Welcome back to all our families and to a new family who have joined us this term having moved to Cullompton.

As we start the summer term we are learning which schools the children have been allocated and starting to think about planning our register for the Autumn Term 2025! Our New Parents Evening will be on Wednesday 4th June so we will be contacting families to book hours in for next year over the coming weeks.

We have returned to a very happy pre-school – the children are rested after their break and we have been tiring them out with lots of pirate play outside which has been really fun and imaginative. We have also had a little tidy up and have explored water play with mini pirate boats and have been searching for home made treasure and making treasure chests as well.

Our overall theme has been pirates to see if this is inspiring the children which it has! Next week we will extend this to support pirate games and activities in circle times with Maths/Numbers as a focus – counting treasure for example! The children have worked together this week to create the ship, come up with ideas for the water play, walked the plank and played new games which involves listening and learning new rules.

Disco Thursday has been replaced by Mindful Thursday and it was an incredible start to the sessions….you could hear a pin drop which is extremely rare at pre-school as you can imagine! I started with breathing exercises to calm, then a technique which involves running your finger along your arm and down and around the fingers on your hand and it was a very lovely moment to see all the children (27!!) watching me and copying my actions and then carefully following my lead in silence! Then I stood on a chair and blew bubbles while the children sat still and allowed them to fall onto their laps or clothes and not leap around to catch them, again they were mesmerised by just sitting and watching and feeling the bubbles and we finished with more slow breathing before starting very quietly to wash hands for lunch. There is a pic of me on the chair in the gallery so do show your children and we would love to hear any comments – it’s a new session so we will see how it goes but a BIG change from singing and dancing to loud music!

Our circle times have had a technology focus, online safety is really important and I would like to direct you to a new section on the website and on Tapestry in Documents for your info. There are so many positives to technology and digital media in our homes and to using devices with and without screens – a couple of rules that we support are that children should not use tablets on their own without supervision, should not access You Tube alone and although it seems very early to think about online safety it is a vital skills for our young people. We will be generating advice sheets and sharing knowledge from training courses that we complete as well to build a set of documents to support this area.

Our circles have been really fun, using the ipad for facetiming parents, chatting to the group in the other room, programming work, looking at remotes and cameras and old phones, making a pretend tablet and choosing apps from a paper app store, talking about what the picture represent and what the app is for, taking photos and videos of each other, printing pics out with a tiny printer, using our Yoto and walkie talkies!

Our Sun table has had a “senses” focus using delicious fruit for taste, mystery smelling jars for smell, different textures and mystery boxes for touch, sounds games for hearing and all of the above for sight!

Next week we will continue the Pirate theme, have a chatter box full of interesting items for the sun table, lots of Maths inside and outside and puzzles and another mindful Thursday session!

We have had a wonderfully busy week, lots going on and so much learning and play and fun and inspiration!

The week started with a normal Monday, setting up for the week ahead – laying out our hat and bag and jewellery shop for free flow sessions, we started with some dinosaur fossil hunting in the garden and our brilliant circus skill games as well. Our welcome tray concentrated on feelings each morning and then playdoh and fossils during free flow.

We welcomed Kate from Tiny Travels on Tuesday and she led 3 sessions where the children we are able to learn about diversity and explore some beautiful treasures from around the world that Kate has collected and she has visited 120 countries! She sang songs with us, talked about how we are all different and valued and how to be kind and the children loved the parachute play at the end with the blow up globe flying up into the air. We loved her sessions and the children were engrossed and fascinated, the Stars had a little session at the end which allowed them to play with the treasures and smell the different sensory pots Kate had and to try on slippers and play instruments too. We will definitely be booking Kate for next year as well as part of our celebrations of diversity through our year.

Alfie came on Wednesday am to lead football sessions which were brilliant and the children all loved their stickers and stamps!

