12.07.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Pirates’. We have read books such as ‘My granny is a pirate’, ‘Ten little pirates’ and ‘Never mess with a pirate princess’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Panning for gold – The children used sieves to pick out ‘gold’ from the water tray.
- Treasure map prepositions – The children used prepositional language during a treasure map maths activity. The children described where pictures were on the map e.g. under, on top, next to.
- Making treasure chests – Some of the children painted and decorated a treasure chest using an egg box.
- Making parrots – We talked about how pirates usually have a parrot friend. The children coloured in a pirate picture and then glued feathers on top to make a 3D effect.
- Decorating a pirate biscuit. The children used white and black icing to make a pirate flag biscuit.
- Walking the plank! The children helped make a plank and then each child had a turn walking the plank. We practiced balancing and jumping off at the end.
- Counting gold coins! We looked at numerals 1-5. Each pirate had a number on them and the children gave the correct number of coins to each pirate.
- Pin the eye patch on the pirate game!
Next week the topic will continue to be ‘Pirates’.
Important information
- Next week we will also be learning about Arts week 2024! The whole school are learning about ‘Abstract Architecture’. We are going to look at different houses and buildings. Please can parents send in photos of their children’s houses for us to share.
- Can we please ask parents to bring in any unwanted egg boxes to make treasure chests next week.
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to:
pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
05.07.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Pirates’. We have read books such as ‘My granny is a pirate’, ‘Ten little pirates’ and ‘Never mess with a pirate princess’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Pirate small world play – The children played with a toy pirate ship, miniature pirate figures, sharks, cannonballs and treasure chests.
- Pirate ship role play – We made a pirate ship out of cardboard and painted it black. The children have pretended to be pirates and played with pretend gold coins inside a treasure chest.
- Skull and cross bones flag – We looked at the pirate symbol and what it represents. The children then made their own flag using white paint and black paper.
- Making pirate hats! On Monday the children painted a pirate symbol onto a black hat.
- Treasure map – We looked at different examples of treasure maps. Some of the children drew a treasure map and then painted over it with tea stained water.
- Searching for gold! They used magnets to find and pick out pirate coins from the sand tray.
Next week the topic will continue to be ‘Pirates’.
Important information
- We will be sending out transition and end of year reports out in paper form throughout next week. Transition reports will also be passed onto their class teachers.
- Can we please ask parents to bring in any unwanted egg boxes to make treasure chests next week.
- Pre-school stay and play – Wednesday 10th July 8.45am-10.00am
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to:
pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org. - As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school
- Transition to school – Our school starters will be spending some time in Codden class with Mrs Paul, Cheryl and Ms Burnell. They will have a small session where they will either have snack, read a story, play in the room or do an activity. This will happen throughout the week so all children will have the opportunity to take part.
21.06.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘The beach’ and ‘Under the Sea’. We have read books such as, ‘Sharing a shell’, ‘Busy beach’ and ‘What the Ladybird heard at the Seaside’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Messy play/sensory: Making ‘beach’ cupcakes. The children used sand to make pretend beach cupcakes. They played with real cooking equipment such as, scales, measuring jugs, baking tray etc.
- Exploring the coral reef: We watched videos of the coral reef and talked about the different sea creatures you might see there. The children then played with a ‘coral reef’ tray. The tray was filled with blue rice for the sea, pretend fish and pipe cleaners to make the reef.
- Stay and play sports day! The children really enjoyed taking part in lots of different sports day themed activities. Thank you to everyone who attended!
- Beach role play- The children played with real sand in our pretend beach scene. They also played with buckets, spades, inflatables, flip-flops, towels, beach games and shells etc.
- Beach themed playdough – We mixed yellow playdough with real sand. The children made beach and under the sea scenes using playdough, shells, toy fish and sand letters.
- Sand ice-cream shop – Making ice-creams using toy cones, scoopers, pomp oms and sand.
- Beach clean – We read the story ‘Clean up’ again and spoke about keeping our beaches clean. Following on from this, we talked about different types of rubbish and how we recycle. The children then separated real rubbish into two groups of either plastic or cardboard.
- Water safety – We watched a video from the RNLI about how to stay safe at the beach and who can help us. We looked at the different flags and what they mean.
- Craft activity: The children painted a beach scene using blue/yellow paint and fish shaped sponges.
- Painting with bubble wrap- The children painted a starfish using bubble wrap.
Important information
- Pre-school stay and play – Wednesday 10th July 8.45am-10.00am
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to:
pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org. - As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school
- Transition to school – Starting from next week our school starters will be spending some time in Codden class with Mrs Paul, Cheryl and Ms Burnell. They will have a small session where they will either have snack, read a story, play in the room or do an activity. This will happen throughout the week so all children will have the opportunity to take part.
