This week’s activities

Water play in Wren Garden

Children love playing in water, and with the beautiful weather this week, it was the perfect time to play outside with the large water tray and  the large tubes. Children learn a lot from playing in water – it is a lovely sensory activity and is very calming. It is also great for understanding simple science; gravity – water always goes down when poured, and displacement – if you put something in the water, the water makes space for it and the level of the water increases with the more you put in it ‘eureka’.  However, the emphasis this week was on mathematical concepts. As always, the team talked to the children about capacity; full, empty, how much, more and less.  By introducing the tubes they brought in the idea of angles and how designing a system with the correct angle means that water can flow from one tube to another. If you don’t get the angle right, the water will not be able to flow from one space to another. This also involved a lot of problem solving, planning and demonstrating a can-do attitude.

Making tea and coffee

One of the teachers created an activity around tea and coffee.  Children can often be seen in the home corner making tea for their friends, their teddies or their family. To explore real tea and coffee gives them a greater understanding of what they see in their real world and helps form links with their imaginary play.  The teacher had a tray of differing varieties of teabags and coffee.  First she described how tea and coffee begin their life cycle, growing on plants before being harvested.  She explained, in simple terms, the process from plant to factory to warehouse to shop – making long journeys by plane or boat and then onwards on lorries.  The children talked about their experiences of tea and coffee; some responding that they “get tea in the coffee shop”.  They then discussed the different varieties of tea that the teacher had brought in, explaining that they had come all the way from Morocco.  She used cold water to make the tea and the children got to smell and taste some of the different teas, including cherry, peppermint, herbal and English breakfast.  It was interesting to see the children’s reactions – one of the children loved them all! Finally, they shared the book “The World Came to my Place Today”, which explores products and their journeys to our own homes.

There are photos of the above activities available on our website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk, or Facebook page.

Thank you.

The Pre-school Team