Examples of Spring/Summer Term activities

There are lots being covered during this term.  The children are learning all about mini-beasts and have been watching the cycle caterpillars go through to turn into a butterfly.  They will be ready to be set free!

Children will have also been learning about slugs, snails, woodlice, ladybirds and worms, as well as finding plenty of them in our garden. 

Children will be helping with our vegetable patch, planting tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, spring onions, courgettes, lettuce new potatoes and runner beans! 

We will be busy!

We will also talk about starting school to those children that will be leaving in the summer.

Examples of Winter Term activities

The term's topic may start with Transport

          Children will be looking at different modes of transport around the world – exploring transport through sea, land, air and even space to celebrate Tim Peake's space mission.

          We will be using the LED screen to gather information about how we travel, as well as creating great art with stencils, templates and free hand drawings.  There is even hot air balloon models being made!  Some of the artwork may be on display...

      We will also be celebrating Chinese New Year with a special visit from Zoolab as well as organising our Easter Bunny Hunt.

      Last but not least we may welcome new eggs to be hatched.  Following the life cycle of a chick is always fun, and we can't wait to do it all again in following years!

Examples of Autumn Term activities

Topics can cover Fairy tales.

We will have games, craft ideas as well as numeracy activities, focused around traditional Fairy Tales.

In Goldilocks and the Three Bears we will cover subjects such as small, medium and large, likes and dislikes, comparing sets of 3s, holding utensils correctly as well as porridge tasting.

In the 3 Little Pigs, we will focus on stranger danger, getting lost and what to do, as well as making different kind of houses with different materials.

There will be lots of role play, as well as some interactive games in our big LCD screen to support the activities.

Examples of Summer Term activities

We will be learning all about nursery rhymes.

We will be reading them, drawing them, talking about them, coming up with new endings, and lots more.  Nursery rhymes have a hugely positive impact on a child’s language and literacy development. 

 Here are some of their benefits:

·        They are a great way into learning early phonic skills

·        They give children practice in pitch, volume as well as rhythm

·        They expand the imagination

·        They follow a clear sequence of events - beginning, middle and end.

·        They improve children’s vocabulary

·        They are an early form of poetry

·        They help develop comprehension skills

·        They have sophisticated literary devices!  Children are introduced to alliteration, onomatopoeia, and rhyming words.

·        They are fun!

Here are just some suggested new endings for the the Three Little Piggies.

Examples of Spring Term activities

We learn all about the A-Z of animals.  We explored letters across the alphabet, picked a few favourites (including bugs and creepy crawlies), talked about what they eat, where they live and sleep, and do lots of activities around our findings. 

You can see them all over the walls at the pre-school.

Examples of Summer Term activities

The topic could be ‘People who help us’.

We will be encouraging the children to think about the type of people who help us.  From police officers and doctors, lollipop ladies and fire fighters, teachers and dentists - we hope to cover enough examples to open a dialogue about the following:

• Sharing and team work

• Feeling safe and secure - trust

• Building good relationship with adults

• Being friendly if someone hurts themselves – what to do

We secured a visit from the local police officer who will talk to the children about how they help people.  We will talk through the concept of ‘stranger danger’ and who is safe to approach if they are lost.  We will also encourage all the children to know their address and house numbers.

There will be plenty of role play, with children leaning how to recognise and dial ‘999’ as well as try to express their own ‘emergency’ over the phone. Additional fire drills will be enacted (as we do these as part of health and safety anyway) and we will be sending children home with the task of doing their own fire drill at home – we hope you will support us in this exercise.

A pretend Doctors’ Surgery will be set up and we will explore first aid kits, bandages and instruments that might already be familiar such as stethoscopes, thermometer, syringe, and otoscope.  We will invite children to talk about their own experiences at the doctors (baby clinics, injections, general illnesses), and will choose appropriate songs to complement our discussions such as ‘Miss Polly had a Dolly’.

Finally, we will also look at road safety, the role of the Lollipop Lady, (green for go, red for stop) and traffic in general – with a focus on Do’s and Don’ts of Crossing the Road.

Our discussions and learnings are often reinforced through drawings and paintings. Look out for the ‘What would you do if you lost Mummy?’ poster by the coat hanging area.  It is a great example of the results of such a session.

We work with a number of different partners to boost learning and development opportunities for all the children.  The sessions are booked every half term. 

Fin out more about our Partners here.