Recent News at Pre-School

Spring 2 Term:

Dangerous Dinosaurs:

This term Pre-School have been exploring and learning all about dangerous dinosaurs. With this topic coming to an end, this week during our Forest school session the children became archeologists and all worked together to gently discover dinosaurs fossils and bones using the paintbrushes.

Spring has arrived

This week Caterpillars and Bumblebees have enjoyed exploring our outdoor environment in the sunshine. We shared a story called ' One Spring Day' in our schools reading hut and discussed together in our key families what changes we may see during Spring. We see daffodils grow, baby chicks and lambs born, even a visit from the Easter bunny.

The children also shared that they enjoy picnics to the park with their families and friends.

Welcome back to Spring term 2. Ant's topic this term is ‘Transport’. Over the next few weeks we will be learning about the different ways we travel.

This week we have been going through the car wash in the water area, making our own traffic lights and discussing road safety, puzzle matching, making marks in the sand with tyre prints and numeral matching the cars to the corresponding parking space.

Pre-School Ants Transport Topic

Spring 1 Term 2025:

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The children in Pre-School have enjoyed expressing themselves through wearing their own clothes. We have all spoke about our favourite colours, what makes us happy, why we wanted to wear the clothes we have and what is our favourite thing to do outside of school.

It has been lovely seeing the children express themselves for Mental Health Week.

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Last week the children made fairy houses, so this week at forest schools the children have been making fairies to tie into our current topic, “Once Upon a Time.”

The children had to go and find some resources from the outdoors to use as fairy wings, some used leaves, others used sticks or blades of grass.

The children needed to make their fairies magic so they added some glue and sprinkled glitter on them using their fine motor skills.

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This week in Ant’s class we have been taking part in a variety of activities to celebrate Chinese New Year and the Year of the snake.

We have made our own snakes using paper plates and paint. We have also collaged a Chinese lantern using red, yellow and orange tissue paper.

We have also been exploring the sensory tray where we have been learning the colours red, yellow, orange and using our fine motor skills to post the coloured pom poms down the tubes.

In the play area we have used our imaginations and our fine motor skills to make something using orange play dough, straws and pipe cleaners.

We have had a lovely week celebrating and learning about the festivities around Chinese New Year.

We look forward to continuing our Under the sea topic next week.

Under The Sea

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This week in Ant’s class we have been taking part in a variety of activities to extend our knowledge on ‘Under the sea.

The children have enjoyed the water tray where we have boats floating on the water and we have discussed water safety whilst on a boat.

We have also had fun at the beach where the children have been building their own castles and looking at all the different varieties of shells we can find at the beach.

In our creative area we have made starfish in 2 different ways, we used sticker dots and also marble rolling.

The children have also been developing their fine motor skills by drawing their own sea creature using chalk and using tweezers to find the animals and place them onto the numbers.

Pre-School Ants Class

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This week the children kick started the new term with an exciting trip to Forest Schools where the children were taught how to safely make a fire and how to put a fire out. The children were so enthusiastic to join in with this activity and all were shown how to make a spark with adult supervision.

At the end of their session, all children were able to toast marshmallows and enjoy a hot chocolate with the supervision of their Forest School leader, Miss Blackburn and a member for of staff from Pre-School.

We can not wait to hear what the children get up to this week in ForestSchool.

Pre-School Spring 1 Forest Schools

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We would like to welcome all our new and existing families to Spring term 1. Our topic this term is ‘Under the sea’.

The children have been taking part in a variety of activities to develop their fine motor skills including mark making on sensory bags, creating our own rainbow fish using tissue paper and water, making sea creatures with play dough, fishing in the water tray and exploring in the small world area using magnifying glasses.

We have had a lovely first week back and we look forward to next weeks activities where we will build our knowledge on Under the sea.

Pre-School Under the Sea Topic

Autumn 2 Term 2024:

Friday 15th November:

This week in forest school the children made Baggott's to help protect the forest.

To begin with all children made a circle with their Forest School Lead to go through the rules of the forest before going off to hunt for leaves, sticks and other natural resources that could be used to make their baggotts.

