Messy Munchkins

Last week in the Annexe, the children were very busy!

The children have been loving the sunny garden and it's perfect when it's not too hot. They have been sharing the ride along bikes and have loved pushing each other around on them. The older children have loved climbing up the steps on the slides and whizzing down. One little girl who had struggled before made it all the way up with an adult supporting her. We are so proud! The Annexe also had the hoops out and the children loved watching the adult’s hula hoop and had to copy!

Cooking was another favourite in the Annexe last week. We started off making oat biscuits that were also dairy free for the children who can't have dairy. The children showed great control when pouring and stirring around the oats, one little boy shouted, "I did it!". On Thursday we made a chocolate cake for Claire's birthday and the children were so excited to eat this at teatime! The younger children joined in also, by placing it at their level they were also able to stir the spoon!

The beginning of the week the children all practised holding a pen and creating marks. The children also liked having a choice. We offered a pen, pencil or crayon to the children and let them choose what they wanted to draw with. This will help with the children's frustration but also helping them communicate.

Hope you all had a lovely sunny weekend!

Last week in Busy Birds was so much fun!

We kicked the week off by working with the children in developing the muscles in their hands. As children continue to develop the muscles in their hands it is important to give them different opportunities to engage in activities that help with this. This can be done a number of ways. In Busy Birds we achieved this by putting some of our magnetic numbers and letters in some water and then encouraging the children to try and pick them up using tongs. The children got really engaged in this and showed great concentration and determination.

The children have also been working on building the muscles in their hands by doing some simple work with one handed tools, such as scissors and exploring play dough. Play dough is one of the easiest ways to continue to develop your child's hand muscles all you have to do its mix together some flour, water, salt and oil and you've got a great activity!

Last week Busy Birds have also been working on their physical strength too. The children have done this with some obstacle course in the garden! By taking out one of our tunnels we were able to encourage the children to move in a variety of different ways. The children crawled, balanced and jumped!

Throughout these various activities Busy Birds have also been working on building the relationships they have with their peers, making new friendships and learning to recognise when they have to take turns and share.

What a lovely week we had!

Last week was very exciting in Preschool. We have got lots of new toys - a car garage, new games, new puzzles and lots of new animals. It has been nice to get back into the rooms after having our flooring done. The weather has been so much better this week, so we've enjoyed the warm weather out in the garden and on the climbing dome.

Preschool have enjoyed playing with our mouse beebot. The children had to use their problem-solving skills and technology skills to work out how to get the mouse to one of their friends using the directional buttons, forward, left, right or backwards. One of the children even named the mouse. It is now called Jim.

The children also had some great fun playing with water beads. They discussed the textures, using words such as slimy, wet and cold. One child said, "we can't see through them", so we talked about transparent and opaque.

Preschool have also made rice crispy cakes. The children talked about how we had to melt the chocolate as it was too hard to be able to mix with the rice krispies. They then discussed where chocolate comes from. The children then ate them at teatime. They were very yummy.

The children have also done some story telling with our story sacks. The favourites were the three little pigs, little red riding hood, three Billy goats gruff and Jack and the beanstalk. This helps the children to develop their listening and communication skills, it also improves concentration skills. Most of the children could retell most of the stories back to us.

Preschool have a Makaton sign of the week which we teach to the children. Each Monday we have a new one. Last week's sign was play.

Have a lovely week!