Hello everybody! Can’t believe it’s back to school and ECCE time again! It’s so exciting that your little ones are beginning a new chapter in their lives! Lots of new activities and toys to learn from! Here is what we are up to this week!

In the baby room Suzanne and Kathlyn are doing block play with the babies. In circle time the girls will sit with the babies giving them the blocks and encourage them to bang, build, feel and explore the blocks. In the first year of babies life there is a certain milestone they reach where they like to put blocks into boxes and tip them out again so the girls will encourage that and also they begin to look for toys once out of view so the girls will give them little challenges of hiding the blocks under blankets to see will they look for them! The girls will name out the colours of the blocks and chat to the babies about what they’re doing to help with vocabulary and communication skills. Blocks are so much more than just toys they are brilliant for building imaginations and fine motor skills.

In the toddler room Bernie and Laura are doing all about me with the children. As its still all new to some of the new toddlers the girls are focusing on helping them settle in and form friendships so in circle time the girls will ask each child a few simple questions about themselves and encourage them to open up. They will ask they if they like certain cartoons or stories and if they do Bernie will say how another child loves it too. If the toddlers have some teddies they use as a comfort Bernie will ask the child questions on the teddy. They will sing fun songs and so dancing, read stories on making new friends and how everybody is different and special and colour pictures of boys and girls. They will look at family photos and encourage the children to talk about their family and do activities where they have to share and do them as group like using the shop and toys and doing role play.

Upstairs the ECCE rooms and Preschool room are doing hygiene.

Continuing on from settling in and all about me, Shell, Mary Ann and Lisa will do hygiene this week so that the children will get an understanding of how they need to keep clean and pick up good habits in preschool.  

For the smaller preschool class Mary Ann will teach them the basics of hygiene so in circle time she will talk about bath time, handwashing before and after food and brushing our teeth. She will read stories on it and show them how we wash our hands. She will ask them questions on bath time and what toys they have in the bath and encourage putting their rubbish into the bin after them.

In the ECCE rooms Shell and Lisa will also explain the importance of hygiene and encourage the usual handwashing, teeth brushing and bath time but also talk about germs, thoroughly washing your hands after toilet visits, using tissues for noses, using ‘The Dracula’ when coughing or sneezing(doing it into the corner of your elbow) and cleaning up after themselves. The girls will do role play activities on it, question and answer sessions and activity sheets on how to have good hygiene. So a lot of new information for the pre-schoolers this week!