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, 9 January 2026
Welcome Back for Term 3!
We are thrilled to welcome everyone back for Term 3! It’s wonderful to see the children return with big smiles.
The children have settled in beautifully and have shown kindness and care in welcoming our new starters into the class. It’s great to see new friendships forming and everyone working together to create a happy and inclusive environment.
This term started with some chilly days, and we made the most of the cold weather by exploring ice in our outdoor area. The children were fascinated by the textures and changes as the ice melted. They enjoyed experimenting, asking questions, and discovering the science behind freezing and melting—all through hands-on play!
Friday, 19 December 2025
What a wonderful week we’ve had celebrating the magic of Christmas together! The children were full of excitement, and we packed in lots of festive fun.
We kicked off the celebrations with our Christmas party! The room was filled with laughter as the children enjoyed plenty of games and delicious food. It was lovely to see everyone joining in and sharing the joy of the season.
One of the highlights of the week was welcoming parents into preschool to listen to the children’s Christmas singing. The children sang their hearts out, and it was such a special moment to share with families. Thank you to all who came along—it made the day even more magical!
To finish off our festive activities, we watched a Christmas film together. The children snuggled up and enjoyed some tasty treats while watching. It was the perfect way to end a week full of fun and celebration.
We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and we can’t wait to see you all in the New Year!
Friday, 12 December 2025
This week has been full of festive fun and excitement in preschool!
We’ve been continuing to practise our Christmas songs in preparation for our special Christmas singing event on 18th December at 11am. The children have been singing with so much enthusiasm, and we can’t wait to share these joyful tunes with you!
Our classrooms have been buzzing with creativity as we made more beautiful Christmas arts and crafts. From sparkling decorations to colourful festive designs, the children have really enjoyed expressing their holiday spirit through art.
The highlight of the week was a magical visit from Santa himself! The children were thrilled to meet him, and Santa even brought gifts for everyone. It was such a wonderful surprise and added an extra sparkle to our festive celebrations.
We’re looking forward to seeing you at our Christmas singing next week!
Friday, 28 November 2025
We’re so excited to start the lead-up to Christmas! The classroom is full of festive cheer as the children have been busy creating lots of beautiful Christmas crafts. From sparkling decorations to colourful cards, their creativity is shining bright. These lovely pieces will help make our space feel magical for the festive season.
The children have started practising their Christmas songs, and they are sounding wonderful! We can’t wait to share these special moments with you during our Christmas performance on 18th December. It’s going to be a joyful celebration, and we hope you can join us to see all their hard work pay off.
This week, we’ve had so much fun playing with paint! The children used stamps and rollers to mix colours and create amazing patterns. It was a fantastic opportunity for them to explore textures, experiment with colour blending, and express themselves through art.
Friday, 14 November 2025
This week, we talked about the importance of Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies. The children enjoyed making their own poppies using craft materials, and we practiced observing a moment of silence to show respect. We managed 1½ minutes of quiet reflection, which is a big achievement for our little learners! We were so proud of how thoughtful and calm everyone was during this time.
Friday was all about supporting Children in Need! The children came to preschool in their favourite non-uniform outfits and brought along their cuddly toys to join the fun. We also made Pudsey Bear crafts, which were bright and cheerful. It was lovely to see everyone getting involved and learning about helping others.
Thank you to all the families for your support in making these days so special. We had a wonderful time learning, creating, and showing kindness together.
Friday, 7 November 2025
This week at preschool, we’ve been learning more about Guy Fawkes Night. The children enjoyed discovering why we celebrate this tradition and how people mark the occasion with fireworks. We shared stories and talked about the history behind this exciting event.
To bring the celebration to life, we explored lots of firework-themed arts and crafts! Outdoors, the children used chalk to draw bright, colourful fireworks on the ground, filling our play area with bursts of colour. Indoors, we got creative with paint—printing beautiful firework patterns and even making a fun mess by dropping paint onto paper to create splats that looked just like exploding fireworks. It was a fantastic way to combine creativity with sensory play!
Alongside all the excitement, we continued working on our rhyming words. The children have been listening carefully during story time and spotting rhymes in our favourite books and songs. We practised matching rhyming pairs and played games to make learning fun and interactive. It’s wonderful to see their confidence growing as they notice patterns in language!
Friday, 31 October 2025
We began by exploring the story behind Guy Fawkes Night. The children looked at pictures of bonfires and fireworks and talked about the sights and sounds they might experience. This helped them understand the tradition and feel more confident about firework displays they might see at home.
The children had a blast moving like fireworks! They jumped, twirled, stretched, and burst with energy, mimicking rockets and sparkles in the sky. These activities were fantastic for developing gross motor skills, balance, and coordination, all while having lots of fun.
In the art area, children created their own firework masterpieces using paint, glitter and chalk. They explored colour and texture while strengthening their fine motor skills and expressing their creativity. The results were dazzling and proudly displayed around the classroom!
Using construction toys, the children worked together to build rockets and firework models. This collaborative play encouraged them to share ideas, describe their creations, and solve problems together boosting their communication and language skills in a meaningful and playful way.
Friday, 17 October 2025
We had a thrilling visit from a real ambulance! The children got to look inside, explore the equipment, and even see the flashing lights and hear the loud siren. There were lots of curious questions and big smiles as we learned about how ambulances help people in emergencies. It was a fantastic way to learn about community helpers!
Our older friends from Year 6 have been joining us during playtime, and it's been such a treat! They've been teaching us new games like tag and helping us learn how to take turns, run fast, and play kindly. The children have loved making new friends and learning from the big kids!
We've been singing even more nursery rhymes this week, and the children are really getting into the rhythm and rhyme! From “Twinkle Twinkle” to “Humpty Dumpty,” We've also enjoyed story time with books full of rhyming words, which helps us listen carefully and join in with the fun sounds.
Friday, 10 October 2025
This week, we’ve been exploring different jobs that help our community — from bus and train drivers to shopkeepers and postal workers. The children loved using chairs to build their own buses and trains, taking turns to be the driver and calling out the stops. It was brilliant to see their imaginations at work and how well they cooperated with one another!
We’ve been enjoying even more nursery rhymes, stories, and poems, with a special focus on rhyming words. The children have been fantastic at spotting rhymes and even trying to come up with their own! Rhyming helps develop early literacy skills and is a fun way to play with language. Why not ask your child to share a rhyme they liked this week?
Autumn is here, and we’ve been noticing all the lovely changes in nature — colourful leaves, cooler weather, and conkers on the ground! To celebrate the season, the children created beautiful autumn leaves using their handprints and paint. These are now proudly displayed on our classroom tree, bringing a splash of autumn colour indoors.
Friday, 3 October 2025
This week at Pre-School was bursting with excitement and learning as we welcomed some very special guests and explored new ways to play and grow. One of the highlights was a visit from our local police officers. The children were absolutely thrilled to meet real-life heroes and had the chance to try on police hats and jackets. Sitting inside the police car and hearing the sirens up close was a moment of pure joy and wonder! The officers spoke to the children about safety and how they help people in the community, making it a memorable and educational experience.
Our classroom also transformed into a lively emergency scene as the children engaged in role play, pretending to be police officers and firefighters. With dress-up clothes, walkie-talkies, and toy hoses, they worked together to “put out fires,” “rescue teddy bears,” and “direct traffic.” This imaginative play not only sparked creativity but also helped the children understand the important roles these community helpers play in keeping us safe.
In addition to all the action-packed fun, we’ve been learning our Months of the Year song! Every morning, we sing and dance to the catchy tune, helping the children remember the names and order of the months. Music and movement make learning joyful and engaging, and it’s been wonderful to see the children confidently singing along and recognizing the months in our calendar activities.
We’ve also been diving deeper into rhyming words, which are a big part of early literacy development. Through stories like Fox in Socks and Each Peach Pear Plum, and classic nursery rhymes such as Hickory Dickory Dock and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the children are learning to listen for patterns and sounds. Rhyming games and matching activities have made this learning even more fun, helping build the foundation for reading and language skills.
Friday, 26 September 2025
This week in preschool, we’ve been exploring the theme of People Who Help Us — and what an exciting time it’s been!
We were lucky to have two special visitors come to our classroom. First, our wonderful school caretaker stopped by to talk about all the important jobs they do to keep our school safe, clean, and running smoothly. The children were fascinated to learn about fixing things and checking safety equipment.
Later in the week, the PM children had a thrilling visit from our local firefighters! They arrived in their big red fire engine and showed us their protective gear, hoses, and even let us hear the siren (just for a moment!). The children asked brilliant questions and learned how firefighters help people in emergencies and keep our community safe.
To build on these visits, we’ve been using role play in our classroom. The children have loved dressing up as firefighters and caretakers, pretending to fix broken chairs, sweep floors, rescue toys from “burning buildings,” and even hold walkie-talkie conversations. Role play has helped us understand these jobs better while encouraging teamwork and imagination.
We also began our first steps into rhyming this week to support phonological awareness. Through songs, stories, and games, we’ve been listening for words that sound the same — like hat and cat, or mop and top. The children have been guessing rhymes, and we’re so proud of their enthusiasm and growing confidence!
Friday, 19 September 2025
As we settle into the new school year, our preschoolers are already showing so much growth and enthusiasm! It’s been a joy to watch them continue building friendships, learning how to work together, and supporting one another as they explore their classroom community.
Each day brings new opportunities for children to connect with their classmates. Whether it’s sharing toys during playtime, helping a friend clean up, or inviting someone to join a game, we’re seeing beautiful moments of kindness and cooperation. These early friendships help build confidence and a sense of belonging.
We’ve been working hard on learning our daily routines—like where our pegs are, where to sit on the carpet, and what to do during circle time. Routines help children feel safe and confident, and our little learners are doing a fantastic job remembering what comes next. With gentle reminders and lots of encouragement, they’re becoming more independent every day!
Music is a big part of our classroom, and one of our favourite new songs is the Days of the Week song! Singing helps children remember concepts in a fun and engaging way. Ask your child to sing it for you at home—you might find yourself singing along too!
