This week’s activities

PE in the Primary School Hall

We are lucky to be able to use the Primary School Hall twice per week. We take a small group of children over to the school to carry out ‘PE’ activities. This is great for them to be able to practice some of their gross physical skills in a different environment to our own gardens. It also helps familiarise them with the Primary School environment, especially relevant for those children who will make the transition to that school. Whilst in the hall the children started their PE session by warming up their bodies. The teacher explained that this is an important part of pre-sport readiness. They played a ‘Bean game’, where they take on the personality of a bean, eg runner bean, jelly bean, etc. Another favourite is the traffic light game. They can run when the light is green, get ready when it is amber and stop when it is ready. After their exertions, the teacher asked them to feel their hearts and how exercise makes it beat faster. They also thought about their breathing and noticed that this gest faster and louder too. As they had been very active, the teacher explained the need to rest their bodies. They all had a lie down, telling the teacher how tired the exercise had made them. Once they felt refreshed, they built an obstacle course, balancing along the benches and taking calculated risks, such as jumping from a small box. If they felt really brave, they chose to jump from a bigger box. Taking calculated risks is something they will need to be able to do to navigate through life and children need to be given the opportunities to do this in safe but stimulating ways. They also problem-solved, working out that some of the hurdles they had to jump over were too high to get over for some of them as they weren’t as tall as their friends, however, they figured out that they could go under them by lying on their bellies. What clever children they are.

Making biscuits

This week some of the children had fun making biscuits. We often do cooking activities spontaneously; what we make depends on what ingredients we have available that day. Whilst we don’t promote having too many sweet things, the process of making biscuits offers lots of learning opportunities. Firstly, the children learn about basic food hygiene. They learn that the surfaces where we are doing the cooking need to be clean, they need to wear an apron and they need to wash their hands, to get rid of the dirt and the germs that we can’t see. It is always important to explain the ‘why’ to children. For example, we wash our hands as they could have germs on them that we can’t see but if they go in our food and then into our tummies they could make us poorly. They then learn about recipes. This gives them an understanding that there is a list of ingredients and how much you need to use of each one. They learn that there is an order to how the ingredients are blended together. They finally learn how hot the oven needs to be and how long they need to be in the oven for. Once the biscuits had cooled down enough, they decided to decorate them with icing and sprinkles. Again, they could see how the powdered icing sugar turns to liquid when it is mixed with water. They then used their fine motor skills to spread the icing. To This simple activity is great for understanding mathematical concepts, knowing that words in print carry meaning, large and fine motor skills, as they stir and mix, turn-taking and sharing, as they collaborate with their peers to make sure everyone has a go and patience, as the cakes cook in the oven.

Please see our website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk, or our Facebook page, for photos of some of the activities this week.

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break with your families. We close at the end of the day on Friday 31st March, re-opening to children on Tuesday 18th April.

The Pre-school Team