The children have made the most of the sunshine again this week with lots of water play outside to keep cool and we have popped our event shelter up for some extra shade. We take our drinks trolley outside and ensure the children refill their bottles during the day but please check with us if you are worried at all about how much your child is drinking.

We have welcomed Mrs Kyte from Willowbank School in this week to meet the children who will go into foundation class there and we will welcome St Andrew’s next week as well. The transition to school is very important and we share info with the new teachers to help them prepare for the arrival of our school starters. We know the children really well so can really help that process.

We are also starting to fill our spaces for September but we do still have space which people may not be aware of so we would be very grateful if you could share the facebook post so that we can get the message out to our community.

In our sun room, we have enjoyed hairdresser role play – an experience most of the children have knowledge of and with adults supporting the play there are so many learning opportunities. Mark making and talking about appointments and time and good vocabulary and learning all about different colour and types of hair and styles and nationalities.

We have been painting after circles times as well and exploring a different theme each morning on the carpet – we have covered health and our body, jobs and vehicles and life cycles and birds.

Our circle times have had a focus on minibeasts and maths. The Star group have used ladybirds and practising counting their spots, they have explored and learnt about the butterfly life cycles and acted out the Hungry Caterpillar story sack, drawn minibeast and produced some wonderful butterfly symmetry painting pictures.

The Sun group are enjoying their Forest School sessions on Thursday and Friday, they have one more week and then it will be the turn of the Moon group.

The Moon and Sun circles time have focused on recognising numbers and matching them, and there has been some really great progress in the last few weeks. They have practised making patterns which is part of the maths curriculum and have made caterpillars and butterflies with clay, and then painted those. Our caterpillars are already in cocoons so we are expecting to see butterflies emerge in a week or so and then we will have our wonderful Hungry Caterpillar Picnic Party!

Next week we have a busy week with two grandparents afternoon tea which are going to be well attended and we will look forward to welcoming you for some activities and a cup of tea and a piece of cake! The sessions are from 1-2pm on Monday and Wednesday afternoon.

Our planning for next week includes lots of mark making and drawing, shape games and rhyming games, castle role play and train tracks and water play.

Construction, rivers and boats, Star Forest School, balloon rockets, bubble snakes, water, gutters, painting, colours, animal craft, train track, small world, golf teas, loom bands, matching buttons, pasta threading, peg boards, outside games, stories, circle times and so much more! All in a week of pre-school life!

We had have a great week leading up to our half term break, we will be closed for a week from Monday, returning for our last half term before the summer break – where has the time gone!

Next half term is a very busy one, we have Forest School for the Sun and Moon groups, we have Animals 2 U visiting in July, we have another Grandparents tea party, our visits to primary school and our graduation celebrations at the end of the term where we say goodbye to all our sun and moon children. We also have our long awaited summer fete on the 8th July and a fantastic raffle ahead with some truly brilliant prizes, including from Exeter Chiefs and Exeter Football clubs.

We have been choosing themes each week to focus on and we weave in all the areas of learning to each one and this week has been wonderful – we have learnt about animals and their habitats. We have covered the desert, rainforest, arctic, under the sea, farm and English garden – listening to sounds from those habitats, sorting animals and learning animal facts. The sounds of the ocean were the children’s favourite but they have loved exploring the theme over our week and are very proud of their artwork and learning.

The Star group have followed the theme learning about animals, sorting them, creating habitats, using the animal to create footprints in paint and reading “Walking through the Jungle”. They also decorated fish and enjoyed their Forest School sessions on Thursday and Friday with Jackie and Sophie.

We have been working on keeping the children focused on a task, persevering, and turn taking. We have been outside a little more than usual with play ground games after lunch – “What’s the time Mr Wolf” and “Duck Duck Goose”. Lots of sand play which is so calming in the shade of our little hut and after half term we will be working hard on the growing garden and also on shopping! We are delighted to have had such a great response to our sky dive and look forward to buying new toys to develop our provision here.

After the half term we will be learning about caterpillars and life cycles, we will have our annual Hungry Caterpillar picnic party and will be welcoming new children in for session visits from the beginning of July.

We wish you all a happy half term and look forward to seeing everyone in June!

We hope our families enjoyed the bank holiday Monday and are looking forward to the Coronation this weekend with another Monday off next week! We have had a busy few days here, making Coronation decorations and bunting and learning all about the new King Charles III and remembering our Queen as well. A lot of the children were part of our Jubilee celebrations last year and the walk to hear proclamation of the new King so a lovely set of memories for them. Lots of red white and blue around our pre-school. We celebrated the Coronation on Thursday and Friday morning with a party at pre-school and save God Save the King.

We have also enjoyed our visits from Robot Reg on Thursday and Friday afternoons and it is so lovely to hear the children shrieking with laughter from his antics and learning while laughing is so wonderful.

Carol also visited us again for a Coronation story massage session, which is so calming and we have had a very active week outside, talking around a pretend camp fire and taking part in exciting activities outside to develop our co-ordination and strength.

Next week we are planning to learn about colour and countries, focus on listening skills and choosing activities. Mini Forest School returns for the Star group and we will be building outside working on team work and imaginative play.

We will be planning our summer fete soon and will need volunteers to man a stall or bake a cake or help pack away at the end of the day – please email or chat on the door if you can help on Saturday 8th May 2023. Thank you!