Our week at preschool

Hi Preschool,

As always we have had a lovely week and the sunshine has certainly helped! Thank you for all the efforts for St. David's day and costumes yesterday for World book day, everybody looked amazing!

Our new theme Jack and the Beanstalk is providing us with lots of exciting learning and this week we have focused on planting seeds and we have explored shape in a variety of ways.

To support our personal, social and emotional development the children have been encouraged to look after their planted seeds and make sure it has enough water to grow. We have been excited to already observe some changes to our seed. Within our free play we have observed at how 'mature' the children suddenly seem to be, they initiate play with peers, self resource props independently to support their play and show bundles of confidence to talk to peers when playing – wow!

To develop our communication and language skills we have been introduced to new language, blossom, catkins, bulb, compost, bud and spring. To support our understanding of this new language we have planted seeds and we have enjoyed spring hunts to discuss the seasonal changes around us. We have also read a variety of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' texts and have used props to re tell the story to a group.

To enhance our physical development we have talked LOTS about the importance of hygiene and hand washing and have incorporated the singing of ' Happy Birthday' whilst washing our hands. We also discussed hygiene practices when handling plants/soil and have been encouraged to wear gardening gloves. To develop our fine motor skills we have enjoyed manipulating play dough to make wonderful creations using the shape cutters. To support our gross motor skills we have played the 'Moving Beans Game' and have moved in a variety of ways e.g. "broad bean"- children need to stand in a wide position. Within our free play the children have been enjoying the warmer weather and have spent lots of time outside, scooters have been popular and jumping of the large tyre – you are very brave!

To support our literacy we have listened to a variety of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' texts and have compared the different versions of the story discussing how they are similar/different. We have also joined in with the repeated phrase "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum".
It was lovely to share all your favourite stories on World Book day too, you even introduced me to a few new stories – thank you.

To enhance our mathematics learning we have looked at shape within pictures of castles. We then constructed using 2d and 3d shapes to make our very own castles. We also planted cress inside shape cutters – I wonder what shapes will grow? We have also been using lots of language related to measuring, we noticed that footprints had arrived in preschool and rulers. The children have enjoyed ordering the footprints according to size, building beanstalks shorter and taller than a footprint and using the rulers to measure objects.

Spring and planting has been the focus to develop our understanding of the world. We have planted beans in soil and plant pots and planted beans in a clear bag. Next week we are hoping to observe changes to our beans and discuss what our beans need to grow. We will conduct experiments to discover the perfect environment to grow our beans.

Within our expressive arts and design we have enjoyed using props to act out the story of Jack and the Beanstalk taking it in turns to be the different characters. I have observed children independently acting out the story using the props during their own free play – wow! We have also been painting and drawing daffodils.

Next week is science week, we cant wait to observe changes to our seeds and explore the life cycle of a bean.

Enjoy your weekend preschool ad happy spring hunting!
Tara