Makaton sign Thank-you Dates for your diary Please note that we have had to change our inset day from 30th April to Thursday 2nd May 2019 as the hall is going to be used for a polling day. Additional Info Please could you ensure that your child's lunch boxes and water bottles are labelled with their names to ensure the right lunches/drinks are provided for the children. Parental Job interests Over the last couple of weeks all of the children have been showing lots of interest in the jobs that other people take part in. Following this interest we very kindly had a visit from one of the children's mummy's on Monday, who is a Nurse. She described in child friendly language her job role and how she helps poorly children get better and brought along pictures of the hospital in which she works at. She also brought along some bandages and showed us how to correctly put a bandage on someone, which was really fun! The children then took it in turns to bandage each others arms and legs. After this we learnt a little bit about medicine and the different types of syringes nurses use to administer medicine to poorly children. We learnt that a purple syringe is the one we use to put into our mouths to take medicine such as Calpol and the white syringe is used to give us injections/jabs. The children then thought of some questions they could ask the nurse and listened attentively to her replies, speaking about her visit throughout the rest of the day. A great big thank-you for visiting preschool, we all really enjoyed your visit. We have also been implementing into our everyday routine and speaking to the children about stereotypes. The analysis of over 150 articles, books and interviews suggest that children between the ages of 2 and 6 learn stereotypes about toys, skills and activities that are “typically” associated with each gender; these are boys’ toys and those are girl’s toys. As a pre-school team we are supporting the children to understand that you are entitled to explore and play with whichever books, toys or activities interest you and that it is ok for both genders to take part in the same games. If any of your family members or parents/carers take part in a job that isn’t "gender typical" we would love for them to come and visit pre-school and have a chat with the children about their jobs! If any parents/carers or family members would like to come in and talk to the children about their job roles, please speak to a member of the pre-school team who will happily organise a date with you.
0 Comments
local
Dates for your Diary Tuesday 30th April 2019= Inset day Wednesday 8th May and Thursday 9th May= Parent exchange meetings Please note... As of next term, which starts on Tuesday 23rd April 2019, our session times will be running from either 9:15-12:15, 9:15-13:15 or 9:15- 2:45. Meaning morning sessions and morning session with lunch will be running for an extra 15 minutes. Session booking forms will be sent out at the start of next week w.c 25th March and can we please ask that these are returned by the end of term 5th April. Café Thank-you very much to all of those who attended/donated towards our coffee morning on Tuesday 12th March, we are always very grateful for your involvement and generous donations. It was a lovely morning and both children and parents/carers thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The money raised funded our trip to the local farm. Life cycles of butterflies The children have been showing lots of interest in butterflies over the past two weeks and have been asking lots of questions in regards to where they come from, what they eat and if their babies look like them. Supporting children to learn about life cycles is a perfect way to help them understand the world around them and to connect with nature. We started off by using a set of sequencing cards in order to help the children to understand each step in a butterflies life cycle which helped them to visually make those connections of each step, "Caterpillars turn into butterflies but I didn't know they were eggs first". It was amazing to see the astonishment on the children's faces when they began to process the important steps of how a butterfly is formed. Following on from this interest, the children used what they had learnt from the life cycles to create their own versions of butterflies and caterpillars using a wide variety of craft resources. Completing this activity linked to several areas of development; using imagination, mathematics- counting how many sequins they wanted to stick on and self-confidence- being praised for the fantastic work they had produced. Once the children had created their butterflies or caterpillars we put them up on display, valuing and respecting each of the children's pieces of work and it allowed the children to engage in many conversations with both peers and adults in regards to why they made theirs look like it did. Trip to Chew Valley Country Farm- 22/03/2019 The children have been showing a huge interest in farms and the animals they contain over the past weeks and we thought taking them on a trip to the local farm would help them to embrace the environment around them and allow them to get up close with real life animals! We had a fantastic day and started off our morning by exploring the play park, where the children engaged in imaginative, role play activities such as being crocodiles crossing the water and exploring the climbing equipment, demonstrating great confidence in their ability to maintain their balance and move across the apparatus. It was then time for us to head to cuddle corner where we were allowed to handle the animals including; bunnies, guinea pigs, pigmy hedgehogs, chicks, chickens, mice and tortoises. This was a great experience for all of the children and helped them to understand about living creatures and how we need to look after them "These are so cute and fluffy" "They like to have their shells touched it tickles them" "Bunnies and Guinea-pigs like to eat straw and little nuggets to keep them healthy". We then moved next door where we learnt about the baby Pigmy goats and Lambs. We were told that pigmy goats need to live in pairs as they become lonely on their own and that baby lambs only spend very short periods of time away from their mummies before their mummies get really sad and call for them back. The children enjoyed holding the baby goats and lambs, feeling the textures of their fur and petting them on their laps, however the goats spent most of their time running and jumping around the barn, making everyone laugh! We then explored the rest of the farm, learning the names of animals we weren't familiar with such as; wallabies, artic fox, meerkats and looking at a wide range of birds. It was then time for lunch which we enjoyed eating at the picnic tables and then it was time for a small play in the park before the grown ups arrived. "I've had so much fun today, it was good" Makaton sign of the week Thank-you People who help us Over the past two weeks the children have been portraying a huge interest in people who help us, especially fire fighters and police officers. We have been exploring the different roles of these important figures in our community and been taking part in several role play based activities, using appropriate props to support the children’s play. The interest in this has taken place both inside and outside with children building a police station using the open-ended resources and dressing up to take on each role and inside where we have had the small world, emergency vehicles and fire station out to explore. Supporting this interest helps children to make connections between themselves and the outside world. It aims to make them more aware of the different jobs and roles people take on in their own homes, in school and in their local community. It also encourages children to notice places and people in their community and, show them that they are part of a wider community and opens possibilities for them to consider future careers. Also, it can play a major role in helping to break down gender stereotypes and ensuring equal opportunities for everyone. When asked lots of the children would tell us “Policemen put badies in jail and take them away”. As much as this is correct it is also important that when exploring people who help us that we don’t make children scared of these officers, they are there simply to reach out to if they are scared or need help. Bird Boxes We have had a special visitor visit preschool recently; Nigel who has very kindly made bird boxes with the children. He supplied the resources to make the bird boxes and fascinated all the children by using his tools to construct them. The children were put into small groups which allowed them to each have a turn putting the boxes together. First, Nigel explained what each of his tools done in the process of making the box and supplied the children with a pair of safety googles. Nigel then supported the children to line each side of the wood up before, fixing in the screws and drilling them into place. The children absolutely loved using the drill, while being supported by adult, demonstrating fantastic listening skills by following the instructions provided “Wow Nigel let me use his real-life drill, it was so much fun”. Once we had completed each step of the instruction’s we had two completed bird boxes, one which was suitable for Robins and one suitable for Great Tits. From this lots of the children began asking questions in response to the different types of birds, extending their knowledge and understanding about this species. We are looking forwards to putting our bird boxes up at Forest club soon and hopefully we will get to see some Robins and Great Tits!! Thank-you for a fantastic afternoon Nigel! |
Archives
March 2020
Categories |