Welcome to Holy Innocents Preschool, our names are Ms Eldridge (Preschool Manager) and Mrs Gregory (Preschool Assistant Manager) and Mrs Vimal (Preschool Assistant). This is just a small part of all of the exciting things we do, we think you will enjoy sharing the journey with us and the children.
This term our topic is "All about me", learning about themselves is a fundamental part of childhood development, they will explore what makes them the same and what makes them different from others.
Week 1: The children have all really settled in well, especially the children that have joined us this September. To continue to help the children settle in our topic this term is "All about me" to help us and the children to get to know each other.
Week 2: This week we have talked about emotions, the children used circle faces and foam faces to express the emotions they were feeling.
Week 3: This week we have talked about people that are important to us. The children have been drawing some wonderful pictures of their families.
We have been making the most of the lovely weather and enjoying a lot of outdoor play.
Week 4: The children used mirrors to look at their reflections and make pictures of their faces. They talked with their friends about all of the similarities and differences they could see. The children will be making hand prints and self portraits that can be seen on our lovely welcome board in the preschool.
The children used paint and moved marbles around in their trays to make their pictures.
Week 5: The children have started to explore Autumn and what changes we will see this season. We have looked at Autumn colours and collected seeds from our sunflower heads to plant in our flower bed next year.
The Children have been exploring written numbers and matching quantities.
We have been talking about different types of homes people live in and the children use junk modeling to talk about and make their own homes.
Week 6: The children have had an amazing first term and we are all really pleased with how the children have settled into preschool. Our topic has been "All about me" and the children have talked and shared stories about themselves and explored what makes us and our families unique and although we are all different we are all friends. We have had lots of fun and the children always try their best with all the activities we have been doing.
Autumn Term 2 - Festivals and Celebrations Planning
This term our topic is "Festivals and Celebrations". The children will be talking about Diwali, Fireworks and how to stay safe, Remembrance Day, Hannuka The Jewish festival of light, Thanksgiving and of course the exciting start of Avent and lead up to Christmas we have lots of fun things to look forward to with the Nativity, Christmas jumper day and the Christmas party, but we will also be talking about the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it.
Week 1: This week the children talked about fireworks and how we can keep safe. They made their own rocket pictures using triangles and rectangle shapes and they made firework pictures using chalks.We made firework pictures with splatter paints which was great fun.
Fireworks
We have been looking at number sequencing and the children have shown us their mathematical skills.
Week 2: This week we have been talking about Remembrance day and making poppies that are looking beautiful on our classroom display board.
The children have been using their physical (fine motor skills) and their literacy skills to sound out the letters and write their own names. The children was very proud of their achievements.
Week 3: This week the children have explored Diwali The Hindu Festival of Light, we have talked about the Hindu culture and what the celebration means. The children made Diwali lamps, Rangoli Patterns and garlands.
The children have been exploring 2d shapes and how we can find and see them in the environment around them. They searched the preschool and brought back items to match their shapes.
Week 4: The children have talked about the Jewish festival of light Hannukka. They made Menorah candles and counted each candle, they talked abound how one candle was lit each day for 9 days.
This week the children also explored physical movement, they used spacial awareness, balance, and over and under movements. They enjoyed their PE lesson where they completed the assault course that was set up for them.
The children also explored the American celebration of thanks giving.
Week 6: This week marked the start of Advent, we have been talking with the children about the true meaning of Christmas and how we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
You may have noticed over the last few weeks the children have been singing Christmas songs at home, this is because they have been practising their songs for our very own preschool nativity.
We are all starting to feel very excited about Christmas and we have been enjoying doing lots of Christmas activities. On Friday it was Christmas jumper day for the whole school and preschool all came in looking amazing.
Christmas Jumper Day
Our Christmas wreath the children made to hang on the preschool door.
Christmas tree Christmas cards
The children made star decorations to take home and hang on their christmas trees.
Christmas tree decorations.
Snowmen Christmas tree decorations.
This is our preschool festival and celebrations display board filled with all of our children's amazing work. Doesn't it look good!
The children enjoying their Christmas dinners, with some Christmas songs, crackers and dancing.
Week 7: Well this week all the practising paid off and the children performed their story of the birth of Jesus to all of the parents and the rest of the school via Zoom and they was absolutely amazing....WELL DONE PRESCHOOL WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!
We hope you all managed to log on and watch them.
Finally the children enjoyed a very well deserved preschool christmas party with crackers, our Christmas hats, yummy food and lots of dancing and party games. We all had lots of fun!
Myself, Ms Eldridge and Mrs Vimal would like to say how proud we are of our preschool children, due to COVID it has been far from normal, however with the children's resilience and enthusiasm and the fact they greet us with big smiles each morning it has felt as close to normal as we could get.
The children have worked really hard especially practising their nativity, the performance they gave on the day was outstanding, we received so many messages of praise from the teachers, children and our parents.
We would like to say a huge thank you for your kindness and generosity this Christmas, we appreciate all of your cards and gifts.
We hope you and your families stay safe and well this Christmas and we look forward to welcoming you all back in January.
We hope you are all keeping safe and well and have enjoyed the Christmas break. Each week we will be putting a timetable of different activities for our pre school children, please don't feel these are compulsory, they are offered so you as parents/carers have resources available to keep your children's little minds busy each day whilst having to stay home and unable to attend pre-school.
There will be different activities each day that cover the areas of the Early Years Foundation stage framework, this will provide the children with the opportunity to continue to work towards their early years milestones through play and exploring, using all of their senses to understand their world.
Some of the phonic activities are focused towards our older children that are leaving in July to move up to Reception class, but please feel free to explore them with the younger children too.
Please send us your pictures of the children participating in any the activities they have been doing at home via the dojo or by email, we will post them on here, we hope this will allow you to get ideas from each other and give the opportunity for your children see their friends and see that they too are staying home and keeping safe.
Week Commencing: 04 January - 08 January 2021
Books of the week: Back to Earth with a Bump, The Owl that was afraid of the dark, On the moon, A Tale of two feathers and Good day, Good night.
Understanding the world: Space - Night and day
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Sticky Kids - lets go walking
Back to Earth with a bump Scissor control activity
Tumble Tots - Wiggley Woo
Practise using a knife and fork
Just Dance - Pirates life for me
Putting on coats and fastening the zip/buttons
Simon Says
Over, Under and Through
If your happy and you know it
Practice washing our hands whilst singing ABC song
Back to Earth with a bump Story
Back to Earth with a bump pencil control
The Owl that was afraid of the dark
Jolly Phonics
Owl Word Mat
On the Moon Story
Recognise/Practice writing their name
A tale of two feathers story
Light and Dark Word Mat
Good Day Good Night
story
Jolly Phonics
Back to Earth with a bump counting cards*
Owl Shape Matching
Owl Counting
1-10 and 1-20
Night and day size ordering
Morning and Night Routines
Back to Earth with a bump Pebbles
Owl and Fox stick Puppets
Owl Babies
Story Puppets
Day and night time activity
Day and Night Plate
Light and Dark Game
Moon Crafts
Night and day sorting activity
Day and Night Song
Sun Crafts
* Attachment for the activity in the folders below
The children in preschool made aliens in space ships today, they used scissors to cut out the shapes.
The children in preschool are doing the same activities as the children at home and are practising their pencil control and learning about space and planets.