We’re so proud of how much the children have accomplished already. Thank you for your continued support at home—it makes a big difference as we grow and learn together!
Friday, 12 September 2025
What a wonderful start to the new school year! We've just completed our first full-time week, and we couldn’t be prouder of how well the children are settling in.
From the moment they walked through the doors, our preschoolers have shown incredible confidence and curiosity. It’s been heartwarming to see them explore their new environment, engage with activities, and begin to form special friendships.
One of the most beautiful parts of this week has been watching the children connect with one another. Whether it's sharing toys or working together on puzzles, new friendships are blossoming every day.
Our updated learning areas and fresh resources have been a big hit! From sensory play stations to imaginative role-play corners, the children have been diving into new experiences with enthusiasm and creativity.
Friday, 20 June 2025
This week has been so much fun. The children have had lots of challenges about people who help us. We have been talking about the people who help us in the community, such as the emergency services and doctors. The children have had fun discussing how they help us and the tools they use to do their jobs.
This week the children have also had their sports day. All the adults in the Pre-school were incredibly proud of all the children. They all tried their hardest and had a great time.
We have finished the week with the paddling pools. The children had so much fun playing and keeping cool in the water.
Useful links.
As we have been talking about people who help us I have added the link to the NSPCC site. They have lots of helpful information for parents and children to keep them safe and who can help them.
NSPCC Support and Advice for Parents
Friday, 13 June 2025
Welcome back to Pre-school! This week we have spent some time settling the children back in to the pre-school for the final term of the year. The children have had lots of fun creating cards for Sunday and talking about how our adults at home help us. We even had a go at writing our names in the cards.
We have also had a new water wall made in our water area. The children have had a great time finding out where the water goes and have used their problem-solving skills to discover how it works. As we have had great weather, we have spent a lot of time outside so could I please remind parents to apply sun cream before coming to pre-school, and to send them in with a water bottle and a hat. Thank you.
Friday, 23 May 2025
As we have been waiting for the butterflies to come out, this week we have been looking at how things change. We have mainly been looking at colours and how if you mix them, they will change colour. The children used red, yellow and blue paint to make different colours. We also had a red, yellow and blue water to mix colours. The children discovered that if you put different colours items in the water, that they would change colour. One of the children noticed that the blue water turned green when it was in a yellow cup.
We then used our colour mixing skills to paint butterflies. The children created the colour they wanted then painted one side of the butterfly and folded it over to match the other side. This created some truly amazing looking butterflies.
We hope you all have a great 2 week half term! We look forward to seeing you in term 6.
Friday, 16 May 2025
This week in Pre-school we have been reading the story “what the ladybird heard”. We have then been looking at ladybird spots and using them to count and subitise numbers to 5. Some of us even subitised numbers to 10! We have also been watching our caterpillars make their chrysalis. Four of the caterpillars managed to make one but the 5th unfortunately didn’t make it. We are now watching and waiting for them to turn into butterflies. This week we have been discussing the life cycle of the butterfly and how the cycle just keeps going round and round. We have spoken about when we release our butterflies, they will lay some eggs and continue the cycle.
The children also did very well in our fun run this week. They showed amazing resilience and just kept going so please get your sponsorship money in as soon as possible.
Friday, 9 May 2025
This week in the Pre-school we have been looking at Superworm! We have used the story to focus on length. The children have been working on their fine motor skills by cutting out different length worms and ordering them from shortest to longest. We have also had lots of fun finding a variety of items from round the Pre-school and ordering those, too. During the week we had a Superworm craft on offer and the children were able to make their own super worms.
We have also started Write Dance this week. This is an activity that starts with big movements and moves to smaller movements, allowing the children to improve their fine and gross motor skills needed for writing. This is an activity that they will continue as they move to reception allowing them to have a smoother transition.
We have also been keeping an eye on our caterpillars this week they are much bigger. We think they will turn into a chrysalis soon.
Friday, 2 May 2025
We have had a great time in the sunshine this week! The children have had so much fun in our outside area. We have had our tents out to create shade and still allow lots of opportunities for play. The water area has been used a lot, and we’ve even been enjoying having our snack outside!
We have looked at the story of the very hungry caterpillar and discussed the food he ate. The children showed they were very good at understanding which foods were healthy and which were unhealthy. We had the opportunity to try different fruits. The children tried watermelon, raspberries, banana, kiwi, mango and passion fruit. Yum-yum!
This week we’ve also enjoyed looking at the woolly bear caterpillar. We talked about the journey she takes. We then discussed our journeys to and from school. We enjoyed taking a walk around the school and talked about what we could see and where we were going. We got to see the garden, the different playgrounds and the school library.
Friday, 25 April 2025
Welcome back! This week has been very fun. We have started our minibeast topic and have been using the toy minibeasts to count. We have found that insects have 6 legs and spiders have 8. We have also had lots of fun colouring and completing mini beast pencil control sheets. The children have been working hard to create some new artwork to go on our display boards to show everyone what our topic is this term and have created fantastic minibeasts out of paper plates.
This term we have also had our new sandpit which has been built by Mr Knight our caretaker. Every day this week the children have had a great time digging and building in the sand. This has really given the children the opportunity to use their imaginations and explore and investigate capacity and weight.
We look forward to learning more about minibeasts this term and using our new sand pit even more.
Useful links
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/how-to-prepare-your-child-for-primary-school
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/at-school/reception-at-primary-school/getting-ready-to-start-school/
Friday, 4 April 2025
This week we have really enjoyed playing in our new water and sand area. The children have had a great time using the pipes and guttering to clean treasure found in the sand. They have worked together to find different ways to move the sand and water between different containers, helping the children develop their language and communication skills. The children were also very excited to sing for all the parents this week. We had worked hard to learn the words and actions for our songs and did a fantastic job of performing them. The children showed a real sense of pride and enjoyment whilst performing. I know we were proud of them, and I am sure you were proud of them as well.
We’re on a final week of Little Link, the programme designed by Speech and Language Therapists to help us boost the language skills of children in our setting. Throughout Little Link we’ve been focusing on position words, words that tell us where things are. Words like under, behind, in and on. At home this week, model the use of position words with your child. A great way to do this is via a hiding game! You could use a teddy or perhaps a special treat – where might it be? e.g. “Behind the curtain?” “Under the chair?” LITTLE LINK – Linking Families with Little Link Copyright©2023 Speech Link Multimedia Ltd. 4 of 3 Our Little Link intervention finishes this week, but developing language and communication skills remains a top priority in our setting. We’ll continue to use the Little Link strategies day-to-day to boost the language skills of all your children in our care.
Friday, 28 March 2025
This week in the preschool we have been looking at the different animal habitats. We looked at our planet and the different countries and continents. We then looked at different animals and talked about where they would live. The children were very good at naming the animals and had a good go at picking their home. We then had a go at placing our toy animals in the correct habitats.
Friday, 7 March 2025
This week in the pre-school we have been learning the “a” sound. The children have been finding items around the class that start with “a” and have learnt the cued articulation sign for this sound. We even had a go at writing the letter “a” in shaving foam and on paper. We also worked on holding our pen with a pincer grip. We have also looked at ABAB repeating patterns in maths. We had lots of fun using paint and Lego and blocks to create our repeating patterns.
We also made pancakes this week. The children had the chance to measure the ingredients and mix them all together. Once they were cooked, we put sugar and lemon on them, and all had the opportunity to eat one pancake. Some of us really enjoyed them but some didn’t.
In the forest school this week we challenged the children to find trees to climb on. It was amazing to watch their confidence grow as they found trees that they could easily climb. By taking part in this activity the children learnt to push themselves and take a risk in a safe setting.
We’re on week 8 of the Little Link programme, designed to help us boost the language skills of children in our setting. Our week 8 Talking Tip is…Keep It Going. LITTLE LINK – Linking Families with Little Link Copyright©2023 Speech Link Multimedia Ltd. 3 of 3.
Talking is a two-way process, and it takes some work from both sides of a conversation to keep it going. The longer a conversation lasts, the more opportunities a child will have to practice and expand their talking, and to learn from your language models. There are lots of ways to keep the talking going. We often reach for questions, but we can also use comments which draw the child in, or ‘cliff-hangers’ (rhetorical questions), either in our talking or in our play, to keep the child engaged. e.g. “I wonder…” “Tell me more about…” “This morning, I saw something really funny…”
Useful links
Learning conversations and telling stories: 3 to 5 years - NHS
Friday, 7 February 2025
This week in the Pre-School we have continued to look at different traditional tales. This week we looked at ‘The Little Red Hen’ and ‘The Enormous Turnip’. We had lots of fun reading the stories and even more fun with the activities on offer. Our favourite activities were planting turnip seeds and making bread.
The children really enjoyed learning how to make bread rolls and the best bit was kneading the bread because the dough was all squishy. We also had lots of fun getting our hands dirty while planting turnip seeds and learning what a seed needs to be able to grow.
We’ve moved on to week 5 of the Little Link programme - a story-based intervention which boosts the language skills of 3-5 year olds. Our week 5 Talking Tip is… Repeat and Repair. Learning to talk, like all skills, is a process of trial and error. We learn new words, and we make mistakes. When a child makes an error in their talking, we have a golden opportunity to provide a model sentence so that they can learn and improve their talking for next time. e.g. If the child says: “Mummy work”, you could model back “Yes, Mummy’s gone to work”. Repeat and Repair is all about your child hearing a good language model. We aren’t expecting or asking them to say it back themselves. They are most likely to confidently learn and make changes when we show we’ve heard them and repeat it back, as they would, if they could. Give Repeat and Repair a try this week! Let us know how you get on.
Helpful sites
Friday, 31 January 2025
We have been learning about more traditional tales this week in Pre-school. We have looked at Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. The children have had lots of fun creating different craft and artwork relating to the stories. The children have also had the opportunity to engage in activities such as treasure hunts and role play activities to encourage imaginative play and the use of new vocabulary in different situations.
