The children in preschool really enjoy caring for our Eco garden. They enjoy taking time to water the plants, as well as small jobs such as weeding and cutting the sweet peas. This week we harvested some small cucumbers, radish, as well as red and black currants. It makes snack time fun, to learn about new fruit and vegetables and talk about how they grow.
In class we read the book ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, by Eric Carle, before going on our own caterpillar bug hunt. The book helped us learn the lifecycle of a butterfly, and we enjoyed our learning around this. Later in the week some of the children were lucky enough to be able to go up to Year 4 and share some more books. Thank you Year 4 for reading with our little ones. They love to spend time with you.
In maths children practised counting out pompom ‘eggs’ from a large group onto numbered leaves. On our fine motor table we used hole punches to make holes in different leaves, whilst sorting them, looking at the shapes and colours. We also had a session on making the 2d mats into 3d shapes, which showed off our problem solving and thinking skills. In role play the children pretended to be caterpillars and wrapped each other up in toilet paper cocoons, before bursting out of them as beautiful butterflies.
Communication and language is a key skill for our young children. We use Show and Tell sessions to help children understand questions. They feel empowered to talk about their special object, and need lots of listening skills to take part. As part of this the children bring in a favourite book from home, to share with the rest of the children. After telling us why their item is so special, we take turns to think of and ask questions. The children really enjoy their Show and Tell session.
A large part of our curriculum happens when children participate in their ‘own learning’ time. We have been lucky to be donated a wonderful wooden play kitchen, which enable the children to act out their experiences.
