During the last month and a half of school we have explored the topics; Under the Sea, The Weather and Science week.
‘Under the Sea’
The children really enjoyed all the activities we explored for this topic; we made sail boats with corks and laminated card and children were excited to see that they stayed afloat. For our class display we added fish, sea horses, turtles made from egg boxes and a 3D smiley octopus! We talked a little about pollution in the ocean and used transparent containers to show the children the difference between clean water (which makes the sea animals happy) and polluted water with plastic inside (which harms the sea animals). We counted sea shells for math as well as feeding the number fish baby pasta.
‘The Weather’
We based this display on the story ‘The Sun and the Cloud’ where two sunflowers loved both the sun and the rain and were happy to see a beautiful rainbow in the sky. The children played matching number and letter games with pegs and practised their pencil control worksheets. For snack on a sunny morning we made a delicious fruit smoothie.
‘Science Week’ The children participated enthusiastically in the following 4 science experiments
Experiment number 1: Frozen eggs-Freezing and melting We collected some flowers and put them inside empty eggshells and added water. When they were frozen the children peeled the egg shells to reveal the beautiful coloured frozen eggs. We then left these at the window to melt.
Experiment number 2: Rain in a bottle For this experiment we stuffed cotton balls into the top of a bottle and added blue water bit by bit to the cotton balls using a dropper. As the cotton balls (which represent the rain clouds) absorb the water it starts to drip into the bottle like rain.
Experiment number 3: How strong is spaghetti? For this experiment the children discovered that one strand of spaghetti is not that strong whereas a bundle of spaghetti is strong and could hold heavy things such as a basket of shells or a tower of blocks.
Experiment number 4: Sink or float? Children were very excited about this experiment where they had to predict which objects might float and which might sink. We started with light and small objects and progressed to bigger and heavier objects; the children were amazed to see that bigger objects such as the alligator and the rolling pin actually stayed afloat!
Last week
For morning snack we made watermelon, blueberry and grape fruit wands and the children spent a lot of time outdoors exploring and playing with water pistols.
We made a video for Parents of our end of year performance and the children sang all songs very well. On the last day we invited parents to attend our ‘mini graduation’ where children were presented with their year books; it was a very special moment and I’m very proud of the children’s progress and development this year.
Wishing you all a wonderful summer! Ms. Catriona, Preschool Green 2020-2021