We’re now on week 4 of the Little Link programme, which helps us to boost the language skills of children in our setting. We’re taking a break from the Talking Tips this week to tell you about the Parent Portal. The Parent Portal is a resource for parents and families, where you’ll find information about speech and language development, along with short information videos, games and activities to do with your child at home. You can access the Parent Portal via: https://speechandlanguage.link/parent-portal
This week in little link we have been focusing on our doing words and describing words. The children enjoyed the different activities available to them. We enjoyed making s’mores the most. We also spent a lot of time creating different routes around the outside area with our stepping stones. The children worked together to decide where they wanted to go using the stepping stones and then created a plan as a team. This encouraged the children to help each other and created a great opportunity to use lots of doing and describing words.
Interesting information
Most children aged 3 or 4 will need about 12 hours sleep, but this can range from 8 hours up to 14. Some young children will still need a nap during the day. Helping your baby to sleep - NHS
Friday, 24 January 2025
This week in the Pre-School we have been looking at traditional tales alongside our little link intervention. Our little link book this week has been found in the woods. The children had lots of fun engaging with different activities relating to the story. We built tents, made toad stalls and made jam on toast all whilst focusing on a different aspect of language.
We have also read the gingerbread man and the three little pigs. During this time, we have been working on social skills. The children have been encouraged to work together to build houses for the pigs out of different items around the class. We also had running races to see who was the quickest in the class and who could run as fast as the gingerbread man. The children were amazing at encouraging each other during the running races to try their best.
Friday, 10 January 2025
We have had a great first week back. We have had lots of fun with our new Little Link intervention. We have worked on describing words, action words, positional language, emotions and negatives. Each week we will revisit these areas and build on our knowledge.
We played with the playdough and used our describing words to tell each other what we were doing. We rolled, squashed and cut it in to different shapes. We also had the opportunity to go for a walk around the school this week and use our describing words to explain what we could see, hear and feel. We could hear the wind whistling and we found things around the school that were rough, smooth, crunchy, wet, hard and soft.
Friday, 6 December 2024
This week, in pre-school, we have been focusing on enhancing our fine motor skills. To do this, we have enjoyed threading, and creating pictures/patterns with pasta. We have also had a go a using tracing paper to copy over pencil control patterns.
The children have also had a lot of fun this week playing different phase 1 phonics games like hide the donkey. The children hid the donkey and helped the seeker find the donkey by clapping loudly when they were near to it. This helped the children improve their listening skills whilst working together to give directions.
Friday, 29 November 2024
This week in the Pre-School we have been getting very messy. We have had lots of fun with slime and cornflour. The children noticed that when we added water to the corn flour it looked like liquid, but when we put our hands through it and squeezed, it became solid again!
The slime was just as fun! We noticed that when we picked the slime up it made thin strands that looked like spider webs. The children used lots of different vocabulary to describe how the slime and cornflour felt. They told us it was cold, sticky, wet, hard, soft, slimy and slippery.
We have also been getting into the festive spirit by practicing our Christmas songs and making snowy Christmas craft. The children are working hard to learn the Christmas songs and can’t wait to sing them to you on the 13th of December.
Friday, 22 November 2024
This week in preschool we have started to practice our Christmas songs to sing to parents. The children have enjoyed learning new songs and can sing 3 of the songs already.
The children have also had lots of fun making winter crafts. We have made snowflakes and snow men to decorate the preschool. We have also made a Christmas post office. The children have had lots of fun posting and sending letters and gifts to each other while also weighing items, attaching stamps and taking money.
Friday, 8 November 2024
Friday, 25 October 2024
This week in the pre-school we had a very special visitor named Rachel. She came to read us a story about a naughty witch. She showed us how to use different Makaton signs whilst reading the story it. We had a lot of fun!
We have also made snow and had lots of fun getting messy. We had some special powder that made the snow crackle and change colour. We had some fun this week with junk modelling. We were allowed to make whatever we wanted and enjoyed sharing our masterpieces!
We have had a great time in our first term in the pre school and we’re all ready and excited for term 2. Have a great week off!
Friday, 18 October 2024
We have been having lots of fun in the Pre-School this week. We have been talking about our families. We have been talking about the different people in our families and with this, the children learned that not all families are the same. We then spoke about how we love our families and the children told each other what they love to do most with there families
In the forest school this week we have been looking for different animals. The children found a big slug under a log. It was very slimy. We also realised that the pots and pans made different noises when we hit them. The children gathered all the different pots and experimented to see what sounds they made. We also had a lot of fun on the swing and balance beam.
Friday, 11 October 2024
We have had another visitor in the pre-school this week. This week the paramedics came in to visit us. We had the chance to look around the ambulance and they even let us hear the siren. It was a lot of fun!
We have also continued to talk about ourselves this week. We used mirrors to look at our faces and talk about what is the same and different about everyone in the group. The children decided that it is good that we all have differences because it would be boring if we were all the same.
We have continued with our autumn craft this week and have used brown leaves to make hedgehogs.
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!
Friday 1st March 2024
Forest School:
We had a lovely time back in the Forest School this week and the children who joined us in January also experienced their first visit! We were very impressed that the children had remembered the forest school rules not to run and to remember it is the animals and minibeasts home, not ours, so we don’t pick anything. The children really enjoyed challenging themselves – from climbing trees, walking high across the rope walk or balancing on the tree stumps! Well done pre-schoolers!
Literacy:
We have had a very busy week in our literacy this week! Our story has been The Magic Train Ride, which we all enjoyed singing along to! We have also developed our fine motor skills by carefully tracing over pictures to create our own trains.
Outside in the garden, the children really enjoyed exploring colour mixing using chalks to create their own masterpieces – we saw some lovely self portraits as well as drawings of the teachers!
Some of us continued learning our initial letter sounds this week; the first letters being S and A. Together we learned the Jolly Phonics songs for them. as well as learning the cued articulation actions for them. We were also able to think of lots of words that begin with this letter sound – well done! Some children noticed the letter S during child-initiated play, carefully observing that letters are all around us!
Dance:
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia taught us a new dance this week to the song “I like to move it, move it!” You can imagine what fun we had and the children have loved singing this during their free play too!
Maths:
Our story of The Magic Train Ride provided us with the opportunity to create our very own trains using 2D shapes; some of us could name the shape and describe it! These will proudly go on our display board! The children also enjoyed exploring shapes during child-initiated play, using shapes appropriately to create houses, pizza, flowers and balls! Finally we had lots of fun playing a game on the interactive whiteboard where we had to choose the correct shape on the shape train to make a repeating pattern, as well as “feeding” the shape monster with the matching shape! This was lots of fun!
So as you can see, we have been super busy this week and had lots of fun!
Friday 23rd February 2024
A warm welcome back to Term 4 here at Pre-School! We are looking forward to an exciting 5 weeks ahead!
Forest School:
Unfortunately, we were unable to go to Forest School this week due to the bad weather, however we have still had lots of fun exploring in the pre-school garden!
The children have enjoyed looking at some minibeasts they have found – including wriggly worms and tiny ants - and have also been noticing some of flowers that are starting to appear – hopefully a welcome sign that Spring is on the way!
Literacy:
We have a new theme this term of Journeys and in our literacy this week, our story has been Pirates Go to School! We have had a super busy week of learning through play and developing our imaginations – we have made pirate hats and pirate flags, developing our fine motor skills as well as singing pirate songs!
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia provided us with a super lesson this week, with the children joining in Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes, as well as playing musical instruments and dancing with scarves. Learning to listen carefully and follow instructions is an important skill, which means the children are building the foundations for literacy and learning. We had lots of fun learning and then the children transferred these skills to dancing independently during free play! Well done everyone!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, our Pirate Ship has provided us with lots of fun. We have used lots of language relating to position – up, under, behind and next to - whilst walking the plank!
We have also been enjoying many counting activities and some of us are recognising numbers we count to, too! We have concentrated on making sure we count 1 number for each object, known as 1 to 1 correspondence,
Of course, the highlight of this week has been our annual Pirate Day, which provided the children with the chance to dress up as pirates and be custodians of the Pre-School Treasure – which of course 2 naughty pirates (Mr Mason & Mr Clayson!) came and stole! The children loved being celebrities as they went over to the big school to re-capture our treasure! And of course, some were more than happy to bring the pirates back to pre-school to walk the plank! With pirate food, lots of singing and dancing and walking the plank at home time to parents, this really was a fun-filled way to start our term theme of Journeys!
As you can see, it has been another fun week of learning here in Pre-School!
Friday 2nd February 2024:
Welcome to our Pre-School blog! What a busy week we have had!
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been The Gingerbread Man. We have enjoyed joining in the refrain “Run! Run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man!” and clapping our hands loudly to make a SNAP! sound as the fox ate The Gingerbread Man up! It has also been lovely to see the children retelling the story during their own child-initiated play.
Our letter sound this week has been the letter T. We have learned our special song and the cued articulation action we make with the sound and have noted that it is a quiet sound. Some of us could think of new words that started with the letter T – such as Tidy-up time, toes and Tuesday! Well done!
We have also worked super hard learning to hold our pencils correctly, which can be really tricky! We have loved seeing the children try their best though and persevere to complete some fantastic tracing sheets and being very proud of their work!
Maths
In our maths learning this week, we have continued learning to count one number for each object and some of us are working really hard to recognise numbers that we see around us!
We have also enjoyed looking at 2D shapes and had fun fitting shapes into the matching hole in a puzzle cube, as well as playing a fun shape train game on the interactive whiteboard.
And of course, Friday was the NSPCC Number Day, so we had lots of fun matching puzzles and going on a Number hunt!
Our craft activities have been enjoyed this week – with the children choosing how to decorate their very own Gingerbread men using collage paper. They will look beautiful on our Traditional Tales display board!
In our Dance this week Miss Georgia provided us with a fantastic lesson which involved having to listen very carefully – so we were jumping and hopping and clapping making lots of noise! We also loved joining in to Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, finishing up with our Sleeping Bunnies song!
On Thursday, the weather was so beautiful that we enjoyed our circle games outside in the garden! We can certainly say that the laughs we hear when we play our parachute game mean it is one of the most popular!
