This Term - Autumn 2021
Our visit from the Police Community Support Officer
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We had fun rolling eggs together at Easter
A big dog and a small dog came to visit Pre-School!
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We used magnifying glasses to help us see and identify some of the mini beasts living underneath our log pile!
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In February we learned a bit about Chinese New Year and tried using chopsticks to eat noodles. Tricky things!
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In January we made toast and kept a tally of what everyone liked to spread on it!
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We love the texture of paint!
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Jo did some science – she made the coke explode!
“Leading up to Christmas all our children took part in the “Rhyme Challenge” where we learned some great new rhymes together, some of them with a Christmas theme. The rhymes were sent home to families too so everyone could share in the learning and the fun. When we came back to Pre-School in January we all received our “Rhyme Challenge” Certificates! And we’re still having fun saying the rhymes!”
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“On a dark, cold, winters day we turned out the lights and shared the story of the bears in their cave, (“Can’t You Sleep Little Bear”), using lighted candles to illustrate the lanterns!”. |
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”And on another day it was so wet we decided to make umbrellas!” |
We celebrated Christmas at Pre-School in lots of ways. The children made decorations, Christmas Cakes and Christmas cards which we walked to the post box to post to their Mummies and Daddies.
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We joined the Foundation Class at Streatley School to drink hot chocolate and sing Christmas Carols around the Christmas Tree. Rev. Paul visited to tell us about the nativity and local author Bev Wilden told us other Christmas stories.
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We finished with a Christmas Party in the Morrell Rooms.
A big "Thank you" to all the people who helped with this and to Andrew Goss who was our jolly Father Christmas!”
During November we had some special visitors at Pre-School !
Toby's Grandma came to visit us - all the way from Canada! She brought with her some Maple Syrup. She told us where the Maple Syrup comes from and then we ate pancakes with Maple Syrup on them for our snack. Toby's Grandma also brought some special Canadian plates and napkins for us to use which had the Canadian flag on them - the Maple Leaf. Afterwards she read us some new stories from Canada.
Toby's Grandma came to visit us - all the way from Canada! She brought with her some Maple Syrup. She told us where the Maple Syrup comes from and then we ate pancakes with Maple Syrup on them for our snack. Toby's Grandma also brought some special Canadian plates and napkins for us to use which had the Canadian flag on them - the Maple Leaf. Afterwards she read us some new stories from Canada.
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Eva's Grandma came to visit and brought along her dog Pippa. She talked to the children about the things she has to do to look after her dog. The children all had a turn at stroking Pippa - she was soft and warm! They had a chance to brush her silky coat and feed her a dog treat. Afterwards Pippa sat on her owners lap while she read us a story about Kipper the dog.
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And on two days our own Sam brought along Rabbity the Rabbit and everyone had a chance to hold him and stroke him - he was soft and warm too. Sam told us about and showed us the food he eats and the straw he uses for his bed. We looked at his twitching whiskers, his long ears and his big back feet. Afterwards some children chose to make rabbit pictures and we had a story about a little lost rabbit.
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A big "Thank You" to all our visitors and story readers!
We have been to visit our friends in the Foundation Class at Streatley School and listened to their singing and the instruments they had made. We have explored all kinds of things that make a sound and some of us made instruments too.
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On Thursday 16th October the children at Streatley Hill Pre-School had a visit from Harry, a dentist at the local Boathouse Dental Surgery. Harry brought along her friend Gnasher - a large, yellow dog puppet with beautiful teeth!
Harry talked to the children at just the right level explaining about the special gloves and masks she wears when she looks at teeth and showing them that she is still smiling even with her mask on! She passed around masks and gloves for them to try !
She told the children about the importance of brushing their teeth twice a day for 2 minutes and used her giant timer to show how long that is.
Then Harry gave Gnasher's teeth a good clean with his own special giant toothbrush. She showed the children how he needed to open wide so she could reach right to the back teeth and put his teeth firmly together so she could brush the front teeth up and down. Each child took a turn at giving Gnasher's teeth an extra scrub!
Harry talked to the children at just the right level explaining about the special gloves and masks she wears when she looks at teeth and showing them that she is still smiling even with her mask on! She passed around masks and gloves for them to try !
She told the children about the importance of brushing their teeth twice a day for 2 minutes and used her giant timer to show how long that is.