14.06.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘The beach’ and ‘Under the Sea’. We have read books such as, ‘Sharing a shell’, ‘Busy beach’ and ‘What the Ladybird heard at the Seaside’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Beach role play- The children played with real sand in our pretend beach scene. They also played with buckets, spades, inflatables, flip-flops, towels, beach games and shells etc.
- Rock pool small world play – We filled a tray with rocks, pebbles, shells and toy sea animals. The children picked out the sea animals using nets and transported them into another tray.
- Beach themed playdough – We mixed yellow playdough with real sand. The children made beach and under the sea scenes using playdough, shells, toy fish and sand letters.
- Sand ice-cream shop – Making ice-creams using toy cones, scoopers, pomp oms and sand.
- Rainbow fish – We read the story rainbow fish and then each child made their own. They cut out the outline of a fish and used celery to paint the scales. We used glitter to make the scales shimmery.
- Father’s Day – Making Father’s day cards using dinosaur stamps and paint.
- Beach clean – We read the story ‘Clean up’ and talked about keeping our beaches clean. The children played with a themed tray where they had to pick out the rubbish from the beach and rescue the sea animals.
- Sensory and messy tray – Playing with blue coloured shaving foam and toy sea animals.
Important information
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to:
pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org. - As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school
- Transition to school – Starting from next week our school starters will be spending some time in Codden class with Mrs Paul, Cheryl and Ms Burnell. They will have a small session where they will either have snack, read a story, play in the room or do an activity. This will happen throughout the week so all children will have the opportunity to take part.
- Sports day stay and play – Wednesday 19th June at 9am – please see information below! If you are planning to attend please can you email pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
Sports day Stay and Play information:
We are really excited for our Early Years Sports Event on Wednesday 19th June 9am. If your child usually attends Pre-School on this day then they should attend as normal. If your child does not usually attend Pre-School on Tuesdays but would like to join we ask that parents remain with their child at all times to enable staff to adhere to legal staff-child ratios.
To help it run smoothly here is a rough plan ...
We aim to start at 9am once all children have been registered. Please could adults wait in the EYFS garden until we are due to start.
The children will be arranged into teams and will be led by Year 6 Sports Leaders to their starting activity.
Parents are encouraged to join their child's group and take part in the activities with them!
Staff will raise their hands when the activity is due to end and the sports leaders will take the group to the next activity when the bell is rung. We will move in a clockwise direction around the activities.
The children need to stay with their group at all times.
Due to Safeguarding if your child needs to use the toilet please take them to Codden Classroom Door and a member of staff will take them.
When the children have completed all activities we will meet altogether on the grass in the EYFS Garden to celebrate!
Thank you so much for your support with this event.
Warm Regards
The EYFS Team
24.05.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Royal’. We have learnt about the king, royal family, London etc. We have read books such as ‘We’re going to a birthday party’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Small world play – They have played with different castles, knights, queens etc. They have enjoyed making their own fairytale scenes using the mini characters.
- Role play area – The children have loved playing in our afternoon tea party role area. They have played with picnic blankets, picnic baskets, toy cakes, cups, plates, union jack flags, tea set.
- Ice castle – The children helped freeze some water in castle shaped buckets. We also filled them with jewels and coins. We then watched the ice melt in the sun and they played with the water. The group discussed how water turns into ice and how it turns back into water again.
- Messy foam tray – We mixed shaving foam, red and blue paint together (The colours union jack flag). They enjoyed feeling the foam and mixing the colours together.
- We had an afternoon tea party on Thursday. The children made their own sandwiches and had some cakes from the sale.
- Decorating a biscuit with red and blue icing.
- Baking cakes – On Monday the children helped to bake some cupcakes. The children then decorated them with red and blue icing. In the afternoon they ate the cakes for snack.
- London themed tuff tray – The tray was filled with a toy London bus, taxi cab, London bridge, school bus, telephone boxes etc. The children made a train track around these items.
Important information
· Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to:
pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
· Now the weather is getting warmer, please can we ask that you bring in a sun hat and some sun cream for your child. Please could you make sure these are both clearly labelled with your child’s name. They can be left at pre-school if you prefer.
· As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school
- Sports day stay and play – Wednesday 19th June at 9am – please see information below!
- Half term is Monday 27th May – Friday 7th June.
Sports day Stay and Play information:
We are really excited for our Early Years Sports Event on Wednesday 19th June 9am. If your child usually attends Pre-School on this day then they should attend as normal. If your child does not usually attend Pre-School on Tuesdays but would like to join we ask that parents remain with their child at all times to enable staff to adhere to legal staff-child ratios.
To help it run smoothly here is a rough plan ...
