🎃 Our Week at Preschool – Exploring Pumpkins
Hello everyone,
We hope you have all had a lovely weekend!
Last week, our learning was all about pumpkins. The children have been busy exploring, investigating, tasting and creating through a variety of fun, hands-on experiences. We have had a wonderful week full of curiosity, creativity and discovery!
📚 Group Time
We shared the story It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall, which tells us all about how pumpkins grow and how they can be used for Halloween. The children enjoyed talking about the story and recalling their own Halloween adventures over half term.
💻 Tuesday
On Tuesday, we used the Chromebooks and Purple Mash Paint programme to create our own colourful pumpkins. We practised using the touchpad to move the cursor, select colours and change them.
We also enjoyed PE in the hall, where we practised our balancing skills, crawled through tunnels and carefully navigated the stepping stones.
In the afternoon, we became scientists and carried out our very own pumpkin volcano experiment! Using a carved pumpkin, food colouring, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, the children made predictions about what might happen. They then watched in amazement as our pumpkin erupted!
🧵 Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, we explored pumpkin threading using needles and wool to thread pieces of pumpkin onto string. This was a fantastic opportunity to develop our fine motor skills and practise our pincer grip.
We also enjoyed a music session, experimenting with our voices and exploring how we could make different sounds and tones.
One group of children also enjoyed a special visit to the care home, where they shared songs, a story and some homemade apple pies. The children sang songs with lots of actions and movements, and it was such a heartwarming visit. The residents were delighted to see them!
In the afternoon, we enjoyed our Relax Kids session with Sian, where we went on an imaginary garden adventure.
🔥 Thursday – Bonfire Snack!
Thursday was very exciting as we celebrated Bonfire Night! We headed up to Forest School and gathered around our campfire for a special bonfire snack.
The children enjoyed hotdogs, toasted marshmallows and warm hot chocolate. We talked about fire safety and sparkler safety, learning how to stay safe around fireworks and fires.
It was such a lovely experience, and we had lots of fun together!
In the afternoon, the children continued their adventures in our new woodland-themed role-play area, complete with a campfire, logs, woodland animals, coats, hats and gloves. There has been lots of imaginative play!
🎨 Friday
On Friday morning, we headed back up to Forest School to investigate some cold charcoal. We collected some pieces and brought them back to preschool to create our own pumpkin face pictures. The children enjoyed exploring a different mark-making material and experimenting with the marks and patterns they could make.
🍂 Play and Learning Throughout the Week
Alongside our special activities, the children have continued to enjoy lots of exciting learning opportunities through play:
Mark Making: We have been busy using the whiteboards, drawing pumpkins, happy faces and lots of other wonderful pictures.
Small World Play: Our autumn woodland scene has been popular, with forest animals, conkers and leaves inspiring lots of imaginative stories.
Finger Frenzy: We used hammers to carefully tap golf tees into pumpkins, developing our hand-eye coordination, control and confidence when using tools.
Construction: The children have enjoyed building and creating with Mobilo and Geomag.
Number Area: We explored pumpkin seeds and numeral pumpkins, developing our counting and number recognition skills.
Messy Play: Our pumpkin investigation tray was full of different pumpkins to explore using spoons and magnifying glasses. There was lots of scooping, investigating and discovering!
Creative Play: We enjoyed using orange playdough and a variety of pumpkin cutters to make our own pumpkin creations.
It has been such a wonderful week of curiosity, creativity and discovery. The children have shown fantastic teamwork, imagination and enthusiasm throughout all of our activities.
We have loved seeing them explore, experiment and learn together, and we can't wait to see what adventures next week will bring! 🎃🍂
If you have returned your slip- please see photos sent via link in email.
🎆 Looking Ahead to Next Week – Exploring Fireworks!
Next week, we will be exploring the exciting world of fireworks! We will be discovering the different colours, patterns and sounds that fireworks make through a variety of fun, creative and hands-on activities. We will have lots of opportunities to experiment, get creative and use our senses as we explore all the magic and excitement of fireworks! 🎇
Home Learning
👕 Can you practise putting on and taking off a jumper all by yourself?
📚 Can you share your favourite book with an adult and tell them the story using the pictures?
Please bring any WOW's for our WOW board you have.
You can apply for a reception place from 1 September 2026.
The closing date for applications is 15 January 2027.
No comments:
Post a Comment