Amid the Christmas bustle, we did ensure we finished our winter term with some fun non-Christmas activities. Peppermint-scented swirl foam concealed some magnetic letters that the children could discover and match, helping with letter recognition, and textured rollers and playdough helped them develop their hand muscles and mark-making skills. Following some of the children’s interests, we also set up a winter-themed small-world dinosaur tray with number magnets and natural items, including fir tree branches we had collected while out walking. This sparked some great imaginative play and talk about seasons, numbers and the natural world.
We welcomed some new starters this term, including the popular Buckingham Bear! He is our travelling Preschool bear who enjoys going home with a different child each week to spend time with them and their family.
We started the spring term by, as always, listening to and observing the children to identify their interests, so that we can foster them through our activities. Farms and animals are a firm favourite right now, so we have provided a beautiful wooden farm with an assortment of animals, and tractors for mark-making in sand dough, developing the children’s motor control skills and creativity.
We also have an interest table with carrots in soil that the children can dig up, helping them learn about growth, crops, food, and how they’re connected. Our duck pond activity features colour-coded ducks to be retrieved and placed in the matching colour-coded bowl, aiding colour recognition. Meanwhile, we’re on hand to help the children sound out the words in our animal name and picture matching activity, and we’re extending this activity by asking the children to find the matching animal around Preschool. Of course, our Books of the Week have followed our farm theme, including the Ladybird book, ‘The Three Little Pigs’.
Looking forward, we will be welcoming some new committee members soon, helping us plan another great year of fundraising, fun and learning at Preschool.