Fantasy and Fiction 

This week in preschool the children were practical and hands on, with their activities between each other and as a group, showing excellent teamwork. On Tuesday we were kindly gifted with a jar of jam, made with some fresh handpicked strawberries from one of our fellow preschoolers, and as a team we decided to put it in great use so all the children could be engaged. Wednesday, we made jam tarts where all of us were divided into groups and equipped with all the resources, ingredients and utensils needed to bake this delicious treat, so everyone could cooperate with each other and get involved in some physical learning with a hint of self-responsibility, and safe to say all the children and teaches enjoyed the result! 

Later in the week on Thursday, we chose a different fantasy story that touched on a bit of cakes and bakery, which was Hansel & Gretel. We began storytelling this theme to the children in circle time, by watching a short clip of the plot for them to get a better understanding of the storyline. As it went on, we explained to the children the 2 main characters are siblings that one day gets lost in the woods and wonders along just before coming across a house made of sweets, cakes and gingerbread, that are all owned by a witch, that they later try and escape from because of her cruel intentions.  In between the circle session we asked them questions like “Why did Hansel leave a trail of pebbles?” “How comes the 2^nd trail of breadcrumbs didn’t work?” “Why shouldn’t you go with strangers?” “Why is it dangerous?”.

Moreover, we enhanced on this in a creative and practical approach by creating 3 different houses made of cardboard, where the children then painted all of them different colours to represent the 3 different houses owned by the witch. Afterwards, the children increased in their crafting with some colouring, sticking and gluing of the decorations of sweets, cakes and ginger and completed the houses so lovely which was then used later in the tuff tray. To end this story, we had the children draw Hansel, Gretel and the witch themselves, which we then role played with on the carpet as we spoke and went over the story again filled with much more action because this time we used props created by the children, which had them all engaged!