March 2019

Makaton sign of the week
Thank-you
 


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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.
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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!

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