A day at Playgroup
I arrive at 8.50 am, take off my coat, find my photograph on the window to take into the room and I am ready to play! My keyworker always has a nice smile for me and everyone always says “Hello”. Everything is ready for us to play with from when we first arrive. I like to build towers with the Duplo, my keyworker often builds towers with me and we see who can build the biggest or tallest, I also like to knock them down!
Once all of my friends have arrived the door is opened, and we can play inside and outside. I sometimes like to help my key worker, she needs help to make the playdough so I help her to measure all of the ingredients into the bowl and we mix it all together with our hands, it’s all squishy and sticky. I don’t know how she would manage if I didn’t come to help her!
I love to play outside, there are so many things to do. I go to work on the construction site with my hard hat and jacket on, shifting the sand and stones with the pick-up trucks to fill up the big tubes. The water area has lots of funnels, jugs, spoons, sieves. I can pour, squeeze, scoop, fill and watch things float or sink.
I can run around and build up my muscles by creating structures to climb and balance on with the tires and planks of wood, it’s also fun to roll or kick the balls around, down the guttering and throw them into tubs and cans.
I make my friends some lovely pies, cakes, and drinks in the mud kitchen. We add flowers and herbs to our bowls to mix before we cook it in the microwave. While doing all of this I am showing control in holding and using tools, learning to share, learning to play in a group using my communication, understanding and listening skills.
Snack Time
I like snack time, I wash my own hands, choose my own plate and cup and sit with my keyworker and all of my friends in the same group. I choose milk or water for a drink and pour it into my cup myself, a few weeks ago I couldn’t pour it out of the jug, but my keyworker helped me a few times and now I can do it on my own! Snack is a piece of fruit and either bread, rice cake, oat cake or pitta bread sometimes with cheese, hummus, sometimes with spread on. My keyworker asks me to pick 1 or 2 pieces and sometimes asks me to pick the triangles or squares of bread.
Some of the other things we can do are play in the craft area, there are lots of loose parts, papers, equipment to cut, crinkle, stick to help with my fine motor skills, problem-solving skills, and creativity.
Our construction area has lots of different sized blocks some big enough to stand on and some small, There is also material, tubes and small world things like animals, people, cars, and trains, I can make garages, houses, jungles and all kinds of things using my imagination to create stories and ideas.
Our home corner is full of loose parts to play with like pasta, rice, shells, wood pieces. I can use spoons, tweezers or chopsticks to pick up things or move them around. I cook in the pans or feed the dolls at the table. Sometimes I am a doctor and my friends come to my clinic where I bandage them up and other times it is my café and I write down everyone’s orders before serving them cake and tea. I can use my imagination to role play, match shapes and colours using resources and learn to recognise numbers and count through ordering, playing and singing.
There is always something messy or malleable to play with, like playdough! Or clay! Here I can use my senses to learn about textures and smells.
Sometimes I just feel like sitting quietly in our cosy book area. I snuggle on the settee while someone reads me a story. It’s nice and quiet and relaxed over here and I can chill here before I go and play again in a different area.
I don’t just get to paint or draw using paint brushes and pens or pencils. I can chalk huge patterns outside on the fences or paths, I can make pictures using squeezy bottles and water, I can make pictures using mud and sticks. I like to run the cars through trays of paint and make track marks on the paper.
At the end of the day, we all sit together on the carpet and have a story, its great fun to guess what’s going to happen next and join in with the story. Then we all sing a rhyme and say goodbye before its time for the grownups to pick us up. This is when I can show my Mummy or Daddy the pictures I have made and some of the areas I have played with, they can also see what stories and rhymes we have had and we can sing them on the way home.
