The last few weeks have been great fun as we have continued to learn all about our new starters—and the new skills and interests developed by our returning children. Playdoh in a variety of colours and scents has given them not just a sensory experience, but also encouraged the development of their hand muscles and descriptive language.
Following their interests, in the last month we have set up a baby care section with dolls, nappies, bottles, bowls and spoons in the home corner, and a Jurassic World with a host of friendly dinosaurs. Farms, farm animals and wild animals have proved to be enduring interests, so every week, we’ve provided different activities around this theme alongside small-world toys. They have included:
- Animal footprint mark-making with paint and playdoh, which encouraged talk about shape, number, texture and colour.
- Animal and farm puzzles of different sizes to develop problem-solving skills and coordination.
- An animal matching game to encourage thinking skills and alphabet recognition.
- A sensory animal tray with natural resources.
- An outdoor animal washing station with toothbrushes. This is not only great fun, but also helps the children develop the hand muscles necessary for writing. It also benefits the staff, as it’s much less messy than the children deciding to ‘give the animals a wash’ under the bathroom taps!
- Themed books to enjoy indoors and outdoors, and relevant Book of the Week choices, including Eric Carle’s ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?’ and ‘The Hungry Donkey’ from Usborne’s Farmyard Tales series.
Plans are in place to start a preschool/home reading scheme, and we also found time to enter the Buckden Scarecrow Festival 2023 competition. Our entry was displayed in Manor Gardens and featured members of the Potato Head family! Passers-by could vote for their favourite Potato character with pebbles. We hope you had the chance to see it.
JOB VACANCIES
We are seeking:
– A qualified Early Years Practitioner to join our amazing team on a part-time basis.
– A part-time cleaner, who will work outside school hours.
For more information on these roles, or on becoming a committee member, please contact buckdenpreschoolcommittee@gmail.com. Our Chairperson, Helen, or our Treasurer, Debs, will get back to you.