In this newsletter, we have shared some insight into the activities from each of our rooms that has taken place during the month of April. We hope you enjoy browsing through them.
Easter, Earth Day, Space Day and Picnics were all enjoyed by our children and they loved the different types of activities.
Antoinette Hannigan
Creche Manager
Activities from our Baby Room
This month we have learnt about the jungle and the animals who live in there. We made a lion, a bird, and a crocodile because we love the jungle book that we have in our room, we made all different animals from sticking and gluing, paper plates and colour tissues. This activity was to encourage the children fine motor skill and creativity.
Food week was extremely fun and exciting and lots of creative exploring took place for their little hands. To begin the children with support from the Educarers made a new colourful noticeboard with the different categories of food which included meat, fish, dairy, fruit, and vegetables. To do this the children finger painted black spots on the red strawberries, they scrunched up tissue paper and collaged fish using glue strengthening their fine motor skills and finger strength. To complete the board the children also made cereal bowls with shredded paper and glue adding more textures and visual stimulation to the children’s environment.
We were getting ready for Easter and the children made some beautiful artwork such as easter cards, bunnies from sticking and gluing and using lots of coloured feathers – we made our own eggs as part of a competition between all the rooms, We got the children involved by using their hand prints to make the eggs, then we hid eggs for all the children around the garden and the children had an Easter egg hunt.
Stories from our Wonderful Wobbler Room
We were getting ready for Easter and the children made some beautiful artwork – we made our own eggs. We got the children involved and they picked which colour they wanted for their eggs, and then we hid them around the garden and the children had an Easter egg hunt!!
We were teaching the children about Easter and then we decided to make a life size bunny, we painted glue onto the bunny and then the children were sticking cotton wool onto the bunny, this was encouraging them to use their fine motor skills. The cotton wool stuck onto their fingers, and they could not get it off. When we showed them their finished product, they were able to associate the bunny with their favourite song ‘Hop little bunnies’
We had an Easter egg competition throughout the centre and each room got the children involved in creating an Easter Egg!! The children helped the Educarer to paint rice different colours and the children painted their handprints onto the egg and then helped to stick the rice onto the egg!
We are quite interested in messy play and sensory items; they enjoy exploring the different textures using both their hands and their feet. We set up a few different sensory boxes using sand, water, rice, and different sponge materials. The children were walking through the different boxes and laughing while they were exploring the different boxes, it felt rough.
Tales from our Toddler Room
We began April with the solar system, we created a galaxy with our very own planets. We made astronauts, rockets, aliens, and UFO. We learned a new space song.
We concentrated on different shapes the following week, we created lots of shapes with different colours and we played games to further the children’s learning.
Easter week was a lot of fun we made paper mache easter eggs and painted them with lots of bright colours. We made easter decorations and used coloured rice to decorate.
We made easter bunnies with our handprints and made a big rabbit and egg for our easter display for the competition, we decorated it with lots of different materials and colours.
Our last week of April we learned how to keep a healthy earth.
We created a happy and sad earth. We learned about the green choices.
We also did planting which was a lot of mess and fun.
Pre-School Room News
For Monkey Week, our preschool children were interested in monkeys, so we painted monkey crafts with googly eyes and feathers. Our children painted jungle posters to make jungle box with boxes and paintings followed by their interests. To develop our preschool children’s practical life skills, the children make their monkeys with playdough and googly eyes. Then, our children painted five and ten little monkey’s crafts with handprints and paint. Also, the children painted paper plates to make monkey face puppets to prepare a monkey dance. Also, our children sing and dance to five little monkey songs while using the monkey face puppets.
“Mixing, mixing, mixing, mixing all day long….” Colour mixing is one of our preschool children’s favourite things to do during their day and they were curious about what colour comes up after the colour they mix. For colour mixing week, our preschool children painted a mix it up poster and paper plate colour painting with Q-tips. To prepare for our sticking and pasting activity our children did cutting practice with scissors and paper. Then, the children make colour mix flowers by sticking paper. Also, to develop our children’s sensory-motor development, we did colour mix sensory bag the children enjoy with the activity.
For Easter week, our children painted and pasted bunny boxes with paint and crepe paper. Then, they painted easter eggs with paint followed by their favourite colour. Our children make a lovely easter bunny box with pom-pom ball, googly eyes, easter chick, and feathers. Then, our children did a bunny craft with a handprint and sticking googly eyes also pom-pom ball, and pipe cleaner. Our preschool children decorated their easter eggs with cupcake paper wrapping and feathers also ribbons.
For kitchen week, our preschool children enjoy becoming a chef and cooking dishes in the kitchen area. Our children did cookie baking session together with the educarer.
