Young Tribune

FUN GUARANTEED!

The children at Helpston Playhouse have been busy creating, learning new skills and making memories to last a lifetime…

There’s never a dull moment at Helpston Playhouse. Our Ofsted ‘outstanding’ childcare providers are constantly coming up with up with new and exciting ways to engage our children. The pre-schoolers have been immersed in nature with our fabulous Forest School. One of their favourite activities is making up their own ‘potions’ using scented tea bags, herbs and water. As well as creating their own blends they had to guess the fragrances from the various tea bags. Many noticed notes of strawberries, cream, orange and mint and one child beautifully described the smell of one blend as being ‘just like Christmas’. They also got a chance to make some amazing musical instruments using pasta and rice. The children listened to the sounds their instruments made and how talked about how they were different.

They read the book, That’s When I’m Happy and talked about all the things, people, places, and times that made or make them feel good. The children mentioned baking, playing, toys, friends, pets, ice cream and hugs! One of the children’s favourite activities is using the tea sets to make fruit juice or tea. They used different types of cutlery to cut, mash, squash, mush, poke and peel some fruit. They added water to change the colours and smells. Then taking turns to use the scissors, they added some freshly cut herbs. After mixing it all together they decided to use their table tools in different ways to stir, scoop and pour. This led to some great playing and fantastic sharing! The children got the chance to become a band of scurvy pirates! They created their own hats, treasure chests, and maps using their own fantastic imagination and ideas. There were volcanos, crocodiles, sharks, and of course, lots of treasure! The sandpit was turned into a treasure paradise and the children had to find the money and jewels buried within it!

Using just mud and water the children made some mud paint and used it to create some treasure maps. Exploring texture and prints they extended their mark making by using the treasures to make different patterns. As well as our fantastic pre-school we also provide wrap around care for John Clare Primary in the form of our breakfast and after-school clubs. The after-school clubs have a different theme every night of the week. On Mondays we do gardening, Forest School and woodwork. The children get to make so many things including ‘natural’ mobiles using resources from the garden. They used sticks to construct the base and then used string and various items to decorate it. The children used lavender, rosemary, and grasses. Some children also added beads which were threaded onto pipe cleaners. They looked amazing! They also got to make their own sensory bags that they filled with bay leaves, lemon balm, rosemary, lavender and rose petals. The smell was amazing! Wednesdays are Movie Club, where we watch a film, and relax with a bit of popcorn! Thursdays are our very popular Craft Club. Recently we folded cupcake cases and secured them together with a wooden peg to make butterflies! We used lots of glitter to decorate them; they looked spectacular. We also used our handprints and colourful paper to create pretty parrots. They looked amazing and one of our crafters decided to use only pink to create a beautiful flamingo! On Fridays it’s all about baking, we make everything from biscuits, cakes, afternoon tea to pizza pin wheels. We even had our very own Helpston Playhouse Bake off! villagetribune 37