The topic this month in our pre-school room is camping; in keeping with this theme, our children have been thinking about the different types of holidays they have been on in the past as well as the holidays they would like to go on in the future.
Our children were keen to use our home corner campsite, which brings the adventures of camping into our nurturing setting. Here the children enjoyed engaging in numerous activities, including using the tent; using the torches and pretending to cook sausages and marshmallows on the pretend campfire.
Today we zoomed in on the topic of bears, stimulating our children’s interest by linking the topic to well-known stories such as ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We also used this opportunity to widen our children’s knowledge of the animal kingdom by looking at the different types of bears, before learning about the bears that may visit the campsite if we do not tidy up after camping!
The day was also filled with creativity as our children made their own split pin bears, being offered a choice of colouring or cutting or both. The children who chose to colour in their bear used a variety of different brown crayons and pencils to bring their friends to life, colouring in the bears using either the tripod grip or the pincer grip, allowing them to develop their fine motor skills. The children then practiced their cutting skills, carefully cutting out the different parts of the bear’s body until all six parts were cut out. The children finally attached these parts together using split pins, which allowed the head, legs and arms to move bringing their bears to life.
But the fun didn’t stop there. One child started to sing the nursery rhyme ‘Round and Round the Garden’ and was soon joined by the other children, making the bears move and dance.
It was evident that the children thoroughly enjoyed this activity, which enhanced many aspects of their development, including: Personal, Social and Emotional development; Communication and Language development; Physical development; Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design.