This week we enjoyed the story of Stickman. The children looked around our outside area for some good sticks to make our own Stick men and Stick ladies.

We used pipe cleaners for their arms and legs, and the children found it a tricky challenge to wrap them around but they all persevered! We then stuck googly eyes and some leaves for hair, and we had created our own stick people.

During our phonics this week the children listened to the story of the Three Little Pigs, and our activities included listening to and identifying sounds from the story, making character sounds, and following sound patterns.

We have had discussions this week of the changing season from Autumn to Winter.  We talked about what changes we may notice, from the trees looking different, to the weather feeling even colder, to what clothing we may wear, and what animals may go into hibernation for the winter.  The children could not believe that some animals stay asleep for so long!

We will start to see the transition into the exciting part of Autumn Term 2, with the start of Christmas role play areas being in place in pre-school.  If you wish your child to bring in Christmas cards for their friends, unfortunately we cannot hand out class name lists, but the children's first names are all on the pegs in the foyer area.

The Pre-School Team.

The weather had turned very chilly this week with us seeing lots of frost and ice on our outside equipment. We will be exploring more of the changes of transitioning from Autumn to Winter over the next couple of weeks.

We used our fine motor skills to carefully paint dotty snails using cotton buds and enjoyed using water colours to carefully paint minibeast pictures.

Our afternoon singing assemblies have been getting us used to hearing and singing some of the songs from Light, Camel, Action 2!  Although some of the songs are quite fast for us, the children have been getting good at joining the choruses.

The pre-school children are all 'Stars' in the Nativity performance. We will be making some sparkly star headbands for the children to wear. If you can dress your child in yellow and/or black clothes for the performance that would be appreciated.

If your child does not attend a Friday session, then they are welcome to join us in the church on the day.

The performance of Lights, Camel, Action 2, is on the last day, Friday 19^th December at 12.30pm, in the church.  Pre-School will have a light lunch at 11.30.  All children will then be collected from pre-school after the performance.

Wednesday 17^th December is Christmas Jumper Day, also the school Christmas Fair is in the hall from 2.00pm.  You are welcome to collect your child early to go over and attend and enjoy the stalls if you wish.

The Pre-School Team.

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.