Cliftonville Primary School & Pre-School Soaring to success. Every child. Every day.
Pre-School
Welcome to our Pre-School blog!
Each week, we hope to share with you some of the learning that has taken place in our busy Pre-School. Maybe you could talk about what the children have been doing at school when you are at home with them?
Friday, 4 October 2024
Friday, 27 September 2024
This week in pre-school we have enjoyed lots of different autumn craft such as making pumpkin sun catchers, pumpkin prints, autumn leaf wreaths, and autumn wands. We have been learning about and looking for evidence of autumn in the forest school this week. The children have noticed that the leaves are starting to turn brown and fall off, and that it is getting colder.
We were so lucky to have had a special visit from the fire fighters! We were able to look around the fire engine and see all the different tools they use to help people. We were even able to sit in the fire engine!
This week in dance we enjoyed learning different dance routines such as the hello dance, heads shoulders knees and toes, and shake your sillies out! We also had a go at dancing to ‘I like to move it’. We used various dance styles including dancing fast and low with ribbons and scarves.
Friday, 20 September 2024
This week in the pre-school we have been having so much fun! We have settled into the preschool routine very well. While doing so, we have had ample opportunity to explore our new play and learn environment, both indoors and outdoors.
We have also had the opportunity to take part in a variety of craft activities including finger-painting trees, making bubble-wrap jelly fish and creating butterfly handprints. We have also been working on building relationships with our new key workers and peers in the pre-school.
As well as exploring the indoor environment and our garden, we had a great time visiting the forest school and made the most of all the amazing activities out there! We have shown great resilience when climbing trees and using the balance beam, and we have also been working hard to take turns on the swings, so everybody can have a turn.
Friday 12th July
Another week at pre-school has flown by and it doesn’t seem possible that we are almost at the end of our academic year!
Literacy
This week we have been thinking how Teachers help us. The children know that teachers “help us if we are sad” and that “we listen to stories.” The children have really enjoyed meeting their new teachers this week while they have been at pre-school, and we are hearing lots of excited chatter about “my new teacher” and “going to big school!” Our story this week has been “Topsy & Tim Start School.”
The children have also really enjoyed being creative with their mark making using a variety of different media this week; from using different paint sticks, to mark making in the sand we have seen beautiful rainbows created along with letters and numbers written! Well done pre-schoolers!
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia continued teaching us our special dance to Hakuna Matata from The Lion King this week which the children are really enjoying learning. We have been so lucky and really appreciate Miss Georgia’s hard work with us this year!
Maths
 
In our maths learning this week, we have been taking advantage of opportunities to use numbers where they naturally arise. Numbers can, of course, be found in most situations: indoors, outdoors and in the community, like on bus stops or house numbers – maybe you can ask your child what numbers they see on their journey to and from Pre-School?
We had so much fun using numbers in our play with the parachute this week – counting up and down from 1-10, looking at how many different coloured sections there are in it, and how many children will fit underneath the parachute! As you can see from the photographs, the children clearly enjoyed this activity!
We have also enjoyed exploring maths using magnetic numbers and shapes, matching patterns and noticing numbers that are also in the environment! Fantastic number work!
This week we have enjoyed welcoming lots of parents into pre-school for our last Stay & Play week of the year! We have been proud to share your child’s progress with you and from the feedback we have received so far, you are rightfully proud of your amazing children too!
You will have all received a questionnaire about your experiences at Pre-School this week; please can you take a few moments to complete and return this, as we really do appreciate all your comments and suggestions as we continue to strive towards making our Pre-School the best it can be!
Friday 14th June
Welcome back to Pre-School for the Summer Term! We have just over 6 weeks of this academic year left and are looking forward to lots of sunny weather and fun activities!
Literacy:
Our new theme for this term is “People Who Help Us” and so this week we have been thinking about what Doctors and Nurses do and where they might work. In our literacy, we have been working hard on recognising our name when we arrive at pre-school. The children have also had lots of fun exploring musical instruments, learning their unusual names and playing them loudly and quietly! Our story this week has been Topsy & Tim at the Hospital.
We are all very proud of the children’s pencil control this week! They have worked really hard on holding pens and pencils correctly. Additionally, they have been super busy creating something very special for Father’s Day!
