16th to 20th May

We've had a fun and busy week, with the children showing an interest in lots of different activities.  You might have noticed that we have changed the flowers in the benches - we went for plants that won't need a lot of water over the summer, but if you are passing preschool in August and they look wilted, please feel free to splash on some water!


The children have planted their sunflowers to grow on for the flower show (on 23rd July).  We will be sending these home shortly for you to grow on and to bring into the show to try and win the 'tallest sunflower' competition.  We will also have a plant stall at the flower show, to raise money for preschool.  In the garden, the children's crops are growing well with peas in flower, carrots coming on well and potatoes growing fast.  Next term we can start to harvest them!

The children are still showing lots of interest in hunting for and studying bugs - both real and toy ones.  We found a tiny snail in the toy kitchen, which the children are caring for and have named 'Snailey'.  We've also been using our new bug viewers.  The children have very much enjoyed mixing mud and water this week, to make 'milkshakes'.  This kind of messy play is very good for developing their confidence and for exploring different materials and sensory experiences.

The 'dressing up' theme continues, with lots of spidermen and princesses in the setting!  The children are also starting to expand their imaginative play.  Today, they were making glittery pictures for their 'dog' who they have name 'Sweetie' ('Sweetie' is really a child dressed up as a dog!).  Role play of this kind allows children to explore how they might behave in different situations, it develops their confidence and it helps them develop higher order thinking skills.  There has been lots of interest in castles, knights and wizards, so next week we plan to get the climbing frame out and turn it into a castle.

The children have been showing lots of interest this week in measuring feet and hand sizes, drawing round them with chalk and seeing how big they are.  By doing this, they learn not only about mathematical skills, but also they start to understand about how people grow.  We also use lots of songs to develop the children's counting skills.  This week we've used 'Five Little Spacemen' (ask your child if he/she can sing you a bit of the song!).  We created a silver foil background for our spaceman theme, to add interest.

On Tuesday, 'Red Group' (the older children who are due to start school in September) went onto the 'bubble phonics' website to do some phonics learning.  Parent conferences have started this week and will continue into next week.