This week’s activities

As we welcome the children back this last term of this academic year, we have been blessed with some glorious sunny weather.  Many of the activities have taken place outside, as the children enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and the differing benefits of each of our gardens. Below is a snapshot of some of the things they have been up to this week:

We are really lucky to be developing our allotment garden this year with the help of some volunteers from Eynsford in Bloom.  The fruit and vegetables are coming along nicely and the children have been helping out by watering and generally tidying up the plot.  You will see that they also created some labels to help identify the plants.  Being able to see plants growing, especially ones we can eat, helps them understand where some of their food comes from. They develop care and empathy skills as they learn that they cannot stand on the plants and that they need sunlight and water to grow and that without the care we give, they will not thrive and survive.

The rhubarb was ready, so it was harvested and the children helped prepare it ready for snack.  They carefully washed it to make sure it was clean, then used the children’s safety knives to cut it up.  Developing fine motor skills and learning that tools need to be handled with care, they then watched as the rhubarb changed consistency from solid to mushy when it is cooked.  Many of the children had not tasted rhubarb before.  Some described it as ‘spicy’ and didn’t like it, whilst others came back for seconds. This gave lots of opportunity for developing children’s use of language, in terms of describing words, was a great social activity, promoting a shared experience, and gave children the opportunity to try a food that they may not have seen or tasted before.

Continuing with the enjoyment of healthy foods, the children also helped to prepare the apples for snack by washing them, cutting them up and seeing what was inside. This led to discussion around how apples grow from tiny seeds, into apple trees, which produce blossom, that eventually produce apples. Great development of understanding the world and how life cycles happen all around us.

As you know, we are very lucky to be located near to the river. We introduced a small, shallow ‘pond’ a couple of years ago at the bottom of Wren Garden and we have been very fortunate for frogs to have used it as a ‘nursery’.  The children have been very excited to see that the tadpoles have now turned into frogs. This has led to lots of investigation around the life cycle of frogs, including the names of each stage; from frog spawn, to tadpole, to froglet, to fully grown frog. They have also learnt that frogs are ‘amphibians’ and that this means they can breathe both in the water and on land. This investigation has involved the use of reference books, story books and the tablet. Helping children understand that they can obtain information from lots of different sources.

Similarly, the children have been spotting the birds who visit our garden. They have drawn them in their creative play and used the tablet to find out the names of the different types of birds, their habitats, what they eat and where they come from – some as far away as Africa!

Painting remains a popular past-time, with many children choosing to paint in the outside, incorporating their interests – in particular dinosaurs and superheroes.  Using children’s interests as a starting point encourages those who may be reluctant to take part in these kinds of activities.

The children have been making the most of our new trikes and scooters, negotiating and taking turns, resolving conflicts, using those all important large motor movements and having lots of fun.

There has been lots of water play in the sunshine, seeing how far they can squirt the water (maths development) and making water slides – great fun!

As always, many of the activities can be replicated at home. Children learn through doing, through their senses, through exploration. Please visit our website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk, for some photos of what the children have been doing this week.

Thank you.

The Pre-school Team