We aim to start at 9am once all children have been registered. Please could adults wait in the EYFS garden until we are due to start.
The children will be arranged into teams and will be led by Year 6 Sports Leaders to their starting activity.
Parents are encouraged to join their child's group and take part in the activities with them!
Staff will raise their hands when the activity is due to end and the sports leaders will take the group to the next activity when the bell is rung. We will move in a clockwise direction around the activities.
The children need to stay with their group at all times.
Due to Safeguarding if your child needs to use the toilet please take them to Codden Classroom Door and a member of staff will take them.
When the children have completed all activities we will meet altogether on the grass in the EYFS Garden to celebrate!
Thank you so much for your support with this event.
Warm Regards
The EYFS Team
17.05.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Royal’. We have learnt about the king, royal family, London etc. We have read books such as ‘The king’s pants’ and ‘Where’s Mr king?’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Small world play – They have played with different castles, knights, queens etc. They have enjoyed making their own fairytale scenes using the mini characters.
- Role play area – The children have loved playing in our afternoon tea party role area. They have played with picnic blankets, picnic baskets, toy cakes, cups, plates, union jack flags, tea set.
- We have learnt about our flag and what it represents. The children painted their own union jack flag using red and blue paint. They painted the flag by dipping cotton buds into the paint and dotting them onto the paper.
- The children decorated a piece of bunting each with red and blue crayons/colouring pencils. We added the bunting altogether to decorate our pre-school room.
- We talked about where the king lives. The children then looked at real life photos of different London landmarks such as, Big ben, London eye, Buckingham palace etc.
- London themed tuff tray – The tray was filled with a toy London bus, taxi cab, London bridge, school bus, telephone boxes etc. The children made a train track around these items.
- Maths activity – We have started learning about numicon. During our maths game the children picked out a pretend 5,10,1 or 2p coin. We matched the coin to the corresponding numicon.
- We looked at photos of different royal castles such as Buckingham palace and Windsor castle. A member of staff drew around numicon to make the shape of a castle. Then the children tried to place different numicon to match the shape of the castle outline.
- At the end of the week the children made their own crown. They used card, glue, paint, sequins etc.
Important information
· Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to:
pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
· We welcome everyone to come to our Stay and Play session on Wednesday
22nd May 8:45am-10.15am.
· Now the weather is getting warmer, please can we ask that you bring in a
sun hat and some sun cream for your child. Please could you make sure
these are both clearly labelled with your child’s name. They can be left at
pre-school if you prefer.
· As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not
to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school
- Sports day stay and play – Tuesday 18th June at 9am.
- Half term is Monday 27th May – Friday 7th June.
10.05.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Mad about Minibeasts’. We have read stories such as ‘The hungry caterpillars bug hunt, Superworm, The ladybird who heard’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Minibeast painting! The children put toy minibeasts into paint and then printed them onto paper. They enjoyed using them to mix different colours. We looked at the diferent marks each minibeast made on the paper.
- Bubble painting – We mixed food colouring with bubble mixture to make bubbles. An adult made the bubbles overflow in the bowl and then the children put their butterfly pictures over the top to paint their picture.
- We put tape over the tuff tray and the children used tweezers to carefully pick out the minibeasts. Each of the children had a turn at picking all the minibeasts out. We timed each child using the timer on the ipad.
- We learnt about a frog’s life cycle. The children played with a messy sensory frog themed tuff tray. We used green jelly for pretend frog spawn and they played with mini toy frogs.
- The children painted a picture of the hungry caterpillar using different sized sponges, red, green and yellow paint.
Next week our topic will be ‘Royal’. We will be talking about the King’s birthday, London etc.
Important information
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to: pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
- We welcome everyone to come to our Stay and Play session on Wednesday 22nd May 8:45am-10.15am.
- Now the weather is getting warmer, please can we ask that you bring in a sun hat and some sun cream for your child. Please could you make sure these are both clearly labelled with your child’s name. They can be left at pre-school if you prefer.
- As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school.
03.05.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Mad about Minibeasts’. We have read stories such as ‘The hungry caterpillars bug hunt, Superworm, The ladybird who heard’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- The children used junk modelling materials such as cardboard, plastic etc. to make and decorate their own minibeast.
- We talked about what could help us on our minibeast hunt. The children used cardboard rolls to make and decorate their own binoculars. Then the children used them in their minibeast role play.
- Some of the children decorated a ‘ladybird’ biscuit with red icing and chocolate buttons.
- We spent a day learning about honey bees. We learnt lots of different facts about honey bees and then rolled played using a miniature beehive.
- We read a story called ‘The bug hotel’ and talked about our own bug hotel in the bottom of the garden. The children then collected different natural materials they thought the bugs would like.
