Hi everyone

Not used any forum before so hope I am getting this right, feel stupidly nervous!

I run a pre-school and we are trying to follow the topics of the school so we can join up at various times through the year with different activities etc. they have chosen Building, Windows and Doors as their topic which I find a little challenging and wondered if anyone had any ideas?

What I have thought is maybe Hansel and Gretals house in the role play and then get the children to think about what they would like in this area and how to present it all. Then thought about local walks to church and well etc.. counting windows maybe doing brick rubbings looking for patterns, and then making a stain glass window either one big one or lots of little ones for the display board. Possibly junk modeling houses/buildings...

any thoughts would be greatfully received

thanks everyone

Hi Johanna -
Welcome to the Forum and stop feeling nervous; you got it entirely right!

As for your question I'll leave it to others to offer any suggestions they might have. I'm sure people will be along shortly and they will undoubtedly be more useful than me...

Welcome again - let us know if you need any help while settling in!

Hi Johanna, and welcome from me too

I'm interested that you follow the school's themes and topics - is this your idea or theirs? What ages are your children? How about looking at construction with different materials? Bricks, blocks, making bricks from playdough/clay to build a wall. Making the bricks from clay you could dry them outside and then build a little wall (I'm thinking inch high bricks here)

Hi and welcome.
Hansel and Gretal is a rather gruesome story for little children. How about starting with The 3 Little Pigs as that is very much about building and then I would think outside the box and try materials---looking at bricks etc so construction and modelling etc. You may find you can do something on castles too within this which may encourage your children to initiate their own learning and maybe the people who lived in them?

Good luck!

Hi every one
thank you for making me feel so welcome

Thank you for the idea's the Three Little Pigs is good one don't know why I didn't think about that, have story sack to support this in the quiet tent.

love the idea of making bricks too I think they would love that!

Cait as for following the topics from the schools we decided to give it a try this year because we have been working so closely with the reception teacher and we combine lots of different activities across the year, but the problem was that some of our ideas didn't always fit together with each others planning. So we thought we would try and follow their thematic planning to integrate everything better, it worked really well last half term. We both did Cornwall and then finished with a puppet show and workshop about Cornwall and fairies and myths surrounding them, it was great!

xx

We are having a huge development being built near us and I approached the company and they were most helpful with photos and emailed them to us so that the children can see the changes taking place over time.
However I love your ideas so far and think they may be far more suitable! Have fun!

Hi!
bob the builder!
2 simple maths city 2 has a building program on it where you have to get the heights of buildings right
Construction site
big builder
block play
teifoc do mini terracotta building bricks.
lego/duplo houses
making paper windows and spotting what they can see through them
You can make paper houses with a sheet of a4 good fun to decorate
doors- how about mr ben ...what can you find through the door ...lots of mr ben books in our local library at the moment
songs- the house that jack built. the wise man built his house upon the rocks,
Ah topics...i was never short of ideas when we worked this way!!

During those times when you want less planned work, how about anything which comes in through the windows or door to your setting - could be anything the the children bring in then. Our children were intrigued earlier in the year when the sun first began to show itself and it was still quite low in the sky, how the shadows formed on the walls - we brought in things to reflect that light and make rainbows from. You might also be able to make up something from a story which you have found - could fairies have come through the window and left it for the children.

Welcome to the Forum by the way

I'm doing a similar topic of building houses and homes in my year one class next year and was trying to think of inspiring ideas. This is fantastic, I'll definitely be using it!

Try also getting hold of some air bricks (house bricks with holes in them so they are light) and giving the children sand and water to make 'cement'. Our children loved building their very own proper wall!

How about some junk modelling making houses out of boxes, also shapes through different shaped windows around your area.

If you have any spare money (I know I like to joke!!) TTS do some fab building site equipment including mixers, bricks etc. If I was clever I could post a link here, but I'm not!

Just had a quick look and they have

pretend house bricks
ice bricks - could then extend the theme and talk about Eskimos and Igloos
pretend breeze blocks
books about buildings
big builder ste comprising of hat, trowel, gloves, spreader, brick sand mould, spirit level, tape measure and mortar tub

Good luck

These ideas are wonderful and inspiring, I can't think why I haven't posted on the forum before I love it!!!

Watch out you will get addicted!

I'm going on holiday and not taking my log in just to stop myself posting on here.