This week in pre-school we enjoyed Julia Donaldson's story, "What the ladybird heard?'

A witty adventure of two crafty robbers, one tiny ladybird and a whole farmyard of fun!

The children enjoyed the story and creating their own paper plate ladybirds. We used some ladybirds and their spots to build on our counting skills.  The children have been working hard to count and say the numbers in sequence up to 10.  We then counted the spots on the ladybirds and placed them by the correct number.  Counting small groups of everyday objects at home is a really good way to teach children that the last number they reach tells us how many objects there are.  

On Tuesday we honored Remembrance Day in our own way, creating a pre-school wreath and our own poppy artwork.  We then took part in the 2-minute silence by watching a beautiful animation following a young rabbit through the poppy fields.  It gave the children an age-appropriate understanding of peace and hope.

Our phonics sessions had a theme of Little Red Riding Hood.  The children have enjoyed using instruments that helped them to tell the story or move like a character. Using our listening skills to move in time to a fast or slow beat.

A reminder that we need a waterproof coat and a pair of wellies for your child for them to enjoy outside play in all weather.

Some dates for your diary;

Wednesday 17^th December - Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day

Friday 19th December  - Lights, Camel, Action 2! The Sequin! at the church

12:30pm - Last day of term and children can be collected from 1.15pm.

Friday 19th December  - Lights, Camel, Action 2! The Sequin!  - Last day of term. Children can be collected from 1.15pm

Monday 22nd December - Friday 2nd January - Christmas Break

A busy first week back in pre-school after the half term break.  The children were excited to be back and shared some lovely stories of fun things they had enjoyed with their families.

We delved straight into our Autumn Term 2 question 'What makes Julia Donaldson stories so fun and exciting?' Room on the Broom was our first text to enjoy this week, with our own potion making tuff tray and some sparkly wand making to wish for our own truly magnificent broom!

Another special date this week was Bonfire Night, the children looked at pictures of fireworks, and we made our own explosive colourful artwork.  We also enjoyed making chocolate breadstick sparklers!

Our other activities included the start of a new Phonics topic.  This half term our phonics sessions are 'Traditional Tales' themed.  With Goldilocks and the Three Bears starting us off.  We listened to the story and enjoyed different daily sessions - Lumpy Bumpy Porridge being a favourite where we explored rhyming words and mixed them in to the pot!

Our music assemblies and lessons with Mrs Butlin have been exciting with the introduction of the music for the whole school performance of Lights, Camel, Action 2!

Lastly, we have enjoyed some afternoon art lessons 'Drawing Marvelous Marks' alongside our Reception friends - exploring mark making using different drawing materials.

This Friday is 'Children in Need', we will have some Pudsey activities for the children.  The school has a non-uniform day for £1 donation, if Pre-school children would like to dress up or wear something Pudsey themed for a donation they are most welcome.

The Pre-School Team. 

This last week of Autumn Term 1 we have looked at Diwali, the Hindu celebration of light.  We have had stories to understand more about the celebration and what Hindu families do to celebrate.  We have also made our own Diva paper plate lamps.

We also enjoyed some early Halloween activities this week, with spooky silhouette painting, looking at Pumpkins and why we carve them, Halloween yoga and dancing, then finishing the week with some Halloween dressing up!

I think we are all ready for a little half term rest before we come back in the very exciting second part of autumn term.

We return to Pre-School on Monday 3^rd November and our new enquiry question will be 'Why is Julia Donaldson so fun?'  An exciting topic with so many lovely stories by Julia to enjoy.

We hope everyone has a lovely half term break.

The Pre-School Team.

This week we have finished our learning around our autumn term 1 enquiry question, Who Am I?

We talked about our families, looked at all the pictures on our family wall and then drew our own families inside a lolly-pop stick house.  These look very cute alongside our portrait display wall.

The children have all been busy making some beautiful autumn leaf sun catchers for our windows, do look out for them as you walk by!

We had a lovely surprise invitation from Lantic class on Thursday, to join them in meeting PC Brailey-Evans and a police vehicle.  The children all had fun exploring the police van and then receiving a sticker.  

Next week we will be looking at the celebrations of Halloween and Diwalli, with some fun activities planned.

As a reminder, please do make sure your child has spare clothes each day in pre-school.  If your child has been sent home in spare pre-school clothes, then please do return them.  We are very low on spare trousers for both girls and boys.

Since we have started joining the main school for lunch time, there is the option of ordering your child a hot school lunch if they would prefer this over a packed lunch.  The cost of a school lunch is £2.70, this would need to be paid for in advance on parent pay.  If this is something you would like to arrange then please do go and speak to Mrs Thompson in the main school office.

