The pre-school now has it's own section with the other classes in the Children tab.

Week commencing 28^th November 2022

On our welly walk we went to the school garden for a shape hunt, looking for objects in the environment that were square, rectangle, triangle or circle shaped.  We were identifying the shapes by counting the sides, corners and noticing if the sides of the shapes were straight or curved.

Back at school we have been building and constructing using shapes and we looked at some art work by the artist Wassily Kandinsky.  The children had a go at printing with shapes to create our own artwork.  They did some great work – take a look at the photos below.

The children have had fun using their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination to hammer golf tees into pumpkins.  This activity kept them engaged for quite some time and we saw some lovely turn taking as they shared the wooden hammers. 

Our windmill friends, along with the other children in school, went to the church on Friday afternoon for a Christingle Service.  All the children made their Christingle oranges to take with them to the church.  The Year 6 children made Christingle oranges for the Sandcastle children too, so that they could take them home to share with their families – Sandcastles would like to say a big thank you to Year 6. 

Week commencing 14^th November 2022

We have had a very busy couple of weeks which started with the children learning a new song all about bonfires and fireworks.  Please take a look on the Video Resource Centre page, under the ‘Children’ tab, where you will find our video.

We have also been talking about Remembrance Day and finding out why people wear poppies at this time of year.  We have been making fingerprint poppy pictures and everyone decorated a biscuit with red icing and a chocolate button centre, which we enjoyed with our afternoon snack. 

We have had some messy, sensory fun too by making gloop and following a recipe to make our very own ball of playdough.  The children were fascinated by the gloop (cornflower and water) and had fun exploring it with their hands.  They found out that it kept changing from being a runny mixture to a hard mixture and then back to runny again.  When making their own playdough we were encouraging them to develop their fine motor skills by carefully pouring, mixing, kneading, moulding and rolling the dough.

Week commencing 31^st October 2022

Below you will see some pictures that we took before the half term holiday of our two recent welly walks.  We were making shadows with our bodies and thinking about how shadows are made.  We made different shapes with our bodies to see what would happen to our shadows.  We counted the number of shadows we could see on the ground. 

The following week we explored the field opposite the school and had a go at climbing over a stile.  There were sheep in the field, some were very curious of us and wanted to say hello.  We watched the farmer and sheepdog round up the sheep and take them to the barn at the bottom of the field.

For our welly walk this week we stayed on the school site and went in search of puddles.  Great fun was had jumping and splashing around in them.

Lots of the children have been talking about Halloween and we had fun this week finding out what is inside a pumpkin.  We used our hands to feel inside and pull out the seeds and stringy flesh which we put in a zip bag so we could explore further.  We thought of words to describe the feel of these things such as slimy, tickly, squishy, cold.  I love the expression on some of the children’s faces as they had a go at feeling inside. 

We have also used descriptive words to play a ‘What am I’ - animal guessing game.  The children listened to an adult describe an animal and then had a go at guessing the animal and making the animal sound.  Some children then wanted a go at choosing an animal and giving their friends some clues so they could guess.  You could try this game at home - a great way to help develop your child’s speaking and listening skills.   

Harvest Songs 2022

Please follow the link below where you will find some videos of the children singing our Harvest songs.  We hope you enjoy them! 

https://instowcps.primarysite.media/playlist/pre-school-harvest-song

Week commencing 10^th October 2022

Last week we went on our first wellie walk of the term.  The children helped to put on their waterproof clothes and then we set off in pairs to explore the field next to school.  We climbed to the very top of the hill where it was very windy, but we stood for a while and looked at all the things we could see in the distance.  We went inside the old windmill, which sheltered us from the wind.  It was good fun to peep through the holes in the stone wall and feel the wind on our faces again. 

Back at Pre-school the children have been taking part in some group activities where they have been playing a sound lotto game and have been practising their listening and turn taking skills.  They have also been learning how to recognise the number of dots on a dice (1,2,3) without having to count them. 

We have been talking about our families and we have had some lovely pictures to show ‘Who lives in my House’. 

At snack time we encourage the children to be as independent as possible by pouring their own drink and taking their cup to the washing up area when they have finished.  We have had some great snack time helpers, with some very keen to wash and dry the cups. 

Week commencing 23^rd September 2022

With Harvest in mind, we have introduced the children to a couple of new songs, our favourite song, ‘Big Red Combine Harvester’ and ‘Mr Scarecrow’.

In the first song (I wonder if your child has given you a sneak preview yet!) we have learnt that the combine harvester cuts and threshes the corn.  To help the children understand what a combine harvester is and the important job it does, we watched a short video about harvesting wheat called ‘Out and About on the Farm’.  To learn about scarecrows, we have read a lovely story called ‘Scarecrow's Secret’. 

We have been practising how to sit together on the carpet for story/song time by crossing our legs and using our ears to do good listening and our eyes to do good looking.

We have been learning the words to the song ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  We have used mirrors to look at our faces, talking about how we are all unique by having different eye/hair colour to our friends. Everyone then had a go at drawing their face and using coloured crayons and wool to show their eye and hair colour.