Well done everyone for another fun and fantastic week of learning and most importantly for never giving up!
Friday 26th January 2024
Once again it has been a fun and busy week here at pre-school. Our new starters are beginning to settle and are enjoying the activities on offer to them here, which is lovely to see!
Literacy
In literacy this week, our story has been Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. We have enjoyed joining in the actions to the Goldilocks song and some of us were able to retell the story, using puppets and pictures! It was lovely to see some of the expressions as the children acted out being Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear! We even had the opportunity to make our very own porridge to eat – it was fantastic to see most of the children willing to try something new! The children enjoyed thinking about where porridge oats come from and even remembered that Scotland grows the best oats due to the rain and long periods of light!
Our letter sound this week has been the letter A. The children have enjoyed learning the song associated with this letter sound and were able to hear the initial sound in lots of words!
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia provided us with a super lesson this week, which our newer members joined in with for the first time! Learning to listen carefully and follow instructions is an important skill, which means the children are building the foundations for literacy and learning. Plus, they are learning key skills like how to express themselves and make friends. We all had lots of fun taking turns to say hello to each other, “shaking our sillies out!”
Well done everyone!
Maths
Additionally, we have enjoyed exploring number counting and size through small world play.
In our child-initiated play, we have been busy developing our fine motor skills. There have been opportunities for the children to use scissors, as well as threading activities which they have all enjoyed.
Our craft activities this week showed how the children are really developing their listening skills. They were able to create some fantastic bears using googly eyes, choosing what colour their fur was! Additionally, they decorated a 3 Bears house and carefully stuck on the 3 bears inside! I think you will agree they look fab!
Enjoy looking at the photos of what we have been up to!
Friday 19th January 2024
Welcome to our weekly blog entry from Pre-School!
We have had lots of fun together and our new children are beginning to settle really well!
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been The 3 Little Pigs. We have enjoyed joining in the actions to the story, especially “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!” and some of us were able to retell the story, using puppets and pictures! It was lovely to see some of the expressions as the children acted out being the big, bad wolf! We even made some piggy and wolf masks to help us role play the story!
Another craft activity was making some amazing houses for our display, which show the different types of materials used to make the piggies houses – straw, sticks and bricks! I think you will agree that the display looks fantastic!
We have enjoyed seeing the children showing us their amazing mark making – this week we have talked about friendships and have seen some lovely pictures as the children drew themselves and their friends!
Of course, the colder weather meant the children loved being outside, where we had lots of fun exploring the ice, and experimenting with lots of different tools to smash it up – these will all help the children develop their motor skills!
In our Letters & Sounds this week we have learned about the letter S and learned the cued articulation action associated with it. Maybe your child could show you! The song we learned can be found here:
https://youtu.be/bD7HXCl5v2c?si=oJYAlY5fj9yfR8j6
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia provided us with a super lesson this week, Learning to listen carefully and follow instructions is an important skill, which means the children are building the foundations for literacy and learning. Plus, they are learning key skills like how to express themselves and make friends. We all had lots of fun taking turns to say hello to each other, “shaking our sillies out” and learning the next steps in our Zootopia dance!
Well done everyone!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, our story of The 3 Little Pigs has provided us with lots of fun. We have built lots of different sized houses and compared which materials would be heaviest – sticks, straw or bricks.
We have also enjoyed looking at 2D shapes and had fun fitting shapes into the matching hole in a puzzle cube, as well as playing a fun shape train game on the interactive whiteboard.
The colder weather also provided the opportunity for the children to notice and explore the patterns created by the frost as it formed on top of the leaves, as well as transporting the ice in different size buckets, using different tools to do so. Fantastic maths learning!
So as you can see it has been a week of fun and learning and for our new members, feeling safe and settled as their l
Friday 12th January 2024
Welcome to our week of fun and learning!
We have had a super busy week here in Pre-School and the weather has been of keen interest to the children! We were lucky to have seen lots of frost and seen some snow flurries, which as you can imagine made the children very excited!
We talked about how cold our fingers felt and what the frost was made of and then outside in the garden, the children discovered lost of ice! We had some wonderful conversations about how we thought ice was made, and why it turned back to water when we held it in our hands!
We have loved watching the children develop their listening skills and motor skills as they asked again and again to play with our parachute – this week we played the cat and mouse game as well as keeping the “fairies” up in the air as long as we can! It was so much fun!
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been Jack and the Beanstalk. We have listened to the story and some of us could join in the refrain “Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!” We have also enjoyed creating our own little Jack character from the story, even climbing their beanstalk, as well as making puppets which I hope your children enjoyed sharing with you and even retelling the story!
In dance this week, Miss Georgia continued to teach us the next movements to a dance from the film Zootopia! Very exciting indeed! We also enjoyed playing with streamers, learning positional language such as up and down, next to and behind!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have been extending our counting from 5-10 in our child-initiated play, especially in the soft play area, where we counted one stepping stone for each number, or by counting the number of plates needed for a picnic in the role play area.
We also enjoyed completing a fun game on the interactive whiteboard, feeding a shape monster and also completing a simple shape pattern. It was lovely to see the children then complete these games independently using the Ipads!
Our newest members of pre-school have also enjoyed spending some shorter time with us and are beginning to settle here beautifully. It has been lovely to see the children welcoming them and encouraging them into their play.
Well done Pre-Schoolers!
Friday 5th January 2024:
Welcome to the first blog of 2024! We would also like to extend a very warm welcome to the families of the new children who will be joining pre-school this term!
It was lovely to welcome you all back to pre-school this week after the Christmas holidays! This term our theme will be Traditional Tales, which I am sure your children will love! We have lots of fun learning activities planned, including listening to many different stories, such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, along with making houses using junk modelling, growing beanstalks as well as lots of exciting cooking activities!
Turning to this week, we have enjoyed listening to what your children have been doing over the festive break. We have had many excited conversations about favourite presents and where you have been in the holidays!
In our Literacy, we have listened to our favourite stories such as Kipper, Stick Man and The Very Hungry Caterpillar! On Thursday we were very lucky to have Reception teacher, Mr James read a story to some of our children! He shared his favourite book, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss. He read it very, very quickly in parts and the children all enjoyed laughing at the pattern and rhyme of the story! Thank you, Mr James! We have also enjoyed mark making this week and been very proud of our wonderful creations!
Our Maths learning this week included learning about positional language. We did this through playing with our giant parachute, listening, and following instructions to turn left and right and using our positional language skills, such as going under and on top by playing the cat and mouse game. Using our counting skills, we counted 123 lifting he parachute up really high and then back down again. It was so much fun! Additionally, we have enjoyed building and counting as we play.
In our Dance lesson this week, Miss Georgia taught us a funny dance being a chicken! We also enjoyed exploring lots of different musical instruments, listening carefully to Miss Georgia as she asked us to play them loudly and quietly and fast and slow! We also enjoyed playing circle games this week, especially Duck Duck Goose!
On Thursday afternoon, we noticed that a lovely rainbow had appeared in the sky! We loved talking about the different colours that we could see in the rainbow and how it could have got there! We could even see another rainbow appearing next to it! We all agreed it was very beautiful!
So as you can see, we have had a super start to our Term 3 – enjoy looking at the photos of our fantastic learning!
Friday 15th December 2023
Welcome to this week’s blog! The last of 2023!
And so we come to what has been a fantastic Term 2! We have been super busy and enjoyed lots of fun and learning through play!
This week has been no exception and the excitement of our upcoming Christmas festivities has meant lots of excited children here in Pre-School!
We wanted to share with you therefore, our photo highlights of the week showing you all the fun and laughter we have had. We have been so proud of your amazing children, who have now taken home their fantastic Christmas boxes full of all the craft they have made this term – we hope you enjoy keeping them as a memento!
We have enjoyed making fantastic pinecone Christmas trees, with lots of paint and glitter. We have also decorated ice cream cornets with icing and sprinkles to make our very own edible Christmas trees! We even had our very own life size Christmas sleigh in the Pre-School, which the children loved using to deliver presents in!
On Wednesday, some of our children performed our Christmas Singing to the children who were here in Pre-School last year! It was wonderful to see how our previous pupils have grown up and what a support they were to our pre-schoolers – clapping them on and joining in the actions to the songs! Thankyou Reception!
And of course, Thursday was our Christmas Party Day! So much fun was had playing party games – especially pass the parcel! We then welcomed all of you as parents into Pre-School to listen to your amazing children sing our five Christmas songs – complete with a very special visitor – Father Christmas himself, who took time out of his busy schedule to give every one their very own special gift! I think you can agree that the singing of the children was very special indeed and we hope it gave you a warm, fuzzy feeling!
However, without fail, the most exciting thing this week has been our snow machine! The look of sheer excitement when snow fell as the last song finished was something I don’t think any of us will forget!
And so all that remains, is to wish each and every one of you a very happy and peaceful Christmas. We hope you have a very special time with those you love and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2024!
Friday 8th December 2023
Welcome to this week’s blog! The term seems to be quickly coming to a close!
This week we have been very busy getting excited for Christmas by creating lots of decorations, listening to Christmas stories, and singing Christmas songs, having lots of fun in the process!
On Monday we all joined in the very special task of putting up the Pre-School Christmas tree! The children eagerly joined in and worked as a team to get the tree out of the box and carefully assemble it with Mrs Miham’s help! It is a very special time of year and we love to see how careful the children are when looking after the decorations, placing them on the tree and having lots of excited chatter about their own Christmas trees at home!
On Monday, our morning attendees were also very lucky to be invited to watch the first dress rehearsal of the Reception children’s Nativity performance! We were so proud of our pre-schoolers, not only as it was something new going to big hall to watch a performance, but also because it was packed full with all the children from Years 2, 3 and 4 as well! Our children sat beautifully and loved watching the performance and Mrs Frith, our Assistant Head Teacher, told them how well behaved they were too!
