Keep smiling

On Friday we will be ending term with a non-uniform day with the children invited to wear bright clothes to bring us some cheer and a donation for our local food bank!  We would also like to bring a smile to all of our faces by having a joke to share as well.  Put your thinking caps on and bring along your favourite joke to tell and share. You can join in at home as well, just email them in in the usual way and wear your brightest clothes for the day.  

Spring...

Hello everyone,

Last week had great fun learning all about the life cycle of a frog. Throughout the week we have enjoyed a variety of fiction and information books about frogs. On Monday morning we continued to enjoy making puppets including some frog puppets. we have enjoyed visiting the school pond to see the frog spawn and to explore what else we could find in the pond including water snails. We enjoyed standing on the new pond platform. On Tuesday morning, Helen bought in her two exotic frogs from home. We asked Helen some fantastic questions to find out information about her pet frogs. These are on display in the classroom. In the afternoon we used tight with a variety of fillings including rice and lentils to make balls at the end of the tight. We dipped them into paint and then used are arms to throw and swing them onto paper. We loved doing this and it was great for our gross motor skills. Colleen then cut them out into tadpole shapes and drew a face on them. On Wednesday and Thursday morning in small groups we talked about the life cycle of a chicken. We put the eggs in the incubator and talked about what happens during the time in the incubator. We are very excited about the chicks hatching. 

We have enjoyed singing the song of 5 speckled frogs in group time and with the frogs in the gelli baff. On Thursday, one of the children bought in their pet African snail for us to learn about. We had some brilliant questions to ask about the snail and enjoyed watching his movements. On Thursday afternoon we planted our potatoes and picked our garlic bulbs from the garden. We are drying our garlic out and then we would like to make some garlic bread. On Friday morning a group went swimming and showed Helen their amazing swimming skills. One group went to watch Year 2 class assembly at school which was all about sailors. A group made pizza for our snack which was very yummy. In the afternoon following on from our orange juice making the week before we made some fruit smoothies with strawberries and bananas. It was delicious. We have enjoyed representing frog spawn using bubble wrap and paint. The children have then go onto independently use the bubble wrap as a technique in the painting area. We have enjoyed playing a variety of games during the week including the game of what's the time Mr Chick. Felix came up with this brilliant game. 

This week we are going to continue to our learning about eggs and look at different eggs as we ran out of time last week to do this. We will be talking about what it looks like inside the eggs in the incubator. We will be making some frogs for our life cycle on the wall. We will be doing some gardening this week. We will continue to enjoy and share some spring stories and information books. Please do bring in any books you may like to share about spring. We will also be making some surprises for our mum's to bring home towards the end of the week.  

Home learning

Can you find out something new about the season of spring? Can you make a picture of Spring? 

Letters and sounds:- 

Last week Karen/Helen and Sharon's groups have done the sound m,a,s and this week will be doing the sound d. Last week Julia's group have done the sounds m, a, s, d and this week will be doing the sound t. We have been doing lots of games with Fred frog which involves oral blending and segmenting  We will have also been doing some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds. There is an information session on Tuesday 17th March at 9.00am. 

Notices

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you come in the mornings.

 This week Stay and Play will be on Thursday 19th March from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

We apologise for postponing our stay and play on Saturday due to a drains problem which is now been sorted. Our next Saturday Stay and Play is this Saturday 21st March from 10.-11.30. Hope to see lots of you there.

On Wednesday 18th March at 3.10pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

On Tuesday 17th March there is an information session at 9.00am to share the Read Write Inc Nursery programme and accessing Purple Mash at home. 

The  POWSA Easter Bingo this Friday has been cancelled. 

Here's to an exciting week.

