Category: What we have been doing in pre-school

The story we have chosen this week is Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. This story is a well loved story in Preschool especially when we get the owl puppets out for the children to use. It is the story of three baby owls who wake to find their mummy has disappeared. Will she return?

We have found an animation of this story on YouTube Owl Babies

Why not see if you can make some owl puppets, use wooden spoons, toilet rolls or even stuff some socks, don’t forget to share your owls on tapestry for us to see.

In Macclesfield we are really lucky to have such great green spaces. Our parks are full of wildlife but you will find more to observe in wild places. At the back of All Hallows’ is an area called Bollin Meadows there are a huge family of crows who live there, maybe a hundred. They make a racket but are incredible to watch.

Sparrows live in big groups of thirty or more in hedges and you will know they are there as they also make a huge fuss and then suddenly go silent as you walk past. Brilliant.

Robins will appear as soon as you start to dig in your garden looking for worms as they prefer live food as opposed to seed. We all love robins!

Here are a few more bird activities to keep you going, no pressure! Enjoy, have fun maybe learn a new bird. Let us know how you get on.

At pre-school we love to explore the natural world and gently influence our pre-schoolers into becoming nature detectives. January and February are absolutely the crucial time to feed our garden birds as there is not much left to eat in the hedgerows. Some birds like feeding from bird feeders but some like feeding from the ground. I watched a blackbird pull a worm up from my lawn the other day, it was brutal but fascinating. Here are some simple bird feeding ideas using items you may already have at home.

1. Spread peanut butter on a toilet roll tube and roll in bird seed.
2. Thread cheerios and any fruit on some wire or a pipe cleaner and hang on a branch.
3. Robins will love some cut apple and you can also put out grated cheese and breadcrumbs. (My cat took a liking to this though!)

This next weekend is the RSPB’s – The Big Garden Birdwatch, you can sign up and spend an hour over the weekend counting how many birds land in your garden.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/ 

In preschool we have blackbirds, pigeons and Lindsey saw a rook last week. In my garden I have spotted robins, wrens, blackbirds and goldfinches.

I wonder what birds you can spot? We would love to hear about any bird observations.

Have fun budding ornithologists!

We think the little old woman would have made some yummy cakes or biscuits for all her visitors, why don’t you have a go at home? You can leave them plain or decorate them to look like the animals that were in the story.

Baking is a really good activity that covers all aspects of the curriculum e.g. commuication, maths, physcial besides the fact they are yummy to eat.

,Here are two easy baking recipes the children can do at home:-

Biscuits
4 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of butter

Preheat you oven to180*/160*C Fan

Mix the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon.
Add the flour and then use your hands to bring it all together into a soft dough.
Roll small pieces of the dough into balls and place on the baking tray, leaving spaces to spread.
Press the top of each ball with a fork to flatten slightly.
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown . Put on a tray to cool and harden.

Fairy cakes
You can use 1 egg or 2 eggs or 3 eggs or more,  the more   eggs = bigger cakes.
Weigh the eggs, make a note of the weight.
Weigh the same amount of flour – put into mixing bowl.
Weigh the same amount of sugar – put into the mixing bowl.
Weigh the same amount of butter – put into the mixing bowl

Add the eggs to the bowl – mix,  mix,  mix

Put the mixture into cup cakes or cake tray.

Heat the oven to 350*/180*C Fan
Cook for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Eat them as they are or see if you can decorate them to look like the animals in the story.

If baking is too much, try decorating plain rich tea or digestive biscuits with icing using small marshmallows, laces or buttons to decorate, again can you make an animal that was in the story.

As the little old lady in the story found there is only so much you can put in one room before it feels like a squash and a squeeze.

We thought it would be fun to see how much you could squash into a box. This activity not only will help the children to practice their counting and awareness of size but hopefully will give you five minutes peace as they go on a treasure hunt both inside and outside.

1. Find a small box e.g. matchbox, small cereal box, breadstick box, Oxo box or even a shoebox.

2. Encourage your child to go around their house or garden collecting small items that will fit into their chosen box.

3. Once it is full, help your child to take out each item one at a time, counting each them as you line them up.

4. Take a photograph of the collection and put it on tapestry to share.

5. This challenge can be repeated again and again giving different rules e.g. red items, things you wear etc.

Another variation of this game if you haven’t got a box is to use Lego, Duplo or other building bricks to make an enclosure. See how many items, people or animals you can fit in your enclosure, remembering to count them as before, lining each figure up as you count them. Again don’t forget to take a photograph before you finish.