Thursday the Moon group had a brilliant Forest School session in the warm sunshine, learning how to saw and enjoying snack by the fire and then we welcomed 10 Grandparents in for the afternoon session who joined Robot Reg in his phonics lesson and we will be doing the same today – Friday!

Our circles times have had a dinosaur theme, carrying on from the exploring last week – dinosaur stories, a dino number games, matching dinos and their shadows, naming and sorting and drawing dinosaurs, dinosaur facts and dinosaur songs and dance and building dinosaur houses to match the height of the dinosaur! All brilliant fun, lots of learning – maths, size, names, new vocab, numbers, literacy, stories and mark making too. Next week our circle times will be based on colour and science!

The week has flown past and we have caught up with lots of families for parent consultation appointments and shared the paper version of our learning journey, handed out next steps and chatted over any worries you may have. We will also add the next steps to Tapestry for you and please do have a look at the Tiny Travels photos and videos from Tuesday. We also use facebook for some photos of activities as well and are using the whiteboard which will be propped up in the undercover area each day.

Welcome back to the Spring Term, we have been bathed in Spring sunshine and we have our wormery looking great, frogspawn that has already turned into tadpoles and a new baby stick insect and some lovely sweet pea plants that are growing well too!

The children have settled back in and this half term has so much fun and learning ahead! We have our wonderful Forest School sessions with Sophie, Eva and Louise with the Moons on a Thursday and the Sun group on a Friday now. Robot Reg comes to visit on a Thurs and Fri pm for the Sun and Moon groups which is super fun and a phonics based session – the children are always ready for a little change in routine now and having a different teacher come in is really exciting for them so we are really pleased to welcome Rebecca and Robot Reg back from maternity leave!

So much going on – we have World Book Day next week with two library visits on Tues and Wed am and then a day of dressing up on Thursday. We have Shrove Tuesday and the start of Ramadan as well next week. Then our Sponsored Bike Ride, more Robot Reg visits, Alfie from the Football Fun Factory and an afternoon tea for Grandparents and Easter prep!

The outside area of pre-school has turned into a Fire Station and we are hoping to take a walk up to the fire station soon so watch out for more “please help us walk” texts!! We really appreciate your help, Grandparents are welcome to help as well as we love getting out and about in our community.

We have been learning about community and our world, from family who live across the globe, to family in the UK, learning about travelling, different building and jobs too. Please send us photos from around the world, family or holidays and photos from the UK please.

We have a set of photos on facebook of the fine motor activities we have had on the round table first thing in the morning to welcome the children, building strength and dexterity in the hands is so important for early writing and the children have also enjoyed the fidget toys and spinners that we have had out during free flow.

Cafe role play has been really lovely during free flow in the sun room, lots of imaginative play and chat, menu lists and pretend food with lots of photos of meals from magazines that we have cut out and laminated for the area. We use real plates and mugs and they are heavy so build strength and ensure the children learn to take care of the toys we have, carrying them and packing them away carefully.

The circle times have had a community theme – the world, countries, music, language, flags and maps and passports and travel and jobs people do.

Sun and Moon – have drawn our planet, looked at the globe and maps, continents and which animals live where, built structures from around the world from blocks, used google earth and made passports, written our names and ages and drawn our faces and then gone on a little walk outside.

Star group – have looked at the buildings and places in our town, Cullompton using photos that we have taken on trips out, talked about holidays and travelling and looked at jobs and vehicles that we may see in our community.

We will have a story focus next week as we are celebrating World Book Day – your child can dress up on Thursday and Friday in a costume or in pyjamas! We will keep the fire station as well as the play has been so lovely and exciting, rescuing cats from trees and putting out fires!

The office are working on the register for the Autumn Term already so please book your child in for the hours you would like and you will also receive some info from us in the next week about opening hours during the holidays. We have now registered on the Childcare Register as well which allows us to open throughout the year for our pre-school children and siblings up to the age of 8.

We will start during the Easter Holiday so please be ready to book in and we look forward to a new phase in what we offer our local community!