This week’s activities

Splatter painting outside

Large paper was pegged to the fence in the garden. The children used paintbrushes to flick paint onto the paper and to make big marks, using their large motor skills. Developing large motor skills is vital in the development of fine motor skills – you need to have lots of large physical activities before you can use fine motor skills to write, for example. To make the paint thinner for flicking, the children used water from the water butt. As there were only four brushes and four jackets to keep their clothes clean, they had to take it in turns. The children waited patiently. Another challenge for young children and something that should be celebrated when children achieve this. They thought about what happened when they mixed the colours together and how it made new colours. Talking about their creations, some of them commented that they looked like fireworks, leading to discussions around what they had been doing at the weekend and whether they had been to any Bonfire celebrations. One child commented that it looked like someone had had a big sneeze! This led to the children thinking about sneezing and how we can stop spreading germs by sneezing into our elbows, using and binning a tissue and then washing our hands – everything is a learning opportunity! Please see our website and Facebook page for some photos.

Creative ideas – from inception to completion

Children’s creativity is all about ideas. Being able to put your ideas into something concrete is wonderful to see. Our craft area is stocked with all kinds of materials for children to self-select to create pieces of art, from paintings through to models. Adults are on hand to offer support and suggestions, but we believe that children learn best when they are given the opportunity to do things for themselves. This gives them a ‘can-do’ attitude. They learn perseverance and patience and take pride in what they have achieved. There are some photos on our website and Facebook page so you can admire their creations.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

The Pre-school Team