Unfortunately, there was no Dance lesson this week; nevertheless, that didn’t stop our pre-schoolers having fun! We learned to play Duck Duck Goose! and played lots of other circle games too! Also, our festive dressing up box came out and so we have had lots fun watching the children be Father Christmas, Rudolph or a Christmas tree! I think as you can see in the photos, they look amazing!
In Literacy, perhaps unsurprisingly, we have enjoyed lots and lots of singing! We have been developing our mark making skills by tracing over the letters in our name when making our letters to Father Christmas and listened to lots of festive stories! We have also enjoyed lots of sensory, messy play with our festive coloured, glittery rice!
In Maths we been counting using our fingers and ensuring we count one number for one finger, which can be tricky! We have also enjoyed counting the raisins we have had at snack time as well as looking closely at the numbers on a clock face! Numbers are everywhere!
On Thursday we had our visit to the Post Office to post our wonderful letters to Father Christmas! We have to say how well-behaved all the children were, they listened carefully to the grown ups to ensure they were kept safe whilst out on the busy road and their singing of Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas must have been heard by all the neighbours!
So as you can see, it has been a fun and busy week once again here in pre-school. Enjoy looking at what we have been doing!
Friday 1st December 2023
Welcome to this week’s blog! Can you believe we are now in the month of December already?!
This week we have been very busy welcoming lots of parents in for our Stay and Play sessions! The children have loved showing their pre-school environment, their favourite toys and how beautifully they sit on the carpet for Hello Time! We have also been very proud to show you the fantastic work the children have created, as well as talk about how your children have settled since starting or returning to pre-school! A huge thankyou for some of the lovely written comments we have received:
“We really appreciate your hard work with our son and your efforts to support him in every state in his daily routine. We are very pleased! Thankyou!”
“We are thoroughly happy with our son’s progress and how happy and settled he is. He loves showing the songs he learns.”
“Olivia loves pre-school, the staff, and her classmates; it’s wonderful watching her bloom thanks to play, learning and support.”
“Very happy in all areas, Alice loves to be here. Thank you to all staff for making Alice’s time amazing.”
“Very happy that she is doing well. She is loving pre-school and the staff and activities are wonderful. Thankyou.”
“Everything is lovely. Teachers are so lovely and supportive. Thank you so much for your care.”
The children have really enjoyed getting stuck into some super Christmas craft this week – especially creating their very own Olafs! They have been thinking which parts of snowman body goes at the top, middle and bottom and added on some super expressions – complete with carrot nose! They also have enjoyed creating their very own Christmas trees, deciding which colours to use and of course the glitter came out!!
This week we had another fun dance lesson with Miss Karen! We enjoyed dancing to Baby Shark, Frozen and Count to 10, whilst doing some amazing jumping and skipping on the spot! We even learned some singing exercises! We then had so much fun pointing our toes correctly whilst being little seeds that grow into flowers! What is lovely to see is the children’s confidence growing too, through the power of music and dance! Lots are happy to come up to the front of the class and share good news, as well as dance with partners, and so a huge thank you must go to Miss Karen and Miss Georgia!
In Literacy, we have enjoyed singing, sharing stories, drawing and writing to help to develop the children’s literacy. Nursery rhymes and playing' I spy', have also been popular and everyone has loved listening to the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
In maths, we have been super busy thinking about the different 2D shapes that we can make in the sand with our containers. We have also enjoyed lots of sorting activities and of course building, which all help develop our mathematical language, along with playing animal dominoes where we have had to count the number of spots on each domino we match!
Our Forest School session on Thursday was lots of fun and we all talked about how cold the weather was! We noticed that the leaves felt “crunchy” and there was frost on the ground! The children also noticed that there were not many leaves on the trees now as it has been so windy! Once again, the children showed lovely team work and encouragement, helping each other as they balanced across the tree stumps or sitting on the log swing. Well done Pre-Schoolers!
And despite the colder temperatures, the children have had lots of fun in the garden, they have enjoyed playing with the fallen leaves and this week we have noticed some excellent basketball skills emerging!
So as you can see, it has been a fun and busy week once again here in Pre-School. Enjoy looking at what we have been doing!
Friday 24th November 2023
Welcome to this week’s blog! We have had a super busy week with lots of fantastic learning!
This week we have been very busy making some wonderful Christmas props for our role play area, which is gradually taking shape into a Winter Wonderland! The children have enjoyed pretending to be Santa, or being fast asleep children but of course, our dollies still need taking for their walks in their pushchairs and so they have also been taking very good care of them!
The children have also been developing their listening and attention skills this week by making some beautiful Christmas lights, along with some festive holly wreaths in their craft.. they really are looking beautiful and we are certainly beginning to feel very Christmassy!
We also had a fantastic dance lesson this week with Miss Karen! We were so impressed with how fast=paced and exciting the lesson was, with the children learning some ballet and tap steps!
In Literacy, we have been super busy learning the songs for our Christmas Singing! Not just new words to learn but actions too! Maybe your child can show you the action they use for “Jingle Bells!”
In Maths we have enjoyed lots of counting this week - from our Christmas Song, 5 Little Snowman – to the number of farm animals on the table, to the number of children sitting on the carpet at the end of session! Counting games and activities can happen anytime and anywhere in pre-school!
And of course, we had a fantastic visit to the Forest School this week. It was lovey to see the children more confident to go off and explore independently – particularly when they found the Mud Kitchen, where they made some “delicious salad!” We also looked for minibeasts and found some worms under a tree stump. Next to them, buried in the soil was an acorn! So we talked about who might have buried an acorn there and lots of children knew it was “a squirrel!” As well as challenging themselves across the rope walk, and enjoying playing on the rope swing, we also had fun collecting different size sticks to create our very own Stick Men! Yes, Stick Man is still our favourite story in pre-school!
We also celebrated some wonderful achievements this week: Bonnie won a special prize for guessing the closest number of Pudsey Spots there were in the jar on Children In Need Day and Taki won not one but 2 prizes for creating the best T-Shirt for Children in Need as well as winning the Pre-School Reading Challenge! A huge congratulations to them and everyone who took part – well done!
It has been a fun and busy week once again here in pre-school. Enjoy looking at what we have been doing!
Friday 17th November 2023
Welcome to this week’s blog! We have had a super busy week with lots of celebrations!
On Monday, the children learned about Remembrance Day and in particular the symbol of the poppy. Lots of the children had noticed people in shops and grown ups in Pre-School wearing them. They created their own beautiful collage poppies and together we watched a beautiful Cbeebies video called Poppies - a lovely animation following a young rabbit through the poppy fields.
On Tuesday we celebrated Diwali – which is a festival of light and colour. The children explored colours and colour mixing whilst colouring their beautiful Rangoli patterns. We were very impressed with the care and time they spent on their pictures and think you’ll agree that they are beautiful!
We also had our first visit to Forest School and we were so happy to see that the children remembered the rules that we talked about last week in order to keep them safe. Not only that but we were so impressed with their “have-a-go” attitude! Everyone was happy to have a go on the rope swing and even brave the high rope walk! We had a super time!
In literacy, the children continue to love stories being read to them by the adults, as well as sharing books with each other. We have also seen the children enjoy mark making, developing their gross and fine motor skills by creating pictures on a large strip of wallpaper on the table and using crayons. They also had lots of fun using the Aquadoodle mats and pens.
In maths the children have been busy completing jigsaw puzzles. They also had fun playing some exciting games on our interactive whiteboard to develop their 2D shape knowledge and came up with some brilliant creations! Another popular activity has seen the children develop their fine motor skills by using tweezers to pick up different pom poms and sort them into different categories! It was a bit tricky at times!
In our Dance this week we had a little change due to the school Open Day taking place and so Miss Georgia came into the Pre-School for our lesson! We started off with our Hello song where the children clapped 3 beats in time! We had lots of fun singing our Stand Up Sit Down song, playing our musical instruments up high, down low and to the left and to the right! We then learned some fabulous actions to our new song from the Trolls film – Love Train – it was so much fun! Finally, we absolutely loved playing the Sleeping Bunnies game with lots of hopping and jumping at the end! We were also so impressed with the children’s listening and attention skills, particularly as we had lots of visitors passing through the pre-school as part of Open Day! Our children were very polite and friendly, saying Hello! Well done!
And of course, we couldn’t not mention that it has been Children In Need Day today! We have loved seeing the children dressed up, making Pudsey masks, and decorating a very yellow and very spotty biscuit to take home! We finished our week with a lovely Cbeebies Bedtime story of Pudsey’s Lost Bandana!
As you can see, we have had a super busy week here at Pre-School, celebrating and learning together! Enjoy looking at what we have been doing!
Friday 10th November 2023
Welcome to this week’s blog! We have had a super week full of lots of play and learning, as well as celebrating Bonfire Night too!
The children have enjoyed telling us all about the firework displays they have been to or heard and so they were super excited to make their very own sparkly rockets! I think you can agree they look spectacular, and the children listened well to follow the instructions to make them!
We also had our first visit to Forest School this week and not surprisingly the children have loved listening to the story of Stick Man by Julia Donaldson! As part of our first visit to Forest School, this week was spent learning the special rules that we have to remember in Forest School – not to go past the blue rope, not to run as there are lots of things we can trip over, to remember that, if we find a minibeast that we only look at it as the Forest School is their home, and lastly not to put anything in our mouths! Again, the children listened so well – we were very proud of them - and even though it was raining quite hard, we all enjoyed listening to our Stick Man story and talked about what we could see and hear in the forest. Well done everyone!
In Literacy, we have loved to see the children really taking an interest in looking at books and sharing stories with each other. We have also seen the children enjoy mark making, developing their fine motor skills and creating some wonderful pictures to take home to you!
In Maths the children have developed their focus and attention by completing jigsaw puzzles and using their imaginations through building with creative gears. They came up with some brilliant creations! They have also enjoyed sequencing lots of different things – from our large shapes to turtles!
Our home corner has also been very popular this week – the children have loved looking after the “babies” by clothing them and feeding them, as well creating wonderful picnics and food to eat in the kitchen!
