Play and Learning with Preschool

Did You Know?

Lying down to read or draw helps build core and upper body muscles which support good posture, concentration and fine motor skills. By building strong shoulders and arms children are then able to master fine motor skills such as drawing, cutting, threading and building.

In our preschool we have been reading many books such as 'That's Not Funny Bunny', 'Chicken Licken', 'Going On  A Bear Hunt' and 'The Very Cranky Bear'. We have been talking about the storyline, recalling characters and events within the story and the children have been involved in discussions about the text. 

Preschool Library Time

Our preschool groups will begin visiting the library in Term 2. This will begin with a short session of stories and discussion with the library teachers, Mr Luxa for Pink Group and Miss Pham for Purple Group. The children will not be borrowing initially, however it may be a good time to purchase a library bag ready for your child when borrowing begins later in the term.

Emerging Pre-Literacy Skills

We have been seeing the children's love of drawing and writing emerge throughout the term. At preschool we provide a variety of opportunities for children to freely draw with different drawing tools. We focus on the skill of free drawing to give children the opportunity to form lines, shapes and eventually,  planned and recognisable pictures. As the detail emerges in children's drawings so do their pre-literacy skills of forming purposeful shapes and letters. All children develop these skills at differing rates and we appreciate the ability to foster these skills, allowing them to emerge organically for each child. 

Creatures In Our Playground

The preschool children have been active within our garden, planting and watering. They have been learning about composting and worm farms, saving their food scraps at each meal time. We strive to embed these practices in everyday routines so the children build a responsibility for their environment and adopt practices organically that support environmental harmony and understandings. This is supported through our implementation of the Munch and Move  Program and the Early Years Learning Framework. 

During their work in the preschool gardens, the children have been finding many creatures. This has prompted questioning, investigation and research about these creatures and learning about how we can stay safe and care for the insects within our surroundings. So far we have found stick insects, spiders and their webs, soldier bugs, flies, ants and snails. 

We have researched how spiders spin their webs and we decided spiders are very clever creatures, yet we do have to be careful not to touch them as we do not want to hurt them, nor they hurt us. The first stick insect we found we thought may have been a grasshopper or a praying mantis, however after using the smart board to investigate we found it was actually a stick insect. We have discovered snails come out after the rain and that they love to eat our vegetable plants. Miss Le suggested we put lemon and bi-carb soda on the soil in our garden to detract them without hurting them or affecting our vegetables. It is inspiring to see the awe and wonderment on the children's faces when they find a creature climbing around our garden. Their inquisitive nature in knowing about the creatures is building a love of learning and nurture for their natural surroundings.