Meet Buttercup Bear

We’re going on a bear hunt…

Pre-School children are all in school during the current lockdown which is brilliant because I still get to see all the children every day.

There are lots of activities going on in the Pre-School this week. It has been especially fun for me because all the children went on a bear hunt out in our lovely grounds. The children went through mud, grass and even some murky puddles to find me…I was hiding in a cave.

All our mathematics and literacy activities this week have had a bear theme so I have really been the highlight of the week in Pre-School and have had such fun.

Whose sunflower will grow the tallest?

This week we are having an exciting focus on growing. Mrs Morgan has some caterpillars at her house which she is photographing regularly to show all of us how they are growing and changing.  In our arts and crafts activities we have all made some super paper chain caterpillars looking very like The Very Hungry Caterpillar in the well-known story.

I have helped Mrs Cane to plant a sunflower seed for each child in the Pre-School and we will photograph the seedlings each week to show the children how they are growing. Hopefully, before long, we will be able to give each child their seedling to plant in their own gardens at home. I wonder whose sunflower will grow the tallest?

Vegetables are the focus of the week

This week I have been using lots of vegetables for activities with the children, including a ‘Guess the Vegetables’ game where the children had to guess which vegetable I was talking about from the description I gave.

We have been drawing and labelling vegetables and talking about our favourite ones.  We have also used vegetables for a shopping game, and to compare the size, length and weight of the different ones.

I really enjoyed getting out into the garden doing some digging and weeding, ready to plant courgette and beans seeds.

Sharing the story of The Three Little Pigs

This week our special sound is ‘W’ and I have been busy searching for things around Mrs Cane’s house that begin with ‘W’ to go in our sound bag.

I then challenged the children to hunt for items at home starting with ‘w’ and to make a wavy water picture. I found some wooden dominoes and did some building with them and encouraged the children at home to try making their own dominoes, carefully copying the same pattern of the dots for each number.

We all read one of my favourite books this week – The Three Little Pigs who were all very scared of the wicked wolf. We found lots of examples of the sound ‘W’ this week.

Staying with Mrs Cane

We have had to leave the Pre-School for a while but hope to be back soon. I am very lucky as I am staying with Pre-School teacher Mrs Cane at her house.

I have been helping Mrs Cane with her Guided Home Learning via Tapestry for all of the children in Pre-School. Each day we have given the children activities to do and I have chosen stories for them to read with their mummies and daddies. Now it is the Easter holidays I have been helping Mrs Cane around the house and today I helped water her plants in the garden as we can’t really go out anywhere at the moment.

Looking forward to Mother’s Day

In the week before Mother’s Day we spent time thinking about our mummies and getting ready to make Mother’s Day a special day. We made our mummies a beautiful flower card and baked some heart-shaped biscuits practising our reading skills with the recipe and our mathematics skills in weighing out ingredients.

We talked about what makes our mummies special and some of the children came up with very thoughtful answers ‘She takes me on outings to special places’, ‘She helps me to brush my teeth’, ‘She has the best garden in the world’, and ‘She gives me the best cuddles’.  We wish all our mums a very happy Mother’s Day.

Everything beginning with ‘j’

This week our sound of the week was ‘j’ and we used our estimation skills to guess how many jelly sweets were in the jam jars. We will find out when we count them at the end of the week. We have also been using jewels to make repeating patterns, and have extended this activity by printing and colouring patterns, threading coloured pasta to make necklaces and even making repeating patterns with natural resources outside.

We did a science experiment to make jelly, and learnt some new vocabulary as we dissolved the jelly cubes by stirring them in hot water, and then discovered that the liquid jelly turned to a solid once it had cooled. The jelly was very wobbly when we turned it out onto a plate.

World Book Day

World Book Day is always so exciting as I never know who is going to walk through the door of the Pre-School in the morning! Everyone always looks so colourful but sometimes I don’t always recognise the children as they are so well disguised.

This year we had a ferocious lion, fairies, Little Red Riding Hood, mermaids, princesses and, of course my favourite, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We shared lots of stories throughout the day and improved our own reading. It was definitely one of the highlights of the term.

Pre-School take Celebration Assembly

In Pre-School this week we are busy preparing for our celebration assembly on Friday when we are invited to stand up in front of all the children and parents at the Prep School. It is making me nervous but I will try and support all the children – I know they will do a tremendous job.

This term our topic has been all about nursery rhymes and in the assembly we are going to sing all our favourites and play musical instruments. We are also hoping to show everyone some of our lovely artwork.