Finally we rounded off our Firework week by watching some amazing displays at Disneyland – it was wonderful to hear lots of vocabulary used - whizz, pop, bang, whee and lots of “ooooh’s!”
So as you can see, we have had another wonderful week of learning and we hope you love looking at the pictures!
Friday 3rd November 2023
A warm welcome back to the start of Term 2 here at Pre-School! The children have all arrived back happily and we have had a super busy week and a little bit of a spooky week at that!
The children have enjoyed telling us all about they way they have celebrated Halloween, and we have loved hearing about their fancy dress costumes, their trick-or-treating and parties they have been to with their families! Following their interest, here at Pre-School, the children made some fantastic “mummies” made from their handprints, as well as using different media to colour their own pumpkins! And of course, it wouldn’t be pre-school without some spooky slime, which contained lots of wiggly worms, slithering snakes, and scary spiders for them to find!
Our story this week was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, where the witch and her cat are travelling on their broomstick and pick up some hitch-hikers – a friendly dog, a beautiful green bird and a frantic frog. But the broomstick is not meant for five and – CRACK – it snaps in two… just as the hungry dragon appears! Will there ever be room on the broom for everyone? The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to this story being read to them by the adults and the wonderful vocabulary it contains – Iggety, Ziggety, Zaggety, ZOOM! Some of the children then went on to stick on the characters in the story onto their broomstick and were able to make sure they were put on in the correct order! Well done!
We also had so much fun listening and following instructions to Cosmic Yoga, which we are finding the children really enjoy and of course is really positive for their wellbeing. This week’s had a creepy Halloween theme and the children loved showing us their posture and balancing skills!
The other exciting event this week has been Storm Ciaran and we have heard some wonderful vocabulary as the children watched the frequent rain and noticed what was happening in their environment. Maybe your child could sing our “What’s the Weather?” song!
In our Dance lesson this week with Miss Georgia, we sang our Hello song and then chose a musical instrument each. We used these to play as we sang our song “I know a Chicken” which we began learning least term! We played our instruments fast and slow as well as learning to shake them up and down and around and around! Finally, we also had lots of fun with our beanbags which we carefully had to balance on our heads!
The musical instruments have been very popular as we have sung our songs and nursery rhymes this week and it is fantastic to see the children’s listening skills develop!
In our Maths learning this week, we have been super impressed with the children’s counting skills - we had lots of fun playing with our counting cakes and some of us could arrange them correctly in numerical order too! Also, we have enjoyed developing our mathematical language as we have created some of the tallest towers ever as well as creating the biggest pizza!
So as you can see, we have had a wonderful week of learning and we hope you love looking at the pictures!
Friday 20th October 2023
Well, can you believe that we have reached the end of Term 1 already? We have been so proud of your amazing children, and it is lovely seeing them settled, happy to begin their play as soon as they arrive and enjoying all the activities that are on offer to them!
So, what have the children been up to this week?
This week, we have enjoyed lots of activities that build fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are the everyday movements (like holding a pencil or tying a shoelace) that require the strength, coordination, and dexterity of the small muscles of the body like those in the hands, fingers, and wrists. When combined with increasing hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills open new doors to exploration, learning, and creative expression. So the children have had lots of fun this week joining in activities such as:
- Threading large beads onto a string
- Cutting along lines with safety scissors
- Building a tower of 10 blocks
- Pasting things onto paper
- Completing jigsaw puzzles with five or more pieces
- Manipulating pencils to complete simple tracing sheets
- Playing with plasticine
We have been really impressed with the children’s active learning with these tasks – they were involved, they kept on trying – even when it was a bit tricky to hold scissors correctly – and were very proud of their achievements!
In our Dance lesson this week Miss Georgia taught us a new Chicken Song and we had lots of fun playing our musical instruments – playing them fast and slow when we pretended to crack the egg!
The children have learned this term to sit beautifully on the carpet and follow our visual timetable. They all answer the register with a “Good Morning!” and have also learned our Maths Medley songs about the Days of the Week and the Weather! What a super start to the academic year it has been! We are now ready to see what Term 2 will bring!
Friday 6th October 2023
We have had lots of fun this week settling into pre-school and trying out lots of different activities!
First of all, we have been so impressed with how well the children are leaving parents and carers to walk into pre-school! They are enjoying finding their name with the help of an adult to self-register and settling so quickly at an activity of their choice, which is lovely to see!
At carpet time, we are quickly learning our carpet rules of “good sitting, good looking and good listening” as well as answering the register.
Our nursery rhyme this week has been “Hickory Dickory Dock” and the children have loved making their very own mouse to run up the clock! Nursery rhymes and books have been very popular and it has been lovely to see the children choosing a book for Mrs Tuffs to read – this week “What the Ladybird Heard” was very popular!
In our Dance this week we have continued getting to know each other by joining in our Hello Song, clapping our hands and stamping our feet. We are growing in confidence by shouting out our names loudly and saying hello to one another! This week we also learned a fantastic crocodile dance, pointing our toes and pretending to splash them in the cold water the crocodile is in! Finally, we had lots of fun dancing with our coloured ribbons, waving them in the air!
In Maths, this week we have enjoyed lots of counting songs and nursery rhymes and we also learned the first part of our Maths Medley – our days of the week song! Maybe your child could sing it to you!
We have been so lucky with the warm weather continuing this week, so we have been making the most of all the lovely things in outside. We have been digging in our sandpit, doing lots of cooking in our mud kitchen and demonstrating our skills on the balance beams! We have enjoyed mark making in the sand too as well as experiencing some messy play with paint and foam! Above all it has been lovely to see friendships developing!
We hope you enjoy some photos of the exciting learning that has been taking place and we are proud to share some of the fun that we have had this week.
Friday 29th September 2023
Well, we have had a super busy week here at Pre-School, with most children now full-time and settling in well to pre-school life! We have had lots of fun and it has been lovely to watch the children growing in confidence and making friendships.
So, what have the children been up to this week?
On Monday morning, we were very lucky to have the opportunity to join our Year R friends, who had a visit from 2 real life Police Officers, along with their police car! The children had the opportunity of trying on real police officer uniform, as well as sitting in the police car but of course the most exciting thing was seeing the police car’s flashing lights and the noisy siren!
Our Nursery Rhyme this week was 5 Currant Buns – the children created their very own bakery shop with the 5 buns on the shelf! Maybe you can count along or sing the song with your child!
We have been really impressed with how much our group this year love books! We have been reading lots of different stories from PJ Masks to The Very Hungry Caterpillar! We will be introducing our book library shortly which will run every Friday at the end of session for you and your child to choose a book to share for a week before bringing it back to change for a new one!
Of course, the garden has been hugely popular whilst we have had warmer temperatures and our pre-schoolers have loved developing their physical skills using space hoppers and balance bikes, as well as playing in the sand, at the mud kitchen and on the pirate ship!
We also went to the school hall for our Dance lesson this week with Miss Georgia. The children behaved beautifully, listening to instructions to walk carefully around past the Year R classrooms, being nice and quiet. Once in the hall we had a fantastic time learning our new Hello song and developing listening skills by playing musical instruments at different tempos as well as loudly and quietly! The children thoroughly enjoyed their time dancing together, especially at the end when they could all dance underneath the huge parachute the teachers were holding!
The pre-school routines of sitting on the carpet for Hello time have been extended so that now the children all answer the register with a “hello” or “good morning/afternoon!” Today we also introduced a fun counting activity using the interactive whiteboard and it was lovely to see most of the children feeling confident to come up to the front to count the sea creatures. Well done!
Finally, we were so proud of our morning pre-schoolers, who learned what to do when we have a fire drill practice! All the children listened so well to the grownups, walking carefully to the fire safety point at the bottom of the pre-school garden, and saying “here” when the register was called! Even our school caretaker and site manager said how well they had listened!
So as you can see, we have been super busy and we are looking forward to another fantastic week of learning ahead!
Friday 22nd September 2023
Well, this week seems to have flown by and with our new children attending every day for a shortened period of time, the Pre-School has certainly seemed much noisier! Transitioning to an unfamiliar environment and learning a new routine is challenging for all young children and it has not been surprising that we have supported a few children when they have had little “wobbles”. Nevertheless, we have been so impressed with how the children are settling and are looking forward to most being full-time from next week!
So, what have the children been up to this week?
First of all, we have been encouraging all the children to try and recognise the first letter, or all of their name to self-register when they arrive. We are already establishing some of the pre-school routines, such as carpet time and looking at our visual timetable to prepare the children for what will be happening next.
Your child has learned to find their own water bottle and we have been encouraging them in their independence when using the toilet.
We have also loved singing nursery rhymes! So far, we have enjoyed singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – did you love their star wands they brought home last week? This week we have had lots of fun singing Incy Wincy Spider, making some fantastic spiders of our own, carefully counting their 8 legs!
Of course, in these early days, an important aspect of your child's time at Pre-School will be their personal, social, and emotional development. We have been encouraging all of the children to develop positive relationships, playing with a variety of friends and understanding the feelings of others. We have loved watching them begin to grow friendships, sharing toys and being kind to each other. Being outside in the pre-school garden has also been a very popular way to encourage and develop friendships and it has been wonderful to see the children already repeating our garden rules of “kind hands, kind feet and kind words” when playing outside.
So, as you can see, although there have been many seemingly little things, your child has been extremely busy and learning a great deal! We hope you enjoy some photos of the exciting learning that has been taking place and above all see that your children have been having lots of fun!
Friday 15th September 2023
A warm welcome to Pre-School!
It has been lovely seeing our children from last year return and we are so pleased to welcome lots of new children to Cliftonville Pre-School! The taster sessions are continuing to be very successful, and we are loving seeing the enthusiasm and excitement your children have! Thankyou so much for all your support so far in ensuring your little ones have a successful transition into Pre-School!
Here at Cliftonville Pre-School, we understand that leaving your child at Pre-School for the first time can be a daunting prospect and for some; this may be the first time you have been apart from your child. We recognise that this initial separation can be very hard on both of you.
