“Who’s are these footprints and where do they go?” As we opened our doors on yet another snowy and wintery day, the Bradley House preschool children took the opportunity to bring one of our favourite stories to life. They sat down to listen to the story of ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ by Julia Donaldson. The story of the inquisitive little Gruffalo had our children wondering about what animals we might find in our snow covered garden.
As the children ventured outside they quickly noticed a variety of tracks in the snow, from paw prints and footprints the children were able to identify different marks on the floor linking them to animals they are familiar with such as cats, birds and even the footprints of people. Just as the Gruffalo’s child did in the story the children followed the tracks in the snow to see what they could find. Each trail lead to a different animal, which sparked a discussion based on the animals natural habitat, preferred weather and the unique physical features of the woodland animals we found in the garden.
The preschool children were curious to see what else could be hiding in the snow and continued exploring further, digging in the snow and making their own marks to follow, by installing curiosity into children’s play, they foster a love for learning which in turn boosts achievement later in life. Whilst linking our winter animal hunt to the story we had just read, they were able to demonstrate their listening and understanding skills as they began to say repeated refrains from the story which is a fundamental building block for early communication skills in preparation for becoming lifelong learners. We cannot wait to explore further marks in the natural environment and see the different animals we can spot as the seasons change and the weather gets warmer.
