Little Explorers Pre-School

This week we have explored the story of The Gingerbread Man. We read and joined in with the story and used ginger scented playdough to make our own gingerbread men.
In PE we continued to practise sports day skills. We used our fine motor skills to practise moving nuts and bolts and completed jigsaws. In music we practised listening to a new song and tapping the syllables in our name on a drum.

Another busy week at Little Explorers this week! We have explored the book ‘Rosa Explores Lifecycles’. We talked about the frog lifecycle briefly and recapped the lifecycle of a butterfly from our previous work. The children also talked about the chicks that hatched from the eggs before Easter.

The children have loved looking at the baby photos that were kindly sent in, if there are anymore then we will continue to share these next week. The children loved guessing who was who, the adults also brought their baby photos in too and the children we amazed how different we looked. It was especially tricky to decided which baby photo belonged to which adult!

Due to our Y6 children completing their SATs this week we were unable to have the hall, so instead Mr T came to do some cosmic yoga all about Arnold the Ant. We all tried to be very flexible!

We have continued to develop fine motor skills: snipping straws with scissors and also creating artwork with fly swats in the garden. We mixed together water and chia seeds to create some ‘frog spawn’ which we enjoyed holding, pouring and touching in the tray.

This week we explored the story of “A good place”, about insects and minibeasts trying to find a good place to live. We have loved looking for insects in the garden and collecting things in beakers, the best places were under rocks, tyres and boxes in the mud kitchen.

We have continued with PE and this week, Mr T introduced some ball skills to us. We all had fantastic listening ears again and the adults were very proud.

We have used our observational skills too, creating pictures of tulips.

We are also very impressed with the growth of our bean plants, we have been watering them well and making sure they get lots of sunshine.

We hope that everyone has had a lovely bank holiday weekend.

We had another busy week in Little Explorers looking at the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
In provision we practised retelling the story using props and puppets and also using different sized hole punches to make holes in leaves.

In the garden we continued to develop gross motor skills using large and small brushes, we enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather too by climbing and using the scooters.

One of the most exciting part was tackling PE in the hall for the first time. The adults were very impressed by everyone listening to and following the instructions. Well done everyone!

We have had a very busy second week of the term, exploring the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We continued to watch carefully to see if our beans had grown… and by the end of the week there were some positive signs. We will continue to observe these over the next few weeks.

We have loved climbing and moving around the garden in the beautiful sunshine this week. We also did some big scale painting using brushes and hands.

Inside we have been retelling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, using props and we were fantastic at recalling the key parts of the story. We have also enjoyed watching a musical version of the story, even joining in the “Fee Fi Fo Fum”. We used leaf shaped sponges to print our own beanstalk too.

It was lovely to welcome the children back after the Easter break and they were delighted to see each other again. We have also welcomed some new children to Little Explorers and they have been very busy exploring the different areas both inside and outside.

Outside, we have been planting some broad bean seeds. We talked about what the beans will need to grow and how we can look after them.

In the garden the children have been using the wooden A-frames and planks to climb, balance and move in a variety of different ways.

Inside we have been using a variety of different shapes and paint to print with. The children have created some very careful patterns.

We have been so excited to see the crocuses and daffodils bloom in our garden 🌼
Back in November the children helped to plant the bulbs in pots. In January we began to see signs of them growing and by February the bulbs had grown a lot more. The children have watered them regularly and watched for any changes.
This process will help to develop the children’s understanding of how things grow and change over time.

This week we have had the opportunity to look more closely at the chicks. We have held and stroked the chicks and lots of us said that they were ‘fluffy’ and ‘soft’.

As the chicks have grown so quickly they have needed more space and so a cardboard box was added to their brooder box. This gave the children a clearer view of the chicks and there has been a lot of interest in watching them and creating observational drawings. There have been lots of chicks created using the playdough this week too.

Outside, the children have been using a variety of natural materials to paint with. They have dipped sticks, leaves and foliage into paint and used them to create marks on paper.

🐥On Tuesday we had a delivery of eggs that were in an incubator. The children wondered if maybe chicks, turtles or alligators might be inside.

By the end of the day on Wednesday, six chicks had hatched already. The children watched the eggs closely throughout the day for signs of them hatching. By Thursday morning all of the eggs had hatched.

On Friday morning the chicks were ready to be moved into their brooder box with a heat lamp to keep them warm. The children are fascinated by them and there have been a lot of conversations about what they can see.

We will be able to observe the chicks more closely and handle them next week which we are so excited about🐥