Wren Bubble

As you may have noticed, there is a very large pile of bark outside of Wren garden. The children have been helping to move the bark into the garden using small shovels and wheelbarrows.  This has promoted large physical development, co-ordination, how to use tools safely, as well as teamwork and being proud of helping out and making a difference to their own space.

They have explored the properties of ‘gloop’ – cornflour mixed with water.  Cornflour is very interesting as, when it is mixed with water, it becomes wet and sticky, but once it is lifted out of the mixture it dries out very quickly. Great fun but also a way of learning about different properties and how things react with each other (simple chemistry). 

There have been lots and lots of completely child-led role play.  They have had a dinner party, been all sorts of animals and been to ‘work’ doing all sorts of jobs.

To promote turn-taking, patience and sharing, they have been playing board games, including the ‘shopping’ game.

They are trying hard to follow our golden rules of walking inside, kind hands and looking after our toys and books.

We have purchased some new magnifying glasses and the children have explored the changes in leaves during the winter season and compared them with green leaves from indoor plants.

They have investigated the large compost heap to see how the food that is left over from their snack or lunch begins to decompose to eventually form compost that we can put back into growing new food.

Many of these activities link to our sustainable development aims.  They have been sharing the Smartest Giant story and game; talking about empathy, being kind and sharing what we have with others.

As always, we can’t possibly put everything that the children have engaged in into a newsletter, but we hope this gives you a snapshot of what they get up to after you have dropped them off. Photos of some of the activities will be available on our website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk, from tomorrow.

 

Robin Bubble

The children have used the emergency vehicles to understand what happens in emergency situations and who comes to help out, including fire officers, police officers, doctors and paramedics. Challenging misconceptions of gender specific roles. This led on to exploring the jobs that people do in the wider community, such as the roles their parents have. This develops their understanding of the world, how they and their families fit into it, and how we are just a small part of a much bigger community.

The children have been learning about sustainable energy sources, such as wind turbines, and how these produce electricity, rather than fossil fuel sources, which are not good for the environment. They explored how electricity gets from the socket to a plug and then into equipment – all in a safe way!

Construction is ever-popular; both inside and out. The large wooden blocks outside promote lots of skills, among them, physical and manual dexterity, perseverance, when things don’t go quite right, teamwork, leadership, planning, trial and error, shape and spatial awareness, turn-taking and being proud of what they have achieved, to name but a few.

As always, there have been lots of counting songs, rhymes, stories and, of course, Christmas songs.

They have played fruit matching games, promoting observational skills, concentration, memory and mathematical concepts. As well as turn-taking, patience and discussing what fruit they do and don’t like and how fruit is good for their bodies.

They have used their large motor skills in ball games through throwing and catching, climbing, sliding, running, jumping. All of which are not only essential for good health, but for strengthening muscles which supports manual dexterity and fine motor skills (essential for eventually being able to hold a pencil and write)..