East Heights UMC Preschool
Our Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom space is utilized Monday through Friday by our Preschool students. It is also shared with our Children’s Day Out Program once a week in the Fall, Spring, and Summer. We continue to host several community events each year and the outdoor space is used for many different activities. These events include Vacation Bible School, our annual Easter Egg Hunt, and our newest event is Sunday Funday.
During VBS this summer the outdoor station was used to take the children on a long journey just like Jesus and his disciples did during their travels. Sunday Funday the space was used to have a bubble and dance party.
The Preschool continues to use the space for our recess time to help develop gross motor skills. Our Pre-K class has an activity which was done during Fire Safety Week. After our visit from the firefighter the children used water squirters to put out a pretend fire. The children love to have our snack outside and doing different activities using different items they find such as leaves, rocks and sticks. This year the children been pretending that our cave is a dino cave. The logs and stick are used to make nests, and the big rocks are the dino eggs. During our Five Senses unit we took a nature walk. We listened for the sounds we could hear. The different things we could see and smell. We used our sense of touch to feel the different types of tree bark. Some were rough and some were smooth. We compared the different leaves that came from the different trees. The children are always exploring and talking about the things they find.
This space is continuing to evolve and change.