This week’s activities
Please find below this week’s summary of activities:
In their literacy development, the children have been engaging with the lovely book “Room on the Broom”. Alongside listening to the story and repeating some of the refrains (great for speech and language, as well as literacy development), lots of resources were used alongside the book to help make the story come to life. This developed into children creating their own “swamp monster” and mixing potions. Wonderful!
As the seasons move from one to the other, the children notice changes in the natural environment. We are very fortunate to be based on the Primary School grounds, with an abundance of trees and wildlife right on our doorstep. The children have been examining some of the items they find, such as pine cones, leaves and sticks. They have used these to discover the textures, shapes, colours and smells that are changing as the weather gets cooler and the days get shorter.
To deal with the changes in the weather, the children are working on those all important self-help skills which will be of such benefit as they move through life. It takes resilience, determination, patience and a can-do attitude to learn how to put on your own coat, waterproof trousers and wellies. With help from our lovely team, you will be amazed at how even the youngest of children develop these skills given time and lots and lots of practice.
To help the children to understand some of the concepts of weather, we have large fabric pieces of material pegged to the fence. By seeing the movements of the fabric they can understand that, whilst they can’t see the air or see the wind, they can see the effects it has on objects when the material flies into the air.
In their sensory play, alongside the usual water and sand play, they have had lots of fun playing with ‘gloop’. This is simply cornflour mixed with water. This is a really interesting mixture as, when water and cornflour are mixed together they become a paste, but if you lift it up in your hands, the cornflour reverts to a powder. Really fascinating and a great early science experiment.
They have also played with shaving foam mixed with paint to create ‘icecream colours’. This was an extension of their role play with the Lego. Despite the cooler weather, icecream is always a popular subject in the children’s role play. This time the different colours of the Lego were used to represent different flavours. Children learn about and explore the real world through their shared experiences and re-enactments of events in their own lives. This helps them to make sense of the world around them.
In their physical play, they have been honing their ball skills. They have played football, developing whole body co-ordination and using their lage motor skills to be able to negotiate space, whilst managing a ball with their feet. This also helps with team building and fair play. To help with their hand-eye co-ordination and development of their upper bodies, they have been learning how to throw a ball into a hoop during their basketball/netball play.
Also in their physical play, the children have explored the different ways in which dinosaurs move. The t-rex raced a diplodocus, stomp, stomp, stomp and the triceratops charged across the garden. The ‘dinosaurs’ then took part in a “What’s the time Mr Dinosaur” game. Great fun and lovely for turn-taking, following simple rules and boundaries and exploring the concept of time and counting.
Children are surrounded by technology in their everyday lives. To help think beyond phones, tablets, etc, we have toys that need to use simple programming to make them move in a particular way. The Beebots have to be programmed. These simple robots are very popular. It is amazing how quickly children pick up the necessary skills to make them move in the direction they want. We also have CD players available for the children to operate and choose what music to listen to. Understanding how to operate simple equipment helps them understand cause and effect, as well as exposing them to different types and genres of music.
As always, this is merely a snapshot of some of the activities the children have engaged in this week. Why not check out our website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk, for some photos from this week.
Thank you.
The Pre-school Team
