This has been a special week for our pre-school pupils who got to visit their P1 class on Tuesday afternoon. Everybody seemed to really enjoy their time there. In next week’s blog you will find out what they are most looking forward to in Primary one. So stay tuned!
This week was also special for our butterflies. They got released into the wild! Some of us chose to walk up to the poly tunnel with them. It was nice and warm in there for them. “They need to be warm to fly” (Freya).
On the way there we stopped a lot to look at all the flowers. The butterflies will like the flowers. We learned that butterflies stick their long tongues into flowers to drink the nectar which gives them energy to fly. We talked about the colours of the different flowers, the shapes of their petals and we did a lot of counting. Lottie told us “I saw a butterfly on flooers in wir garden.” Taking our time to notice nature on our walks continues our journey of becoming environmentally aware.
We also noticed other insects enjoying the flowers. Being able to notice things around us helps develop our questioning skills, curiousity and wonder. There was an insect on the pavement too! We had a look at it, counted how many legs, spoke about it’s size and remembered to be quiet and gentle around it. “Mind and be quiet so we dunno gluff him” (Alfie). Being able to think about how all creatures feel and learning to be kind towards living things helps us to develop our own understanding of feelings as well as a respect for living things.
Once we got to the poly tunnel we released our beautiful butterflies and left them some segments of juicy orange to eat. “Pit dem oot in the wild!” (Jordie), “So they can fly away and find nectar!” (Freya), “so they can lay their eggs on leaves and make caterpillars!” (William) “The butterfly is stickin his lang tongue oot so she can get d nectar!” (Freya). Learning and remembering facts, and applying these to real life contexts is important for developing thinking and reasoning skills.
“The butterfly has orange bits the same colour as d orange.” (Maggie), “And white spots” (Joanna), “both wings ir d sam patterns” (Jordie). Finding and exploring patterns in the real world helps support the development of our mathematical thinking.
There was also lots of flowers at the old football pitch this week. A whole carpet of daisies! On Wednesday afternoon some of us requested to fly a kite so we took it to the pitch where the wind was blowing. Some of us wondered if the kite would fly. Some of us wondered how high it would fly. We found out that it flew so high that it became smaller and smaller as it went further away! We took turns flying it, running with it and steering it.
Having space and freedom to move our bodies in different ways and in different directions is fundamental for developing our spacial awareness and our gross motor control.
Exploring concepts such as forces, speed and direction through play is very important as it helps us to develop scientific and mathematical knowledge. Discussing and sharing our findings with each other develops our talking and listening skills and taking turns using the kite was great for developing our social and emotional skills.
Before we went back down the hill some of us chose to relax. Being outdoors amongst nature is a very natural way to relax our bodies and minds. Having time to relax throughout the day is important as it helps us to feel happy and more engaged with our world. Learning how to relax is a vital life skill.
Some of us also went to the Astro turf this week. We took lots of balls with us to practice our catching, throwing and kicking. We also used the whole space to run around and play. Finding enjoyment in movement at an early age is very important for future enjoyment in exercise as well as helping us develop core strength, large muscle strength and co-ordination.
We also found an interesting object at the Astro turf. We used our imaginations to interact with it. It became a balance beam and an aeroplane. The aeroplane took us to very interesting places such as “America” (Stanley), “Florida” (Maggie), “Dinosaur world” (Jackson) and “Lerwick” (Sophia) as well as many more places! Using objects to represent other things and sharing our imaginative ideas through play is how we develop important literacy skills, such as listening to others, taking turns talking, learning new words and phrases and asking questions.
We have also been developing our literacy, numeracy, social and scientific knowledge, skills and understanding around the setting this week. New squirty bottles arrived. They have been a fantastic tool to use for mark making and for developing hand and finger strength as well as a tool to teach us science and maths.
Many of us used chunky chalk to make marks and then used the water bottles to trace the lines or to clear away our marks.
Henry marked out the road and police station area using chalk.
Annie and Ertie found a lump of chalk. They squirted it with lots of water, taking turns to aim at the chunk. Annie thought the chalk was melting and Ertie thought it might wash away and disappear! Trying out hypothesis using practical materials is a great way to develop our understanding of the world and allows us to explore scientific concepts through play.
William and Ali used the bottles to draw pictures. William drew “a peerie man” who he noticed disappeared quickly in the sun. Ali made circles which dripped down the tyre to make “lines lik it’s raining.” Jackson and Ali drew zombies with chalk and then used their “water superpowers” to wash them away.
Jackson, William, Ali and Harry learned about evaporation. They made “puddles” together and watched as the sun dried the puddles away. They talked about what they thought would happen and guessed at how long it would take for the water to disappear and turn into vapour. Communicating with each other and taking part in sustained talking and thinking through play develops the skills we need to effectively contribute to group discussion in formal learning later on.
We’ve also built hand and fingers strength, fine motor control, literacy and numeracy skills by building with Duplo and playing with playdough during the past few weeks.
Following on from our outdoor adventures to America this week, Stanley persevered in building a really tall rocket which blasted off on adventures with the pilot on top. “He can see whar the rocket goes and he steers the rocket fae here. He is right high up so he can see everything. Dis rocket is big and lang and it goes up.” Using blocks in this way helps us develop our mathematical language.
Jim and David used the blocks to make rockets too. They compared lengths “Mine is still longer” (David) “I’ll get more” (Jim), counted the number of blocks they were using and tried to make their rockets equal lengths. They then shared ideas about where the rockets were going to land. They agreed it would be a good idea to go to the zoo!
Last week James and Ali spent time creating “pasta shapes” in their house. Ali flattened the pasta and James used his fingers to carefully curl the playdough into different shapes. Working together, taking turns, listening and sharing are important skills we learn through play.
Sophie also spent time rolling playdough into shapes. She carefully rolled it between her hands to make “peerie cakes” which she then arranged on the frying pan.
Emmie used a slicer in the playdough to cut her “pizza” in half. Freya and Ali used cutters to chop theirs into pieces and Annie used scissors to cut the playdough. Using different materials and tools in playdough develops our hand eye co-ordination as we are forced to manipulate materials to suit our ideas.
Squashing and squeezing, moulding and manipulating playdough is not only great for developing our fine motor control it is also an important way for us to develop symbolic thinking as we pretend and imagine it to be something else. Sophie and Maggie made lots of cakes to share out with their friends, Ertie and Elsie used patterned stones to make biscuits which they took to the home corner to “sell in d shop.” (Ertie)
Freya and Jim worked together, sharing playdough and sharing ideas, to make different patterns in their dough. Pressing materials into the dough changes it’s texture which helps develop our scientific understanding. “Use your fingers to push Jim.” (Freya) “Does doo want to push this on it?” (Jim). “Oh yes, oooh it feels bubbly noo” (Freya). Bobby and Elsie decorated their playdough together, sticking small decorative stones around the edges which made some parts feel hard and others soft.
Maggie, Jackson and Ali made a special cake for Miss Stewart this week. Maggie rolled the playdough flat and then Ali and Jackson helped decorate it and put the candles on top. Miss Stewart counted all the candles out loud and was very pleased to find out that she was 15 years old!
