Another few mornings packed with lots to do.  Liz has been in for music and singing. She used some of her puppets, which are always a great hit with the children.  The children used song and dance as well as the shaking eggs!  Lots of finishing touches to our Christmas craft projects and our decorations for our preschool tree at Highbrook’s Tree Festival.  Thank you to Liz who came along to help put the decorations up this afternoon. 

Today we have used the small world farm animals.  The children worked together to create their own farmyard.  A great way to enrich their imagination and explore the world around them.  We also had our festive threading out and the very popular Geoboards for fine motor skills.  

We started the morning with lots of projects to be getting on with.  On the art table children were getting on with lots of their Christmas art works.  We have also started to make decorations for our preschool Christmas tree, which will be at our neighbouring village of Highbrook’s  Christmas Tree Festival with lots of other village organisations trees.   We have started to create handprints with each child which we will decorate during the week.  There is more information about the Festival on the Hoathly Hub here – http://www.hoathlyhub.info

We have bought a new Latches Board which the children were really keen on using for the first time today. The board has multiple levels of learning, not only does it work their fine motor skills carefully opening and shutting the various types of latches and doors, but also helps with number recognition, colours and animals.  We also had the gears out on the large mat, so that the children could develop their gear designs.

Our morning learning was unfortunately cut short by a technical problem with the halls fire alarm system.  When the alarms sounded we exited the building with great speed and the children listened very well to our instructions.  We all went to our assigned assembly place at the primary school.  Whilst we were at the school the alarm continued to be triggered. We hope you all understand that we could not continue preschool without the fire alarm system working correctly.  Technicians have been out to fix the problem this afternoon, so we will see you all tomorrow. 

We’ve been up to lots this week including preparing for our Nativity next month.  You have probably heard our Nativity music CD playing at drop in the morning. We have started practicing the words and actions during circle time each day.  We’ve also continued creating stars for our backdrop.  

We started the morning by everyone really wanting to get involved with building the highest wooden block tower.   They loved to make really intricate and precariously balanced towers.  The bigger the better!  The children slowly dispersed throughout the hall looking for other activities to take part in.  Some children sat for a while in the book corner reading to each other and carefully handling the books.  Some of the boys used clipboards to create maps and went on their own adventure. Issy was playing a number game with a small group of children.  During Circle Time this week we have also been looking at the numbers 1-6, this includes the figures and also matching value.  Today we played a game based on ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’ using a large dice and stepping the number of dots thrown.  We were aiming to get to our coats and bags for pickup time. 

The children all enjoyed ‘cooking’ food using the play kitchen. They used their imagination to create “food for baby”, and we had a good supply of ‘tea’ and ‘coffee’ throughout the morning. 

For our fine motor area we had the ‘straw and box’ game which is still a great hit with the children.  They love matching the colours and popping the straws through the correct holes.  We also had the gears where the children linked multiple sheets connecting the gears together. 

We had another cardboard box today so created tunnels for the small vehicles, each tunnel had a number and colour.  The children helped to choose the colours.

Outside the children had opportunity to use the chalk and water with paintbrushes to mark make. 

Today the children investigated the new Geoboards. These boards are great for the children’s coordination, hand strength, fine motor coordination and shape recognition. They enjoyed making different patterns and shapes and the occasional ping across the hall!

We also had the wooden train set, puzzles and the cars out and the children used them throughout the morning.  The children again set up a plane using chairs and we continued this play with a tray of glasses being offered and tickets for their ‘IssyJet Airways’ flight.  We flew to Africa and saw some of the wild animals including elephants and lions.  But as one child pointed out “we have to be quiet or we will scare them”.   Not only did we fly to Africa this morning we also had time for Liz to do singing with us and also build a camp under the tables.

We’ve had lots of imaginative play so far this week.  Someone bought in a box this week, the children jumped straight in it creating a car, a bus and a plane.  The children used felt pens and pencils to create switches, buttons, wheels and holes.  The children continued this theme by creating a train using chairs and a tambourine as a steering wheel. Later they moved the chairs to a different formation and they now had a plane!

The children also helped Issy to make playdoh using the microwave.  We chose the colour green and everyone enjoyed counting down the seconds until the next stir.  

Today one of the children was fascinated by the large magnets they experimented with what they stuck to and what they didn’t.  Also how they repelled and were attracted to each other.

Some of the children enjoyed using the sorting pie.  Helping with matching and fine motor skills.

Today we continued our theme this week and made a light box.  This is something fun and easy that can be done at home too. We used a small clear plastic storage box with some battery operated fairy lights.  The children were really excited by it and all wanted to come and have a look.  We used coloured glass beads and coloured cellophane to make patterns.  We extended play by racing to see who could pick up a chosen colour of beads the fastest. It was a fantastic way for the children to explore, investigate and be creative. 

We also had the cars and trains out parking them on specific number to help the children with their number recognition.  Two of the girls wanted to look at different types of butterflies, so we guided them in using the computer to find lots of images.  This helps to develop the children’s understanding of technology the use of the apparatus, how it works and what it can be used for in a safe way.

During Circle Time this week we have been singing and taking part in the actions from the Jolly Phonic CD letters S to C/K.

We hope you all have a great half term break.

Today Liz came to preschool for singing, and she bought along her parachute and also her popcorn machine.  The children sang songs then we all held a handle and tried to keep a ball on the parachute.  We sang a ‘Popcorn’ song and we used beanbags on the parachute to represent the popcorn.  The children all enjoyed this activity.  Liz then made popcorn for the children discussing how and where corn came from and how it was transforming into popcorn.

The children are also enjoying making treasure maps at the moment.  This has been a child initiated activity over the last few days.  They have been discussing ‘X’ marks the spot and tracking down their treasure in the hall.  

At Circle Time we sang along to the Jolly Phonics CD, copied the movements and looked at pictures showing the upper and lowercase letter.

This week we are investigating light and dark. Today we made wooden spoon puppets with Issy.  Issy helped to cut out the clothes, and some of us stuck hair made out of wool. After Circle Time we set up a sheet and a bright light and used our hands or puppets to make different shapes.  We also went outside when the sun was shining and looked at our shadows and silhouettes.  

We had the small world farm animal set out and made a large farmyard with all the different animals.  In our fine motor tray we had the bear sorting set out, with plates and tweezers the children have to match bears to plates.