This week’s activities

Noticing wildlife

We are fortunate that our Pre-school is in a lovely position close to the river, with trees and wildlife all around us. Some of the children have used our ‘bird spotting’ sheets to search for the birds who visit our garden and to try and identify which species. Introducing new vocabulary at an early age is a great way to build up children’s spoken language, which in turn helps with learning to read when the time is right. You’ll be amazed at what new words children are able to learn when they are exposed to them in context and on a regular basis.

To help in their bird spotting, the children decided to use the magnifying glasses. This led to discussion around what magnification is and how it can make tiny things look bigger and clearer so we can really see them. Great for observation skills, as well as mathematical concepts of size.

The children discovered that the magnifying glasses did not help with spotting the birds as they couldn’t get close enough to them. However, they learnt that there is equipment that can help with making things that are far away look closer – binoculars. Whilst, sadly, we don’t have any real binoculars (we are always looking for donations of interesting items, so if you have any old ones that you no longer need, we would be happy to take them off your hands), the children were undeterred and decided that they could make their own using toilet rolls and sticky tape. Great problem solving and manipulation skills.

Visit to the woodland area

We are lucky that we are able to use the woodland area at the top of the School site on a Tuesday and Thursday morning. This gives the children the opportunity to discover hidden treasures as they explore amongst the trees. As a setting, we endeavour to re-use, re-purpose and recycle. We therefore try not to buy single use or plastic craft items. Today the children visited the woods and brought back some lovely natural resources for use in their craft. They discussed where the items may have come from, eg sticks from the trees, leaves that have fallen from the trees, acorns, seeds, etc from the trees and feathers from birds. They collected the items and carefully brought them back to Pre-school to use in their artworks. Lovely.

When they weren’t collecting items, they had lots of fun listening to stories and singing songs and rhymes. Children love singing and moving and doing both in the open air is a wonderful experience. They especially liked the ‘Jumping Frog’ song; taking it in turns to jump high in the air and counting down the frogs.

There are some photos on our Facebook page and website, www.anthonyroperpreschool.co.uk.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Pre-school Team