Nina Marni preschool children and families. welcome to our weekly blog.
Children are continuing to investigate their environment and express their emerging curiosity.
This week our first learning spotlight is to encourage children’s expression of ideas and identity through collaborative visual art/making experiences and mark making. We have been engaging the children in self portraits using a mirror, creating Easter bunny crowns, painting with water colours and acrylic paint, dot to dot colouring facilitating numeracy knowledge, cutting and pasting collages, as well as painting Easter eggs and making Easter cards.
Our second learning spotlight is to support children to understand the values of Easter.
We facilitated this through:
- Supporting children to develop their understanding the values of Easter, such as love, forgiveness, hope and new beginning through group discussions and stories
- Encouraging them to reflect and practice gratitude.
- The importance of forgiveness – saying sorry and accepting apologies.
- Promoting social skills, Easter activities involve group participation, which helps preschoolers practice sharing, taking turns and working together with their peers.
- Introducing cultural traditions. Easter is a religious and cultural holiday celebrated in various ways around the world. Engaging preschoolers in easter-themed activities
We have also continued with our interest in pretend play, here the children are developing their social and communication skills through their play.
At preschool we have been investigating rhythm and sounds through body percussion, song, dance and musical instruments.
On our book making journey, we have witnessed and supported children to be involved in mark making in the indoor environment through drawing, painting, making books, in sensory play. In the outdoor environment we have supported children with their mark making through sand play, sensory play, painting, using sticks on the ground, creating shapes with stones and natural items, and using chalk. We have found supporting the children in mark making to be successful in their pencil control development.
We are reading books to children as a whole group, individually or in small groups. The children have a keen interest in book making and reading books. We are supporting the development of children’s book making through continuing to read books to children and encourage the development of mark making in the indoor and outdoor environments.
The children at preschool have also been interested in construction play. We have been encouraging children to share what they have built and use their descriptive language to communicate their creation.
Children were also interested in sensory play, we had a variety of different materials such as coloured pasta in various shapes and colours, play dough and coloured rice.
Preschool children have also been enjoying the outdoor environment. Engaging in water play, in the sandpit, painting and pretend play.
Happy Easter everybody, we wish you a safe and happy long weekend! 🙂