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia was back this week and so in the new hall, we had lots of fun! We learned a new Hello Song and once we had shaken our sillies out, we began learning a brand-new dance to Love Train from the film Troll’s Holiday!! It was so much fun – maybe your child can show you the actions!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have had so much fun counting objects that are all around us! We enjoyed counting the segments of our oranges at snack time and some of managed to count up to 20 raisins before eating them!
Building in the construction area has been very popular this week, with the children creating some amazing constructions using the polydron, lego and magnetic blocks!
We were all very excited to have our visit from Zoolab this week! It was a brilliant learning experience for the children and we all enjoyed meeting lots of different animals – Thor the African Land Snail – who has 10,000 teeth, Flash, the cockroach who can move at 36 mph, Venom, the Scorpion, Drax the Bearded Dragon, Bruce the frog and Groot the Stick Insect!
We learned lots of useful facts, for example did you know that a scorpion has 12 eyes? Or that a cockroach has two brains?! The children asked lots of interesting questions; they were also super gentle when holding the animals and listened very carefully to what the leader told us, remembering really long words such as “exoskeleton!” We are very proud of you!
Also this week we had lots of fun in our Forest School session and it has been amazing to see how independent the children are when using the equipment! They have been really keen to challenge themselves too, with several children walking across the high balance beam for the first time! We also really enjoyed going in a minibeast hunt, carefully turning over the logs to see lots of ants, spiders, worms, snails and slugs, with the children observing lots of different colours and markings on them!
So as you can see we have got off to a flying start in Term 6 and we hope you enjoy looking at the pictures!
Friday 24th May 2024
 
Exciting news
Exciting news in Pre-School this week – all of our cocoons hatched and we now have 10 beautiful butterflies! The children have been so excited, describing the colours of their wings and asking some really interesting questions, such as, “Why can’t we keep a butterfly as a pet?” and “Will the butterfly get stung by a bee when it flies away?” So on Thursday, it was time to let our butterflies go in time for the holidays. The children were very caring and considerate, giving each butterfly a clap as they left the net, waving them goodbye! It has been such a rewarding activity for them, watching them grow from tiny caterpillars into the most beautiful butterflies!
Literacy
In literacy this week, we have revisited all the amazing stories we have read this term and talked about which was our favourite book. We have also been developing our fine motor skills by learning to use scissors, holding them correctly to carefully cut around the edge of our minibeast pictures.
 
In our Dance lesson this week with Miss Georgia, the children have had so much fun singing and dancing. They showed super listening skills and really enjoyed playing a special musical instrument called a maraca!
Maths
 
Wow we have been super impressed this week with the creativity and design skills shown by the children! They have really enjoyed spending time building with different materials, such as lego and building blocks to create so many wonderful things – from robots with jet packs, to whole cities! Not only that, but they also learned how if they work together, they can develop even more fantastic ideas!
Fun Run
By far the most exciting event of the week was the Fun Run on Tuesday! Although the Sponsored Fun Run was postponed for the school, the children of the Pre-School, being first up, managed to complete theirs! We arrived on the field and warmed up, ready to run. We counted "1, 2, 3!" and started our race. Unfortunately, it started to rain a little bit and by the time we finished, it was a little heavier! Nevertheless, we had so much fun with our friends, running around the big school field and demonstrating what fantastic runners we are! When we got back to Pre-School, we celebrated our fantastic achievement with a welcome hot chocolate!
Mr Jefkins, our sporty Site Manager, who is also a marathon runner, came back to Pre-School on Thursday to say how brilliant the children were completing the fun run. He also showed them his very special medals which he has received from completing many marathons – from Berlin to the London Marathon! The children loved trying his medals on and all decided they are going to be super runners when they grow up too!
And with that, we have rounded off a fabulous Term 5 here at Pre-School! It has been super busy but so much fun! Well done Pre-Schoolers we are all super proud of you! We wish you a fantastic half term break and look forward to seeing you again on Monday 10th June!
Friday 10th May 2024
We have had lots of fun learning and especially now the warmer weather is here, the children have loved continuing this outside in the garden!
Literacy:
In Literacy this week, our story has been What the Ladybird Heard, by Julia Donaldson. The children have developed their listening skills by remembering what sound each animal made and also their reading skills by looking super closely at the book to find the tiny ladybird in the pictures! Some of the children also enjoyed creating their very own ladybirds as our craft activity.
