Summer term 2024 - Week 1 - 17th April 2024
It was lovely to be back at the playhouse after the Easter holidays, hearing all about what our children got up to with their families and friends and their own celebrations and family traditions.
As usual when we return to playgroup after a holiday, our planning is lead by children’s current interests and their favourite activities, this helps them to resettle quickly and feel secure.
The children were all very excited to use the new resources trolleys too, being able to choose the resources and toys independently meant that children became immersed and engrossed in their own play without the need to ask adults for things, there was lots of role play, small world play and of course construction going on.
We also looked at what was happening outside around playgroup and the children noted lots of lovely blossom and an increase in minibeasts around the garden, we tried to capture photos of some of these things, the children were very good at taking photos, we hope you enjoy seeing them
Week 2 -Week beginning 22nd April 2024
Earth day, Beep beep day and endangered animals
We started the week taking part in Earth day 2024 the theme this year was planet versus plastic, thinking about how plastic pollution is infiltrating many ecosystems and how we can reduce this.
We had fun with lots of Earth themed activities looking at our planet and just how much of it is covered in water, the children created their own interpretations of Earth using lots of different media and materials.
Next we started thinking about the animals we share our planet with, many are becoming endangered due to pollution and loss of habitat.
Currently our children are showing an interest in whales and elephants so we tied this interest into the planning.
We spent time creating some wonderful whales as part of a group project, the children used different coloured paint and mixed the colours to create a rather marvellous mummy whale and also some baby whales too.
We also thought about rubbish and the amount that ends up in the seas and oceans around the world…..the children were very good at scooping and collecting the rubbish from our special tuff tray sea!
We created some lovely Elmer the elephant collages whilst we thought about the plight of the elephant, the children had the chance to see some video of elephants from a David Attenborough show using our iPads too.
We continued our animal exploration with lots more animals including lions, tigers and crocodiles, the children loved making crocodile puppets to use when singing “3 cheeky monkeys swinging in the trees”
The books we read at story time were the firm favourites The snail and the whale, monkey puzzle and Elmer
This week we also joined in Beep Beep day where we thought about keeping safe on the roads and in cars.
The children spent time exploring how traffic lights work, playing the traffic light game, creating traffic light fruit snacks and having fun with a sorting activity, carefully placing red orange and green items through the correct light.
We also made some cars with spinning wheels and practiced number recognition with the toy cars, parking the them in the correct parking bay.
The children demonstrated their knowledge at group time by telling us all what the different coloured lights mean both for cars and pedestrians, how we cross roads safely and how important it is to wear our seatbelts and sit in the correct car seat. We were blown away by their knowledge and thank all of our parents for helping us to teach the children how to keep safe 🙂
Week 3 week beginning 29th April 2024 - Life cycles
🐛🦋🐸🐝🌱. LIFE CYCLES 🌱🐝🐸🦋🐛
This week at playgroup we have been exploring life cycles.
We started the week looking at Bees, then moved onto looking at butterflies, frogs and plants
It’s been fantastic listening to to the children sharing their knowledge, what they’ve learnt and we’ve had some very interesting questions to answer like “Do bees have ears?” “How do butterflies eat” and “how high can frogs jump”
The children also enjoyed the warmer weather spending time in the garden,searching for minibeasts and growing plants.
We enjoyed cooking together making Hungry caterpillar fruit salad and honey and cinnamon scones as well as planting some bean and sunflower seeds that we hope the children will nurture and grow at home.
Another busy week at Community Playgroup, hope you enjoy looking at the photos of everything we’ve been up to together 🙂
