It was lovely to welcome the children and their families back to start a fresh new year at Preschool. We started with some fun and colourful activities to fight off the post-holiday blues! Colour dabbers were provided for colour mixing and the children enjoyed using maxi colour buttons to create pictures and geometrical patterns on grid boards. These resources help to develop analytical thinking and encourage discussion about size and shape.
Early Years is all about giving children opportunities to learn through play—and play that follows their interests as naturally as possible. Some children had expressed interest in materials for craft rabbits in a catalogue, so we supplied newspapers and balloons so that they could make paper-mâché rabbits. Similarly, after one child became interested in aeroplanes and played with a paper aeroplane, other children wanted to test how far they could fly their planes across the classroom. We supplied different materials so that they could test which was best for plane-building, encouraging language about strength and weight. We also provided rulers and tape measures so they could learn how to measure distance and practice number recognition. It’s surprising what your child has learnt at Preschool when they tell you they “just flew paper planes!” In our outdoor area, we supplied damp sand at the beginning of term, providing a sensory experience and a resource for exploring texture, weight and quantity as the children filled containers. Some children made ‘soup’ and ‘cakes’ for a picnic using the mud kitchen. Others were interested in ways to move the sand from one place to another. To develop these interests, we added more utensils to the mud kitchen and extended the space to give them more scope for transportation! Where will their interests take us next?
Committee Members Still Needed
Although some new volunteers have come forward for the committee, we often regularly lose members as children go on to big school or move house etc. This means we would still love some new members! We’re a friendly group, you won’t be asked to take on any tasks or responsibilities that you don’t want. Please contact Helen, our chairperson, or Debby, our treasurer, at buckdenpreschoolcommittee@gmail.com for more details.