A special double blog this week, as we’ve been extra busy enjoying the lovely warmer weather and engaging in some fun activities.
We celebrated World Ocean Day and World Environment Day this week with activities focused on the ocean and how to help our environment. Using jelly baff, we scooped out the rubbish and put it into the recycling bin, all the while engaging in lots of conversation around the ocean, who lives in it and why we need to protect it and look after it. The children expressed their views on how the sea creatures may feel if someone threw rubbish into the sea. They said the fish would be sad, some creatures may get hurt and that it was very bad to put rubbish there.
Our vegetable patch has really enjoyed the warmer weather and has had a big growth spurt. For snack this week, we tried carrots and lettuce that we picked from our patch. They were crunchy and yummy. We spotted some white strawberries and are very excited to try these once they turn red.
We constructed some amazing creations using old boxes saved from the recycling.
As it’s been really warm, we enjoyed a ‘beach sensory activity’, feeling the sand and water between our toes was lovely and cooling. It also gave some of the older children the opportunity to practise putting shoes and socks on, ready for big school. The younger children had a good go at this too, some needed a little help from their friends, and it was heartwarming to see the children so eager to help each other.
Inside we had a beach tuff tray, set out to explore and feel. Pouring and tipping, scooping, touching, looking at shapes, sizes, same and different and describing the finer details of the ocean related items.
Have you seen our Father’s Day pictures in the windows? We painted our hands and said what we love most about our daddy’s or mummy’s.
We set up a supermarket, the children taking turns to be shop keepers or customers. Exploring with pretend money, focusing on numbers, counting and acting out role play based on their own experiences.
After watering the flowers in the garden, some children noticed a puddle left behind. One of the children’s decided to do some chalking in the puddle and enjoyed watching it spread across the concrete. A few more children joined in, discovering that the colours of the chalk actually mixed together when they got wet. The children were amazed at this and spent most of the afternoon mixing colours and watching them dry in the sun.
Indoors the children used makeup brushes, sponges and paint brushes to explore different mark making. They decided to mix the colours together and really enjoyed getting messy with the paint, watching as the colours changed.
We’ve introduced some feelings and emotions books to the rooms, as we begin to enter transitions for the older children, it helps them to be able to express their feelings, as exciting as it is, it also can be a scary time for them. We read “the colour monster” book, and using coloured pens and a large drawing of the colour monster, we spoke about our feelings, what makes us happy, sad etc and where do we feel those feelings. The children were really engaged in this activity, here’s some things they said… “I feel happiness in my mouth when I smile. I feel sad in my eyes. I feel anger in my feet it makes them stomp. I feel love in my heart and my tummy.
On rainy days we do yoga and mindfulness, the rain helps us to feel relaxed. It’s very calming listening to it on the conservatory roof.
St Helen's Pre-School 