Here’s some of our story-sharing, egg-hunting, springtime best bits from a terrific term at the POD and Preschool.

 

Spring At The POD - Cultural Celebrations, Chocolate and Kindness!

March at POD has been buzzing with excitement. We've been diving into all sorts of celebrations and national days, discovering new things and having a blast!

National Days are a big deal in the early years curriculum because they are all about celebrating culture, diversity, and of course having lots of fun! On David's Day we learnt about Wales, its flag, and its wonderful music. We painted pretty daffodils, and even made some daffodil perfume in our mud kitchen! On St Patrick’s Day POD was filled with Irish fun, soda bread baking, and our lucky handprint four leaf clover craft! We also went on outdoor treasure hunts to find pots of gold at the end of the rainbow and looked at how rainbows are really made!

World Book Day is one of our favourite times of the year. We made beautiful bookmarks and talked (a lot) about stories and characters we love. We baked yummy Gruffalo brownies and had a blast at our teddy bear’s picnic. We also delved into some fab multisensory story sacks with surprising twists and turns that kept us on the edge of our seats! Our March books of the month were a hit as we read the sensational stories by Sue Hendra. We’ve saved the veggies with Supertato, met Keith the cat with the magic hat, and Barry the fish with fingers. We love this author’s quirky yet lovable characters and hilarious stories that have such positive messages about friendship, kindness, and the importance of being yourself.

Mother’s Day is always a chance for us to go ‘all out’ on the love front. Talking about who we love and why they are so special is a wonderful way for our children to expand their emotional development. Of course, we made some adorable cards for our grown-ups and baked some delicious heart shaped biscuits too. We brewed up some awesome fun with our tea-themed tuff tray! Kids got to play barista, mixing real milk, (cold) tea, and sugar. We counted spoons of sugar (sneaky maths), brewed drinks for our pals (promoting kindness), and mastered turn-taking with the teapot. It was tea-riffic.

During British Science Week, we did experiments that fizzed, changed colour, and melted – which was really cool! The POD went red for Red Nose Day, thanks to our super sensory tuff trays filled with red spaghetti, and let's not forget our egg-cellent Easter-themed crafts, from bonnet parades to egg hunts – it’s been cracking fun!

Spring Term #1 at Preschool – Awesome Adventures

The beginning of spring term brought some new faces to Preschool (BIG hello to our new Dolphin Class starters!) and of course a whole load of excitement!

We dived headfirst into the thrilling world of exploration and discovery with our half term topic “Adventures”. We threw ourselves in to stories that took us to lots of new and exciting places. We read Finns Froggy Adventure, as he headed to the coast, the city and the woods. This meant we got to practice using our describing words (adjectives) to say what Finn would see or hear at these different locations. We went on a Bear Hunt with the popular book by Michael Rosen, squelching through mud and sploshing through rivers. Our Preschoolers had a blast exploring mud, grass and water as we followed the various places the family went through. We used our bodies to mimic movements like swishy grass and stompy feet and talked about the rhythm and patterns we could hear in the story. Throughout all these brilliant books, we’ve also been busy learning our letter sounds (phonics). One of the best adventures we can have is learning to read so mastering these letter sounds is an important first step in this exciting learning journey.

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, we read 'The Colour Monster,' which cleverly links emotions with colours. We're all about encouraging kids to share their thoughts and feelings and we love how this book beautifully simplifies and explains big emotions for little people. We created our own feelings charts using colours from the story and talked about what each type of emotion can feel (or look like) using our own words and pictures.

Every half term, we have a WOW day. These are meticulously planned to include so much fun it’s guaranteed to knock the kids socks off! Our 'Preschool and the Curse of the Missing Crystals,' did exactly that job. Tackling six challenges and split into two teams: 'Scallywags' & 'Swashbucklers’, preschoolers raced through an obstacle course, navigated a crocodile swamp, played word soup, freed pirates, hunted for clues, and even cracked codes. Once all the crystals were found, the teams united to return them, unveiling a treasure trove of goodies as a reward for their hard work!

 

Spring Term #2 at Preschool – Sensational Science-y Fun

In the springtime spirit of discovery, the second half of spring term focussed on the exciting topic of 'Science and Investigations'. Our little scientists were immersed into hands-on experiments, fun investigations, and plenty of ‘ooh’ moments along the way!

Each week we focussed on a scientific theme that would be awe-inducing and exciting. We started off with exploring light and dark. We read ‘A Tale of Two Feathers’ and learnt what it meant for birds to be either nocturnal or diurnal. We headed to the kitchen to learn about how things melt - (chocolate being our fave) and looked at the process of baking with all its measuring and mixing of ingredients. We had some explosive fun with our erupting volcanoes (cue lots of delightful squeals!) as we saw what crazy reactions you can have when you combine certain types of ingredients! We investigated the weather, made rain gauges and windsocks and looked at how clouds are formed. Phew!

Our WOW Day turned all our children into Preschool scientists! The day was jam-packed with LOTS of super experiments and interesting investigations all designed to stretch their little imaginations and foster curiosity. From fizzing rainbows (we squirted vinegar onto jelly and bicarb of soda and watched the reaction) to digging into the concept of ‘refraction’ and how it amazingly alters the direction of a picture. When we mixed milk with food colouring and then added washing up liquid, we saw swirling circle patterns emerge as the liquids reacted with each other. The kids thought it was incredible and wanted to know why and how it happened. We made lemon volcanoes by adding drops of food colouring to our freshly cut lemons and then sprinkled on some bicarb to watch the fizzy reaction. We also tested out our theories about whether a lemon would float or sink. (Spoiler: lemons float but peeled lemons sink). From using torches to reveal hidden pictures or working our which materials are magnetic, it’s safe to say our scientific fun was off the charts!

POD’s Spring Garden Makeover

Spring term may have come to an end, but we’ve still got our newly refreshed spring garden to enjoy! Spending time outdoors is so important for a child’s whole development. Our potting shed is the perfect place to go to spend some quiet time, talk about emotions and self-regulate. The mud kitchen and outdoor science area is a busy hub of social interactions and our sensory garden, full of sweet-smelling blooms and plants, is the perfect space for yoga or mindful movement. Being outside, whether we’re making forts or practicing our physical skills, exploring sandpits or digging in the planters, means we’re igniting little minds and boosting our play-based learning in the best, most wholesome way.

As we wrap up this super spring term, we can’t help but be buzzing with excitement for what's to come in the summer. We already have bucket loads of fun planned that’s just perfect for little people and will make the most of summer’s sunshine filled summer days.