Then Harry gave Gnasher's teeth a good clean with his own special giant toothbrush. She showed the children how he needed to open wide so she could reach right to the back teeth and put his teeth firmly together so she could brush the front teeth up and down. Each child took a turn at giving Gnasher's teeth an extra scrub!
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At the end of the morning each child received a Goodie Bag with a toothbrush, mask and other goodies!
A big "Thank You" to Harry and The Boathouse- we had a great time learning!”
A big "Thank You" to Harry and The Boathouse- we had a great time learning!”
Also in October the children have all had a turn at planting some bulbs.
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Tom’s Mummy came in and showed us how to make hedgehogs from all the conkers we had collected!
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We have picked lots of tomatoes from the tomato plants we grew! We eat them as part of our morning snack!
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We have talked about Autumn. Several children have been out for a walk to collect conkers. Some children decided they could make an Autumn Tree picture using leaves and twigs they found in the garden.
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Our large new sandpit has proved to be a firm favourite with all the children! |
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The children love the new bubble blowing machine!
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The children who moved over the road to Streatley School have already been back to visit us with their Teacher and Nursery Nurse. They like our new path and sandpit! They have also settled into their new surroundings really well – our smoothest transition ever.
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Back at Pre-School for the start of the new school year and all our new children have settled in really quickly. We’ve made the best of the lovely weather and have already been for a walk in the woods
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Over the summer holiday we have had an amazing new path laid around our garden. We also have a large new sandpit. The children think it is all great!
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We also said “Goodbye” to all the children who were leaving us to move on to school. They were presented with a book to remember us. |
On the last day of the Summer Term we had a Garden Party for all our children and their families.The children made the picnic themselves including sandwiches, jelly and yummy cakes! Parents, grandparents and child minders all came along to share it with us. It provided the opportunity to have an official opening of our new canopy; Tina Farr, a local supporter of the Pre-School, who always hosts our Easter Egg Hunt, cut the ribbon. She and her husband John had donated a substantial amount towards the cost of the canopy. Afterwards Tina and John mingled with the families. It was also great to welcome our Community Support Officer who came along with another member of her team; they soon got involved in helping to give out the jelly!
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We visited Streatley School Foundation Class to see the eggs they had in an incubator. We went back three more times to see the newly hatched chicks and then see how they grew and started to get feathers. Some children chose to paint pictures of the chicks and some made pictures from shapes.
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We really love our mud kitchen! Thank you Andrew for building it for us!
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We made up a fun game to help learn our numbers
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We have learned that circles roll! Good teamwork everyone!
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Water is great for a spot of decorating!
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Our plants have grown. We are really proud of our strawberries and have eaten some for snack.
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We have been out and about a lot using the School Outdoor Classroom and the woods. Good balancing everyone!
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Today our local author and story teller, Bev Wilden, came to visit. She read the children some pirate stories and sang some pirate songs. She gave them all a little paper pirate and helped them find the words to describe him. Afterwards some of the children chose to draw a pirate ship for their pirate to go on!
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On Friday 23rd May, some of the children carried out a sponsored walk up Lardon Chase in Streatley to raise funds to enable the pre-school to build a sandpit and garden path. The weather was kind; the mornings
downpour stopped just before we were due to start and the afternoons torrential
rain did not begin until we were all back down again. And every one made it! We had a
breezy picnic at the top followed by the most delicious cupcakes contributed by
one of the Mums. We raised £700 towards our new
sandpit and garden path and would like to say a very big "Thank You"
to everyone who took part and everyone who sponsored us. If you would still like to donate then the
children would be very grateful for your support and you can still do so using
our Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/streatleyhill-preschool
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After one child returned from a holiday with her Grandparents in Australia another pointed out we could “Do the World” at Pre-School! So we have been talking about places we have been and people we know from other countries. We found out about the North and South Poles and which animals live there. Toby’s Grandma from Canada came to tell us about Canada and read us a story.
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Some children have been very busy looking under the log pile for mini beasts! We have used our magnifying glasses to examine them more carefully. We have even had a go at drawing them and learned that the shape on a snail shell is called a spiral!
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This term the children showed an interest in the daffodils in the garden and also in making flowers from construction toys so we decided to do some growing. We started with cress grown on cotton wool – the children were able to take this home a week later! Then we moved on to more adventurous things! We have tomato and strawberry plants growing with flowers on the latter already. We have planted broad beans in plastic jars so we can see the roots and shoots. We have planted pumpkin, sweet pea and a host of other flowers! Our garden should look lovely by summer and we should have some things to taste as well!
