Learning how to learn

Creating a Love of Learning

Pre-school isn’t about counting to 100, learning what an adjective is, trigonometry, algebra etc, all that fun stuff is for big school. Pre-school is where children learn how to learn. This is an amazing time in a child’s life where they begin to build friendships and discover what the world is all about, all the while forming their own understanding of the best way for the to take in all this information and make use of it to build who they will become. There’s no right or wrong answers in pre-school just a series of investigations and discoveries about how things work or don’t work, what things are made of and how things relate to each other, big or small, heavy or light etc. We guide children on their journey by focusing on six areas of learning.

The Aims of Pre-School Education

As all children are different and develop at different rates, pre-school education aims to develop the whole child by:

promoting emotional, social, physical, creative and intellectual development;
developing self-esteem, self-control and positive attitudes towards others;
developing language and communication skills to encourage the sharing of thoughts and feelings; and
creating confident, eager, enthusiastic, independent, curious learners with a positive and problem-solving attitude to learning.

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Language Development

With language children make their needs, thoughts, feelings and ideas known. They interact socially as they play together, manage their own behaviour and self-regulate their emotions and learn independently and collaboratively. By listening and talking to their friends and teachers, and learning through adventures and activities language builds and forms in pre-school.

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Early Mathematical Experiences

Maths is everywhere. In pre-school we don’t sit everyone down and drum times tables into them. This is a place for Maths to be learnt through fun shopping activities, stacking lots of blocks, understanding how many bricks are needed to balance a structure, playing with things that are light and heavy and more.

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The World Around Us

The world is an amazing place and we strive to showcase a little of it in pre-school and help the children understand their place in it. At Chirpy Chicks as part of our mission statement we will also give children the opportunity to learn about the environment and how nature works. They will learn to understand people’s role in shaping the climate and experience the world’s wildlife in its many forms.

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The Arts

Picasso, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dali, Pollock, Rembrandt, all started somewhere and in pre-school children will have the chance to paint, sculpt, build, cut, stick, and create art that expresses who they are and what they enjoy doing. All with a range of materials that will change and progress to develop their artisitic skills.

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Physical Development and Movement

Keeping active and learning to love exercise is important for physical and mental health. No bar bells or treadmills here, but plenty of basketball, football, catch, hula-hooping, balancing, dancing, jumping, bowling and zipping about on trikes. All done to stay fit and healthy and foster a love of movement and exercise that will hopefully stay with the children for years to come. The next sports stars start here.

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Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Making friends, socialising, working as a team, persevering when things don’t go as planned are all part of the personal development a child will receive in pre-school. At Chirpy’s we will guide children to a better understanding of their emotions and how they affect their decisions. With fun and happiness as the core of everything we do, we will present and help children understand the full spectrum of how they can feel through role play and interactive learning.

How we do it

At Chirpy Chicks we have developed a comprehensive programme of activities and opportunities to help the children flourish, become confident, learn new skills, and much more. All of the learning elements in our pre-school have one core principle that drives every activity… FUN!

Every skill learned by the children is achieved through play and new experiences that leave lasting memories and foster a love of learning and an enjoyment of understanding themselves and their place in the world. We do this through themed topics and defined physical areas that give opportunities for everyone to have fun and try new things, making every day at Chirpys a new and vibrant experience. Learn about them below and do get in touch or come visit us for more information.

The Reading Coop

In the Reading Coop the children learn a love of books and stories. Daily circle time in this area provides a focused time to come together as a group to sing, share tales from home, learn rhymes and dive into adventures in books.

The Imagination Coop

This is the place where imagination makes magic. It can be a swish apartment, a drive through fast food heaven, headquarters for international rescue, doctors office, all creatures great and small veterinary practice, and so much more.

The Creative Coop

So many things to make, cut, stencil, glue, shape, bend, fold, trim, tie together, wrap, add frills, googly eyes, and lots and lots of glitter, so much glitter, glitter everywhere!

The Physical Barn

Keeping active and learning to love exercise is important for physical and mental health. No bar bells or treadmills here, but plenty of basketball, football, catch, hula-hooping, balancing, dancing, jumping, bowling and zipping about on trikes.

The Art Coop

Picasso, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dali, Pollock, Rembrandt, you’ll find all styles and better created right here, then sent home to take pride of place on the fridge.

The Sensory Coop

A place to engage the senses and do some interesting experiments. Plenty of things that are hot and cold, squishy and squashy, prickly and pokey, sticky and fluffy. A place for play dough creations of everything from snowmen to lizards, and somewhere to make magic bubbles and rainbows.

The Construction Coop

Hard hats at the ready as we build towering skyscrapers out of blocks and lego. Architects pour over plans while joiners, brick layers, and engineers gather tools for marvellous mechanical wonders.

The Sand Coop

Sand castles galore in the sand coop where diggers create dunes and deserts. Adventures across the the Sahara beckon for intrepid explorers, shortly before they get buried in the sand.

The Water Coop

Nothing more fun than splishing and splashing, as sail boats take to the high seas, submarines explore ocean depths, and everyone gets to play at being David Attenborough discovering colourful creatures deep underwater. Sometimes of course we do just pop in some bubbles for a foam party too.

The iCoop

Using computers is an everyday activity be they the ones on a desk or in your pocket and playing games on them is great fun. But screen time can be put to good use with apps that focus on speech development, understanding the value of numbers, learning about animals and nature, and so much more.

The Floor Coop

Remember when you were a kid and the hours of fun to be had playing with cars and garages making streets in imaginary cities for chases, playing houses with families you’d created all having tea and going about their business. We have that little corner of magic right here.

The Great Outdoors

Getting out into the sunshine and experiencing the seasons as they pass is an experience too often taken for granted. Learning about nature and the world around us, how the environment works and our place in it is all part of being out in the fresh air. As is running about and and having fun with sports of all kinds from tennis to egg and spoon races.