and songs ...

  8. EYFS Literacy QR codes Homework Handout

    This EYFS Literacy resource is aimed at children in nursery and reception. It is designed to send home to parents and carers to help them support their child's learning at school. The QR codes link to lots of different songs and videos on YouTube that will help embed the EYFS Literacy curriculum. I really hope you find it useful.

  9. Home learning EYFS 'All About Space'

    pdf, 44.58 KB. pdf, 22.75 KB. docx, 1.43 MB. A two week set of home learning 'All About Space' for EYFS reception learning. This set of work includes planning - phonics, literacy, maths and topic. It is simple and easy for families to use at home. Some resources for the planning is included with the planning (Tricky words Noughts and ...

  10. EYFS Phonics

    This category contains a range of phonics activities and games for EYFS children. These phonics activities are linked to the DfE Letters and Sounds framework. The activities within this category focus on more than one of the Letters and Sounds phases. You can select the appropriate activities to match children's abilities and choose from a wide ...

  11. Eyfs Homework Literacy

    Eyfs Homework Literacy - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free.

  12. Home Learning Literacy and Phonics Early Years Resources (EYFS)

    What will I find in this Early Years Phonics and Literacy collection? High quality, teacher-made home learning support. This Early Years phonics resource collection is jam-packed with varied and engaging resources that are designed to help you guide your child into the world of literacy and teach nursery phonics to aid early reading skills. It covers everything Early Years children need to ...

  13. Literacy in early years: parent and teacher strategies

    Literacy in early years: parents and guardians. Before education, the building blocks of improving literacy are formed at home. In fact, at age three, between 80% and 96% of the vocabulary a child knows comes from their parents' or guardians' vocabulary. This demonstrates that one of the main factors for how children develop their literacy ...

  14. EYFS

    EYFS. Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) covers the Nursery and Reception years. It's the start of an exciting journey for your child and you'll be keen to help them every step of the way. To do this, you'll need to understand what they are being taught in the EYFS curriculum and have the right resources at hand to support learning at home.

  15. Home Learning Activities

    5.0 (8 reviews) 20 Screen-Free Activities for Home Learning (Ages 3 - 5) 4.9 (7 reviews) EYFS PSED ELG Home Learning Challenges Activity Pack. EYFS Maths Mastery Sharing Home Learning Challenge: Toys' Tea Party. 4.0 (1 review) Under the Sea Home Learning Challenge Sheet Nursery FS1.

  16. Level 1 Phonics Activities and Ideas for EYFS

    Voice sounds. This aspect of Level 1 phonics is easy to support through games and activities that are common-place within EYFS settings. The idea behind this aspect is that children become able to recognise different voice sounds over time. For example, children can recognise a friend's voice even when they cannot see them.

  17. What is Literacy in the Early Years?

    The same can be said for the EYFS area of learning, Physical Development, as children need to develop and refine their fine motor skills to write proficiently with a pen or pencil. Therefore, literacy in the early years requires children to understand several different elements, such as phonics development for reading and writing, language ...

  18. 25 Fun EYFS Space Activities

    2. Make a simple craft rocket. This simple rocket craft looks lots of fun and really effective. 3. Make space bookmarks. A super easy activity - just give kids a strip of card or paper and some colouring pencils. 4. Do some space colouring. Another super easy activity that requires basically no preparation.

  19. Easter literacy activities for EYFS

    Our diverse variety of Easter literacy activities for EYFS mean that you can find the correct activity for your class. This collection of activities use various teaching methods, learning styles and a combination of adult and child initiated play and learning techniques. These lovely Easter literacy activities for EYFS include: Activity booklets.

  20. Holistic Growth: The Power of BSG Nurturing EYFS Curriculum

    At The British School of Guangzhou, we follow The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. It is a comprehensive framework in the UK that sets the standards for learning, development, and care for children from birth to five years old. It is designed to ensure all children have a solid foundation in the early stages of their education.

  21. Easter literacy activities for EYFS

    We have a huge range of Easter literacy activities for EYFS which focus on a variety of literacy skills and learning outcomes. All of our resources are teacher-made and take the time-consuming stress out of planning and prep. Our resources are designed to be adaptable and enable teachers and practitioners to differentiate activities to ensure ...

  22. EYFS Maths Homework Challenges

    All the challenges are physical and interactive to get kids up and moving and actively engage them in their learning and development. For example, drawing numbers with chalk and hopping from one to another! These EYFS maths homework challenges don't require any special equipment. Children can use toys and objects that they already have at ...

  23. Christmas Homework Ideas EYFS

    Homework in Reception also helps show parents/carers the types of activities they can do at home to support their child's development. The activities on this Christmas homework ideas EYFS sheet are designed to be easy and quick to complete, and support children's learning across several topics. The above video may be from a third-party source.