Julia and Pre-school Team

frogs and eggs

Hello everyone,

Last week we had a great week celebrating World Book Week. If was great children bringing in their favourite books to share at group time. Children always welcome to bring in books from home to share. On Monday we listened to the story of The Gruffalo.   We had designed our own Gruffalo creatures and made gruffalo crumble for afternoon snack. The children were great at cutting up the apples and making the crumble topping. On Tuesday we shared the story of The tiger who came to tea. We created our own tigers with orange and black stripes of paper and wrote invitations. We made some cakes and decorated them in the afternoon. We also made some sandwiches and had afternoon tea and a tiger came along to join us. We had a great time visiting the library on Wednesday and Thursday. The children enjoyed going on the bus and having a tour of the library. The children all choose a book to bring back to pre-school. These are in the book corner to share over the next few weeks. On Thursday we had great fun dressing up as our favourite book character and telling which character we were at group time and the story we came from. On Friday we shared the story of The gingerbread man with stick puppets. Afterwards the children had great fun making their own stick puppets to use a the puppet theatre. We will be continuing with our stick puppets on Monday. On Wednesday morning a group of children had PE with Mr Treble and they continued with their catching and throwing skills. On Thursday afternoon a group of children enjoyed listening to a shortened version of the BFG. This interest came from a group of children last week. We then made talking telephones from the BFG with cups and wool. The children really enjoyed finding out how these work.

On Friday afternoon we made orange juice using fresh oranges and a juicer. We enjoyed having the juice for snack. This idea came from a child who had enjoyed pretending to make orange juice at the water play. 

We have enjoyed the small world of Whatever next and The tiger who came to tea area. We have used the props to act out the stories. 

This week we are going to be finding out all about frogs, frog spawn, tadpoles and eggs. We are going to be doing a variety of activities including visiting the school pond to find out about the life cycle of a frog. We have got a visitor (frog) coming in on Tuesday who is a different type of frog to what we find in our gardens. On Wednesday morning we will be putting the eggs in the incubator for 21 days. They will hatch on the last week of term. We will be learning about different types of eggs e.g. duck, hen, wild birds etc. 

Over the week we will be sharing lots of stories about frogs and eggs and learning a few new songs. 

Home learning

Can you find out something new about the season of spring?

Letters and sounds:- 

Last week Karen/Helen and Sharon's groups have done the sound m,a and this week will be doing the sound s. Last week Julia's group have done the sounds m, a, s and this week will be doing the sound d. We have been doing lots of games with Fred frog which involves oral blending and segmenting  We will have also been doing some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds. There is an information session on Tuesday 17th March at 9.00am. 

Notices

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you come in the mornings.

 This week Stay and Play will be on Wednesday11th March from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

Our next Saturday Stay and Play is on Saturday 14th March from 10.-11.30. Hope to see lots of you there.

On Tuesday 10th March at 3.10pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

On Tuesday 17th March there is an information session at 9.00am to share the Read Write Inc Nursery programme and accessing Purple Mash at home.

On Friday 20th March is POWSA Easter Bingo. A great family evening of bingo. Doors open at 5.30pm and eyes down at 6pm. 

Here's to an exciting week.

Julia and Pre-school Team

Book week....

Hello everyone,

Last week we really enjoyed listening to the story of Mr Wolf's pancakes on Monday and Tuesday. We also enjoyed listening to the audio version of the story.  We had a go at writing a shopping list of ingredients Julia needed to get from the supermarket. We also practiced our scissors skills by cutting out pancakes and toppings to stick on the top. On Tuesday morning at group time we learnt how to make pancakes. At snack time we enjoyed eating pancakes with a variety of our favourite toppings. In the afternoon we had pancakes races in the hall due to the rain!! For the rest of the week we have enjoyed sharing the story of The three little pigs. The children have been great at joining in with the repeated refrains in the story and retelling the story. We also enjoyed listening to a different version called the three little wolves and the big bad pig. We have used the three little pigs small world area to retell the story with our friends. On Wednesday morning we had PE with Mr Treble and we practiced our catching and throwing skills using beanbags. On Wednesday afternoon we collected a variety of materials around the school grounds to make a house and then used the hairdryer to see if the material would blow away. The children really enjoyed this activity and using the hairdryer. On Thursday and Friday morning a group of children helped Karen think of words which rhyme with pig, stick, pot and straw. On Thursday afternoon we acted out the story of The Three little pigs outside using the roundhouse, wood area etc. We also enjoyed playing on the playtrail and carried on the game with our friends. On Friday afternoon we played number bingo in groups and played outside with our wellies on. On Friday morning, Helen made an obstacle course and we practiced our balancing, climbing and jumping skills.
We have enjoyed the vets role play and being the vet and making the animals better. 