The children have explored the big school playground and had a go at riding the trikes and scooters and playing on the climbing equipment – great fun for everyone!

Week commencing 12^th September 2022

Welcome back to all our Pre-schoolers and also to our new friends who have only just started with us.  It has been lovely to see how well the children have settled back into Pre-school life.

Our main priority over the past two weeks has been focusing on the children getting to know each other and making sure they feel happy and secure with us.

We have enjoyed lots of outside play – playing with water has been very popular with the children having lots of fun splashing, scooping, pouring and submerging.  It was great to visit the main school playground on Wednesday afternoon where the children played on the trikes and scooters.

Our creative table has also been very busy.  The children have been learning how to carefully draw around a stencil to create an animal mask – great for their fine motor skills as well as their hand-eye coordination.  One child asked for help to make a kite, which led to others wanting to make kites too.  When folding the paper to create our kite shapes, we talked about the different shapes the folded paper made – rectangle, triangle, diamond. 

We’ve introduced the children to a variety of musical instruments and had fun making loud and quiet sounds whilst singing our favourite nursery rhymes. 

Week commencing 18^th July 2022

It’s been a very hot couple of weeks so we have been doing all we can to stay cool.  We have had lots of water play (which has also involved giving the toys a clean).  We have made smoothies and refreshing ice cube drinks.  We also had the challenge of rescuing objects frozen in ice blocks.

At this time of the year, we usually say a fond farewell to our older children who will be moving on to their new reception class in September.  This year is a little different as most of our older children will be returning to the Early Years Unit in September and simply moving across the playground to their reception class, which will hopefully make for a much easier transition for them. 

We wish you all a lovely summer holiday with your families.  See you on the 5^th September when school reopens.

Week commencing 4^th July 2022

Here are some of the things we have been up to over the past couple of weeks:

Sports Day – the children who are with us on a Friday afternoon walked from school to the Cricket Club in Instow to join in with the Primary School’s Sports Day.  After a long walk the children still had lots of energy for their races – Well done everyone! Please take a look at the website for photos.

Welly Walk – our Windmill friends were busy with other activities, so it was a Sandcastles only walk this week.  We visited the church yard and used our senses to look, listen and explore.

Wheelie Wednesday – we always look forward to Wednesday afternoons when we go to the big school playground for lots of physical activities such as pedalling, scooting, climbing and running around playing Hide and Seek.

Show and Tell – this is a lovely opportunity for our children to share something from home with their peers.  This helps to build their confidence, helps them to develop their communication skills and encourages the use of descriptive language.  This week one child talked about receiving a medal at gymnastics, another told us all about their family holiday to Disneyland and another child brought in one of their favourite books from home which was a story all about bees.

Bees – we have been learning some fun facts about bees and finding out why they are so important to our environment.  We have also been finding out how honey is made, how bees make a buzzing sound and why bees are attracted to flowers.  The children enjoyed making honey sandwiches for our afternoon snack-time.

Week commencing 13^th June 2022

Just before half term, a pot of very tiny caterpillars arrived in the post.  We checked on them every day and watched as they grew bigger and bigger – just as we had read in the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  When we returned to school after the holiday the caterpillars had turned into chrysalides and were sleeping in their cocoons.  We waited and waited and at the beginning of this week the butterflies emerged – we even got to watch one push itself out of its cocoon, which was an amazing sight!  We released the butterflies in the school garden.  One stayed around for a while so we were able to look at it close up.

To learn more about the life cycle of the butterfly we have been doing some art and craft activities and have learnt a new song ‘There’s a Tiny Caterpillar on a Leaf’.  The children enjoyed moving their bodies like caterpillars and butterflies by taking part in some Cosmic Yoga exercises.

Early Years 'Royal Jubilee Song'

Please click on the link below to watch the recording of our Royal Jubilee Song.  The children were all amazing and did some beautiful singing.  We are so proud of them all.  Well done everyone!

https://instowcps.primarysite.media/media/early-years-jubilee-song

Week commencing 23^rd May 2022

This week we completed our ‘junk model’ street party.  The children helped to make bunting which we draped across the street and made food for our extremely long party table.  The children talked about parties they had been to in the past and their favourite party food.

We have been learning a Jubilee song, which we have put our own actions to.  (Please see above for the link to our song).  We can all now bow/curtsey like a prince/princess!  Each child has had a go at making a crown – great for practising those scissor skills.  The children enjoyed decorating their crowns and it was lovely to watch such concentration whilst they took their time to finish them.  We have also made Union Jack flags.

The children had fun taking part in a Jubilee Scavenger Hunt where they looked around for pictures matching those on their scavenger sheets.  From this activity we were able to introduce new words such as carriage, throne and medal.

We visited the woods again for our welly walk and this time asked the question ‘Why are tree trunks covered in bark?  We did lots of bark rubbings and noticed the different patterns the bark made.

Let’s hope the sun shines for our half term holiday.  Have a lovely time.  We return to school on the 7^th June. 