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March 2014
This week some children started to do some building in the log area. We introduced the builders hats and hi-visibility jackets, traffic cones, more wood and milk crates. Many other children joined in and soon we had a large role play “building site”! One of them said,”We are building a maze.” They had to work together to lift the planks of wood. They fetched chalk and several became engaged in making marks on the logs to keep other people away from the building area because, “It might be dangerous”!
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Some of the children were playing at camping and made a pretend campfire. They knew we needed sticks to burn so we went into the woods to collect some. Then, on Wednesday (26th March), after a talk about keeping safe, we had a real bonfire in the Pre-School garden!
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On 20th March Hetty, Albert’s Dog, came to visit Pre-School with Albert’s Daddy (Several children have been playing with the cuddly dogs and pretending to be dogs). The children got a chance to stroke her two at a time – she felt soft and warm. We watched Hetty eat her biscuits and obey commands such as “Stay” and “Sit”and there was a chance to ask questions like “What does Hetty have to eat? and “Does she eat bones”.
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It’s Spring! First we had crocuses and now the daffodils we planted in the Autumn are growing. We have been measuring them with rulers and ribbons and watering them.
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On Shrove Tuesday (4th March) we were invited by the “Big School” to join their Pancake races on the School field. We each had a pancake in a frying pan and ran with it as fast as we could!
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February 2014
Pets - Some of the children have been role playing at being pets and one group of boys have been pretending the cuddly toy dogs are real! One little girl said she liked rabbits too – so we started a pet theme. This week “Rabbity” the rabbit has been to visit on 3 days. The children have all had a chance to hold him and stroke him – we talked about how soft and warm he felt. They have looked at the things he likes to eat and the way he hops about and wiggles his nose!
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And this week the rain finally stopped for a while and we were able to go in the woods again!
We climbed and balanced, scrambled, slithered and ran fast; we also played hide and seek!
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Garden Party - A big “Thank you” to all the parents who on 16th February, gave up 2 hours to help with the big garden clear up on a Sunday morning!
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Visit of our local Police Support Community Officer (PCSO)
Our PSCO is called Sue Nix. She spent much of the morning with us on Thursday 6th February. She showed the children her uniform, radio, badge, note book etc. She joined in and played with them answering their questions as they arose. She took a small group at a time to see her police van and its contents and they all got to see the flashing lights and hear the siren!
The reason she was invited to visit was because the children began playing police games. We asked them if they would like to meet a real police person? –and they said yes!
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December 2013
End of term activities included posting Christmas cards and making Christmas cakes.
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Several children have been playing shops at Pre-School. We decided to continue their interest by taking them for a walk to a real shop. We made two trips with two groups of children looking at all sorts of things on the way! A big “Thank you” to all the Mum’s who walked with us!”
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Autumn Activities
We have been enjoying the good weather this Autumn spending much time in the garden.
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The children gathered windfalls from our apple tree and collected conkers.
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Building obstacle courses in the garden.
And lots of fun activities indoors too! |
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Story time! We love to have our parents and carers involved in pre-school activities including reading the children a story. |
Practising letters in salt.
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End-of-Term Picnic
We had a lovely picnic to celebrate the end of term, and the children who were leaving for school were each presented with a book called Starting School. The children made their own sandwiches, jellies and Krispie cakes.
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Several parents made cakes to share - this one expressed an opinion!
The children, parents, siblings, grandparents and childminders all joined in the picnic!
Learning about Hygiene
Our Community Nurse, Lauren, came to visit. She told the children all about when they should wash their hands and the importance of doing it properly. She showed them how to do this using her bag of magic germ dust, which showed up under the ultraviolet light.
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Learning about Canada
Jay’s Grandma came over from Canada and read us a story about a moose. She told us lots of things about Canada and brought pancakes with maple syrup and Canadian maple syrup candy for us to try on maple leaf plates!
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Learning about Birds
George from the RSPB came to deliver our new bird table. He told us all about birds we might see in our Pre-school garden.
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Visiting Baby Rabbits
The pre-school children enjoyed visiting baby rabbits at the nearby home of one of their teachers.
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Learning about Fire Safety
Some children cut up paper to make a bonfire! We took them in the woods to collect some sticks. We built a real bonfire! We talked about fire safety and learned how to call the Fire Brigade!
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Learning about Babies
Since several of our children were very involved in playing with and bathing baby dolls, we invited four babies to visit on four different days! The pre-school children were very excited to join in and help care for the babies.
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