Pre-School – Raindrop Room

Welcome to the

Pre-School

Raindrop page

Welcome

Hello Pre-School friends

This Spring term, we are learning about growing fruit and vegetables and we will celebrate Easter. We have lots of fun activities planned!

Grown ups, please remember that we are always here to support our families. If you would like to talk, phone us on the Pre-School number or talk to us at the gate at pick up or drop off.

 Miss Eyre, Miss Christy, and Mrs Clarke  

Our books this term are:

• Jasper’s Beanstalk
• Mr. Wolf’s pancakes
• How do apples grow?
• Where’s baby chick
• Spring
• That’s not my bunny

Baking

  This term we will making

• Pancakes
• Cupcakes
• Fruit salad
• Easter nests 

Why do we bake ?

Cooking encourages children’s thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. It also allows children the opportunity to use the knowledge they have and apply it by counting, measuring, following a sequence and following directions.

Sleep Regression

Click the picture below and you will find information about:

• What Sleep Regression is,
• The cause of Sleep Regression,
• Practical tips and advice for managing Sleep Regression

Potty Training 

Children are ready for potty training between about 18 months and 3 years old. This leaflet helps you to recognise when your child is ready to start toilet training, how to prepare them for it, and what to do to make it a success.

https://www.eric.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=5eb0da35-1e11-4ccd-84cf-5405ecf8386e

The books below are really useful to help your child with potty training. 

Creative time!

On this part of the webpage we will upload different creative activities that you can complete at home.

• Vegetable stamping – Simply press apples, potatoes or carrots or any other vegetables that you can think into so paint and then put on the paper.

• Woolly collage – using cotton wool you can have fun making your own woolly sheep!

• Printing with egg cartons – With the help of a grown up cut your egg boxes(look at pictures below) then just using paper and paint get printing. What colours are you going to use?

• Toy car drawing – Tape a felt-tip to the back of a toys car and then roll on paper. Have fun mark making! 🙂

• Drawing fun – All you need is: crayons, paint, paper, cardboard or anything that you have at home and just get drawing. What are you going to draw?
• Stone painting – When out on a walk find some stones and paint them. You could paint: an animal, the sun, a car. Can you think of anything else?

Playdough

Below is the recipe of how to make playdough.

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1 to 1.5 cups of warm water
• food colouring (optional)Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl

Method:

• Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl,
• Add the warm water bit by bit until the mixture is sticky,
• Allow to cool and then mix the dough with hands until not sticky if needed add a bit more flour 

Music Time!!!

Click the different animal pictures below to hear some nursery rhymes!!

Click the picture of the alphabet below and listen to the ABC song.

Let’s have some fun at home. It’s fun simple activity all you need is a few pans and a spoon, or maybe something else that you have at home. What other things could  you use? Click the picture below to hear a song to sing and listen to while having fun playing music.

Let’s get moving!!

Below are few different ideas in which you can get active. Which was your favourite to try?

• Bubble fun – Blow lots of bubbles and see how many you can catch.

• Hide and seek – You could either play hide and seek with your grown up taking it in turns to hide or you or your grown up could hide your toys and take it in turns to find them, 
• Bowling – Using empty plastic bottles and ball, see how many you can knock over. You could either roll the ball or kick the ball into the bottles. How many can you knock over?

• Animal walk – Can you walk like an animal? Slither like a snake, hop like a frog, gallop like a horse. How many more can you think of?
• Puddle jumping – Get on your wellies find a puddle and jump!

• Dance party – Put on some music and have a boogie!
• Click the picture below to hear Justin and Robert the Robots version of the Hokey Cokey. Don’t forget to join in! 😉
  

• Click the picture below to hear the song ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’. Can you complete all actions with Mr Tumble?

• Stop and go – Walk/Run around and when your grown-up says STOP you freeze and wait until your grown-up says GO,

• Kick/throw a ball,
• keep the balloon up – if you have any balloons all you need to do is blow it up and then keep it off the ground. How long can you keep it in the air for?
• Sleeping bunnies – Click the picture below to listen and join in with a pre-school favourite. Don’t forget to hop, hop, hop! 😉

Fine motor 

• Stick tape to the table or floor and peel it off. You could even stick some of yours toys to the table and them peel them off.

• Using just pine cones and elastic bands. Wrap the elastic bands around the pine cones,
• Spaghetti and colander – Just thread the spaghetti through the colander. If u don’t have spaghetti you could use plastic straws.

Early Maths!!

Below are a variety of activities that involve maths. Have fun having a go at them!

• Click the pictures below to hear some number songs such as: 5 little monkeys, 10 little dinosaurs and 10 little buses

• Shape song – Click the picture below to learn the different shapes through song.

• Count the cars – Either look out of your window or when out on a walk count the cars that you can see. Can you get to 10? What colours are they? 
• identify numbers – Below are numbers from 1-10, have fun recognising the different numbers.

• Have a go at sorting your Lego/Duplo bricks in order of colour. How many colours do you have?,
• Build a tower- Count the bricks as you go. Make it a game, can you build a bigger tower than your grown-up?

Early Science

Skittles Experiment

This is a fun experiment to practise recognising colours. All you need is:

• Packet of skittles,
• Plate,
• Warm water
• Cup/Jug

Method:

• Step 1 – Put the Skittles around the edge of the plate,                                                             
• Step 2 – Slowly pour the warm water onto the plate till the Skittles are covered,                   
• Step 3 – Watch and wait for the colour to spread on the plate.