This week we are going to be celebrating World Book Week with a variety of activities around books. We have got our trip to the library this week to explore and learn what is available at the library.   We will be exploring a different book each day and have a variety of activities to go with the book including cooking, drama, drawing/painting, science and lots more. We will be looking at different types of books e.g. Fiction and non fiction. 
On Thursday we are dressing up as our favourite book character. We would love to read the children's favourite books, so it would be great if the children would like to bring these in over the week. 
If you would like to come and share your favourite story with the children, please come and speak to a member of staff to arrange a time during the week.
On Tuesday afternoon Year 3 children will be coming to read to pre-school and this will continue on a weekly basis.

Home learning

It has been lovely to see all the amazing number hunt posters come in. Can you bring in a picture of you reading your favourite story in an interesting place? We sent home last week a story challenge. Please do bring them in when completed to receive a certificate

Letters and sounds:- 

Last week Karen/Helen and Sharon's groups have done the sound m and this week will be doing the sound a. Last week Julia's group have done the sounds m, a and this week will be doing the sound s. We have been doing lots of games with Fred frog which involves oral blending and segmenting  We will have also been doing some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds. There is an information session on Tuesday 17th March at 9.00am. 

Notices

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you come in the mornings.

On Friday 6th March February at 5.00pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. Children very welcome to come in pyjamas and bring a teddy. We have changed our story time dates list. Please take a look at the poster for future dates.

 This week Stay and Play will be on Friday 6th March from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

Our next Saturday Stay and Play is on Saturday 14th March from 10.-11.30. Hope to see lots of you there.

On Tuesday 3rd March POWSA meeting in School staff room at 7.30pm. All welcome.

On Thursday 5th March is World Book Day, children can come dressed as their favourite book character. Children also to bring their favourite story to school. 

On Tuesday 17th March there is an information session at 9.00am to share the Read Write Inc Nursery programme and accessing Purple Mash at home.

Here's to an exciting book week.

Julia and Pre-school Team

Welcome back... Mr wolf's pancakes and The three little pigs

Hello everyone,

We hope you all had a wonderful half term full of adventures. We can't wait to hear all about them. 

The last week of term we enjoyed a week of magical adventures and learning. On Monday morning we met a magician called Martin and he did a magic show with fire, cards, money and lots more. We also explored the magical world at school with the bubble machine. On Tuesday we had a surprise parcel of Spike the dragon. We drew pictures of soup we could make for Spike. We also enjoyed making magical wands using sticks, wool and a star. We used our fine motor skills to wrap wool around our wands. On Wednesday afternoon we made some bread rolls ready for our lunch on Thursday. We also had a go at making some magic potions outside at the mud kitchen. On Thursday we made magic potion soup (tomatoes soup) for our lunch which we all really enjoyed eating. On Wednesday and Thursday morning Imogen Dad came in and talked about the 

Philippines and we got to try a variety of foods from the Phillippines. We learnt lots of great facts. On Thursday afternoon we enjoyed watching a magic show by Andy the magic man. It was brilliant. 

This week we are going to be sharing the story of Mr Wolf's pancakes and The three little pigs. We are going to be writing shopping lists of ingredients we need to make pancakes. On Tuesday we are going to be learning how to make pancakes following a set of instructions and then eating pancakes for snack with our favourite toppings. We will also be having some pancake races outside and using the number language of 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. From Wednesday on we will be sharing the story of the 3 little pigs with lots of fun and exciting activities. We will look at materials which would make good houses without blowing down. We will test them with the hairdryer!!

