Happy Holi!

World Book day saw some different characters arriving at Preschool!  The children came dressed up as princesses, dinosaurs and even the dragon from ‘Zog’. Shyla was telling her friends, “I am the Very Hungry Caterpillar and I am going to eat all of the foods!”. Barnaby brought in ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ book to go with his outfit, and proudly told everyone at circle time that he was the tiger.

The children were very excited at the arrival of our caterpillars.  We have talked about how we need to care for the caterpillars and the children are fascinated watching them change and grow bigger.

The Preschool children had so much fun celebrating the Holi festival this week. They watched a video to help them understand what the festival is about and who celebrates Holi. There were some very keen participants in the paint throwing around the garden with lots of laughter as everyone got covered in coloured paint! Ezra called to Zachary and Oliver saying, “This is so much fun, I wish we could do it every day”. Oliver replied, “But I have changed colour, I’m not Oliver anymore” and started to laugh.

This week for World Book Day some of the toddlers dressed up and brought their favourite books to share. They came as princesses, a flamingo, a scarecrow, a ladybird, the Stickman and even as a Spanish dancer, complete with little heeled shoes dancing shoes! The children enjoyed listening to lots of stories being read with their friends.

During one of the free flow sessions with Preschool, the Toddler room was transformed into an obstacle course. The children had to walk across the stepping stones, lie on the floor, slide through a tunnel, then crawl under two tables, onto the climbing frame, down the steps and finally jump onto cushions the floor. Some children liked challenging themselves to keep their balance and there was a lot of laughter when one of them wobbled and fell off!

The Toddlers went on a walk around the grounds of Imber Court and focussed on jumping in all the puddles they could find. On our walk this week, we showed the toddlers a small pathway over the bridge and showed them how they could walk along it. Some of the toddlers walked normally, others put their arms out to help keep their balance, some walked really slowly and Scarlett decided it was best to walk sideways. The children loved the freedom of playing with the balls in the big field, practising their catching and throwing skills. Salvador showed us his good hand-eye coordination by catching the ball every time. Vivienne enjoyed holding the ball after she caught it, while Charlie loved to kick the ball as hard as he could, watching as it rolled along the ground. Harry, Zachary and Arthur liked being in the goal best. 

The babies had lots of fun playing with the rice this week. Faris was busy filling up a metal cooking pot, listening to the sound it made, laughing with his friends.  Ari spent some time filling up a cup and pouring the rice out, watching as it sprinkled. The babies have also enjoyed mark making, using their fingers and the other equipment. They have also helped to make colourful pictures for our The Very Hungry Caterpillar display, using paint, sticking paper, pens and crayons. 

When playing in the garden Tristan and Zac chose to play on the bikes, pushing themselves around the garden. Tristan was very excited when he spotted the wind chime, pointing to it and babbling to Melissa. Zac was also very brave and crawled through the tunnel, stopping to peer through one of the windows at his friends, before crawling out the other side. Ari and Melissa played with the ball, throwing and kicking it to each other. Ari decided to kick the ball, saying "Kick, kick”.

The babies also liked the sensory experience painting with fruit tea bags. They tried feeling and tapping the tea bags on the table and squeezing out the water, smelling, and occasionally tasting, the different flavours.