Week commencing 9^th May 2022

We have started to talk about the Queen’s Jubilee and have looked at pictures of previous celebrations where people have had street parties with their neighbours.   We have collected an assortment of boxes and the children have enjoyed modelling with these to create their own house.  We intend to make our very own ‘junk model’ of a street party – it’s still in the making so hopefully more pictures will follow shortly!

The children have enjoyed looking at pictures of famous London landmarks and have had a go at recreating these landmarks using the building bricks.  We all played a game where we built the Big Ben tower.  Each child had a turn at throwing the dice, counting the dots and taking the same number of bricks from the brick box to add to our tower.  The tower got very tall and a little wobbly, but we managed to put the clock face on it before it collapsed to the ground.

When we returned from the Easter holidays, we were surprised how much our bean plants had grown, so we planted them into their new home - our lovely new planters which one of our Pre-school families made for us.  As we took them out of their individual pots, we were able to name and talk about the different parts of the plant.

We have had some lovely welly walks over the past couple of weeks.  We visited the woods and noticed how the area looked different to our visit before Easter.  There were lots of green leaves on the trees instead of bare branches and we noticed how the plants had grown making the pathway seem much narrower.   We also climbed the stile and did a circular walk.  We walked through the field where we met some sheep, crossed another stile, where we met some cows, then came out into the lane and walked back up the hill to school – we were all very tired and ready for a snack!  It’s great to see how the children are now climbing the stiles with more confidence, knowing where to place their hands/feet.  Their confidence has grown so much since our first attempt at the beginning of the school year. 

Week commencing 4^th April 2022

We hope you enjoy looking through our photos of our learning during the last couple of weeks.  We have continued to look for signs of spring whilst exploring our local environment.  We have been planting seeds and finding out how to care for them.  Jack and the Beanstalk has been our story of the week and the children have enjoyed joining in with the phrase ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’.  We found some giant footprints which we measured using our counting cubes.  This led to the children measuring their own footprints and also measuring/counting how many cubes tall they are.

We have been learning some Spring songs and have attached the videos below.  We hope you enjoy listening to them.  Happy Easter everyone!

Week commencing 21^st March 2022

A strange object arrived in the playground one morning.  It was yellow and egg shaped with green spots.  We wondered what is could be? Where it could have come from? How it got there? and What could be inside? One child suggested it could be an alien egg and we talked about spaceships and space.  The children drew pictures to show the egg and what they thought could be inside.

It took a few days for the egg to hatch.  The children were very patient and helped to keep the egg safe whilst we waited to discover what was inside.

We watched a programme all about rockets and then made our own balloon rocket.  The children practised counting backwards from 5 to blast off before letting go of the balloon and watching it race along the string – it was great fun!  We discovered the more air we put in the balloon, the further and faster it travelled.

In other areas of our learning the children have been practising their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination by using bottle tops, a hole punch and string to thread and make necklaces and snakes.

Last week on our welly walk we visited the church grounds to look for signs of spring.  The children were given magnifying glasses to look closely at spring flowers and insects.  It was a lovely sunny morning and the birds were singing in the trees.

Week commencing 7^th March 2022

Just before half term, we started to learn all about our teeth and how to look after them.  We looked at different foods and sorted them into two groups by deciding whether the foods would make our teeth happy or sad.  We watched a CBeebies programme where we learnt about the job of a dentist – a little girl called Ava visited the dentist for the first time.

We had great fun on our welly walk this week because we visited the woods for the first time.  It was quite a long walk to the woods.  We were so proud of everyone for walking so sensibly and listening carefully to instructions, so that everyone was safe whilst walking close to the road.  We had a picnic in the woods of pancakes and warm milk to celebrate pancake day.

In the afternoon, when we were back at Pre-school, the children made pancakes by drawing and cutting out shapes from cardboard.  We then had some pancake races with some great attempts to flip the pancakes as they crossed the finishing line!

It has also been World Book Day this week.  The children dressed up as their favourite book character and we shared many stories throughout the morning. 

Week commencing 7^th February 2022

Here is a snap shot of just a few things we have been up to over the last couple of weeks.

Following on from our learning about animals who live in the Arctic and Antarctic, the children created some lovely polar bear pictures.  They used sponges to apply the paint to the paper to make the polar bear’s face and then added features.

We have found out a little about the Chinese New Year celebrations by watching a CBeebies video about a young girl called Abbie.  She showed us how she celebrates this special occasion with her family.  From watching this video, the children had a go at making Chinese lanterns and blossom trees – lots of fine motor skill practise. 

We also found out that according to the Chinese calendar, this year is the year of the tiger.  A few of the children made some fantastic tiger pictures, by listening to and following an adult’s instructions.  We have been enjoying the story of The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr and have read this quite a few times over the past week.  We had good fun acting out the story in the home corner.

For our welly walk we climbed the stile again to explore the field.  It took a while for everyone to climb over the stile, so those waiting enjoyed a story whilst sitting in the field watching the sheep and their lambs. 

