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Seeing the Seasons Change at The Orchard Pre-School
Mon 3 May 2010
The change in seasons has become a great focus for learning and play at The Orchard Pre-School in Lustleigh. Term started up a little late due to immense amounts of snow, but before the white stuff melted the children and play leaders took up the challenge and were straight outside creating snow and ice sculptures, snowboys and snowgirls and some dangly spangly ice mobiles. Beccy Birchill (Pre-School Leader) said "the fun couldn't be left out in the cold and we even made our very own big freeze ice pool in the hall...making icy floating flowers, rainclouds, snowballs, icebergs and frozen fingers!"
Over the extended cold spell, the children have been talking about hibernation, thinking about who might hibernate, why and where. They have made their very own snuggly place to hide from the cold weather, enjoying somewhere to read stories and listen to wintry music. Lengthy conversations were had about the bug hotel they'd created in the pre-school garden and who might be using it over the winter months.
As the weather improved and the temperature slowly rose, everyone watched carefully for the signs of spring. The children walked through the village on a snowdrop hunt, looked on the trees for the buds forming on the branches and watched the daffodils brighten into sunny patches of cheerfulness just in time for mothers' day. Everyone created their own interpretations of what they saw, using different textures and shapes and vast amounts of imagination! The molehills have been counted and felt and long chats were had about how the moles dig and why they leave these big piles of soil behind. The coming of spring even inspired a new outdoor project, the children made their very own garden glockenspiel, which is a lovely accompaniment to spring birdsong.
Community involvement continues to filter into the pre-school with regular trips to the library van, Beccy says "We've become a familiar sight on a Friday morning, walking through the village with our high visibility jackets on, waving at the residents of Lustleigh, keen to swap our books and to find a new one to read!" Many of the children and their families also turned up at the weekend for an afternoon puppet show of "The Fisherman's Wife" as part of the Villages in Action scheme. It was a fabulous performance and the pre-school committee served some very tasty cakes afterwards.
On top of all this the pre-school and playgroup have been really lucky to have some great yoga sessions, taught by Anna White and some inspiring music workshops run by Jacki Riedlinger. The spring term outing was to Yarner woods to learn about birds and nest building. The rangers showed the children some wonderful specimens and encouraged them to gather their own materials (twigs, moss, leaves, hair, mud, wool) on a woodland walk and build their very own nests! Rewards of homemade chocolate chip biscuits and fruit juice were an added incentive!
So all is set for a great journey into summer and with The Orchard Playgroup changing to a Tuesday morning slot to run alongside Nature School it looks like all ages will be getting wild about wildlife and having fun in the fresh air.
For details of Nature School, Pre-School and Playgroup,
please contact Beccy Birchill 01647 277100
Sessions are popular and a waiting list is now running for the summer term, so register early to avoid disappointment.
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