Butterfly's 'Very Important Play'- Weekly Photographs

Summer 1 w/c 22.04.24

This week we have been exploring the moon sand in the tray, using our hands to crumble and squash the sand. We have been looking after our caterpillars, watching them grow and climb and talking about their life cycle. We have also been looking after our sunflowers, watering them and putting them near a sunny spot in Pre-School, our cress from last week Woodland explorers session had grown so the children took them home this week. Outside we have had lots of fun in the water tray, washing and drying the toys and using the jugs, funnels and water wheels to explore. On Tuesday we were in the Worcester news newspaper! Our photograph was selected to be in a nursery years special, the children have loved looking through the newspaper to find the photo. At Woodland explorers this week we decorated trees using masking tape and nature, we tided masking tape to the trees and decorated them with lots of different flowers, leaves, moss and other nature finds. We enjoyed playing hide and seek in the trees and building a 'campfire' with sticks. We made some marshmallow crispy squares, weighing out the ingredients and mixing them in the bowl. We also began creating some rainbow paintings, using cotton buds to paint the different colours.

Summer 1 w/c 15.04.24

This week at Pre-School we have been busy doing lots of planting. All the children planted a sunflower, they filled the flower pots with compost, made a hole with their finger and put the seed in. We read the story 'Little Sunflower' which shows how they grow from seeds to flowers, the children had lots of questions and comments about how the seed grows into a huge sunflower. At Woodland explorers we made cress Earth jars, we filled the jars with compost and cress seeds, we spoke about what they would need to grow. We have been learning all about the planet Earth as part of our Space project, we enjoyed looking at a globe, finding lots of different countries and seas, we talked about Earth day, what it means and how we can look after the planet. At the start of the week the children made 'moon rock' cakes, they all enjoyed mixing all the ingredients together and getting very sticky hands! We have been making lots of Space crafts, we made rockets with all the letters of the children's names and 5 little men in a flying saucer pictures. On Friday we had some new visitors, Caterpillars! They arrived in a jar and the children have been using the magnifying glasses to watch them move around, we will be looking after them until they turn into butterflies! 

Summer 1 w/c 08.04.24

This week we have been learning all about our new topic, Alien's love underpants and space! We played in the spaceship role play, spotting the planets and stars. We have also made rockets and decorated a cut out of Earth. At woodland explorers we planted some potato's, we used spades to dig the compost and placed the potato's deep down. We then played in the garden, did some mud painting and explored the water trays. Inside we washed the babies with bubble bath, made planets out of playdough and dressed up in the role play. 

Spring 2 w/c 18.03.24

This week we have been learning all about Easter! We made Easter cards and eggs and explored a spring themed tray. We had a visit from Tiddler town, exploring all the different areas our favourites were the hairdressers and the cafe. We also took the paper off our wormery and saw all the tunnels that the worms had made, we took the worms back to the mud where we found them. We also explored around big school, finding flowers and playing hide and seek. At woodland explorers this week the Easter bunny had been to the forest! There were lots of eggs hidden so we took our Easter baskets and Easter glasses and found them all. 

Spring 2 w/c 11.03.24

This week we have been spotting lots of signs of Spring, at Woodland explorers we used our spring spotter magnifying glasses to look all around the garden and the forest, we found daffodils, blossom, buds on trees and flowers beginning to grow. We have been painting pictures of the daffodils we found outside and exploring the different colours.  We have been melting dinosaur eggs and playing with the dinosaurs. As part of our Tiger who came to tea topic, we decided to make our own oreo ice cream. We crushed biscuits and whisked the cream, and added all the ingredients into a bowl then put it into the freezer to set, we tasted it the next day and it was delicious! Outside we made our own car wash and used sponges to clean all the cars. Pre-School love making potions, so this week we have been mixing blossom, grass, twigs, leaves and mud into our potions, all collected from our garden. 

Spring 2 w/c 04.03.24

This week we have been making potions outside using different flowers and nature, we have been busy making mothers day cards and gifts for mothers day. We have been making lots of marks on the chalkboards outside, and some children practised writing their names. On Thursday it was world book day, we wore our pyjamas and costumes, we had a brilliant day reading lots of stories and exploring our story trays, after lunch some of our grown ups came to Pre-School and we had a lovely time sharing our favourite stories. At Woodland explorers this week we made a wormery!, the children have loved looking for minibeasts in our garden so we decided to make a wormery and observe it's changes. We explored in the forest and around big school to find all the things we needed, most importantly worms! 