For some sensory play, we introduced the children to noodles and they enjoyed using tongs to pick them up and fill containers – perfect for pretend cooking.  It didn’t take long for someone to add water to the tray which turned the noodles into noodle soup – really messy, but great fun!

Week commencing 24^th January 2022

Following on from our visit from Mr Polar Bear, we have been finding out about Arctic and Antarctic animals.  We made a map to show where these places are in our world and talked about how the weather in wintertime is very, very cold and the ground is covered in snow and ice.  We wondered why arctic animals have white winter coats to match their surroundings and talked about the meaning of the word ‘camouflage’.

We then played a game where the children found objects in the room which could be camouflaged against red, yellow and blue pieces of card.  Some children continued to camouflage objects by putting a red object on a red chair and matching a yellow object to the yellow in our rug.

We have been on two welly walks so far this term.  For our first we climbed the stile into the field opposite the school and walked down to the small stream.  There were sheep on the far side of the field with their lambs, so we were very quiet and careful not to scare them.  They were very curious of us and came closer to say ‘hello’.

For our second welly walk we took our colour cards out with us and looked for natural things from our surroundings to match the colours on the cards.

We have also been reading the story ‘One Snowy Night’ by Nick Butterworth.  In the story Percy the Park Keeper shares his bed with all of his woodland friends, so from this we decided to sing and act out ‘There were 10 in the Bed’.  The children really enjoyed taking part in this song and it was great for their counting skills.  Everyone helped to count those in the bed and work out how many children were left each time someone fell out.

Week commencing 10^th January 2022

It has been great to see everyone again after our Christmas break and also lovely to welcome a few new children who have joined us this term.

The children have settled back into school very quickly and it has been lovely to see them sharing and exploring the resources together, whilst rekindling their friendships with each other.

We have been investigating how water freezes and turns into a solid block of ice and then when it warms up it melts back to water.  To help us understand this we watched a programme where Kit and Pup explained the freezing and melting process.

The children were given a challenge to help rescue some frozen objects that were trapped in blocks of ice.  We encouraged them to think about how we could free them.  After lots of attempts of trying to bash and crack the ice with spoons, we decided we could move the objects closer to the heater to try and melt the ice. 

On Thursday we received a large white package in the post.  The children felt the package to try and guess what was inside.  One child said it felt hard and another described it as feeling cold.  When we opened the parcel, we found a polar bear.  The polar bear had come to visit us but was all icy and frozen solid and had a note with him saying that he needed looking after.

We thought about the things that make us feel warm and cosy and the children decided that he needed a bed, pillow and blanket.  One child made him a hot chocolate to drink.  They put him by the heater and kept checking on him during the morning.

In the afternoon we found that Mr Polar Bear was very wet and discovered that the ice had melted, so we put him in the sun to dry.  It was lovely to watch the children taking care of the bear. 

We have been using ice paints to create some lovely artwork.  When the ice sticks started to melt, the children enjoyed mixing the watery paint together to create new colours.

Week commencing 13^th December 2021

It has been a week full of Christmas treats and surprises.  We have played party games and enjoyed party food.  Mrs Knight joined us and read a Christmas story.   Santa flew past the school in his helicopter so we all gave him a big wave!  We even had time for our last welly walk of the term where we discovered lots of mussel shells in the field, which sparked lots of questions as to how they got there and why?

We wish you all a lovely Christmas.  See you in the New Year. 

Week commencing 6^th December 2021

It has been a busy time here at Pre-school and the children have been involved in lots of art and craft activities.  We have been making paperchains, snowmen, Christmas tree decorations, kites, paper aeroplanes the list is long and varied.  We give the children some ideas of things they could make and then follow their own suggestions.  It’s not the finished product that is important, it’s allowing the children to choose the materials they want to use and encouraging them to talk about how they will put their ideas into practice and then helping them to achieve this.

Our room is now looking Christmassy and we had some great helpers when we decorated our Christmas tree.

The children have been learning about the Christmas nativity story.  They have also been learning some Christmas nativity songs and have been dressing up, singing and dancing along to the music.  This week on our welly walk, we visited a local stable to show them the type of place where the baby Jesus was born.  We all decided that it wouldn’t be very comfortable to sleep in a stable – it was so cold and gloomy.

We did get to meet Paddy and Stuart, two horses, who live in the stable at night.  We were amazed when we were shown how much they would eat and drink overnight.  Paddy was quite friendly and allowed the children to stroke his nose. 

Thank you to everyone for coming to the school’s mini Christmas market and for making it such a success.

Weeks commencing 15^th and 22^nd November

It’s lovely to see the reception children and pre-school children playing and exploring together.  There are some wonderful little friendships emerging. 

You may have heard your child talking about ‘Windmills and Sandcastles’ – just to explain, the reception children are called ’Windmills' and the Pre-school children are called ‘Sandcastles'.  This helps when we need to split the children at times throughout the day for more focused learning activities.  