- Making and decorating a bumble bee using a cardboard roll. They used black and yellow paint sticks and pipe cleaners for the antenna.
Important information
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to: pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
- Send in any photos of your bank holiday weekend the children might like to share with their friends.
- Please bring in any books you might have about minibeasts.
- As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school.
26.04.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Mad about Minibeasts’. We have read stories such as ‘The hungry caterpillars bug hunt, Superworm, The ladybird who heard’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- The children made snails! They coloured in a snail picture and decorated a paper bowl to make a 3D shell.
- Painting Minibeasts! The children painted pasta shells and butterfly pasta to make bees and butterflies.
- We read ‘The hungry caterpillar’ and acted out the lifecycle of a butterfly. The children used props to talk about how a butterfly starts as an egg and then a caterpillar etc.
- Small world play – The children played with lots of pretend minibeast figures including, worms, dragonfly’s, spiders, butterflies, caterpillars etc. The used different sensory resources in this area to support their role play.
- ‘The ladybird who heard’ tuff tray role play – the children acted out the story using different props such as, toy ladybird, farm animals, farmhouse, pond etc.
- Minibeast hunt! We looked all around the top of the school and the mud kitchen area for different minibeasts. We ticked them off a list and looked at photos of them afterwards.
- Playdough – Every child made a bumble bee mini beast out of yellow playdough and black pipe cleaners.
Important information
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to: pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
- Please send back the summer term funding form either via email or paper copy no later than Friday 26th April.
- Please bring in any books you might have about minibeasts.
- As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school.
28.06.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘The beach’ and ‘Under the Sea’. We have read books such as, ‘Sharing a shell’, ‘Busy beach’ and ‘What the Ladybird heard at the Seaside’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- Octopus craft – The children made an octopus out of coloured card and tissue paper.
- Saving the sea creatures – We read the story ‘Somebody swallowed Stanley’ and talked again about picking up rubbish. The children helped ‘rescue’ the toy sea creatures by taking out all of the plastic from the tuff tray and unwrapping pipe cleaners.
- Recycling activity – We looked at different types of rubbish such as, cardboard, metal, plastic etc. The children each had a turn separating a piece of rubbish into the correct recycling bin.
- Outdoor learning – The children made pretend fishing rods using sticks and string. They decorated the sticks using pastel colours.
- Starfish picture – The children used their fine motor skills to make a starfish picture out of cheerios. The children glued cheerios to their starfish picture to make it 3D.
- The children explored sea animals by playing with toy whales, sharks etc. in blue soapy water.
- Under the sea role play – The children played in a boat and a tuff tray filled with sand. We put toy fish and sea animals in the sand. They also had a life jacket, arm bands, rubber ring and a snorkel.
Next week the topic will be ‘Pirates’.
Important information
- Pre-school stay and play – Wednesday 10th July 8.45am-10.00am
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to:
pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org. - As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school
- Transition to school – Our school starters will be spending some time in Codden class with Mrs Paul, Cheryl and Ms Burnell. They will have a small session where they will either have snack, read a story, play in the room or do an activity. This will happen throughout the week so all children will have the opportunity to take part.
19.04.24
This week our focus topic has been ‘Mad about Minibeasts’. We have read stories such as ‘The hungry caterpillars bug hunt, Superworm, The ladybird who heard’.
Activities this week at pre-school:
- We read Superworm at circle time. The children then played a game where they had to pick out all the worms from a mud sensory tray. We timed each child to see how fast they could pick all of the worms out.
- The children made a butterfly out of tissue paper, pastels and stickers. They each picked which colours they wanted to choose for their butterfly.
- Small world play – The children played with lots of pretend minibeast figures including, worms, dragonfly’s, spiders, butterflies, caterpillars etc. The used different sensory resources in this area to support their role play.
- Playdough – Every child made their own minibeast using yellow playdough. They added different features to their minibeast by using the minibeast playdough resources. This included pretend spider legs, antennas, wings etc.
- On Tuesday the children collected leaves from around the school. They used these leaves to make a natural butterfly. They decorated and glued the leaves to a lollypop stick. They then made a face using eye stickers and a colouring pens.
- We looked at lots of different photos of minibeasts and talked about their different characteristics. The children then separated the minibeasts into categories based on whether they fly, crawl or both.
- Guess the minibeast game – The children were given four clues and had to guess which minibeast was being described.
Important information
- Send in any WOW moments for the children or photos of experiences to: pre-school@bishopstawton-primary.org.
- Please send back the summer term funding form either via email or paper copy no later than Friday 26th April.
- Please bring in any books you might have about minibeasts.
- As we are now approaching school transition time, we ask the children not to bring in their own toys from home to pre-school.