Getting Parent Into Preschool

[blondie]

we are trying to think of new ideas that will encourage our parents to come into / help out in pre-school - any ideas welcome especially those that have proved to be successful with you - many thanks x

[Guest]

On Thursday we had our end of term party complete with magician, and it was amazing to watch the children's faces during the magic show.....

 

I took lots of photos and then made a video of them (via animoto) and invited the parents in to watch the video.......... it was on LOTS of times for various groups of parents during the day.

It was lovely to see so many parents in the nursery with their child watching the video!

[HoneyPancakes]

I have helped in my son's reception class and have enjoyed it a great deal, however a whole morning is quite a draw on limited child free time. For many parents an hour in the morning may be managable - still time to do a shop before lunch.

 

Younger children also prevent parents helping in school. If the toddler can join the class you might get more of an uptake - even if the parent is only free to sharpen pencils and stick in work. My second child was able to join his brother's year 1 class while I listened to children read.

 

Oh, and I am made to feel important - and that keeps me coming back.

 

Fe

[finleysmaid]

just finished three days of stay and play - with mixed results- some sessions with just one parent and others with six plus siblings. Wanted to try and show learning through play ideas so did messy monday/tasty tuesday and wacky wednesday. It was quite hard work and a bit full on for the end of term - i would do it at a different time next time and perhaps just random planned days rather than 3 together.

The parents who came were the same ones who support us all the time (except 1) but the offer was appreciated by more -

Always a difficult one - especially when you don't see some of the parents at all...so it'll be interesting what others have to say

[Guest]

I'm interested in putting on some stay and play sessions in my Year R class but am struggling with what to do. Do I just have a range of activities that cover different areas of learning to give parents ideas about how the children are learning or do I have a theme? Can you let me know what you did on your three mornings finleysmaid so that I can start planning my sessions? Thank you

[finleysmaid]

messy monday

ublick - actually cornflour /jug of water/spoons

salad spinner art

make a boat to cross the water (had to be able to hold a marshmallow man without sinking

plus fill in activities

 

tasty tuesday

making fruit kekabs

decorated biscuits

giant fruit salad picture

lavender playdough

 

wacky wednesday

cling film painting aliens

paper helicopters/flying fish

silly dressing up!

make a volcano

 

each day also had child selected activities .

This was end of term so the learning outcomes were not my first thought but i wanted to show parents the sort of things the children did and with the help of the staff we got over a large amount of information about what they were learning whilst doing them. Also ideas for play at home over the holidays.

Each day was structured to show a range of play opportunities to cover most learning areas. Also songs/group times etc included (i love making parents sing ended up holding one of their hands while doing ring songs )

hope these ideas might help it was a bit mad but great fun, only issue was trying to make sure all the siblings were involved too....at one point had three babies helping in the water

so in reference to your post i did do a theme but also tried to show a range of learning opportunities at the same time - only really did the theme to make it more appealing to the parents, tried to do art / food/ science type play as thought parents might go for a day they felt comfortable with

hope this makes sense!