This week’s activities

Please find below a snapshot of this week’s activities.

Developing gross motor skills has many benefits for children; not only in terms of health but in developing the strength and co-ordination that allows them to sit upright, concentrate and develop the fine motor skills needed to write.  Our children have lots of opportunities to develop their gross motor skills with the use of our outdoor spaces.  The climbing frame helps them develop balance and co-ordination, as they reach up and climb on the steps, one at a time. Reaching out to the fire officer’s pole helps develop their upper body and encourages them to take calculated risks and feel a sense of pride in their achievements when they are able to do it by themselves for the first time. Perseverance and practice help them to hone their new found skills.  There are rules around the use of the climbing equipment and they learn to negotiate, take turns, develop patience and sharing of resources, to name but a few.

To develop those fine motor skills, they have been using clothes pegs to carefully pick up and place small pompoms into little containers. Little fingers find it hard to open and close a peg and this simple activity helps them develop the pincer grip that is needed for holding a pen. The containers are grouped according to number and the children learn to match the number of pompoms to the number of containers.

To encourage a range of mark-making, the tough tray has been full of salt.  By using a range of tools such as pens, feathers, sticks, paintbrushes, etc, children see the different effects they can create and begin to make connections between making marks and giving them meaning.

In their story-telling, they have explored new and familiar stories and used props to help recreate the stories. Books and story telling resources are available all of the time, ranging from traditional tales, to modern classics, to reference books, on a variety of topics that catch the children’s interests. Recreating familiar stories and using props to retell those stories, helps children make connections and develop vocabulary and learn about the structure of stories.

Exploring the wider world through small world toys helps the children learn about their planet and the creatures who inhabit it, where they live in relation to us, what the weather is like, what the conditions are like and how the creatures who live their survive. This week they have been exploring the artic region through small world toys and reference books.

In the natural world the children found a very large caterpillar. The children were fascinated by its pattern and the way that it moved. This led to discussions around the lifecycle; from tiny egg, to caterpillar, through chrysalis and finally butterfly. Being able to see things in the real world really brings learning to life.

As we have had some lovely weather this week, the children have been learning about shade and shadows. They worked out how to position their crates, which they were using in their role play, to be in the shade of the large umbrella. They discovered that it was darker in the shade and cooler. This led to them looking at their own shadows, learning that their shadows followed them wherever they went and that it made them look taller.  One little girl commented, “there’s no shadows if no sun”. She then pondered further and commented “and if it’s raining”. Fantastic.

In their creative play they have been discovering that colours come in many different shades and that there are terms that describe groups of colours that are different but have similarities. This week they have been discovering ‘pastel’ shades.

In their role play they have explored various kitchen utensils and used natural resources to make “food” for their friends, building friendships and having fun.

The milk crates became a train, with train tickets. Thinking about how much they would cost, where they would go, who would they go with. They then became a plane, jetting off to longer distance destinations, drawing on children’s real life experiences and introducing vocabulary such as “boarding pass”.

Finally this week, they have engaged in two cooking activities. The first was baking fairy cakes. They learnt about the ingredients needed, how to weigh the correct amount and the processes involved in creating a cake. Secondly, they explored a huge marrow. Many of them had never seen one before. They talked about the shape, the weight, the colour, the length. They then used the safety knives to cut and chop it into pieces, looking inside and discovering seeds. It was then cooked and tasted, talking about how it had changed from a solid consistency to a soft one and from cold to warm and how this had happened through heating it on the stove. Introducing safety around using utensils and hot appliances is all part of the learning.

As always, this is only a brief summary of some of the experiences the children have had this week.  Please visit our website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk, to view some of the photos from this week.

Thank you.

The Pre-school Team