At the start of our Early Years National Heritage Week celebrations, the preschoolers faces’ lit up as they entered the door seeing rays of colourful scarves hanging up in their classroom. Some said, “I see a rainbow,” some called out their favourite colour,   while others simply enjoyed the feeling of wrapping themselves up in the soft hanging cloth.

Each colour is special to the Turks and Caicos.  The colours are on our National Costume.  Each colour represents one or more of the islands that make up our country and identifies what makes them special.  Do you know your Island colours?

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Parents remember learning Nursery Rhymes when they were young with their mums and dads and now they find themselves doing the same with their children…

The Preschoolers have had a marvellous week exploring the theme of nursery rhymes, showing what a young child can learn when the environment is set and geared to independent and guided learning.

During the week, it was very interesting to watch the facial expressions and actions of the children as they recited, chanted, sung or acted out each rhyme.   The children were able to recognise each nursery rhyme with a corresponding picture card.  They quickly took possession of their favourite cards and enjoyed singing or chanting them – even choosing to do so during their free play.

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Mat Man has been introduced to the children through a song and with a picture of him. We have been looking at the different lines that make up Mat Man’s body, putting him together as we sing the song, taking him apart and putting him back together again. Mat Man is part of the Handwriting Without Tears programme. Mat Man does an important job in helping children learn about body awareness, taking turns, counting and eventually starting to draw a person correctly!

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The Preschool’s Topic, ‘It’s All About the Shapes’, has involved far more than learning just about the basic shapes, but rather exploring the world of ‘shape’.

First we went on a shape hunt around school as an introduction to the topic. Then we have investigated size, patterns, holes and tubes. The children have thoroughly enjoyed going outdoors to explore these concepts in further detail.

Take a journey of shape exploration through the eyes of our Preschool class…

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The Preschool class participated in an activity called ‘the gathering drum’ this week.  This exciting event involved tapping out simple repeated rhythms with finger tips, flat hands and thumbs.  They explored loud and quiet sounds and fast and slow rhythms. The activity involved listening carefully and following directions. Before playing their rhythms on the drum they practiced on their knees. They tried two types of rhythms, counting 1, 2; 1, 2 and then 1, 2 ,3; 1, 2, 3.  The children listened to I Wan’na Be Like You from the Jungle Book, feeling the ‘swing-type’ rhythm and then playing a faster rhythm.

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Thursday, 15^th October was GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY.  The Preschool class had a fun-packed morning with a variety of activities emphasising the importance of ‘hand washing’.

We began our morning making bubbles outdoors using whisks and blowing through straws to make bubbles on our hand prints. We listened to the story ‘Germs Are Not for Sharing’ and did a ‘germs away’ experiment. For this experiment, we sprinkled black pepper in a bowl of water (the pepper represented germs). The pepper floated on top. In the centre of the bowl we added a few drops of dish washing soap and watched the soap ‘scare the germs away’

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A couple of weeks ago the Preschoolers came into the classroom after morning play outdoors. Sitting on a chair was a poorly looking little bear! He was covered in dirt, was holding a crumpled tissue and his leg was torn. The children immediately expressed concern for our new friend.

Mrs. Rachel picked him up gently and started asking the children a few questions. What happened to him? “He’s dirty,” said one child. “Look at his leg. It’s broken,” noticed another. Why does he have a tissue? “Oh, no! He’s crying” – sighed one girl sadly.  How is he feeling?   He’s sad” – thought one boy. [Read more…]

We love to play outside! The green field is amazing! The children adore their daily trip to the green field and more recently have delighted in using more play equipment – learning to kick, throw, crawl under, jump over, run in a zigzag, race and use hula hoops!

Sports day was lots of fun – the children loved showing all their skills to their mums and dads.

One of our highlights this year has been playing with the parachute with Year 6 – you can tell by the children’s faces just how much fun they had.

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