Due to the amount of snow we had this week, and the large snow drifts caused by the wind, the preschool could only open for 2 days (Thursday and Friday).
We celebrated valentines early as next week will be half term, with many activities based on Valentine’s Day and love.
Yellow room have introduced a new ‘kind jar’ where the children (and staff) can award kindness hearts to their friends for acts of kindness.
Both rooms enjoyed pink and white playdough, set up with heart cutters, rollers and other heart shaped resources. Orange room also had red coloured rice, which got mixed into the playdough for extra texture and tipping and pouring. The children discovered the rolling pins made a very satisfying crunch when rolled over the rice/playdough mixture. Yellow room added petals, various objects for making different effects and shapes in the play dough, and some special books about the things we love.
Both rooms added ice to the valentines theme, yellow room painting with heart shaped ice lollies, and orange room using the pipettes to add warm water over the ice, to see how it melts and the different colours that can be achieved by mixing. As the big heart ice didn’t melt fast enough the children decided to use hammers instead. Both rooms also did some number matching activities, using hearts that had been cut in half.
And then it was time for the SNOW! As you know we are outside in all weathers, so we got dressed in our waterproofs, wellies, gloves, hats and big coats and went out to play in the snow. For a while the children explored the snow, touching, feeling, kicking, throwing it into the air, laying in it. Then we added paint, using different resources to flick it, squirt it, spray it, brush it, across the snow to create great effects and colour mixing. And to develop those all important pen holding muscles.
Some children weren’t keen on being outside for very long, so instead we took some snow inside. And carried on with our exploring. Adding coloured water by squeezing the pipettes over the snow. We made tiny snowmen and snowballs, and talked about the snow, ice, and how it is formed.
We hope that you all have a great half term and enjoy a much needed rest.
St Helen's Pre-School 