This week’s activities

As you will have hopefully noticed, we have grown some very impressive sunflowers this summer. They are now beginning to fade and droop, so we have made the most of the ones we have cut down to explore them more closely.  The children talked about the parts of the sunflower and learnt that there is a stem and leaves and a flower head with petals and seeds. They picked out the seeds, learning that each tiny seed, given the right conditions, could become another tall and beautiful sunflower next year (talking about the life cycle of plants). To help with their fine motor skills, they used small tongs and tiny spoons to pick up the seeds and transfer them from one container to another, seeing how many they could fit in and thereby learning about size, shape and capacity. To help discover some interesting facts about sunflowers, and plants in general, relevant reference books were available, alongside the activity, to be shared with their peers or the adults. You can learn a lot from images and photos and what you can’t learn from that can be learnt from reading the print. This supports children’s understanding of print carrying meaning and that not all books are story ones.

In their painting they have been using various tools to create different effects and have learnt how adding different colours will affect the outcome. In this instance, they were learning that adding white creates a lighter shade and adding brown creates a darker shade.

The children helped to make playdough. They discussed what ingredients are needed and measured the correct quantities of each one. This is great for mathematical development and is also an early science activity; learning how one substance can affect another when mixed together in certain quantities. They learnt lots of adjectives by describing how the playdough felt through it’s different stages. It is also a lot of fun!

In their sensory play, they have enjoyed playing in the water tray; feeling the cool water on their skin, learning about how to keep their clothes dry by wearing and apron, as well as all the usual mathematical and fine motor skills development that comes from pouring, filling and emptying containers.

They have had lots of fun using dry and wet sand, discovering that you can do different things with it, depending on its state. When it’s dry it runs through your fingers, when it’s wet you can build with it. Amazing!

We have been lucky to have had a real set of binoculars donated. The children have been fascinated at how things look so much larger and closer when you look through them. This prompted them to create their own binoculars using two toilet rolls. They also learnt that one toilet roll creates a ‘telescope’. These props were then used to support their role play.

In their outdoor exploration, they discovered a wiggly worm. They talked about what worms eat, if they have legs, what do worms do for the soil and what part do they play in maintaining healthy soil for growing things in. We also talked about not touching worms as the salt from our hands causes them pain.  Great for beginning those empathetic emotions and being kind and caring.

This is a brief snapshot this week as it only covers the first 3 days. As you can see, the children have lots of fun and do lots of learning – all through play and hands on experiences.

The Pre-school Team