Home learning

We can't wait to hear all about your half term adventures and number hunts. We love to see all your home learning. 

Letters and sounds:- 

This week we are going to be learning the sound m. We have been doing lots of games with Fred frog which involves oral blending and segmenting  We will have also been doing some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds. There will be a coffee morning in next couple of week to share how we do the Read Write Inc Nursery programme. Look out for the date.

Notices

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you come in the mornings.

On Thursday 27th February at 3.10pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

On Friday we have swimming.

 This week Stay and Play will be on Friday 28th February  from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

Our next Saturday Stay and Play is on Saturday 14th March from 10.-11.30. Hope to see lots of you there.

On Friday 28th February it is POWSA film night showing the film of Peter Rabbit. Storytime at 5.30pm and film starts at 5.45pm. Tickets can be purchased from school office or on the night. £3.00 including popcorn and a drink. See poster for more details.

On Tuesday 3rd March POWSA meeting in School staff room at 7.30pm. All welcome.

On Thursday 5th March is World Book Day, children can come dressed as their favourite book character. Children also to bring their favourite story to school. 

Here's to a great week back full of exploring and learning.

Julia and Pre-school Team

Surprise Surprise

Hello everyone,

Last week we started our week of on Monday with a focus on the NSPCC PANTS Day. We went to assembly and met Pantosaurus who shared the important PANTS message. We got to hold up the pants we designed at home in assembly. During the morning we had the opportunity to design our own pants with a variety of craft materials. These are up on display in the classroom. We also listened to the story of Aliens love underpants. We then listened to the NSPCC PANTS song and talk about what PANTS stands for. 
On Tuesday we flew off to India. Throughout the week we have enjoyed a variety of Indian snacks including popadoms, nan bread, mango chutney and Raita. On Tuesday we learnt all about Mehndi. We had a go at doing our own henna patterns on a hand we drew round on orange paper. On Wednesday morning Sunny bought in some Indian clothes  which we enjoyed sharing at group time. Also on Wednesday at group time we read a story all about Diwali and how Diwali is celebrated.  We talked about the colourful patterns they make. We went outside and had a go a making some of the patterns using chalks. We also made sparklers out of sticks with glitter and gold paper and had a go at using our homemade sparkers to make draw in the air. We had PE with Mr Treble and we used some apparatus to climb through, over and under and balancing along the beam. 
On Wednesday afternoon we had a go at making our own little pots out of salt dough. On Monday and Wednesday afternoon a group of children went over to Reception for an explore. On Thursday afternoon we enjoyed reading the story of Elmer and then had a go drawing our own Elmer in chalk outside. We have enjoyed mark making in Indian spices this week. On Thursday afternoon we had an explore of the school grounds and enjoyed using the playtrail and trim trail. We also had great fun making up our imaginative games like campfires. On Friday afternoon we had great fun making dens outside. 

This week we have got a very exciting surprise week. We have got lots of fun, exciting and exploring activities to do this week. We will be visiting school throughout the week to take part in a variety of activities. On Thursday we are going to be making our own surprise lunch so no pack lunches will be needed. If your child attend on Monday, please come to pre-school for 8.50am. I will give an update of our surprise tomorrow evening. 

Home learning

Over half term can you go a number hunt? Can you make a poster of all the numbers you can find?

Letters and sounds:- 

We have nearly finished learning all the picture names of the Read Write Inc cards. We will continue to learn the last of Read Write Inc Pictures. We have been doing lots of games with Fred frog which involves oral blending and segmenting  We will have also been doing some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds.

Notices

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you come in the mornings.

It was lovely to see you at Parents evening to share your child's learning. If you were unable to parent evening, please do come and see me to arrange a suitable time and date.

On Wednesday at 3.10pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

 This week Stay and Play will be on Thursday 13th February  from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

On Thursday the children do not need to bring in a packed lunch as we will be making our own lunch surprise. 

