At Asquith, we understand the importance of supporting language development. We ensure a language rich environment through daily stories, rhymes, songs and role play. We provide lots of opportunities for talk during the day. Adults play with and alongside children adding in new words and phrases, extending sentences and describing things that are happening. We encourage talk and are genuinely interested in what the children have to say. 

We provide hands on experience to encourage learning and provide a context for new words. When learning about fruits and vegetables, we open our market stall with real produce for children to touch and explore. We make fruit salads, muffin pizzas and fruit kebabs so that children can taste and describe the new foods. When introducing a new story, we use puppets and props to support children's understanding of the story and the new vocabulary within it. When reading Whatever Next, children love climbing into a box, wearing wellington boots and a colander on their head, ready to blast off to the moon! Through these fun, playful activities children are able to learn and use new language. 

Babblejab! is a language game developed by Greg Bottrill. We love Babblejab! at Asquith. It is a brilliant way to explore and play with language whilst using our imagination and developing our ability to describe and express our ideas. Children are shown two simple shapes and we discuss what each might be called. We go on to think about things such as what they might eat for breakfast, where they would go on holiday, which one we would play with and what they might do if a monster appeared. The great thing about Babblejab! is that there is no wrong answer. Children can be confident to express their ideas and explain their thinking. 

We provide lots of open ended resources such as conkers, buttons, wooden blocks, shells and dough. These encourage language development through creativity, imagination, collaborative play and problem solving. We embrace the Curiosity Approach encouraging children to explore, experiment, talk and create, using engaging resources modelled by passionate facilitators. Their natural curiosity about the world around them is awakened and sparked.