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia provided us with a super lesson this week, which the children all enjoyed! Learning to listen carefully and follow instructions is an important skill, which means the children are now really building the foundations for literacy and learning. We all had lots of fun taking turns to say hello to each other, using big voices! It is lovely to see their confidence growing!
Well done everyone!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, our story of What The Ladybird Heard has provided us with lots of fun. While we created our ladybirds, we carefully counted the number of spots, using one finger for one spot.
We have also been super busy in the construction area this week. The children have enjoyed creating with the polydron and describing what they have made to us. We also explored playing with felt shapes and thinking about what patterns we could make with them.
When we arrived at Pre-School after the weekend, we were all so excited to see that our caterpillars had built cocoons around themselves! We now have 10 cocoons and we have had lots of discussions about what colour butterflies we think they will turn into! The children have also been super minibeast detectives whilst being in the garden and found a most unusual coloured caterpillar! It is lovely to see them caring for the environment, making sure the caterpillar was safe and had something healthy to eat!
The warmer weather this week has also meant we have had so much fun being outside in the fresh air, developing our gross and fine motor skills – building, pouring, jumping, hopping, running, throwing, and laughing with all of our friends!
So, as you can see, it has been a very busy and fun-packed week of learning here in Pre-School!
Friday 26th April 2024
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been Superworm! By Julia Donaldson. This is a wonderful story which the children have really enjoyed listening to! Superworm can fish Spider out of a well, and rescue Toad from a busy road. But who will come to Superworm’s rescue when he’s captured by a wicked Wizard Lizard? Luckily, all of Superworm’s insect friends have a cunning plan! The children had lots of fun joining in the refrain “Superworm is super long; Superworm is super strong! Watch him wriggle, see him squirm, Hip Hip Hooray for Superworm!”
Some of the children have also been developing their fine motor skills by making their own Superworms at the craft table. Lots of the children have been drawing their own minibeasts, using our small world toys as inspiration. I think you can agree we have some super artists in the making!
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia provided us with a super lesson this week, and the children are really getting stuck into our new Olaf dance!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have really enjoyed using lots of props to help our counting as we sing! The song 5 Little Ducks was especially popular, and the children are also learning not to rush as they count objects, which is lovely to see! Their learning even continued into lunch time, when the children enjoyed looking closely to count the number of wings and legs some minibeasts have! Some of our children are also now beginning to draw their own shapes and be able to describe their properties – well done! We have also had fun with lots of counting and sorting activities, as well as making beautiful patterns using shapes, which the children really enjoyed.
As part of our termly theme of Minibeasts, we had a special delivery here at pre-school this week – our very own caterpillars! The children have been very curious after looking at them in their pots, and have thought about what size the caterpillars will grow to! We are also enjoying hearing the children talk about not squashing minibeasts if they see them outside in the garden, showing real care and concern for their environment!
Well done, Pre-Schoolers!
Friday 19th April 2024
Forest School: There is no Forest School this term. It resumes in Term 6!
A warm welcome back to pre-school for what is going to be a fun, exciting and busy term!
Our theme this term is Minibeasts and so we have had lots of wonderful discussions about what Minibeasts are! The children loved naming many of them and we share a fantastic book which told us lots of exciting facts – did you know that some minibeasts fly through the air in a zig zag pattern, whilst others loop the loop!?
Literacy:
We had lots of funs creating our very own collage snails and it lovely to see the growing independence of children being able to access an activity with little help from the grownups! We think they look amazing!
The children are continuing to show a real love of looking at books, which is wonderful to see; often they will find a favourite book and retell the story in their own words.
Similarly, some of the children are enjoying their mark making and are so proud of their amazing creations that they bring home to you! They have also spent a great deal of their time carefully using different tools to model their plasticine – both activities demonstrating their developing fine motor skills!
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia provided us with a super lesson this week. It is lovely to see more children feeling confident to join in and have a go! We all had lots of fun taking turns to say hello to each other and are now learning a fun new dance to “In Summer” where we dance just like Olaf the snowman from the film Frozen!