Our next Saturday Stay and Play is on Saturday 14th March from 10.-11.30. Hope to see lots of you there.

On Saturday 15th February we have a community make over day from 10.00-5.00pm. All very welcome, please come and join us. If you have any questions please come ask Julia. 

We break up for half term on Thursday 13th February and return on Monday 24th February.

We hope you have a lovely half term and that the weather is kind to us all. We look forward to greeting you back after a little break.

Here's to a very exciting and fun week.

Julia and Pre-school Team

Around the world....Philippines and India

Hello everyone,

Wow, what a great week we had visiting Africa. On Monday we boarded the plane with our passports and flew all the way to Africa. We met our special visitor there (Ruby's Dad Jack) Jack took us on a safari with our very own maps with stickers through the country of Africa. We learnt about the animals, language and culture in Africa. On the drawing table we had the African flag to paint using corks. In the afternoon we made our own African mask using lots of colours and dots to paint. We looked at some African masks. On Tuesday morning we had a very special delivery left for us at the pre-school door. All the children went to the main entrance to find a big box had been delivered. We worked as a team to bring the box down to the classroom. We heard an animal noise in the box. When we opened the box we found we had a giraffe in there. We named him Gerald and did some drawings of him and thought of some questions to ask his family. Also in the morning outside we made Gerald the giraffe a home using the construction materials. We collected leaves and a bucket of water for him.  At group time we enjoyed looking at some photos of Africa which Wren bought in. On Tuesday afternoon we took a walk to the school roundhouse and talked about how some African people live in these and how it different to our homes. On the way back we collected the materials to make our own roundhouses. 
On Wednesday morning we listened to the story of Handa's Surprise. For snack we had all the fruit to taste which Handa had in her basket. In the afternoon we made roundhouses out of mud, straw, water, sticks. It was great fun. Outside in the afternoon we had our own safari with animals hidden all around the outside environment and we made our own binoculars and safari hats to look for the animals. On Thursday morning we played a game of guess the safari animal using the clues. In the afternoon we went to Reception and had an explore. On Friday morning we made our own favourite fruit tally chart. Throughout the week we have enjoyed painting different animals from Africa, playing with all the soft cuddly safari animals, mark making with paint the animal footprints. 
Also during the week we have been making our door pots pretty with primroses, looking after the animals, swimming, PE with Mr Treble, obstacle course. On Friday morning we had great fun with making bubbles outside and using brushes with bubbles. 

 This week we start the week on Monday with a focus on NSPCC ‘Pants Day’ We will meet Pantosaurus who teaches us how to stay safe and we will sing along to the Pantosaurus song. From Tuesday we will be exploring the Philippines and India for the rest of the week. We are going to be looking at patterns, colour, spices, elephants, food and lots more. Here to another very exciting week of travelling!!

Home learning

Can you bring in something you have made or have which is about the Philippines and Indian Culture?

Letters and sounds:- 

We have nearly finished learning all the picture names of the Read Write Inc cards. We will continue to learn the last of Read Write Inc Pictures. We have been doing lots of games with Fred frog which involves oral blending and segmenting  We will have also been doing some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds.

Notices

Don't forget to bring in your child's WOW moments. We love to share and celebrate these with everyone. There are spare WOW's by the WOW board in the corridor. 

On Tuesday 4th February  at 5.00pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

 This week Stay and Play will be on Wednesday 5th February from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

This term swimming will take place on a Friday morning. The children swim on a 2 week rota. Swimming will be this week.  

On Tuesday 4th February there is a POWSA meeting in the school staff room at 7.30pm. Come and join us and help plan our spring events. Any questions come and ask myself. 

I look forward to seeing you all at parents evening. I am very much looking forward to meeting you all again and having the opportunity to share with you how fantastically well your children are doing and the progress they are making!

We break up for half term on Thursday 13th February and return on Monday 24th February.

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you hang up coats in the mornings, all important post will be there. 

Heres to another exciting  and exploring week.

Julia and Pre-school team