Why not make an icy hanger to explore changes in nature.

1. Choose a suitable container eg takeaway tray, plant pot, saucer.
2. Collect natural items on your walk, sticks, feathers, leaves, flowers or choose tiny toy items. Eg Lego figures, dinosaurs, marbles.
3. Place a piece of string in the dish leave a loop hanging outside the dish.
4. Fill with water, leave the dish outside if it is freezing or in your freezer overnight.
5. Using the loop hang the frozen block outside so the children can watch as the ice returns to water.

If you want to extend this activity you could use a deeper bowl of water.
1. Add items beginning with the same sound eg car, cat, key, comb.
2. Or add items for your child to count.
3. Or simply add their favourite toy eg dinosaurs, Michu squishy toys.
4. Once the water is frozen the children can use a toy hammer or rolling pin to tap at the ice to get at the items.

Use unusual items to freeze water like rubber gloves or balloons. Put food colouring in and as they melt the colours will mix. These can be added to the bath at bath time to make it more fun.

You can use bubble mixture in the winter to make frozen bubbles. Heat your mixture in the microwave for a few seconds , blow the bubble as high as you can, so there’s time for them to travel through the air and get cold. Try catching the bubble on your wand so you can see the colours.

A good way to get warm after being outside in the cold is to chant or sing the song “Here we go round the mulberry bush”. Encourage your child to join in with the suggested actions. Fit each action to the rhythm

Here we go round the mulberry bush
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush,
Here we go round the mulberry bush,
On a cold and frosty morning

We rub our hands to keep us warm,
Keep us warm, Keep us warm,
We rub our hands to keep us warm,
On a cold and frosty morning

We stamp our feet to keep us warm,
Keep us warm, keep us warm,
We stamp our feet to keep us warm,
On a cold and frosty morning

Make up your own verses e.g. We jump up and down to keep us warm or We blow on our hands to keep us warm. See if you can make up new actions to each verse, we’d love to see what you come up with.

So……. here we are again, each week we will set you a few activities you may want to complete to help to keep yourselves busy. We will try to give you activities that cover all of the curriculum, but the most important part is everybody’s wellbeing.

If you do any of the activities please add them to your tapestry so you will always have a record of these very strange times, plus you can add any pictures of things you have been doing at home. If anyone has any great ideas for us to share you can send them to us at admin@parkroyalpre-school.co.uk Subject activities

We thought it might be nice once again to put a teddy in your window, so that when you are out on your daily exercise you can have a teddy bear hunt. I wonder how many you will see?

As a really good talking point could you take three pictures at home, these could be Christmas presents, a room, somewhere you have visited. Once you have decided on the photographs have a chat with your child, do they remember where this picture was taken? What can they tell you about the picture? Why did they choose to take this picture? It’s really good practice for a child to be able to recall moments and to be able to organise their thoughts and feelings, this is an important pre-reading skill they need to acquire

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all again in January. Lots of love from all of the staff at pre-school.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all again in January. Lots of love from all of the staff at pre-school.

Last week the children have made a huge train track which went all over the floor at Pre-school. They made a similar track outside using the wooden construction. This play really develops turn taking and sharing skills as the children work together to make the tracks

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In our blue glittery dough the children used knives and rolling pins to make a roadway and then they chose vehicle cutters to finish the activity. We have a tremendous amount of children that enjoy car play, so using cars in different ways  can encourage reluctant children to try new activities that they wouldn’t normally access.

We have printed shapes on hedgehogs, painted trees and made pasta bracelets in the craft area, as well as exploring shadows outside and tasting marmite at snack time.

Every day a group of children have taken it in turn to play either a dice or card game. These have proved to be very popular, they help to develop concentration and language and can be delivered to all ages and stages.

On Friday the children helped to decorate our Christmas trees, one indoors and one outside in our learning shed, this created great excitement for all the Christmas activities yet to come.