myNDNA is National Day Nurseries Association’s (NDNA) online community and educational hub for practitioners who are working in early years settings and thrive from improving their practice.  Are you looking to create and provide hands-on, best practice activities to the children in your setting? Do you want to learn more so you can progress your career and develop your understanding and knowledge surrounding child development and the curriculum? NDNA inspires practitioners, with a wealth of activities, tips, mini guides, factsheets and more, which are freely accessible to myNDNA users.

Signing up to myNDNA will ensure you are equipped with continuous inspiration. One week may feature a literacy hunt in your nursery, and the next week your children may be discovering environmental print on an outdoor adventure. Our weekly email provides readers with a unique activity and top tip, written by NDNA’s early years advisers. Gain peace of mind knowing that our experts are sharing best practice activities, tips, and more, surrounding all areas of the curriculum.  myNDNA supports you, our valued practitioners, flourish through excellent early years care and learning

Belonging to myNDNA, gives you a staggering range of resources surrounding topics such as:

• Outdoor play
• Festivals
• Personal, social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Literacy
• Physical development
• Mathematics
• Expressive arts, design and creativity
• Understanding the world
• Health and safety
• SEND
• Working with parents.

myNDNA users also benefit from free access to information and advice about progressing their career on our childcare careers page, free online training, and the opportunity to test their knowledge through myNDNA quizzes, all whilst keeping up to date with the latest early years news in the myNDNA blog.

Sign up to myNDNA for free here. Are you interested in a full membership with National Day Nurseries Association? Find out about how we give you a stronger voice, keep you more informed and save you time with nursery membership here.

Fancy a sneak peek into myNDNA? Enjoy a free activity before signing up to access an unlimited number of resources that will help you to improve your practice.

See below for exclusive access to one of NDNA’s resources!

Amazing world adventures

Encourage children at your nursery to explore similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions by taking them on fascinating adventures with a loveable character.

Learning aims

• Celebrate similarities and differences across different cultures
• Understand the concept of travel
• Recall and share key events or experiences
• Practice listening and communication skills
• Build self-esteem and confidence
• Introduce new vocabulary
• Know what specific objects are, what they are used for and when we would use them

Resources

• A character e.g. a dinosaur or a wooden figure from your setting
• Suitcase / bag / box
• A story book or non-fiction book illustrating a place, an event, a celebration etc. for example Handa’s Surprise, Nian the Chinese New Year Dragon
• Props to support the book e.g. traditional clothing, objects, photographs, pictures (these could be sourced specifically or donated or borrowed from families.

Activity Outline

• Introduce the activity to a small group of pre-school aged children
• Engage their interest by explaining that, for example, dinosaur has been on an amazing adventure and you are going to look at what he has found to see if you can work out where he has been
• Start by reading the book to set the scene about dinosaur’s adventure encouraging children to share any experiences they have linked to the book with the other children in the group
• In turn, go around the circle encouraging each child to pick an object or image out of the suitcase / bag / box
• Encourage children to describe the object or image and to say what they think the object is and what it could be used for
• Some children may have had experience of the object / image and can share this and their knowledge with the group
• If children don’t know what the object is, explain its use and purpose, enhancing their knowledge and understanding of the world
• Help to extend their thinking and language by asking open-ended questions at appropriate times
• Encourage children to ask each other questions about their experiences and say what they liked and enjoyed
• Use the props to recall key points from the book, focusing on key language
• Encourage children to celebrate how we are all unique and special.

Extension ideas

If the dinosaur (or whichever character had been on the adventure) has travelled to a particular place you could:

• Support children to find the place on a map or globe. Ask children how far is it from where you live? How could you travel there? How long might the journey be?
• Find out about people who live in that particular place. Find out about experiences that children will be familiar with for example: What are their favourite foods? What celebrations do they have? What games do they like to play?
• Explore if there are any different languages used – look at different print, learn a phrase or a song
• Enjoy foods, music and dance from that country together.