A reminder that this Friday 24^th October is an Inset Day for the whole school, we return to pre-school after half term on Monday 3^rd November.

 
The Pre-School Team.

This week in pre-school we were all about Harvest time!

The children enjoyed our Harvest themed role play table, with lots of enthusiastic farmers collecting crops and vegetables from the fields.

We watched some clips of live action combine harvesters working in the fields, and what different foods we harvest.  We also saw a family visit a working mill and how they turned their farms wheat into flour. We have talked about why we go to church to celebrate the Harvest festival, and why we are thankful at this time of year to all our hardworking farmers. 

The children did so well on Wednesday joining the whole school for Reverand Richards Harvest Service in the church.  They had practiced 'Big Red Combine Harvester' and the actions to perform alongside Lantic class. A big well done.

We enjoyed some seasonal baking in pre-school this week, with Mrs Carr bringing in some apples we decided to bake some delicious apple and cinnamon cakes.  The children have helped to weigh, stir and scoop the mixture - not forgetting practicing their chopping skills preparing the apple pieces.  Pre-school smelt very autumnal as they baked in the oven and the children said they were very yummy.

For art this week the children have been helping us to paint lots of different fruits and vegetables for our big healthy eating display.  This has been a good way of talking about all the names of the fruits and vegetables that we know, and the children learning some names of ones they do not know.

With the weather being dry we have enjoyed having our outside autumn discovery table with all our autumn treasures, and a new addition is our mud kitchen role play area.  The children have been making acorn cakes and stick stew with all the natural resources.  It has allowed us to observe some great language skills and imaginative play.

We will be finishing off our 'Who am I?' enquiry question next week, and then our final week before half term we will look at the celebrations of Diwali and Halloween.

A reminder that Friday 24^th October is an Inset Day.

The Pre-School Team.

Last week we enjoyed looking through lots of our autumn treasure bags, with so many different items found by the children.

The children talked about what they had found, the different colours and textures of each item and if they knew what we called them.  We talked about how the Conker husk is hard and spiky, and that when they fall from the tree the conkers will fall out. We even had an apple that had been found fallen from an apple tree. 

We went on a welly walk around the  school field and found lots of acorns and special leaves for our collection.  

For art this week, we enjoyed using leaf shaped stamps, with red, yellow and orange paint to create a wonderful autumn print. 

We have started to introduce phonics into our morning sessions now the children have all settled back into our routine.  Phonics in pre-school uses activities to focus on sound recognition, rhythm and rhyme, and environmental sounds.  This helps support children's communication and language development too.  Last week we used sound stories to listen and identify different autumn sounds.

 During our music lessons with Lantic class we used our body to move in different ways depending on pace and beat of the music. We have also been practicing our 'Big Red Combine Harvester' song for the harvest festival service on Wednesday.

Next Monday 13^th October Tempest photography are coming into school for individual and sibling photos.  If your child has an older sibling/s then you are to take them to the school for 8.45 for their photos.  If your child has no siblings in school but you would like a photo of them, you are welcome to take them across for 8.45 to have their photo and then drop them in to pre-school if it is their session day.

If you have any questions then please do come and speak to us.

The Pre-School Team.

A welcome back to our pre-school blog!

The children have all settled back into pre-school well for the start of autumn term.  We have also welcomed some new little faces to the pre-school, and it has been lovely to start to get to know them.  We have also welcomed Mrs Barrett as a Pre-School TA on a Friday, Mrs Barrett is an experienced TA who also works at Duloe Pre-School and is a wonderful addition to our team.

This half term our enquiry question, "Who am I?" leads us to lots of wonderful ways to learn about ourselves and each other.  From self-portraits to all about me collages, family pictures and talks about siblings or pets at home. Lots of Grand Conversations happen with the children to build up their self-identity and understanding of who they are.

We have also been discovering changes to the season with stories and songs about Autumn and what we can see around us.  The children will be bringing home a special bag to collect some autumn items to bring into pre-school.  We will build up a display table to let the children explore and learn about these items.  So, any crunchy colourful leaves, acorns, conkers and pinecones or any other natural autumn object the children would like to bring in.

The children have been enjoying joining in with some of Lantic's afternoon activities such as music with Mrs Butlin and PE.  They are showing great listening skills and follow instructions from the teachers.

Next week on Wednesday 8^th October at 2pm we will be joining the whole school for their harvest festival celebration in St Nun Church.  If you would like to bring any donations of tinned or dried foods that we can add to the collection for Liskeard and Looe food bank , that would be very much appreciated.

We will be enjoying some baking next week with the children so do make sure we are up to date with any known allergies.

Below are some pictures of our first few weeks back at pre-school, also attached is the most recent pre-school newsletter incase you have not received one. 

The Pre-School Team.