Sandcastles have been continuing with their listening activities, one of which has been a sound lotto game.  Working in small groups, they listened carefully to a variety of everyday sounds, identified the sound and matched it to a picture on their lotto board.  We have also been playing small group games too to encourage turn taking, listening to others and learning how to follow the rules of a game.

Last week was National Road Safety Week and we talked about how to stay safe when walking outside.  We listened to ‘Supercat’s Road Safety’ story and learnt how we must Stop, Look, Listen and Think before crossing the road.   The children practised their road safety skills in the playground.  Using the bikes and trikes we made a pretend road and then used our new traffic signs so that the ‘pedestrians’ could cross the road safely.  The children were also introduced to new words such as ‘zebra crossing, belisha beacon, pelican crossing etc.   

Week commencing 8^th November 2021

This week we have been looking for signs of autumn.  On our welly walk to the Church we noticed the changing colours of the leaves on the trees.  We could see that lots had already fallen from the trees and were scattered on the ground.  In the churchyard we all sat by the war memorial and enjoyed the story of ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’, but we changed the words to ‘We’re going on a Leaf Hunt’.  As the children know the Bear Hunt story so well, they helped to retell it by joining in with lots of the words – Great storytelling everyone!  We then went on a leaf hunt to see how many we could find. 

Back in the classroom we learnt a song all about autumn leaves falling down, twisting, turning all around.  The children enjoyed singing and dancing and using the leaves to copy the actions in the song. 

We’ve also had lots of fun playing with the large parachute.  Everyone had a turn at running under the parachute and popping their head through the hole in the centre to say ‘Hello’ to their friends.

Thursday was Remembrance Day, so we marked the day making poppies using a variety of craft materials.  The activities encouraged the development of the children’s fine motor skills by ripping paper into strips and having a go at finger painting.  We talked about why grown-ups wear poppies at this time of year.

Week commencing   1^st November 2021

Welcome back to the second half of the autumn term.  We hope you had a lovely half term holiday with your family.

This week the children have been learning about Diwali, the Festival of Lights.  We watched a CBeebies programme and met Jessica and her family, who told us how they celebrate this festival.  We learnt about Rangoli patterns, Diva pots and hand painting.  It was great fun having a go at some of these activities.  To mark the end of Diwali they have a firework display, so we have been creating our own firework pictures using shaving foam and food colouring and straws to blow paint along a piece of paper. 

Using scarves, the children did some great firework dancing with lots of arm movements to help develop their upper body strength.

More welly walk pictures - a wet and windy day

Week commencing 18^th October 2021

We have been on two welly walks recently which the children have thoroughly enjoyed.  The excitement begins as they start to get changed into their waterproof trousers and wellies.  We are encouraging the children, step by step, to help with this to increase their confidence and independence.

On our first walk we went through the gate next to school into the field with the old windmill.  We climbed to the top of the hill to explore inside the ruin.  Here we were sheltered from the wind, but if we looked through the small holes in the stone, we could feel the wind on our faces.

The view from here is amazing and the children sat for a while looking all around and spotting things in the distance.  Great fun was then had as we all ran down the steep hill and then we helped each other climb back to the top. 

For our second welly walk we went back into the field again, but today the weather was wet and windy, the clouds were low in the sky and we couldn’t see all the things we could see the previous week.  So, we looked for things in the grass instead and spotted purple thistles, dandelions, sheep wool and lots of mushrooms of all different colours and sizes.  The children listened carefully as we explained how important it is just to look at them and not touch/pick them.  We then spotted a mole hill, and then another and another.  The children went on a ‘mole hill hunt’ finding lots of them dotted around the field - we decided they must be very busy animals!

On the top of the hill the wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to stand upright.  We could feel the rain on our faces and even tried to catch some raindrops on our tongue.  It was great knowing that our waterproofs were keeping us warm and dry.

More pictures of our wet and windy walk to follow.

Week commencing 4^th October 2021

There has been a lot of interest in making paper kites recently and our craft table has been very busy.  We have been showing the children how to fold in the corners of a piece of paper to make a diamond shape and some have then tried to do this independently.  The weather has been perfect for kite flying and the children have had great fun running around outside with their kites twisting and turning behind them.

We noticed that some windfall apples had fallen from our apple tree so we put these to good use and did some printing activities.  When the apples were cut in half horizontally the children were able to see the star shape of the core and seeds.

We have seen some lovely imaginative play – a pile of tyres became a pirate ship with poles used for oars.  The dressing up clothes have been very popular with everyone busily trying on an assortment of outfits - there were lots of costume changes!  A dragonfly was interested in our dressing up clothes too and flew around us for a while to say 'hello', which was lovely for the children to see.

We have started to learn a song to celebrate Harvest which is called ‘Mr Scarecrow’ – we hope to share this with you very soon.

Week commencing 20^th September 2021

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been outside exploring more areas of the school.  The children were introduced to the ‘Trim Trail’ which is an area on the large playground with lots of balancing and climbing equipment.  There are great views of the river from here.  We noticed lots of sailing boats on the water and spotted Lundy Island on the horizon.

