Playschool Rooms at Little Rascals Playschool Ballinasloe

The playschool group caters for 2½ to 5 year olds. The room is designed to allow the children wall space to display their work throughout the year. All the toys and equipment is organised so that it is easy accessible to the children. The equipment and play materials provide the children with stimulating activities and play opportunities in all areas of play, learning and development. The equipment is appropriate for all ages and developmental needs of the children and promote cultural awareness and equal opportunities.

 It is important at this age that there is both free-play and structured activities. The child’s physical, emotional, intellectual, social and language development is encouraged in this group through the environment i.e. the key workers, other children and equipment. Widening the child’s learning experiences caters for emotional and social development. The child learns to play alongside other children and more importantly to share and take turns. Playing alongside other children increases the scope of play and helps the child to learn how to get along with others. Equipment available to encourage this includes; fancy dress clothes, pretend toys e.g. kitchen, doctors set, tool set, dolls, telephone, cleaning set etc. Physical development includes gross and fine motor development. Gross motor skills include hopping, dancing, running and tumbling. These are developed with both outdoor and indoor equipment. Fine motor skills are developed with equipment such as jigsaws, construction straws, colouring, paints, shape sorters, threading beads, play dough, sand and water play and much more.

Language development is catered for by books, music, songs and pretend play. Children learn to expand their vocabulary by talking to each other with encouragement from the key workers. We at Little Rascals listen to and value what each child says, talking about what they are doing and actively encourage the children to explore their full potential. In Little Rascals each child has the opportunity to express their views and exercise choice.  The playroom also has two toilets off the main room for easy access for the children especially the toilet training child.