So here are some tips on starting Pre-School which will help both you and your child adjust to what is a new and exciting stage in your child’s life.
Be positive and smile when talking about Pre-School to your child!
Be positive and cheerful when you talk to your child about Pre-School as he or she will quickly pick up on any feelings of anxiety. When your child is very young, you are the main influence in their life and their mood will often be affected by yours. If you make pre-school sound like an exciting place, they will hopefully see it as that.
Our Pre-School practitioners have lots of experience in dealing with the transition to Pre-School so please do talk to us about any concerns you have, no matter how small you may feel they are. We are here to help!
Be prepared for your child to cry!
Many children cry when you first leave them at Pre-School (or even on day 2 or 3!) and this can be extremely hard.
You need to have trust in the Pre-School staff as we are very used to this and try to stay emotionally strong, so that your child doesn’t pick up on your emotions. We will do all we can to ensure that your child is soothed, giving them lot of cuddles and trying to distract them with different activities and resources. It usually works!
Let the settling in process go at the speed of your child
Some children will struggle to settle in a Pre-School environment. Settling in is a process that takes time, care and commitment to ensure a smooth and successful transition from home to Pre-School. It is important to let the settling in process go at the speed of your child and recognise that being in unfamiliar surroundings with unfamiliar people can be overwhelming.
Our home visits have been fantastic for us so to get to know your child in a familiar environment and find out their likes and dislikes. Following on now with your shortened visits to Pre-School, we are ensuring that your child feels comfortable and secure.
Our experience has shown that this is the best way to slowly ease a child and parent/family into the setting.
Will my child take longer to settle if they have English as an Additional Language (EAL)?
Children adapt so quickly and can learn new words very quickly, but they will need support to do this. For children where English is their second language, it is a good idea for parents and carers to give a list of keywords to help the staff communicate with the child in their first language. This helps the child feel included and will help them settle more quickly.
Keywords could include mummy and daddy, toilet and soon as well as the names of certain food items and drinks.
Go to events run by the Pre-School!
Whether it’s Stay and Play Sessions, Christmas Singing, Sports Day or our Pirate Day please try and attend! We want to have a great relationship with you as parents and carers too! Plus, this is also a great opportunity to mix with other parents and carers and see your child socialise and play with other children!
So we hope that these tips may be useful for you as your child begins their learning journey with us at Pre-School! We have been super impressed with your children so far and are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead!
Friday 8th September 2023
A warm welcome to Pre-School!
It has been lovely seeing our children from last year return and we are so pleased to welcome lots of new children to Cliftonville Pre-School! The taster sessions have been very successful so far and we loved meeting your families during the recent home visits! Thankyou so much for all your support so far in ensuring your little ones have a successful transition into Pre-School!
So for this week’s Blog entry, we thought you might like to learn a little bit about us, the staff, here in the Pre-School!
Mrs Tuffs – Pre-School Leader:
Hello everyone! My name is Mrs Tuffs and I am so excited that you are joining us here at Pre-School! I have one daughter, who is now 24 years old and we also have one cat, called Mitzey who loves laying in the garden and being given lots of cuddles! We also have two ponies, called Marty and Winnie! Can you guess what their favourite food to eat is?
I thought that I would share with you my favourite book: The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet
Danny and Dinosaur are going to space! But when Danny realises that he’s forgotten Dino’s lunch box, the very hungry dinosaur eats everything in sight, including their only way home: the rocket! I love reading this book as it always makes me laugh when the Dinosaur has to poop out everything he has eaten! It’s a super, funny book by Tom Fletcher.
Hello everyone, my name is Miss Brown and I cannot wait to see you all at Pre-School! I have 2 sons, who are now both at secondary school and I also have a little dog called Poppy. In my spare time, I love to read!
My favourite book is Room on the Broom
A kind witch invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat! The gang ultimately saves the witch from a fearsome dragon, and in gratitude she rewards them with a magnificent new broom which has room for everyone! This is my favourite story by Julia Donaldson.
Hello everyone! I cannot wait to have so much fun here at Pre-School with you all! I have 6 children and can you believe it – 9 cats! My favourite things to do are swimming, walking and spending time at the beach.
My favourite book is Stick Man! Stick Man is another Julia Donaldson book which is my favourite story. It is the story of a stick man who is separated from his family, when he goes for a jog and is picked up by a dog. He then ends up on all sorts of adventures! Will he ever get home?
Every week we will update the blog with all the fun learning and playing that has taken place here at Cliftonville Pre-School! During the early stages, we will be encouraging the children to experiment within their new learning environment and to become comfortable within their surroundings through play.
We will also encourage interactions with the adults and other children in the Pre-School, building up trust through child-initiated and teacher directed play.
We will also be establishing the routines of the Pre-School such as carpet time, self-registration, indoor and outdoor play and tidy up time. We are looking forward to a super exciting and fun-filled year ahead!
Friday 14th 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 7th July
Welcome to the wonderful world of learning all about our teeth! This week has been shorter than usual; however, the children have loved learning all about our teeth, healthy foods and how we look after them!
Literacy:
This week we have been thinking how Dentists help us. The children have thought hard about how we can look after our teeth and what happens when we go to the Dentist. They have also been creating collage mouths with teeth in, telling us all they know!
Our story this week has been Topsy & Tim Visit the Dentist. Maybe you could watch the story here and see what your child can tell you! https://youtu.be/Pj8n5CA6wJs
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have revisited making sure we count one object with one finger (known as 1:1 correspondence) to make sure we count the correct number! It can be tricky to rush when we count and so we have been trying to remember to slow down as we count too!
We have also been estimating how many teeth we have in our mouths! Some children thought we have 5, some 10 and some “twenty hundred!”
On Tuesday we were super lucky to have a visit from Charlotte the Dentist! The children sat beautifully to listen to her talk about how important it is to look after our teeth. They also were keen to share their understanding, such as,
“I can’t reach my back ones!”
“If you eat lots of candy you get cavities!”
“You brush your teeth twice a day!”
Charlotte taught us how important it is to brush our teeth twice a day for 2 minutes – in the morning and before we go to bed! She also showed us how to brush our teeth in gentle circles, not backwards and forwards, and to use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on our brush! The children had the chance to practice this using a giant-sized brush on a huge set of teeth!
We then played a super fun game where we had to place lots of different foods on a good or bad tooth! Healthy foods the children knew were “vegetables and fruit” “Water and milk” and “fish and cheese!” The children also knew that “Chocolate, sweets, apple juice and gummy bears” all have sugar in, which isn’t good for our teeth!
We had lots of fun wearing the special tooth-shaped glasses Charlotte brought in, to help us know what to expect when we lie in the dentist chair - they protect our eyes from the bright light. And finally, we all listened to a brilliant story – Peppa Pig at the Dentist! We hope your child has also enjoyed sharing with you the special pack they received too – and are using the sand timer, along with their new toothbrush, to remember to brush for 2 minutes! Well done Pre-Schoolers you listened and learned so much!
This week was also Transition Day, and a huge thankyou to the parents who have supported their pre-schoolers by taking them to the second of their Rising 5 sessions! This special time really is invaluable for helping your child feel safe and settled on the journey to Reception and it has been lovely hearing the conversations the children have been having, talking about their new teachers, what they have played with in the new classrooms and how excited they are for “big school!”
Of course, we have still enjoyed learning through play outside in the garden this week, where we have had so much fun. The term is racing by!
Friday 30th June
What a super busy week we have had here at pre-school! The children have been very busy with visitors and practicing for our Sports Day!
Literacy:
This week we have been thinking how Firefighters help us. We have had some super discussion about what the children know about firefighters starting with “They put out fires!” If there was not a fire, then what else could they be doing? Someone suggested that. 'There could be someone stuck in the building, or a cat could be stuck up a tree!' Of course, we have seen the children enjoy dressing up as firefighters and lots of “nee-naw” sound effects too!
The children created some bright red fire engines and really enjoyed singing as they coloured! Our story this week has been Topsy & Time Meet the Firefighters – you can watch it here with your child! https://youtu.be/0FqhRKxBCnA
Due to the Rising 5’s session this week, there was no dance lesson. For those of you with children moving up to Reception, we hope you enjoyed meeting your child’s teacher and seeing what wonderful things they will be doing next year! Don’t forget the next session on Thursday 6th July!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have enjoyed lots of lovely counting songs! We made our amazing fire engines, complete with 5 Little Firefighters and we all enjoyed singing along as we coloured them in!
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 – African Land Snail, Millipede, Stick Insect, Scorpion and a very large Corn Snake!
We learned lots of useful facts, for example did you know that a corn snake has over 10,000 muscles in its body? The children asked lots of interesting questions, such as “Does he like sleeping?” “How can a stick insect stick?” and “How does a snake eat a mouse?” They were also super gentle when holding the animals and listened very carefully to what the leader told us. We are very proud of you!
And finally, we have celebrated a wonderful Sports Day here in Pre-school today! The children have worked so hard learning to balance, to bounce, to hop, to jump and run super-fast in our races! A huge thankyou to all of you who came to watch, cheer and clap! It was a fabulous morning, and we hope that the children are rightfully proud of their winning medals and certificates!
This term is flying by in a flash and as you can see it has been a lovely and very active week of learning!
Friday 23rd June
What lovely sunshine we have enjoyed this week! The children have continued to enjoy being outside in the fresh air and developing their skills!
Literacy:
This week we have been thinking how Vets help us. The children pretended to look after the soft toys in the role play area and also we have had lots of discussions about our own pets - what happens if they are poorly, and how important it is to always be kind and gentle with them! Our story this week has been Topsy & Tim -Sore Paw and you can watch it here! https://youtu.be/wEtPhKMeZ3c
Once again, the children have been very busy with their mark making – some of the children have enjoyed being outside and using the clipboards and paper to take “the register!” saying Good Morning to each other! They have also learned how to sign in Makaton “Good Morning!” – maybe they can show you?
We have been really impressed with how the children’s fine motor skills are developing – we enjoyed lots of cutting out of shapes this week and the children have really worked hard to hold their scissors correctly and complete some accurate cutting! Well done!
