We started our week thanking people who keep us safe – Remembrance is a hard topic for pre-school age children so we keep it simple but it is important to learn respect and to remember so we talk a lot about being safe. The staff team joined together for the two minutes silence on Tuesday and the children stood with us and it was a very touching moment in our week.

We are so thrilled today to have some sunshine! The Forest School photos are so wonderful in the sunshine and show off the garden and the team work of the children really well, they play beautifully out there and the atmosphere really comes through in the photographs.

In other parts of pre-school life we have been learning about Pudsey Bear and that his job is to help children, children who are sad, or unwell or unsafe and this message has really been understood by the Sun and Moon groups. Some have volunteered their siblings money boxes and lots have volunteered your money to help Pudsey! We know that people sometimes cannot afford to give to charity and we understand, we would love it if you can afford to and please pop anything you can spare into Pudsey’s pot tomorrow and the staff team will be dressed in bright colours instead of normal uniform.

We have used the Disney ideas and movie ideas for games in circle times and we have enjoyed a Disney Disco Thursday today which was very popular and Disco Thursday will commence weekly in January!

The Sun room has become a hospital and we have some excellent future doctors and thanks to some of the great equipment we have, new vocabulary has been learnt and new concepts too such a CPR, Blood Pressure and lots of bandaging!

Our circle times have been great fun and a real mix – Disney Bingo, Toy Story action games, Disney I Spy, Disney listening and attention games – spotting which film has which music, superhero bowling, making an Olaf and Mickey Mouse puzzles, size work, Frozen songs and matching Disney characters. We added in learning about Pudsey and Remembrance too.

We plan many trips over the year and had our first explore this week with a wonderful harvest themed trip to our local church St Andrews.

The children walked beautifully up the to church, looking and listening for cars and tractors, looking out for poo on the pavement and being careful of the wing mirrors and window sills! We walked around the church and had a peep into the food bank which lots of families in our town use on a Friday – we would like to donate some tins of food to the foodbank and will pop a box outside for donation next week and I will deliver those on Thursday afternoon with some of the children. The children in the Sun and Moon groups will know what they tins are for as Ed the Vicar explained it to them so it would be really lovely if people can afford to give a donation. We have had families in the past that have relied on the food bank so it is nice to give something back. We explored the church, dressed up and had a lovely snack before walking back. Thank you so much for all our kind helpers – we love to go out and about and have lots planned this year so will be asking for walkers a few times over the next few months!

Our planning this week has been focused on stories and following the sequence of a story in our circle times with lots of imaginative activities from the group leaders!

The Sun and Moon groups have read lots of stories, acted them out, learnt about the sequence and talked about the books together – they have covered Dear Zoo, Goldilocks, Hungry Caterpillar, Three Little Pigs, Bear Hunt, Elmer, Jack & the Beanstalk, The Gingerbread man and Rainbow Fish and the Little Red Hen too.

The Star group have also been reading lots of stories too, enjoying story sacks (Gruffalo and the Hungry Caterpillar) and making salt dough for the Little Red Hen story, bear hunt dancing and building towers in the clouds for Jack and the Beanstalk.

Free flow – we have made a train outside with a platform and tickets and a timetable and a drinks trolley – lots of learning going on with words and numbers, ideas and locations for travel, taking turns, making friends and physical development helping to move the tyres and set up the chairs too.

The sun table has been a brilliant learning zone, focusing on animals in our English countryside and each sheet that the staff and children have created is on display now.

Next week – we will be using pumpkins and making soup and collecting the seeds. We will also be learning about being healthy in our circle times – covering exercise, and teeth brushing, snacks and treats and healthy foods, sleep and online safety too.

We will enjoy cafe role play and birthday party role play too and would love you to send in photos of your meals! Please take a photo of your meal on it’s plate and send it to admin@cullomptonpreschool.org – I am going to print them out and laminate them for the cafe role play!

One more week of pre-school before we have a half term break – we are open during half term TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY for holiday club so please do ask the office if you would like a space! You can pay for the day or use funding if you have some left – check with Mandy in the office!

Another amazing week settling 9 new children in and with beautiful autumn sunshine to help us! Our Forest School sessions have been bathed in autumn light and our garage and our mini mechanics have been super busy fixing and cleaning our bikes outside.

Our circle times have had a focus on physical development and we have had so much fun!
The Moon and Sun groups have played lots of games including a parachute game, a competitive ball game, lots of cheering each other on with quick hand movements needed and good co-ordination too! They have enjoyed a tricky obstacle course, balloon games, some yoga, some action songs and dances and a scoop and balance game – great learning through great ideas from the group leaders!

The Star group have also been active and jumping around! They have played a spin the arrow movement game, sticky kids which is a CD we have that has lots of movement songs, some stop and start action games, catching and throwing, over and under hoops and dough gym to build arm strength and ribbon dancing too.

There are some wonderful photos of our week on the parent gallery so please do have a look with your child and chat about the children’s names, we can see some lovely friendships forming too.

We have been exploring maths on the sun table during free flow and construction and our colourful mud kitchen outside has been a big hit with the children so this will continue to be played with next week too.

Next week we will be learning about Autumn on the sun table during free flow, please can you collect leaves and some twigs for us to use in our craft! We will also be playing outside, clearing the astro and using the ideas from circle time to play games to develop our physical and co-ordination skills – hoping for more sunshine too!

All children will have an on entry sheet over the next two week which plots their starting point with us and helps us plan our activities and circle times to ensure all children make progress with us, this info will be shared with you in paper form for you to make notes on for your key person to read to inform all our work here. We have a key person meeting on Monday and we chat about how everyone has settled in and any worries that we have and what we can be working on. This includes speech and language groups so if you have any worries about understanding your child please do let your key person know and your child can join our Launch into Language programme.

Our AGM is on Monday and I will be preparing a report for that to share with you all and we look forward to welcoming a new committee to work with Mandy and myself. A Teams link will be sent today.