At this time of the year, many children in your early years setting will be looking forward to going on holiday with their families, either in the UK or further afield. Other children will not be so fortunate and will be spending the summer in your setting or at home. However, you can plan holiday-related activities in your setting and visits in your local area that will provide wonderful opportunities to address all the areas of learning and development in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Planning holidays in your setting

• Collect a selection of brochures and posters from your local travel agent. Try to include brochures showing holidays in winter and summer, city and countryside, at home and abroad. (Literacy)
• Use the brochures and posters to turn your role-play and mark-making areas into a travel agency. Include a telephone and computer, booking forms and notebooks, timetables and tickets and a globe or map of the world. (Communication and Language, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World)
• Talk about holidays and the different places the children and adults have visited. Remember to include day trips and shorter local visits. Some children may be able to show the others where they have been using a map or a globe. (Communication and Language, Understanding the World)
• Encourage the children to use the travel agency area to take on different roles. Model behaviour and help them to think about arranging holidays
  • in different places – hot or cold, across the sea or into town, to the seaside, countryside or city
  • using different transport – by car, by train, by aeroplane or boat
  • staying in different accommodation – in a tent, in a caravan or chalet, in a hotel, flat or apartment. (Expressive Arts and Design, Understanding the World)
• In the role-play area, provide a range of different holiday clothes, accessories, bags and cases to pack, money to spend and postcards to write. Help each child to make a personal passport. The children can then decide where to go on holiday. (Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Expressive Arts and Design, Literacy, Mathematics)
• With the help of the children, set up a holiday camp outdoors: use pop-up tents and dens created by the children. (Physical Development, Expressive Arts and Design)
• Have an outdoor café, a beach, a swimming pool or a theme park in your outdoor area. (Understanding the World)
• Ask the children’s families to help send postcards or emails to the rest of the group when they are on holiday. You might want to introduce a ‘holiday bear’ to accompany children on holiday, if parents are willing to keep a record and take photographs of what the bear does on holiday. The bear’s experiences can then be shared with the whole group back in your setting. (Literacy, Personal, Social and Emotional Development)

Planning visits and outings

You can use the summer period to arrange all sorts of visits and outings, which will be particularly important for those children who otherwise would not get the opportunity to go far. These might include bus trips to the seaside or to an adventure playground, or simply a picnic in the local park or nearby beauty spot.

Whatever types of visit you decide to arrange, make sure you include the children in making the arrangements. Planning a visit ‘for real’ gives a meaningful context for the children to practise skills and develop positive attitudes and dispositions. Organising any visit provides the opportunity to involve the children in:

• making choices and decisions
• planning, predicting and list-making
• communicating.

Making choices and decisions

When you begin to think about planning a visit, include the children in the discussions about where to go. Involve them in the decisions and choices you make about where and when to go, how to get there and what to take. Remember that you will need to listen to, and take notice of, the suggestions and decisions the children make. This stage in the process requires both the children and the adults to use their skills of negotiation and cooperation. (Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Understanding the World)

Planning, predicting and list-making

Organising a visit will give children the experience of planning in a series of logical steps. Help them to think about the whole visit and then to break it down into different aspects such as transport, supervision, rules, cost, timing, and health and safety. You can ask them questions such as ‘What will we need to take?’, ‘How will we carry it?’, ‘How will we keep safe?’ and so on. Make lists of the things you need to do. Remember that you will need to carry out a risk assessment for any visit you plan to make. (Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Mathematics, Literacy)

Communicating

This is an opportunity to give children real experience of different ways of communicating: writing, speaking, asking questions, and using the telephone and the computer. Involve them in booking transport, paying for tickets and telling families about their visit. (Communication and Language, Literacy, Understanding the World – ICT)

By planning ‘holiday activities’ and outings this summer, you will make sure that all children are able to enjoy the pleasures of anticipating, experiencing and remembering an exciting holiday adventure, be it real or imaginary – something that will stay with them for a very long time.

Links to the revised EYFS Standards: 1:1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.2, 4.3, 6.2