Autumn Term 2026 – Week 4

Hello,

I can’t believe we are in October already, the weeks are passing by so quickly!

We started the week a little unsure of what would be happening following the AGM but we would like to thank everyone that has said they will join, we are looking forward to working with you to continue making the Pre School such as happy place for the children to come to. Sarah is working through the paperwork as I’m typing this so it will all start to come together soon!

Another bit of good news we’ve had today is that our new Admin Assistant will be starting on Monday, she is called Abi and some of you will recognise her. She will be a great support for Sarah.

This week we have started to look at harvest and Autumn, thank you for everyone that has been out leaf picking for our trays. In the Sun Room we have had mini farms and sensory Autumn trays, on the malleable table there has been cloud dough (which again has been a lot of mess but the children have enjoyed it – we have added dinosaurs, numbers, treasure and animals to it). We have also had lots of stories in different formats – traditional books, story sack, puppets and the Yoto box – the children sat really calmly on the cushions while listening to the stories on the Yoto box, really listening to them and then recalling them to their friends!

Outside we have set up a farm shop undercover, we have been teaching the children how to be shop keepers and customers, have weighed food and today they are delivering food to customers in the garden on the delivery bikes. We have also has sand and water out, we froze water in castle buckets and put them out in trays with coloured warm water and pipettes so they could see how they melted, it was really popular so we will repeat this in a few weeks. We have had bubbles, frogs, oceans, pine cones and leaves, sand toys and pompoms and tweezers – some of these are to help with fine motor skills and some just to explore and help with their understanding of the world.

Circle times this week have been great, the photos are really lovely and show all the children getting involved. The Star group have been learning how to play with our small world sets , such as the farm, train tracks, tea parties, airports and building houses with small wooden bricks. The Suns and Moons have been learning how to play with the role play sets, we have taught them to take on characters and look at the resources we have. It encouraged them to chat to each other, gave them confidence to try new ways of playing in a small group environment rather than in free flow. We have seen this lead to more of the children getting involved in the farm shop which has been really lovely to see.

Next week we will be continuing with harvest and the farm shop. In the Sun Room we will be talking about harvest, making play dough and large scale painting (large sheets on the floor, painting on tin foil, bubble wrap and clingfilm) to develop gross motor skills and creativity. Outside alongside the farm shop will have sand and water and will be brushing the floor with broom and bubbles and scrubbing the fences, again to build up those gross motor skills.

In circle times we will be looking at how food is produced, looking at recipe books, writing recipes and making food.

We are also going to be planting bulbs in the garden this week, if anyone has any spare bulbs they would like to donate we would really appreciate it – thank you.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Louise