Maths:
In our Maths learning, the children have been working super hard to recognise numbers, using a number line to help them. They enjoyed playing a fun helicopter rescue game to practice this and it is fantastic to see their 1:1 correspondence skills developing as they count. They also had fun developing their counting skills by counting the number of spots on ladybirds!
Additionally, they have also had fun creating patterns and building with the polydron and building bricks, as well as developing their 2D shape knowledge creating patterns with different shapes.
It has been lovely to see so many children return their Independence Charts which they completed during the Easter holidays – this a wonderful start in their transition towards big school in September!
So, as you can see, we have returned to pre-school full of energy to carry on our amazing learning! It is sure to be a fabulous term!
Thursday 28th March
Forest School:
There was no Forest School this week due to our egg-citing Easter Singing performance to our parents!
We all had lots of fun singing our Easter songs – The Easter Bunny, 5 Shiny Eggs and Spring Chicken – check out the school Facebook page to hear just how amazing the children were! Additionally, we have also celebrated the last day of term and Easter with a traditional Easter Egg hunt in the garden! With the Easter bunny hiding lots of eggs, the children carefully hunted for their egg, which at the end of the session, Mrs Tuffs exchanged for a real chocolate egg! I think the children’s faces show you how excited they were!
Literacy:
In literacy this week, we have rounded the term off by revising the 5 letter sounds we have learned – S A T P and I. The children have shown some super listening skills and are keen to show when they also notice these letters around the pre-school – well done!
As there was no Dance lesson this week, the children decided that they would once again love to make use of the fantastic space in the hall to play circle games – Duck Duck Goose being a favourite, along with the hoops and footballs! It was so much fun!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have used lots of language relating to positional language – up, under, behind and next to whilst being outside in the garden! A super fun way of learning!
And so we are at the end of another fun term! We have had a super busy term of learning through play and developing our imaginations – our annual Pirate Day provided the children with the chance to dress up as pirates and be custodians of the Pre-School Treasure! We have also celebrated a wonderful World Book Day, sharing our favourite books with each other, and of course a fantastic Red Nose Day too, all rounded off with our Easter Singing performances. This really was a fun-filled way to finish our term theme of Journeys!
On behalf of all the pre-school team, we wish you and your families a very happy Easter break and we look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 15th April.
Friday 22nd March 2024
Forest School:
We spent a lovely morning in the Forest School and thankfully the rain stopped this week for us!
The children had lots of fun exploring once again. It was wonderful to see more children challenging themselves to have a walk across the balance beam, which I’m sure to a 4-year-old seems very high up!
Some of the children enjoyed being on the swing and it was here that we noticed the beautiful white blossom that is beginning to appear on some of the trees! A sure sign that spring and warmer weather is coming – we hope! We also found what we think is the world’s smallest ladybird! What do you think?!
Letters and Sounds:
In our letters and sounds this week our new letter sound is the letter I. The children have learned our song associated with this letter, as well as the cued articulation action – maybe they can show this to you and tell you the sound the letter I makes! Some of the children thought very hard and were able to associate the letter I starting the words “Ink” “Igloo” and even “Impressive!”
The children have all worked super hard this week developing their fine motor skills and learning to hold their pencils correctly. They have enjoyed using tracing sheets to complete patterns or the letters of their names, as well as using lots of messy chalk in the garden and we are really thrilled that some children are now writing their names independently!
There was no Dance this week; however, that didn’t stop the children having lots of fun playing with the footballs and hoops in the new school hall! It was lots of fun!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, our younger members have been singing 5 Little Ducks, 5 fat Sausages and 5 Little Snowmen using our fingers to help us. We have also looked carefully at dice and carefully counted the dots on each side.
The older children have enjoyed counting and matching activities; using our bug trays to carefully count out the correct number of bugs as well as sequencing the correct pattern on the pictures! We have also played a fun game on the whiteboard matching the correct shape to go on the shape monster’s mouth, whilst learning about the number of sides a triangle, square and rectangle have.
We have been super lucky with the warmer weather this week and we have really enjoyed being outside in the fresh air more! On Wednesday, we managed to find 12 ladybirds in the garden and the children took such care to look after them and keep them safe, carefully transporting them to our minibeast hotel and making beds of leaves and feathers for them! They also developed their counting skills by counting how many they found and when they found another, calculating what the new total would be! Super maths in action, as well as developing the children’s knowledge and understanding of the world around them!
