This week’s activities

Robin Bubble

This week the children have continued to enjoy matching games; great for concentration, turn-taking, memory recall and early mathematical development.

They have played a chef game, where they talked about what ingredients they needed to make their recipes, and whether they were healthy or unhealthy.

They have continued with their love of block play; especially outside, where they have created fire engines, which have put out many fires and had to deal with many emergencies – great for creative and imaginative role play but also learning about people who help us, the world around them, challenging stereotypes of gender specific roles, to name but a few. They have built towers, which grew taller and taller, until they couldn’t reach any higher; exploring concepts such as trial and error, persistence, teamwork, resilience when things don’t go right, as well as lots of mathematical concepts and early science (the power of gravity on objects).

There has been lots of focus on fine-tuning those self-help skills of putting on their own coats, shoes and wellies. Also remembering to hang their coat on their peg, put their shoes on the shelf and return their boots to the shelf when they take them off and put their shoes back on.

They have had lots of sensory experiences with shaving foam, making marks and then adding paint to see what colours they could create.

Of course, there has been lots of singing, stories and rhymes, with a seasonal focus on Christmas songs.

Finally, they wanted to make face masks! Children relate what they experience in the world around them to their play. This helps them make sense of the world and make connections. They have asked lots of questions about why we wear them, why we need to wash our hands, use tissues when we sneeze and cough into our elbow. They really are amazing!

Wren Bubble

Wren Bubble have taken advantage of being able to access their garden this week and have spent lots of time exploring nature. They have been nature detectives, looking for signs that we have been visited by squirrels and birds. Learning the names of some of the birds that visit our bird feeders and making sure they have enough to eat in the winter months. This helps them make connections to the natural world and what animals need to survive; food, shelter, water – basically the same as they do. This helps with developing empathy – a huge developmental step for young children.

The cheeky elf has been busy this week, getting up to lots of adventures whilst the children are at home. The children love coming in and spotting where he is and what he has been up to. He has been enjoying some of the yummy chocolates that have been kindly donated to the team.

In their sensory play, the children have explored some very gooey slime. To begin with, some children loved it and couldn’t wait to get stuck in. Whilst some really didn’t like it to begin with. With support and patience from the team, the children began to explore and find that new experiences can be fun and stimulating. The adults enjoyed it too!

The children are learning about our world through hands-on, play experiences. This week they explored what happens when our rubbish ends up in the sea, how it impacts on the creatures that live there. The team talked about what they could do with their rubbish which means that it won’t end up in the sea. Exploring what waste can be recycled, what can be turned into compost and what has to be disposed of in the ‘normal’ bin. The items that could be recycled were then used in their craft.

As always, the list is endless. We hope that this snapshot gives you some ideas and some talking points to share with your children.

 

The Pre-school Team