Learning Through Play at Preschool 

Allergy Awareness Week 

Food Allergy Week was created by Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia to raise awareness of food allergies in Australia.

Awareness and education help reduce the risk of allergic reactions and effectively treat potentially life-threatening emergencies when they happen.

Held in the last week of May each year, Food Allergy Week is dedicated to promoting community understanding of food allergy.

Group times this week consisted of educating the children about what are allergens, what is an allergic reaction and how we can be allergy heroes and keep ourselves and our friends with allergies safe. 

Both Preschool groups identified the friends within our class who have diagnosed allergies and it was very rewarding to hear the children be so responsive to understanding the signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction and what we can do to help.

The preschool introduced the EpiPen and ASCIA Action Plans to the children to support awareness of health and safety practices. Using a trainer EpiPen and reliever puffer, educators demonstrated how to administer an EpiPen and provide asthma medication. This helped children become familiar with the process in a calm, age-appropriate way, promoting understanding and reducing fear in emergency situations.

Shifting the Focus on School Readiness

One of the most important things we can allow young children to do is play. Through play, children learn. Play is crucial for developing prewriting skills and preparing children for school readiness. It is a holistic and enjoyable way for children to learn and grow in preparation for later academic challenges.

Experiences develop dexterity, a good grip, fine motor skills and the ability to use strength and force, not just in their fingers but in their whole body too. Muscle development for writing is a comprehensive process that begins with movements of the whole arm and progresses toward very detailed fine motor control at the fingertips. 

A child writing their name is not an indication of how well they’ll do at school. It’s important we shift the focus on being able to write their name before starting school and turn our attention to playing, movement, and being outside to practice big scale movements that require strength and grip. These may include moving, playing, lifting things, free marking, painting, scribbling, vertical painting, digging, climbing, crawling along the ground, swinging, hanging upside down, rolling, stirring, pulling, stretching, kneading, pushing, pulling, prodding, poking, running, jumping and climbing trees. By moving and playing, children will be laying the foundation for handwriting skills, the pre-requisite for writing their names. You can’t build a house on weak foundations. So let them be little, let them explore, tinker, and play, because every moment is a learning experience. It’s all about igniting that intrinsic desire to try, to explore and to have FUN!