Preschool - Springing towards Easter

As the Spring term draws to a close and with Easter just on the horizon, Preschool have been spending a lot of time outdoors, observing the changing seasons. We have been discussing the longer days, the warmer weather as well as keeping our eyes peeled at home and in school for the different signs that winter has come to an end.

A few weeks ago, the children worked hard to plant some bulbs in our planters and we have been able to watch them bloom into beautiful daffodils! The children enjoyed taking regular peeks at their plants, measuring how tall they were growing and were amazed at the transition of those little bulbs in the ground into tall, yellow flowers.

Further afield in the school, during our Forest School sessions we have been looking for other signs of Spring, such as looking at the snowdrops that have crept up and listening to the birdsong outside.

To mark what we have seen, the children have enjoyed creating a variety of flower-inspired arts and crafts, both as adult-led activities and independent challenges. As ever, the children have loved getting creative with a variety of mixed media, tearing tissue paper, sloshing paint and swirling crayons.

Alongside looking into flowers growing, we have been talking about baby animals growing, looking particularly in-depth at eggs and chicks; linking this to our seasonal celebration of Easter. We role-played the text “We’re Going on an Egg Hunt” and used lots of ambitious vocabulary to describe our favourite eggs.

The children shared their own Easter traditions, discussing fond tales of finding Easter eggs left by the Easter bunny, alongside talking about the festival of Easter and how Christians across the world celebrate this occasion with a special visit to Church.

We have had a big focus on food, looking at the benefits the different food groups have and why it is important to maintain a balanced diet. We spent time with the Very Hungry Caterpillar, counting the different types and amounts of food he had eaten and went on to create our own caterpillar number lines. This story also prompted discussion about butterflies; the children researched the life cycle of a butterfly and used tracing paper and tissue paper to create their own beautiful butterfly suncatchers.

To consolidate our learning on this topic, the children have planted their own little sunflowers to take home and measure - we’re excited to see who is going to be able to grow the tallest one!