When life throws you puddles, you build bridges over them of course! At least, that’s what our children spent the day doing.
You can splash in them, slide into them and look for fun opportunities.
That’s the very best thing about being an outdoor preschool. We could sit inside and do a traditional circle time and discuss the weather and the seasons – or we could be outside experiencing it for real.
We know that this is the best way to get children talking – show them authenticity, gain their interest, and wait for the curiosity, questions and learning to follow.
Our pedagogy of following children’s interests through planning in the moment showed a wonderful example of how children’s learning flourishes when they are given opportunities to lead their own learning.
We are fascinated with the idea that children’s interests are shown through ‘planning in the moment’. Children’s learning flourishes when they are given opportunities to lead their own learning, so that’s exactly what we do at Dodleston Pre-School.
We often put the toys and items out, step back and let the children take over. That’s how we unexpectedly built a fire a couple of weeks ago, and taught the children about fire safety.
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One of our children said that he would like to paint something, so paint is what we gave him. He used a brush to paint the wheels of some trucks. Then, he pulled the truck along and noticed it made tracks behind it. He used a puddle to clean the wheels!
To further extend the interest, we placed washing up liquid and scrubbing brushes nearby so that the children could really get the cars clean if they wanted to. This led to the discovery that washing up liquid foams up when it’s scrubbed into concrete.
We added the paintpot and brushes and like magic, the children were mark making again – this time using large shoulder movements which are critical for developing writing muscles.
Today’s snack was baked beans on toast, a wonderful way to keep warm!