klc106 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Hi We are starting stay and play sessions on wednesday for children aged 0-5yrs. What sort of activities would you plan to do at these sort of sessions? We were thinking of a sensory/messy play activity that could be accessed by all ages? Any ideas? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Playdough every time,, with lots of enhancements, such as different smells such as peppermint, lemon essence, vanilla, strawberry, different colours each week. As well as glitter, oats, shells, straws and cutting and rolling tools. Sounds an exciting project, do let us know how it goes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumperrabbit Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Painting is always popular, seems like lots of parents don't do it much at home because of the mess! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 When we ran them we found the messy play was very popular as parents in our area didn't want to have the mess in their house! Once you have a core group of attendees it might be worth asking them what they would like to access in the sessions. We did this also and invited in local groups/individuals who offered preschool classes. We tended to offer these as a taster and the company then came for free in the hopes of attracting new people to their classes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lashes2508 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 can i ask how you are running these stay and play sessions - alongside your usual session - have you limited numbers of attendees , is only open to parents and siblings , thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klc106 Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 (edited) We are running these as an addition to our pre-school sessions. So any adult can attend with a child under 5yrs. Most of our current parents are planning to attend but we are hoping it will gain some attention to pre-school as we are very low on numbers. Edited June 10, 2012 by klc106 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 As I'm currently working as 'agency', I've worked in a children's centre stay and play, they provided the usual nursery type activities such as playdough, painting, water and sand, mark making, cars/trains and track etc. They also finished the session with a member of staff reading a very short 'Dear Zoo' type story and singing a simple 'action song' - I think this was very useful in modelling in a subtle way how to engage, even very young children, in books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ef2259 Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 We are running these as an addition to our pre-school sessions. So any adult can attend with a child under 5yrs. Most of our current parents are planning to attend but we are hoping it will gain some attention to pre-school as we are very low on numbers. Be careful when trying to bring more interest in your pre-school, it can backfire. The cost of a play and stay session is usually much lower than pre-school fees and I have found parents on low incomes will take their children to these play and stay sessions on a daily basis rather than pay out for pre-school. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumperrabbit Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Be careful when trying to bring more interest in your pre-school, it can backfire. The cost of a play and stay session is usually much lower than pre-school fees and I have found parents on low incomes will take their children to these play and stay sessions on a daily basis rather than pay out for pre-school. I will have to agree with this, we run 1 toddler session a week and it is packed! BUT some parents are keeping to that rather than starting with us at playgroup, as the hike is from £2.00 for toddlers - playgroup is £9.50 and people just won't pay it, they prefer to wait until they go to school nursery. We have wondered if the future is Toddler groups, but then there's just no money in it to pay staff etc etc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lashes2508 Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Thanks Klc , our toddler group is struggling and our numbers for preschool are very low for September - toddler group has been run very erractically and we are considering staff to take over - the lady who took over is lovely but has no real energy or enthusiasm and is not really a people person, we have recently sent out questionairres to find out from parents why they dont use it etc , stay and play sessions i thought were more along the lines of inviting parents to stay as part of preschool session to see how we play etc which is what i was thinking of introducing . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klc106 Posted June 11, 2012 Author Share Posted June 11, 2012 Our local children's centre approached us to start it up as other pre-schools were not interested in starting one. They are supporting us with resources and sending invites out to all their parents and are even paying for transport to get them to us. In the area we are in it is something that is really needed and a lot of parents cannot afford pre-school until they get funding so it is hoped it will attract these parents as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 (edited) Fantastic idea, lets hope this gives you the boost you need too. Now that really is working in partnership. :1b Edited June 11, 2012 by Fredbear 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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