July reflection

Dolphins as usual have had a really busy and active month with loads of time spent outside. Gardening has been a favourite and since all of our work has been done in our pots, we are just doing lots of watering and to keep the fingers busy and the love of gardening going, we have been doing plenty of gardening role play too.

Carole has been doing lots of poetry and stories from around the world with the children, particularly the older children during rest time. The children have loved this and it has prompted loads of discussions about where the children have family around the world. So far in poems and stories she has taken us to the Philippines, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, France and Czech Republic.

Laura J has been doing wooly collages with the children. She has been helping them to cut wool of different colours shapes and sizes that they want and then collage it to make their pictures. Laura has also been making grass skirts with the children in readiness for our Hawaiian Beach Party BBQ.
Laura Z has been doing some cute little collages with the children, making palm trees and lady pineapples. Some of them are really cute and the children have concentrated really hard to get all the pieces in the places they want them.

Lan has been making leis with the children out of little flowers she has taught some of them to cut, paint and card strips to stick them on..

Laura W has also been making leis and talking with the children about how leis are used as a welcome in Hawaii. It’s been great for their fine motor skills as they push the little tissue flowers onto bodkins and down onto the string.

She has also spent a lot of time with the children looking at flashcards of images of different cultures and countries, talking about the different customs of the countries.

Christine H made a fish tank with some of the younger the children. They painted card fish that she had made and then strung them up in a box painted by the children. She helped children make telescopes from tubes by encouraing them to choose tubes, paint and decorate them. Then they were able to use them in play.
Rachel has been helping the children to paint big palms trees together to decorate our barbecue. There is something the children find really satisfying about applying loads of paint up and down to a big surface.

And Jenny has seen her pre-schoolers year end with their final excursion to the Tropical Zoo. They had an amazing time feeding tortoises, snakes, creepy crawlies and loads more. If you have not been there it is a zoo worth visiting if you are brave and if you are not, you might need to pretend you are for the sake of your child. http://www.tropicalzoo.org/.

It was a big month for Seaturtles. We went from Seahorses and Starfish to Sea Turtles this month, joining the two rooms together to create one group with more freedom and more options for play depending on their mood. So we now have a quiet room, where sleeping, sensory play, books, puzzles, heuristic play goes on with quiet music always playing in the back ground. It’s been great for children who just need a bit of space and for babies sleeping throughout the day too. And, for the teachers to have some time with a bit of peaceful quiet play too is a breather.

We also have an ‘active room’ for louder play, exploring equipment at different heights, encouragement to pull themselves up, climb, interact, play with water, the home corner, musical instruments, arts and crafts, blocks and a range of different equipment.

But most of the time, the children who want to be ‘busy’ have been outside. We’ve had a great month for weather and have been able to take the arts and crafts outside, loads of cooling water play, sand play, gardening and climbing about the equipment. It has also been wonderful to be able to eat our snacks and some of our teas outside too. We’ve even been able to fit in a trip to the park.

A lot of the activities this month have been around our focus on Hawaii. We have our big summer barbecue at the start of August and so these are some of the activities that we have been doing to get into the spirit…
Manjit has been supporting the children in making Hawaiian flowers, tropical fish and Tiki Gods. She also helped a group of children to bake pineapple cake and muffins. These were delicious, the children devoured them and so did the teachers!
Sarah supported the children in making some Hawaiian skirts, necklaces, palm trees and pineapples. These are really groovy and look great!
Beata helped the children to make little flowers with circles of tissue paper all stuck together.

And, Megan helped the children make some Hawaiian pizzas with a small group which were enjoyed by everyone.