How to Celebrate children’s achievements
It is highly important to recognise and celebrate children’s achievements as this develops their self esteem Children are continuously learning and developing , therefore adults have an important role to ensure they provide a rich enabling environment that enables children to do this. Positive reinforcement is key to helping children build their confidence.
Below are five ways to celebrate children’s achievements
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Use wow moment notes
Practitioners observe children’s wow moments and document these in their learning journeys.Wow moments are a great source of creating links between home and nursery. Wow moments are only recorded when a child does something for the first time. Parents can note these down at home and communicate these with the child’s key person.
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Praise/positive reinforcement
All children thrive on positive reinforcement and simple words that mean a lot to children can make a huge impact on children’s development. Using positive body language and actions can be just as effective for example getting down to children’s level when talking and using thumbs up action. To demonstrate best practice practitioners may use special golden rules or widget symbols to reinforce positivity. Think about sharing these strategies with parents at home as this will enable consistency between home and nursery.
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Rewards eg stickers, take teddy home etc
Rewarding children can be a great visual source as children see the sticker on their jumper and are proud of their achievements. Instead of using stickers there are other aids to celebrate children’s achievements for example a certain soft toy can go home with child for the night or weekend. Try to avoid using sweets as a rewards as one ,these are unhealthy and two can be costly.
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Special recognition
There may be specific goals that children achieve at nursery for example riding their bike without stabilisers or putting on their shoes and sock, you could recognise this achievement through providing children with a certificate saying Well done on your achievement. These small little achievements will stay with children for a significant period of time as children always love to look back as these and embrace the recognition.
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An achievement board
As you know children love looking at pictures of themselves so why not create an achievement board and ask parents for photographs displaying children’s special achievements. To extend this further why not add captions and more importantly dates of when this happened. The achievement board can be updated as regular as you need to and it is a great source of language as children love looking at photographs and reflecting on them.