Dancing Raisins

Watch the Raisins dance. All you need is:

• Lemonade,
• Raisins,
• Glass/ See through cup

Method:

• Step 1 – Pour Lemonade into the glass,
• Step 2 – Drop some raisins into the glass,
• Step 3 – Watch the raisins dance 🙂

Storytime

Read or listen to your favourite stories with the help of your grown-up or brother or sister. What’s your favourite story to read?

Below are a few stories that you might want to listen to, just click onto the picture to watch and listen.

You could even make up your own story with the help of your grow-up. What is your story about?

What’s the weather like today?

Click the picture below to watch and listen to Angela and Rosie sing ‘What’s the weather like today?’ in the snow!!! 🙂

Now it’s your turn. Practice the song at home with your grown-up , look out of your window ‘what’s the weather like today?’ is it: sunny, rainy, snowy, cold or cloudy.

Kim’s game

Click the picture below to play a game of kim’s game. What objects can you remember?  Can you play this game at home with your own toys?

Dear Zoo

Storytime

Click the Dear Zoo picture below to hear the story being read.

Vocab time

Click the picture below to watch and listen to a range of basic vocabulary. 

Identify animals

Can you name all the animals from the story? What sounds do the animals from the story make? Which animal is your favourite?

Week 3 – Slow Snail

Click the pictures of the car and rainbow to listen to the songs ‘Driving in my car’ and ‘I can sing a rainbow’.

Make your own shaker

Get an empty bottle and decorate it with whatever you want, get creative!! How many colours can you use? Pour in rice, pasta or some little stones and make your very own shaker. Can you shake the shaker while singing your favourite nursery rhyme?

What’s the weather?

What is the weather like out of your window? Is it raining? Are the branches blowing on the trees? Click the picture below to hear the weather song.

Counting steps

Practice your counting skills to ten, as you climb steps in your house. It is always great fun to take a giant leap off the bottom step. Click the numbers below to hear a counting song.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

It is very important for our youngest AbbeyHillians to develop skills which enable them to form good friendship groups.

In Preschool we promote positive actions to create a friendly and welcoming environment for all.

And most of importantly of all, during these difficult times…

Sharing food at snack time is a great way to discover your own likes and dislikes. You can learn new words and also practice identifying different colours. Click the picture below to hear Peppa Pig’s Fruit and Vegetable song.

Communication and Language

Singing songs and simple rhymes is a great way to promote language development with your child. Our singing activity ”What’s in the box?” is always an eagerly awaited part of our daily routine. Try this at home with your child’s favourite toys. Click the picture below to hear the ‘What’s in the box?’ song.

• Spooky spider
• I’m a Dingle Dangle Scarecrow
• When Santa got stuck up the chimney
• Rudolph the red nose reindeer
• Twinkle twinkle Christmas star

Mrs Walton’s top tips

Hi, My name is Mrs Walton and I am one of the Speech and Language Teaching Assistants here at Abbey Hill. You may have seen me working throughout the Foundation Stage Unit. I specialise in supporting children with language and communnication difficulties, 1-1  or in a small group.

Working closely with Speech and Language Therapists, I have been fortunate to develop my skills over the years and I am now in a position to offer training to teaching staff to further help support children’s communication and language development.

If you need any advice or just a general chat regarding your child’s language and communication development, talk to a member of the FS Staff and they will let me know 😊.

Talking together

No matter how old I am one of the best ways to help my speech and language development is to have some quiet time with me so we can talk, look at books together or sing nursery rhymes.  It is always best to make sure the T.V is switched off and there is little background noise.

• Give me a choice so that I can talk to you e.g. Juice or Milk? Apple or Orange?

• Talk to me during everyday activities or routines such as bath time or getting dressed e.g. Wash face, socks on.

• When I am talking try repeating and extending with more words e.g. I say “car” you could say “Yes there is a BIG RED car”

• Don’t worry if I mispronounce a word just say it again in the correct way e.g. “tat” you can say “yes there is a Cat”

• At my age, I have difficulty staying focussed and moving my attention from my surroundings, call my name before talking to me and lower yourself to my level gaining eye contact before given an instruction.

Challenge!

We challenge you to put on your woolly jumpers and your wellies to go and find all things autumnal! Create a poster or a display of your favourite finds. This is a great way to get talking and learn new vocabulary!

You may find Conkers, Pumpkins, Crunchy leaves and Pinecones. You may also notice new sounds such as a squirrel rustling in the trees, a trickling of water or the whistling of the wind. See what you can discover this Autumn. Have fun!!!

Physical Development

It is important for every child to stay active for at least 30 minutes every day.

This is very important for a healthy body and healthy mind.

Kicking,  throwing and catching is a great way to use all the muscles in  your body. This will help hand eye coordination, balance and spacial awareness. All these skills are used for writing.

Jumping is a great way to exert some excess energy and can be done in all areas inside and outside.

Count step/stairs and jump of the last as a reward for good counting. Click the picture below to hear one our favourite songs ‘Sleeping bunnies’ which we sing during our session, this songs allows your child to jump. 

Bedtime Stories

Bedtime stories are a great way to end a busy day, you can either read a story that you have at home or you could listen to a story on CBeebies Bedtime Stories. Click on the CBeebies Bedtime Stories picture below to listen to a different story every night.