Everyone had the chance to make one before exploring the forest area through climbing, balancing and swinging.

Well done explorers!

Forest Schools Session 2 with Pre-School

Welcome back to Autumn term 2. Our new topic is ‘Animals’. Over the next few weeks we will be learning about where animals live, what they eat, what they look like and the different sounds they make.

This week we have been investigating what some animals look like by making footprints in the paint and using magnifying glasses to look at the patterns on their skin/fur. The children have sorted the animals into big and small groups and have had a go at drawing their own animals.

We have had a fabulous first week back and we look forward to celebrating nursery rhyme week next week.

Forest Schools Commences:

The children in Bumblebees and Caterpillars had a fantastic first session at forest schools.

They all went on a nature hunt and explored the outside area. The children had the chance to climb trees, use the tree swing and access the rope ladder with support from our Forest School Lead.

We can not wait to see what activities they get up to over the upcoming weeks!

W/C: Monday 11th November:

This week we are celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week; where we look a new nursery rhyme every day.

Today we have explored different activities about 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.'

Ants children have decorated their own twinkly stars, used their fine motor skills to find the stars in the sand and matched their star numbers.

Bumblebees and Caterpillars have made starry night pictures using marbles and rolling them in a tray, cut out big and small stars and sorted them; and enjoyed singing the song in group time.

Todays nursery rhyme is Old McDonald had a Farm for World Nursery Rhyme Week.

Today the children in Ants class have explored the sensory tray with animals and materials that you might find on the farm. They have solved puzzles by adding the missing shapes to their farm animals and created their own animal masks.

In Caterpillars and Bumblebees the children have painted their own farm animals and created a shelter for their animals using blocks. They have also made masks to become a farm animal and played farm yard bingo!

The children have enjoyed being different farm animals today, we can not wait to see tomorrow's Nursery Rhyme!

Autumn 1 Term 2024:

October:

Our topic last week in Ants class was “People Who Help Us.” We have taken part in a variety of activities to support our learning through this topic.

We have helped the postman deliver his mail by matching the numerals on his mail to the matching post-box. Children have made their own police car using collaging and helped the dentist to clean our teeth by using our fine motor skills with a toothbrush. Ants have also been looking after poorly babies in the hospital.

The children have enjoyed the activities and have been fully engaged. We look forward to seeing what the children get up to for our topic this week “Halloween.”

Pre-School People Who Help

In Bumblebees this week we have looked at matching numbers in maths.

We have looked at a range of maps and shared a picture atlas as a group. We have looked at how to look after and wash the babies using sponges to make them clean.

The children have used a range of construction to make objects they might find on their nature walks and use their senses to imagine what it smells, looks and feels like.

Pre-School Maths Skills

This week in Ants class w have been developing our fine motor skills. The children have been involved in a variety of activities to help to strengthen their hand and finger muscles to help with their pencil control at a later stage.

These activities include making marks in the sand with sticks, exploring through Autumn accessories using touch and using pipettes and empty water bottles to squirt water into the tray.

Pre-School Fine Motor Skills

September:

This week we have been outside exploring our Autumn environment. Children have explored our natural puzzles and used their understanding of shapes from last week to recognise others in the outdoor environment.

We have shared stories as a group and children have sang the “story time” song to each other before looking through different texts. Caterpillars and Bumblebees children have used their mark making skills to create different objects on the blackboard and explored our mud kitchen. The children have used their senses to investigate the different smells and made ‘potions’ and ‘soups’ in the mud kitchen.

Pre-School Environment

A big welcome back to all new and existing children and their families to our Pre-School. This term we are exploring the topic "Me and My Community."

The children have explored their new classrooms and started to form positive relationships with staff and other children within their groups.

We have explored the creative station and made Autumn pictures using autumnal colours with our dabbers and our fingers for printing. Our children have used their pincer grip to thread string through our leaves and sat exploring the reading den; sharing stories with our peers. The children have also been experimenting with their mark making, copying shapes and marks using sand, chalk boards and painting wallets.

We are looking forward to seeing what they achieve over the upcoming weeks.

West Hill Primary School

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