Hello everyone....

 

Our Week at Preschool – Exploring Fruit, Vegetables and Farms!

Hello everyone,

We hope you all had a lovely weekend with family and friends. What beautiful autumn weather we’ve had lately — it’s been perfect for all our outdoor adventures! It was wonderful to see some of you at Autumn Fest on Friday evening.

This week our learning has been all about fruit, vegetables, and where our food comes from. The children have been busy exploring, investigating, tasting, and creating through a variety of fun and hands-on experiences.

On Monday and Friday we shared the story Oliver’s Vegetables during group time. The children really enjoyed talking about Oliver’s journey and all the different vegetables he discovered.

On Tuesday we had a surprise bag of vegetables! The children explored, named, and signed each one. On Wednesday, we had another surprise — this time a bag of fruit! We again explored, named, and signed each fruit, building on our vocabulary and understanding.

By Thursday, we were ready to put our knowledge to the test by sorting the fruit and vegetables into groups. The children were amazing at remembering their names and deciding whether each one was a fruit or a vegetables.

On Monday morning, we went to visit the big red tractor at school! The children loved learning the names of different parts of the tractor and then came back to preschool to paint their own red tractor pictures.

On Tuesday morning, we went on an adventure to the allotments near preschool. The children were fascinated by all the fruit and vegetables growing there and talked about how they grow — underground, on bushes, or on trees. Later, we used the vegetables from group time to make beautiful vegetable prints with paint.

In the afternoon, we had a very exciting trip to Maiden Castle Farm! The children explored the tractors and combine harvester, met some of the farm animals, and of course, enjoyed plenty of puddle jumping!

On Wednesday morning, one group visited the care home to share songs, a story, and some cake. The residents were so happy to see the children and it was a lovely, heartwarming visit. Meanwhile, the other group had PE in the main school hall, where they practised rolling and throwing balls to one another — brilliant teamwork and coordination!

In the afternoon, we had another wonderful Relax Kids session with Sian. The children joined in with games, stretches, gentle massage, and relaxing moments — a perfect way to unwind.

Thursday was all about teamwork and taste testing! In the morning, we played a fun board game in small groups, taking turns and learning to finish a game together.

Later, we harvested our own potatoes from the soil! The children washed them carefully and helped prepare them for snack time. We then enjoyed tasting them in lots of different ways — boiled, mashed, sautéed, and as chips! The children were so enthusiastic about trying the different textures and flavours.

On Friday morning, we put on our coats and set off to Tesco for a food adventure. The children explored the aisles, talked about different types of food, and even chose some cakes to bring back for snack. In the afternoon, we rounded off our busy week with plenty of outdoor play and fresh air.

Play and Learning Throughout the Week

Alongside all our exciting outings, the children have continued to learn through play in the classroom:

• Our vocabulary tray was filled with farm objects to explore and name.

• We’ve enjoyed imaginative play with the small world allotment scene and role play home corner, using real-life experiences in our play.

• At the finger frenzy table, we’ve been using magnetic pen boards to move little balls into patterns — a great workout for fine motor skills!

• The construction area has been buzzing with marble runs and flower garden building.

• In the number area, we’ve been sorting rubber fruits by colour and using lots of mathematical language.

• We’ve been using torches with different materials to explore how light changes colours

• We also had lots of creative fun exploring playdough with plastic animals, lollypop sticks, and animal cutters

Some pictures from the week....

 

For the next week we are going to continue to explore food, faith and farming. We are going to be sharing lots of stories about this topic at group time.  We will be cooking some yummy foods using eggs and apples. At snack time we will have a variety of foods to eat and will be talking about where each of the foods come from along with lots of other activities to support our learning including making apple muffins, apple boats, threading activity and lots more.

Home learning:

Can you have a go at putting your own shoes on this week?

Can you recognise your name?

Can you go on a shape hunt and find objects which are circle, square, triangle and rectangle?

Can you cook something which comes from eggs? Talk about where the different ingredients come from. Using vocab like ingredients, recipe etc

Notices 

On Friday we have our story time session at 3.10pm. Please come along to the classroom door at 3.05 and join us for story time.

The parent's evening sign up sheet will be available at drop off and pick up. If these dates and times are not convenient please come and speak to Julia.

It would great if all pre-school t-shirts and jumpers can be named.

Please bring any WOW's for our WOW board you have and if you need some WOW slips, please pick some up from the notice board outside.

Applying for Reception Place to start in September 2026

You can apply for a reception place from 1 September 2025.

The closing date for applications is 15 January 2026.

https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/w/starting-school-for-the-first-time

Damer's open Days are as follows-

Wednesday 15th October 9am

Tuesday 4th November 6pm

Please do come and see myself or a member of team if you have any questions.

Here's to an exciting and amazing first week back full of fun and adventures. 

Julia, Colleen, Lauren and Lauren