On the top playground there is a wooden climbing frame and slide, where the children had great fun and burnt off lots of energy.   We also explored a little further and went for our first walk to the Church.  It was a warm, sunny afternoon and we stopped for a while, lay down quietly on the grass and listened to the sounds around us. 

The children have enjoyed using the musical instruments to explore the different sounds they make.  We played a listening game, where an instrument was played behind a screen and they had to name/match the instrument being played. 

We have introduced some class rules so that we can all stay happy and safe.  We have also shown the children what to do if the fire bell rings.  They all did so well when we practiced this - well done everyone!

Week commencing 7^th September 2021

There has been much excitement in the air this week as the children returned to Pre-school to start a new school year.  It was lovely to see everyone again and to also welcome some new families to our school.   Everyone has been excited and eager to explore our new home and we have been amazed at how quickly the children have settled into their new surroundings.  They have been little stars in saying their goodbyes to you at the gate – we are so proud of them.  Thank you for your help with this.

The children have enjoyed being able to play both inside and out – even in the rain!  The water play and sand play areas have been very popular.   We have also enjoyed sitting outside on picnic benches to have our snack.  We ventured out of our play area and explored the large playground on the other side of the school where the children were able to play on the bikes and trikes.  

Here are a few photos of our week.

19^th July 2021

On Thursday we visited the Chapel Garden and had a lovely time playing and exploring.  The children went on a nature hunt and created some beautiful ‘sticky pictures’ with their finds.  We all enjoyed a cooling drink in the shade before heading back to Pre-school.  We were so proud of all the children in how sensibly they all walked to and from the Chapel holding on to our walking rope.  We have been learning a couple of new songs which we sang as we walked along (The Steam Train and We are going on a Picnic).  If only we could have recorded this for you as their singing was beautiful!

Today was our last day of term and we celebrated with a Pirate and Mermaid party.  We played some party games such as Walk the Plank, Sharky, Sharky and Musical Islands.  Then everyone went on a Treasure Hunt.  After all the fun and excitement, we stopped for a rest and enjoyed some party food. 

Normally, at the end of the summer term, we say ‘Goodbye’ to our older children as they leave us for Primary School, but today was a little different for us.  As you know, Pre-school is moving to the Primary School too and when we return in September we will all be together again in the new Foundation Stage Unit.  

So today, we all said ‘Goodbye’ to the Parish Hall.  The Parish Hall has been our ‘home’ for many years and we have loved our time here.  The children helped to make an ‘End of Era’ card which we gave to Sheila Moores (Instow Parish Hall Chair) to say a big thank you for the support the Hall Committee have given to Pre-school over the years. 

Lastly, we would like to say thank you to all our Mums, Dads, Grandparents and other family members too for all your support during the year.

Thank you for all your kind end of year gifts and we wish you a wonderful summer.   

5^th July 2021

The children have been working together to create an ‘Under the Sea’ collage.  We have been finding out about some of the different creatures that live in the sea from the book ‘Commotion in the Ocean’.   We turned a large cardboard box into a submarine for some under the sea adventures, which kept the children entertained for quite a while.   Using colourful scarfs, some children dressed up as mermaids and we enjoyed watching them perform a mermaid dance.  We have also had ‘fish races’ where the children cut out and decorated a paper fish and then, placing their fish on the floor, worked out the best way to move it across the room, either by blowing it, or using a newspaper to ‘fan’ the fish along.  

The children have also been exploring shaving foam and using it to mark make by creating patterns and swirls.  We have had some great little helpers who offered to clean our playhouse.  By far the biggest excitement of the week was finding out that a few of our strawberries had turned red and were ready to eat – hooray!

Sports Day 2021

The weather was perfect on Thursday for our mini sports day at the Chapel Garden.  We are sorry that you could not share this event with us this year but hope you enjoy the photographs. 

Week commencing 21^st June 2021

Here is a selection of photos to show some of the activities the children have been involved in recently.  You will see that we have been making playdough cupcakes and this has involved lots of counting skills to work out how many cupcakes were needed to fill the tray.  We made up our own version of ‘5 Current Buns’ by describing the different toppings that each cake had.  Ours didn’t have a ‘cherry on the top’ as in the song, we had Smarties, Maltesers, even Cheerios on the top!  We then had a competition to see who could roll the longest playdough snake.

One child told us about her chickens and brought in some freshly laid eggs.  Everyone had a turn at holding an egg and describing how it felt.  The children handled them very carefully and we didn’t have any breakages.

A fairy door appeared amongst the plant pots last week, which inspired the children to make fairy wands and create their own magic spells, which resulted in the adults being turned into frogs!

Week commencing 24^th May 2021

At long last – a dry, sunny day, so we made the most of the lovely weather and went on a ‘Wellie Walk’ to the Chapel Garden.  Our first outing of the year and what a great time we all had as you will see from the photos.

