Starting at Pre-school
As your child approaches three they will be making the transition to preschool. As parents you might be wondering what to expect in this next step in your child’s learning and development and what a typical day at preschool will look like for your child.
At this stage of their development, your child will be mainly learning through play-based activities. They will also be learning about routine and developing early literacy and maths skills, learning about the world around them and learning social skills. During their time at Preschool, your child will begin to learn by doing things for themselves, exploring and investigating, watching and listening, talking and discussing, creating, and communicating – in other words, playing.
Play is children’s work and playing hard is very tiring! Play can also be very messy as your child will be learning both inside with sand, water and paint, and also in the outdoors with mud, leaves and so on, so you can expect some dirty clothes at the end of the day.
During your child’s day they will experience the following;
Group circle times: This can include story times, singing and group games. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop social skills and develop the children’s listening and attention skills. During circle times in preschool we will also discuss special events that might be coming up such as Father’s day and give the children the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts.
Free flow play: This is where a variety of activities will be set up for the children and they are able to freely explore different activities of their choice. This may include messy play, mark making, construction toys, small world and much more. During this time the staff will be there to help extend play and learning opportunities.
Garden Time: The children have time in our outdoor space each day giving them fantastic opportunities to practice their gross motor skills on our play equipment. There is also great opportunities to explore the natural world around us.
Meal and snack times: Before any eating our children are encouraged to wash their hands independently. During meal and snack times the children are encouraged to self-serve and use cutlery independently in preparation for school.
Structured Activities: These activities are planned by the children’s keyworkers to help them meet their next steps. This could be around anything from recognising their own name, to turn taking in small groups. These activities often include the children’s current interests to ensure they are as engaged as possible.
At First Steps we have two pre-school rooms, a term time only preschool open between 9-4 daily and an all year round Nursery preschool open from 7.30-6. In both rooms, we aim to make everyday in preschool exciting, educational and above all fun. Each day is different and we always enable the children to have input into the types of things they would like to do each day. Every child will have a rich variety of learning opportunities to ensure they are fully prepared for the transition to big school.
If your child is approaching the time to start at preschool, we have some ‘FREE’ stay and play sessions starting on 29th June. Click here to book onto a session and see what we get up to at First Steps Preschool.