Learning for Life: So many skills in such a short time!

Saturday, 10 September 2016

So many skills in such a short time!

This is our daily routine, established on day 3.

Here I am 7 days in to a brand new term and with 24 of the 26 children having started, I am taking stock of all the new skills that they already taken on board in such a short time:

To wear a uniform.
To be part of a group of 12 other children.
To share 2 adults with 12 other children.
To walk through a room full of enticing toys & go outside.
To say goodbye to their parents or carers (not everyone's at this stage just yet)
To make a good attempt at taking their own shoes off.
To put wellies on to play in the sand.
To find their shoes & then take their wellies off.
To pull their sleeves up before washing their hands
To find their ticket for snack
To put a straw into a milk carton
To take the peel of a banana
To use a recycling food bin
Learning staff names
Learning peers names
Turn taking in a large group
To climb over lots of obstacles in the playground
To put a page on the easel before painting using magnets
To find their name & putting in on their finished art work
To take their page off & put it on the dryer
To leave a painting overnight before taking it home
To tidy up in small groups of 4 or 5
To listen to a short story
To sit in the story room
To wait for their parents or carers to come back
To have fun & make new friends
To walk away from all the lovely new resources, knowing they can come the next day
To take just 1 sweet from a full box on a Friday

When you see them all listed like that it is quite incredible and no wonder the children are tired!
I am so adamant that preschool should be all about developing these important life skills and allowing young children to develop them at their pace.
Here's to a fun filled year with all 26 children exploring and enjoying making new friends and learning lots of new skills.