We are now full for September 2022! We can’t believe it but things do often change around at the last minute but we are very surprised to be so busy this year. Please do encourage anyone you know who may want to come to complete a registration form so that they can be placed on our waiting list.

our week has been full of weddings and party celebrations and there have been some wonderful photos from our construction play outside. Large scale construction is brilliant for imaginative play and solving problems and conflict when working together in a small space that you have made!

We have also been playing games outside and have only had the bikes out a few times – we have followed a long line to develop our balance, we have been tyre rolling, scooping and carrying balls with ladles, painting the fence and obstacle courses with lots of climbing.

The Star group have been planting peas for our garden and have enjoyed lots of physical exercises and a feely box, guessing the objects in it and paying listening and attention games.

The Sun and Moon groups have swapped over and Suns are going into the circle time first at the moment while the Moons enjoy some free play before snack and have their circle time after snack. They have learnt about clothes from around the world, adding some amazing drawings to Andrea’s display. They have also done some planting choosing from different seeds, talking about the size and colours of the seeds and our cress is already growing! Music from around the world and some brilliant hula hoop skills and talking about feelings have all contributed to a busy week of learning.

We have really enjoyed welcoming parents to the Forest School sessions and the groups have loved the Bear Hunt theme.

Next week we will be having two Jubilee tea parties for the children – please send them in wearing red/white/blue or a combination or just in usual pre school blue! We will be doing face paints and having a street party with games in the garden, dancing and then our snack street party style along our path for a change (with the gate firmly locked)!

Donations wise we would love any lollipop sticks you can buy at Tesco in the craft section, plain paper plates, rice, any jubilee celebration party items you see around and doilies please!

Welcome back to pre-school for our summer term! We hope it will be filled with sunshine and fun and learning and getting ready for the move to school and the move for the Stars to sun and moon groups!

We have so many exciting events this term with the end being our graduation ceremony for all our school starters! We have missed two years of this special event so we can’t wait to share this with you all.

We are planning sports coaching, trips to the CCA fields for a teddy bears picnic, we will have Robot Reg back again for the Friday groups next half term and we will also be going to the Walronds again for a picnic in their garden.

Our first week back has been full of pirate fun in the garden, we have made a pirate ship, collected treasure, made telescopes and enjoyed treasure hunts and making our own gold and silver nuggets!

On our sun table in the morning we have been learning about different artists and learning about their style and how they create their masterpieces. We will be putting some of the creations up on our display so do have a look! We explored the art of Van Gogh, Mondrian, Seurat and Picasso.

The children have settled back in brilliantly and have loved Science week and water play outside. Next week we will have sand play and will be learning about our senses on the sun table.

Forest School – this week has been bathed in sunshine and the focus has been dandelions! The groups have made the most beautiful dandelion playdoh in the garden, whizzing the dandelions they have picked in water and adding it to the flour mixture. The children enjoyed sticking fir cones into it, cutting up oranges and lemons for the mud kitchen. After the fire and snack time they blew their dandelion seeds and made a wish each and the children thought blowing the seeds far away was hilarious!

We would love donations of food colouring and food flavourings please and any fancy fruits and vegetables for us to explore with our senses!

Circle times –

Star – they have learnt about the concept of heavy and light/long and short, explored making pictures with beads and wood and learnt about the sounds of letters at the beginning of words. They are working on independence too, building up skills they will need for the move to their school starter year – lots of practising putting on their own shoes and finding their bag. The stars ended the week with music and movement and a technology based circle recording their own voices!

Sun and Moon – a very busy week of learning! Lots of chatter about Easter Eggs and Egg hunts at the start of the week! We moved onto answering questions about interesting objects – what does it look like, smell like, feel like, what is it used for, what does it sound like, where will we find it? Amazing conversations about the items – fencing foil, a chocolate covered spoon in pretty wrapping, a candle in a tin and a lint roller! We have used the pirate theme for more learning – counting treasure, making up pirate names and drawing maps.

During free flow we have made playdoh every day and explored that with loose parts – adding different bits and pieces to it over the week. We have brought out our Talking Turtles speech and language programme onto the carpet as well and the popular animal recue tray out after lunch!

The Moon group visited Orchard Lea on Thursday afternoon to go along and sing to the residents there! They were so happy when they came back, full of chatter about the trip and had walked and behaved beautifully – well done Moons!

Glorious sunshine all week! What a treat! The children have loved the warmth and not needing to put their coats on and we have even got the sunhats out! We have been working on our strength again outside, using numbers on blocks and building towers and obstacles courses, we have written numbers on the path and played a great game of number hunt, we have also done some running races with timers and a whiteboard and a tally chart too. Adding numbers into play is a great way to build up knowledge.

On Tuesday we took two groups out to Home Bargains for a nice wander and a shop for some Easter items, the children behaved beautifully in the shop and on the walk and loved scaling the wall into the carpark! We decided it was safer to go over the wall than walk through the car park with all the cars moving around and the children really thought about what they would say was safer.

We also took a small group up to Willowbank for a school visit, the children took part in a treasure hunt around the older children’s classrooms and then explored the Forest School with Miss Mogford and found a newt! We will be organising a trip to St Andrews as well but after April both schools will get in touch with us to arrange transition visits and visits to our setting from the teachers as well.

We have made some wonderful worlds on the sun table and floor – a castle and a farm and a playground and a town!

Our circle times have been busy with a focus on maths, and our free flow times have been full of play in the mud kitchen and cafe areas, making pizzas to sell, donuts to sell and lots of delicious mud cakes and pies and chocolate milkshakes! We have kept the garden tidy with a litter pick and listened to story sacks every day as well – really bringing stories to life together. Pre School has been a bit quieter than usual due to some colds and illness but please do keep an eye on your child and if they have COVID 19 symptoms please keep them at home and organise a PCR test. The current guidance is that you should stay at home and isolate for 5 days if you have COVID 19 and we do have 4 cases at present in children who attend the setting.

Next week we are playing with water outside and developing a nice home corner and family role play inside too. More maths work and sorting work and pattern work and Easter craft and sensory play will be on offer too – thank you for all the donations of the Easter bits from Home Bargains!