We have all been waiting patiently for our sunflowers to grow, but the weather just hasn’t been warm enough yet for the seeds to wake up.  The children looked at pictures of sunflowers to find out what their sunflower will eventually look like.  They then had a go at painting a sunflower picture by following step by step instructions.  The children listened to the instructions really carefully and produced some great artwork.

On Thursday we all said goodbye to Sarah.  Sarah has been a valued member of the team and we wish her every success for the future – we will miss you!

Week commencing 3^rd May 2021

One day last week the wind was extremely wild and blustery so we made kites and had fun flying them indoors and out.

As you will see from the photos, we have had some great little helpers who were very keen to paint the fence.  We encouraged them to reach up high on tip toes and bend down low to the ground using big arm movements to help with the development of their upper body and core strength.

We noticed how the colour of the fence changed and thought of words to describe the wet fence such as soggy, soaked, dripping and drenched.  

Week commencing 26^th April 2021

Last week we started to talk to the children about how plants grow and the things they need to thrive and stay healthy.  Each child decorated a plant pot.  This week, using their decorated plant pots, the children have been planting sunflower seeds.

Firstly, we tipped the soil into a large tray and gave everyone time to explore and describe the feel of the soil on their hands.  We said hello to a couple of snails who had decided to hide on the inside of the soil bag, then scooped up handfuls of soil and started planting.  The children showed good listening skills as they listened to instructions on what to do next.  Everyone did a great job as you will see from the pictures below. 

Week commencing 29^th March 2021

We have spent a lot of time playing and exploring outdoors because the weather has been so lovey this week – Spring has arrived at last!  We have also been learning some Easter/Spring songs and have recorded them to share with you.

Happy Easter Everyone!  Pre-school will return on the 20^th April. 

Week commencing 22^nd March 2021

Over the past two weeks we have been doing some science activities.  We have used magnets to sort a variety of materials into two groups, magnetic and non-magnetic.  We have made sensory bottles and found out that some objects float and some sink and we have learnt how water turns to ice which then turns back to water again.  The children were given a challenge to free all the frozen objects from the blocks of ice.  It was hard work chipping away at the ice, but with lots of perseverance (and a little hot water) everything was rescued.  

For Comic Relief the children wore red/brightly coloured clothing.  We suggested the children cut out a large red nose and then gave them a selection of craft materials to turn their red nose into a funny face.  One child decided to attach a lolly stick and make a puppet, other children joined in too, so we decided to get out the puppet theatre and the children put on their own puppet shows.  We saw lots of lovely imaginative play.  We also raised £18 for Comic Relief, so thank you everyone for your donations.

Week commencing 8^th March 2021

Last week we celebrated World Book Day.  The children enjoyed coming to Pre-school dressed as their favourite book characters.  We shared stories throughout the morning and the children told us about their favourite stories from home. 

We have had some amazing imaginative construction play as you will see from the photos below.  We’ve also enjoyed some great water play whilst introducing words such as empty, full, half-full and estimating how many small cups of water it would take to fill a larger container.  The younger children have been colour matching and the older children have been playing with the ‘number truck, working on their number recognition and matching number to quantity.

We had time to go on a very fast and bumpy bus ride to the beach – our bus drivers definitely needed ‘L’ plates!

With Mother’s Day looming this Sunday we have been busy making cards and the children have told us some lovely things about what makes their mummy so special – we hope you all have a lovely day.

Week commencing 22^nd February 2021

We have had a busy time at Pre-school over the last few weeks with lots of space themed activities.  We listened to a CBeebies story on the iPad called ‘Miss Mouse Goes to Space’.  In the story, Miss Mouse goes on a very exciting journey to the International Space Station.  The children were interested to look at pictures of the space station and also enjoyed watching clips of rockets blasting off from the launch pad.  We talked about the special clothes we would need to wear if we were going into space and made a list of the things we would take with us on our journey.  We then went on a trip into space and did some ‘dancing on the moon!’.          

As the children were really engaged with this topic, we decided to have a go at making rockets from junk modelling materials.  We made straw rockets where the children blew through a straw to launch their rocket in the air to see whose rocket could go the highest and travel the furthest – this was great fun and we counted from 5-0 many, many times!

We have also used rocket activities for the children to learn and order the letters in their name and for colour and number recognition.

Week commencing 25^th January 2021

We made a friend for our polar bear – Say hello to our emperor penguin. 

We found out some penguin facts such as, where they live and what they like to eat.  We learnt that their babies hatch from eggs and baby penguins are called chicks.  We also discovered that penguins have wings but can’t fly.

The children stood next to the penguin to see who was the tallest/shortest.

We then played a game where we all pretended to be different animals and practised moving our bodies by waddling, hopping, jumping and slithering.    

Week commencing 18^th January 2021

It was lovely to welcome the children back to Pre-school to start the Spring term.

Our morning arrival routine has changed slightly due to lockdown and parents are now dropping their child off at the front door.  We have been so impressed with how easily the children have adjusted to this new routine and have been happy to say their goodbyes at the door.