It has been Stay & Play this week and we have loved welcoming so many of you into pre-school to have a chat with your child’s key person! The feedback we have received has been very positive and we hope you have enjoyed seeing what your child has been doing!
For those of you that have not been able to attend, a copy of your child’s Unique Story will be given to you, and we would be grateful if you could sign and return it, along with any comments or suggestions you have! Our last stay and play session of the academic year will take place in July.
So as you can see, it has been a super busy, fun and energetic week here in pre-school! We hope your child enjoys telling you all about it!
Friday 15th March 2024
Forest School:
We had a fabulous time in Forest School this week! We made our own binoculars and became explorers – going on a bear hunt of course! As well as that, we noticed lots of different changes on the forest school – the blossom is now appearing on the trees, and we found some wonderful bird feeders children from big school made! We also discovered an empty snail shell and talked about what had happened to the snail!
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. We have enjoyed singing the song to the story and also had lots of lovely conversations about what happens at the end of the story when the bear is pictured alone walking along the beach. Some thought he was sad as he wanted to be friends, some thought he was going shopping, and some thought he wanted a cuddle!
We also continued learning our letter sound for P this week and the children were able to think of lots of words that begin with this letter sound, as well as making the cued articulation action associated with it. Other members of pre-school enjoyed playing a listening game, where they had to try and identify the different sounds that animals make! It was lots of fun and we had some quite varied answers!
We also used our fine motor skills this week, enjoying lots of threading activities as well as completing tracing sheets.
In Dance this week, Miss Georgia provided us with a fabulous lesson where the children learned moves to I like to Move It Move It! We also played a fun listening game where we had to run and stop quickly as well as our favourite Head Shoulders Knees and Toes!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have enjoyed lots of different counting activities! For our younger children, we have sung our favourite counting songs using our fingers to help us. Outside in the garden, we have also enjoyed number hunts where we had to carefully find hidden numbers and be able to tell our grown up what the number was!
We also completed our very own maps, tracing the journey we make through our story Going on a Bear Hunt. The children loved retelling the story as they sequenced the different areas!
The soft play area was lots of fun this week too, with children counting the stepping stones they went across, as well as playing a game where they had to show their grown up 1,2 or 3 balls!
Of course, Friday was Red Nose Day and we enjoyed coming to Pre-School wearing the colour red. We enjoyed creating our very own Red Nose portraits! I think you’ll agree they are fantastic!
Friday 8th March 2024:
Forest School:
Due to our fantastic World Book Day event, we did not go to Forest School this week.
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been The Journey Home From Grandpa’s.
We have enjoyed joining in the actions to the song and we have had lots of discussions about how we can travel to places – by car, truck, train, bus and even helicopter! When we were outside in the garden, the children also heard some of the sounds of these vehicles in their play! Learning about environmental sounds helps children hone their listening and recognition skills, as they listen for specific sounds around them. These skills will develop in later phases of phonics as they listen to words and pick out the specific sounds within them.
There was no Dance this week, however we still had lots of fun in the big school all playing with the hoops and footballs!
Some of us also continued learning our initial letter sounds this week; the letter being T. Together we learned the Jolly Phonics song for T. as well as learning the cued articulation action for it. We were also able to think of lots of words that begin with this letter sound – well done! Some children noticed the letter T during child-initiated play, carefully observing that letters are all around us!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have enjoyed singing lots of counting songs using our fingers! During our child-initiated play, we have also begun sequencing numbers in the correct order. We have also begun to count and find the correct number using a number line playing a fun game on the interactive whiteboard.
World Book Day!
Here in Pre-School, we all thoroughly enjoyed sharing so many wonderful stories to celebrate World Book Day, It was lovely to see the children arrive in their pyjamas, holding their favourite teddy and book, which they then enjoyed sharing with each other, We were very lucky to have a visit from Adam and Paula, who shared with us all their favourite stories too! The children also enjoyed making their very own bookmark to take home as well as listening to Mrs Tuffs read her favourite story, The Dinosaur who Pooped a Planet, Miss Brown read Monkey Puzzle and Mrs Milham read Stick Man! It was a fantastic World Book Day – we hope you enjoy looking at the pictures!
