4th to 8th April

As you will have seen, this week we have set up a beautiful 'Princess Castle' inside, where the children can do their role plays.  This is in response to the children's interest in princesses, construction, and Disneyland.  Outside we have also been building another castle out of large wooden boxes.  This kind of large scale junk modelling construction is very good for helping the children learn about maths related areas, such as size, volume and shapes.  They must also work out how to make their building stay up!

In our mark making area this week we have had the whiteboards and whiteboard pens available, alongside some letters and letter books.  Whiteboards often work better for encouraging the reluctant writers, as the children can try out their writing, and then rub it out if it goes wrong.  The Art Zone is proving popular, with lots of different craft and collage materials for the children to access.

Outside this week we have also been planting potatoes in large pots.  As these grow, we will add more compost.  Then, towards the end of the summer term, we can tip them out for the children to discover the 'treasures' hidden inside!  Learning how their food grows, and how to tend living things, is an important learning experience for children of all ages.

This week we have also taken the children on a walk to the post box, as an extension of our post office role play from last week.  It's important for us to help the children learn how they need to behave when crossing the roads.  When we go out for a walk, we wear the high visibility jackets, and we set clear rules and expectations for the children about how they must behave while they are outside of the setting.  The children's safety is our number one priority.

Fascinating Fact: You might not realise this, but the 'pavement' markings outside the Hall came about when we originally set up our freeflow outdoor area.  We had to do a risk assessment, and we realised that this corner is particularly dangerous for children coming to preschool, with traffic coming around the blind bend.  We contacted the transport department of the council, and asked that they come to visit, to see whether they could do anything to improve road safety for children walking to preschool.  So it was that the 'preschool pavements' were created!