Welcome to Holy Innocents Preschool, our names are Ms Eldridge (Preschool Manager) and Mrs Gregory (Preschool Assistant Manager). We believe it is important that you the children's parents and Carers have the opportunity to see what they do when they are in preschool. This is just a small part of all of the exciting things we do, we try to update it weekly throughout the term we think you will enjoy sharing the journey with us and the children.
Autumn Term 1 - Topic "All about me" and the season Autumn.
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. We will also be looking at the Autumn season as exploring the changes to the world around us.
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.
Making new friends and exploring preschool.
Exploring fine motor skills
Making Playdough
Week 3: The children have started to explore Autumn and what changes we will see this season. We have looked at Autumn colours and explored our beautiful grounds at Holy Innocents.
Nature Hunt - What do we see in Autumn.
Making the most of the lovely Autumn weather and enjoying some Outdoor Fun.
Week4: 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.
The children talked about what they would like to do when they are older.
Week 5: 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.
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.
The children took turns at circle time to share their special boxes brought in from home.
We also planted some bulbs ready for them to grow in spring, we talked about what they need to grow.
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 and of course the exciting start of Advent 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 have explored Diwali The Hindu Festival of Light, we have talked about the story Rama and Sita, the Hindu culture and what the celebration means. The children made Diwali lamps from clay and coloured Rangoli Patterns.
We also talked about fireworks and how we can keep safe. They made their own rocket pictures using triangles and rectangle shapes and firework pictures with splatter paints which was great fun.
Week 2: This week we have been talking about Remembrance day and making poppies that are looking beautiful on the school's display board.
We also made poppy cookies measuring and mixing ingredients and decorating the cookie. We enjoyed eating the cookies at snack time.
Week 3: We are making the most of the mild weather and enjoying lots of outside play, it is great to see the children sharing taking turns, helping each other and making friendships.
Week 4: This week with the start of Advent next week we talked about church and how we can sometimes see messages in the windows. We made our own stain glass windows and talked about the messages of kindness and happiness we would like to see in them.
We did some scissor control activities this week with a focus on scissor safety.
Week 5: 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 the EYFS nativity.
We are all starting to feel very excited about Christmas and we have been enjoying doing lots of Christmas activities.
The children have worked really hard practising their nativity songs and signing, the performance they gave on the day was outstanding, we received so many messages of praise from the teachers, children and our parents.
Week 6: We joined the rest of Holy Innocents Primary School this week, to enjoy a very tasty Christmas lunch with Crackers, Party hats and fun Christmas songs which we sang along to.
The children enjoyed making Christmas Robins using different shapes.
On Friday it was Christmas jumper day for the whole school and preschool all came in looking amazing.
Week 7: 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!
Our beautiful Nativity Scene kindly made for Preschool by Ethan Coates-Gregory in Year 5's Nanny. This is really special as it allows the children to interact with the nativity scene when we are talking about the true meaning of Christmas.
The children enjoying there Christmas party with fun food and lots of games and dancing.
A special visit from Father Christmas and of course all of our lovely preschool children are on the nice list.
Myself, Ms Eldridge and Mrs Selmani would like to say how proud we are of our preschool children, due to COVID it has still 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.
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.
Spring Term 1 - This term our topic is Space and Winter. The children will be talking about Day and Night, The Solar System, planets and of course our planet Earth. The will explore the stars and the moon and look at Astronauts and how they travel into space. We will also explore Chinese New Year and how and why it is celebrated.
Week 1: This week we explore day and night and what we may see in the world around us at these times.
We read the book Owl babies together and the children made their own props for the story.
Week 2: This week we are looking at the planets in our Solar System, we talked about their names, size and colours and what order they are from the sun.
Week 3: This week the children became astronauts and mapped out their own journeys to the different planets in their own preschool rocket.
The children used the junk modelling area to make their own colourful rockets. They talked in groups about where they would like to fly their rockets.
Week 5: This week we have looked at Chinese New Year, who celebrates it and what the celebration means. We listened to the story about the great race and that this how each year has its own animal. This year it is year of the tiger.
We looked at what happens to prepare for the Chinese New Year celebrations, and we decorated the home corner.
One of our children and their family celebrates Chinese New Year and brought in the lions head that his daddy used when he was a child. We showed all of the children at circle time and talked about what it was for. We watched a clip of the Lion dance in China which the children really enjoyed.
The children made chains and lanterns to decorate the home corner with.
The children took part in a scissor control activity, cutting and sticking to make a Year of the Tiger picture.
The children worked together to make there own lion ready for their own lion dance where they used brightly coloured scarfs and used instruments.
The children made their own fire work pictures by joining in with the splatter painting activity outside.
Week 6: We looked at the moon and stars. We watched the first men to walk on the moon and the moon rocks they collected.
This term we will be will be exploring the outside world and looking for mini beasts in our preschool garden. They will learn and compare the living environments, of many mini beasts and how to recognise them in the environment. The children’s understanding of the world will be amplified as they take the journey through the different life stages of living things. They will learn about different life cycles and transitions in the lives of the various living things that they will be looking at in this term.
Week 1 - Understanding the World - Minibeasts
Book of the week: What the Lady bird heard
The children painted their own ladybirds.
The children went on their first preschool trip to Holy Innocents Church, they all set a good example and showed everyone what amazing children we have a Holy Innocents Preschool. The showed Deacon Michael how well they could listen and learn about what the could see see in church.
Week 2: Minibeasts...Mini explorers
Week 3: Lifecycle of a Butterfly
Book of the Week: The Hungry Caterpillar.
Week 4: Lifecycle of a Frog
At Holy Innocents we are extremely lucky to be situated on such beautiful grounds, so the children get to experience all of this, this week we visited the school pond and look what we found.....
One of our children celebrates came Holi the Hindu festival, also known as the festival of spring, festival of colours or the festival of Love.
Week 5: Lifecycle of a Plant
book of the Week: Jack and the Beanstalk.
The children planted their beans and talked about what they needed to grow.
Week 6:
Books of the week: The Hurry Hop
Understanding the World: Easter
Summer Term 1 - Animals and where we might see them and Transport