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! Not only that, but we also learned a new goodbye song – See you later Alligator!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have really enjoyed learning about the properties of 2D shapes - as we practiced cutting out our triangles, we talked about mathematical language such as “sides” and “corners” and we have also been comparing sizes as we play!
What to you think of the amazing constructions the children have made this week? It has been lovely to see collaborative working together too! Well done everyone!
Some of the afternoon children had the opportunity to visit their Reception classes to see the amazing models that the Year R children have made – we absolutely loved looking at the pirate ships and treasure chests that had been created using junk modelling and other resources, along with many different habitats – the penguin and spider ones were especially popular! Our pre-schoolers are now very excited to see what wonderful things they will be doing when they go to big school!
Of course, our outside play has been popular in the sunshine this week. Some of the children are already understanding about their transition to Year R and are playing “schools!” Whilst others have preferred to be super active playing football and riding the bikes and trikes around the garden! It has also been wonderful to watch the children still closely interested in minibeasts. Some found lots of snails in our watering can and so they were very careful to place them in our minibeast area and think about what food they may like to eat – as you can see, slices of orange and leaves were very popular!
And finally, speaking of snails we have exciting news, one of our African Land Snails has had a baby! We have called her “Lucky” and hope you love the pictures! You have to look very closely – can your child find them?!
As you can see, once again we have had a super week of fun and learning here in the Pre-School!
Friday 16th June
What a beautiful week of weather we have enjoyed this week! The children have loved being outside in the sunshine, playing on bikes, scooters and space hoppers as well as enjoying play in our sandpit!
Literacy:
This week we have been thinking how Police help us. The children have looked closely and described what a police officer wears as well as what they do. They have also been decorating their very own police badges which they took home with them! Our story this week has been Topsy & Tim Meet the Police.
The children are really working hard to develop their pencil control and have enjoyed tracing sheets this week along with creating their own wonderful pictures.
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. It is lovely to see some of the older children helping their younger friends too!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have been making sure we count one object with one finger (known as 1:1 correspondence) to make sure we count the correct number! It can be tricky to rush when we count and so we have been trying to remember to slow down as we count too!
Building in the construction area has continued to be very popular this week, with the children creating some amazing constructions using the sticklebricks, lego as well as fabulous patterns using the creative gears! We have also been super proud of the children’s identification of 2D shapes this week, playing a fun game with flash cards! Well done everyone!
Above all the children have thrived being outside in the garden this week; whether they are creating sand pies for the teachers, using their skills to measure and pour, to enjoy constructing and transporting, or develop their understanding of nature by filling up our minibeast pond and looking closely at the minibeasts they find, all have been learning through their play.
What a super, sunny week!
Friday 9th 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 are really enjoying their mark making and have created some amazing self-portraits for their creative work folders!
Additionally they created their very own Doctor’s bag, cutting and sticking all the instruments that they need to make people better!
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 Hakuna Matata from The Lion King! It was so much fun – maybe your child can show you the actions! Then we had a game of “sleeping bunnies” before learning a new Goodbye song! What a busy lesson!
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!
As the weather has been getting warmer this week, we have enjoyed being outside in the fresh air and developing our fine motor skills using our bikes, trikes and space hoppers! Singing and dancing to “ring-a-ring o’roses” has also been popular with lots of giggles as the children fell to the ground!
Football has also been popular with the children enjoying using Mrs Milham and Mrs Tuffs as target practice! And our afternoon children were very lucky to have a quick peek at the new Early Years Play area – even sneaking a go at sliding down the super high pole!
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 12th May 2023
Literacy:
In a shortened week this week due to the Coronation Bank Holiday, 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!
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 – aren’t they amazing?!
We have enjoyed creating our very own ladybirds using shapes too, which have made part of our amazing display, along with all the other minibeasts we have learned about this term. Can your child name all of them to you?!
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 as well as “shaking our sillies out” and learning the next steps in our Encanto dance!
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 played a super game on the interactive whiteboard thinking hard about shapes and the patterns that can be made with them.
When we arrived at Pre-School after the Bank Holiday, we were all so excited to see that our caterpillar cocoons had hatched! We now had 10 beautiful butterflies in the nets and we had lots of discussion surrounding the foods that we thought they may eat – from mud to sweets! The children have all been very careful not to hurt the butterflies in any way and enjoyed feeding them pieces of raspberry and grape until the day came yesterday to let them go free. Some of the children were a little sad about them leaving us, however we had lots of conversations about why the butterflies should be allowed to fly high up in the sky and find their own food.
And so we set our little butterflies free and one actually decided to stay in the pre-school garden! It found a lovely plant and it was amazing to see that it started to feed itself the pollen on the tiny flowers using its tongue which has a special name – a proboscis! If you look closely in the picture you can see it feeding! Not only that, at lunch time, Miss Brown found that she had a visitor on her fleece – an inquisitive caterpillar who looked very happy to meet us! This one however, was immediately placed back in the pre-school garden!
As you can see it has been a very busy and fun-packed week of learning here in Pre-School!
Friday 6th May 2023
Literacy:
In literacy this week, we have had lots of fun revisiting all the stories we have listened to this term and being able to retell parts of them. This week we have learned all about frogs and tadpoles and the children made some amazing frogs for their craft activity!
In Letters and Sounds we are working hard to sign the cued articulation actions to the letter sounds we have learned so far and can recognise some of these letters being at the start of our friends’ names!
Some of the children are really enjoying beginning to write their names, which is lovely to see! They are holding their pens correctly and are very proud of their achievements! Their mark making even continues into the garden, where some have drawn beautiful pictures with chalk!
Our Dance teacher, Miss Georgia provided us with a super lesson this week, which involved lots of movement and action! We had fun singing our Hello Song, shouting out our names loudly, and “shaking our sillies out!” The children listened beautifully and really enjoyed playing with their scarves and streamers. Of course, a favourite song to end with is “Sleeping Bunnies!” Maybe your child could show you how they hopped up and down!
Our word of the week has been “cocoon” as our caterpillars have now formed theirs! The children looked very closely at the changes that have made and asked some super questions, such as “Why were the cocoons on the lid?” and “Why do they need to be in a net?” Well done everyone!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have enjoyed completing lots of jigsaw puzzles and had lots of fun looking for numbers in the sand, being able to say what number they have found!
We have played lots of games on our Interactive Whiteboard including a ladybird counting game, where some children could also match the number correctly too! Well done!
Of course, with the Coronation happening this weekend, we have been very busy creating our spectacular crowns (more about this later!) as well as listening to the King’s Coronation music. We have looked at pictures of our new King, we well as the flag of the United Kingdom and of course, took the opportunity to make a biscuity treat, using the colours of our flag!
We wish all of you and your families a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend!
Friday 28th April 2023:
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been Ahhh Spider! By Lydia Monks. This is a wonderful story about a spider who attempts to become a family pet! The children have really enjoyed this week’s story and were very keen to create their own spiders, using their handprints! They look amazing, don’t they!
Some of the children have also been practicing using scissors this week, to cut out a selection of shapes to build a drainpipe for Incy Wincy Spider and sticking them on the page to complete their picture.
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 Encanto Dance, as well as having so much fun waving their scarves in the air as they move!
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!
It has been a very exciting week here in Pre-School as you can see! The children have enjoyed looking closely and feeding our pre-school pet African snails, Sid and Shelly. They have learned so much – how to be gentle and care for living things, to think about what they eat, and to describe how they feel to hold (although some children weren’t too keen to hold them as you can see from the photos!)
Additionally, they have shown super interest in our caterpillars who are growing extremely quickly! Maybe your child can tell you the special name for the covering or case made by the caterpillars to protect themselves as they develop into butterflies?
Well done, Pre-Schoolers!
Friday 21st April 2023
Forest School:
Our morning at Forest school gave us the opportunity to become “Minibeast Explorers” and so we set off with our magnifying glasses to see what we could uncover!
The children demonstrated super listening, by making sure that when the big logs were moved, they were carefully placed back as it is the minibeasts home and to not touch any minibeasts as we are in their environment!
Immediately we were able to find lots of snails that were on the leaves of trees and the wooden pallets. We even saw a hornet that was resting on a leaf in the sun! The children enjoyed looking very carefully around the forest school and it was incredible to see so many minibeasts – spiders, centipedes, worms and even a large caterpillar!
The children did very well today listening to instructions and looking after the equipment – well done!
Literacy:
In literacy this week, our story has been Superworm! The children have really enjoyed joining in the refrain “Superworm is super long! Superworm is super strong!” – complete with actions! We have even made our own Superworms in craft to go on our minibeast display!
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 “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the film Encanto!
Well done everyone!
Maths:
In our maths learning this week, we have been talking about size – long and short when making our own Superworms! We have also had lots of fun building with shapes. Our older children are enjoying counting to 10, ensuring that they use 1:1 correspondence for each object they count, whilst our younger members have enjoyed counting the spots on ladybirds and singing many counting action songs such as 5 Little Ducks.
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!
Friday 24th March 2023
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 in the new playhouse that is there, acting out the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears! Some also used the little trollies to collect sticks to make little houses for the worms and bugs to live in!
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!
Letters and Sounds:
In our letters and sounds this week our new letter sound is the letter A. The children have learned or 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 A makes! Some of the children thought very hard and were able to associate the letter A starting the words “apple” “ant” and “Arif!”
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 and we are really thrilled that some children are now writing their names independently!
In Dance this week, Miss Jewell came into the pre-school and the children learned a fantastic dance to the song Footloose! It was very fast, but the children showed super listening skills and tried their best. Afterwards, they sat in a circle and took it in turns to “freestyle” – showing each other their best dance moves, which for some children took a lot of courage, so well done to you all again!
Of course, today was the School Fun Run and all the children were absolutely amazing! They joined in the fun run warmup with enthusiasm and managed to complete their laps of the school field, which was no easy task for them (or Mrs Tuffs!) Each child received a certificate as we were so very proud of them! They certainly put the “fun” into Fun Run!