Our learning has been about ‘winter’ and how winter-time is different to summer-time.  The children created some lovely artwork using ‘cold’ colours.  We have also learnt a little about polar bears such as where they live, what they like to eat and how they keep warm.

One morning there was a loud knock on the door and in walked a polar bear.  He was only a little bear, so we thought he must have been a polar bear cub.  The bear cub told us that he was feeling very chilly and needed a coat to keep warm.  The children set to work and painted a white coat for the little cub.

The following day we went on a ‘Polar Bear Hunt’ and after we had put on our warm clothes and boots, we set off on our adventure.  We walked through thick, crunchy snow and cold, slippery ice. We swam through freezing cold water and tip toed to our ice cave.  Inside, quietly hiding we found the polar bear….aaagh!!

Later, when the children were playing in the ice cave, they put a line of chairs in front of the entrance and explained that the chairs were a door to keep the polar bear out.

Week commencing 14^th December 2020

We hope you have all had the opportunity to watch our nativity, Whoops-A-Daisy Angel.  If you haven’t seen it yet we suggest you pour yourself a coffee, sit back and enjoy the children singing some festive songs. 

Well done to all the children for your lovely singing and for remembering the actions to the songs.

During this, our final week of the term, the children have been enjoying lots of Christmassy art and craft activities.  We cut out a large Christmas tree from cardboard and the children made baubles and paper chains to decorate it.  We have also made Christmas party hats and clay Rudolph models.

Abbi played some Christmas songs and nursery rhymes on her recorder.  The children joined in by shaking shakers in time to the music and singing along.   We played a Christmas themed version of' Who’s taken the Giant’s keys?’, which we decided to call ‘Who’s taken Santa’s keys?’  We have also been very active playing party games, such as musical bumps and statues.  We have enjoyed some party food and a delicious Roddy the Reindeer chocolate cake which one of the children brought in to Pre-school to share with his friends.  All in all, a very busy week. 

We would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas.  Have a lovely time with your loved ones. Stay safe and we will see you all in the New Year.  Pre-school re-opens on Tuesday 5^th January 2021. 

Week commencing 7^th December 2020

At this time of the year, we would usually be inviting you all to join us for our Christmas nativity performance.  However, this year with the current social distancing rules, this just isn’t possible and things have to be done slightly different.  We didn’t want you to miss out though, so for a few weeks now the children have been learning the songs and actions to this year’s nativity performance called 'Whoops-a-Daisy Angel'.   We recorded this performance over three mornings so that all of the children could take part if they wanted to.  It will be posted on the school’s website during the last week of term.

To give you a sneak peek at what we have been up to, take a look at the pictures below.  As you can see, the children enjoyed dressing up in the festive costumes.  They all did so well with the performance, bearing in mind some of our children are just 2 years old. 

We will let you know when the recording goes live and we hope you enjoy watching it!

Week commencing 23rd November 2020

Everyone loves playing with water so this week the children have had fun mark making with water then waiting and watching as their pictures disappeared - Magic!

It is great to see the children's concentration and engagement when involved in any art and craft activity and yesterday we created some bright, feathery, Thanksgiving turkeys. 

We have been busy learning the songs and actions for our Christmas Nativity called 'Whoops a Daisy Angel', which we hope to film and share with you in a couple of weeks time - fingers crossed!

Week commencing 9th November 2020

We have had a busy time at Pre-school over the last two weeks and we have enjoyed playing outside in the late autumn sun.  The children have created some fantastic firework pictures and we have talked about fire safety.  We have also been finding out about Diwali, the Festival of Lights and have had a go at making our own lanterns and rangoli hand patterns.

We have been encouraging good listening and turn taking skills by playing with the Giggly Wiggly ball and have also played a game of ‘Who’s Taken the Giant’s Keys?  The children really enjoy this game and it encourages them to use their communication and language skills.  They love being the giant who falls asleep with the keys to his castle under the chair.  The giant is then woken up by someone taking the keys and has to guess where the noise came from by asking ‘x have you taken my keys?’.

Today everyone dressed up for Children in Need and wore spots/stripes/pyjamas and Pudsey wear.  We played a Pudsey Hide and Seek game and gave the children clues to follow to find the bears that were hiding around the room.  The children did some great Pudsey artwork too. 

Week commencing 19^th October 2020

We started the week by having a good tidy up of all the fallen leaves in our outside area.  It was a very windy day though, so no sooner had we swept them into a tidy pile the wind came and scattered them around again! To help us in our work we sang our Autumn song called ‘Autumn Leaves are Falling Down’.  It was a fun way to start the day and the children were great little helpers. 

With Halloween looming, we thought we would find out about pumpkins and then have a go at making our own Jack O Lantern.  We found out that you need to be very strong to lift a pumpkin, but everyone was eager to have a go.  We also discovered where they grow and, having cut around the stem to create an opening, we found out what was inside - lots of seeds and orange pulp.  Some children wanted to put their hand inside to feel the slimy seeds and pulp.  For those that were not so keen to get their hands messy, we scooped the contents into a zip lock bag for further investigations.