This week’s activities

As you know, we have two gardens, Robin and Wren. Wren has always been our more natural and wild garden, allowing us to explore nature on our doorstep. We are adapting Robin Garden to allow the children to have some of the experiences offered in Wren Garden in Robin Garden. We have therefore moved the bird bath and the bird feeders to Robin Garden and we are creating another bug hotel. To create the five star experience for the tiny creatures that we hope will take up residence, some of the children used their time in the woods to collect items to add to the bug hotel; including twigs, sticks (of all lengths and widths), alongside the leaves that have fallen to the ground over the winter months. They talked about why this would create a good habitat for the insects. We will keep an eye on the hotel over the coming weeks, to see which creatures have decided to make it their home. Fingers crossed!

The children went on to make books of how they would look after certain animals. They used some of the Christmas cards and birthday cards that we recycle in the craft area. They carefully cut out their chosen animal and stuck them on to their book. They then talked about what kind of food it might need, where it could get fresh water (some of the animals were domesticated and some wild) and, if they were pets, what else we might need to do for them, such as walking a dog, cleaning out a rabbit hutch. Supporting children to understand how to care for animals begins to help them develop those empathetic traits that are so important throughout life.

There are photos of the children engaged in these activities on our website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk, and our Facebook page.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

The Pre-school Team