Spring 2 w/c 26.02.24

This week we have enjoyed playing outside on our new climbing frame and looking for bugs in the garden. We have been learning all about farm animals and had different messy trays that include cereals and chocolate mud which the children loved exploring. There were lots of frozen animals stuck in the ice earlier this week and we had to save them! We used paintbrushes and tweezers to try and melt the ice and rescue them, we talked about how they were frozen and how we could melt the ice. We have also been doing some yoga this week which the children have really enjoyed, practising different poses and balances. On our playdough table we explored spring daffodils and pink flowers, we used the petals to create different patterns and textures and used the magnifying glasses to take a closer look, our creations smelled very good! 

Spring 2 w/c 19.02.24

This week we have been learning all about our new topic story 'The tiger to came to tea', in the story the little girl Sophie and her family have to go to a cafe as the tiger has eaten all of their food, in the cafe they have chips to eat so we decided to make our own, we chopped up potatoes, boiled them and cooked them in the oven, they tasted yummy! We have been playing in our new sand pit, playing musical instruments in small groups and using pipettes to transfer water into the lego bricks. At woodland explorers this week, we went on a nature trail around big school, we had sheets with lots of different nature items to find, including minibeasts. We used the bug magnifiers to look closely at the minibeats that we spotted, we had to look in lots of different places to find different bugs. We had another rainy afternoon this week so we jumped in the puddles, watered the flowers and created potions.

Spring 1 w/c 05.02.24

We have had a VERY busy week this week, we have celebrated Chinese new year, Pancake day and Valentines day! On Monday we tried lots of different Chinese foods, including prawn crackers, noodles, prawn toasts and fortune cookies. We made our own Chinese lanterns and decorated them with lots of glitter. We made our own pancakes this week, we talked about the different ingredients that we would need, and mixed them all together in a bowl, we cooked them in the frying pan and then added lots of toppings to our pancakes, they were very yummy! At woodland explorers this week we made our own love potions using nature found in the forest and pink water, decorated playdough hearts with different sticks, leaves and flowers, and to finish played the hug game giving lots of hugs to our friends and grown ups. We also had a very rainy afternoon so we decided to put on our overalls and explore our outside garden in the rain, we jumped in lots of puddles and made potions using water we collected and flowers from the garden. We also went on a explore around big school, playing in the leaves and finding minibeasts under the big mats. On Friday we celebrated valentines day by making shaving foam hearts, having a pink heart themed rice tray and decorating cupcakes with pink icing and heart sprinkles. 

Spring 1 w/c 29.01.24

This week we have been making marks and patterns in the blue salt, matching the pictures to different items that were hidden in balloons and exploring the forest themed bear hunt tray. We used frozen paint to mark make pictures, we had to be quick before they melted! We used sponges to fill water into cups using our hands. At woodland explorers this week we make some tree rubbings to link with our forest bear hunt tray and used crayons and chalk to make our pictures, we also looked at lots of different trees that could have been in the story, and kept an eye of for bears! We also made some bird nest cakes as we have been learning all about the different birds that come into the garden, where they live and what they eat.  

Spring 1 w/c 22.01.24

This week we have been making carrot and potato soup, chopping the vegetables, putting them into a big saucepan then blitzing all the ingredients together. It tasted very yummy! We have been practising our cutting skills cutting the spaghetti, and making tracks with the cars in the messy tray. We even used spaghetti and paint to create pictures. We made bird feeders at Woodland explorers, mixing the bird seed with lard and scooping them into pots then hung them in the trees in our Pre-School garden so we can see if any birds come to eat them. We had lots of fun exploring in the dinosaur swamp, squishing it with our hands, it was very slimy! We have been balancing outside using the planks and stepping stones 

Spring 1 w/c 15.01.24

This week in the butterfly room we have been bubble paining, using lots of bright colours to create amazing bubble pictures. At Woodland explorers this week we made our own binoculars and telescopes to try and spot some birds in the forest, we looked at lots of different pictures of birds and spotted some! We have been building towers with the wooden bricks using foam to hold them together. We have also built giant structures with the big wooden shapes. We went to the big playground and had lots of fun climbing up and going down the big slide. We also made our own bear biscuits we used different decorations to give the bears ears a nose and two eyes, they tasted very yummy! 

Spring 1, w/c 08.01.2024

It was lovely to see the Children back after the Christmas holidays. We have been very busy this week learning all about our new story 'Were going on a bear hunt', we have been making bear faces, exploring our new kitchen role play area. We explored a bear hunt themed tuft tray using the wooden characters to explore the swishy swashy grass, we created a path for our display board. At our woodland explorers session this week we found lots of bear's hidden in the trees, we read the story and went on a bear hunt through the forest.

Autumn 2 w/c/ 11.12.23

This week we have been very busy with lots of Christmas activities, including making decorations, writing our letters to Santa, finding the Christmas post box after the cheeky Elf hid it!, playing pin the red nose on the reindeer, finding sticks at Welly Wednesday to make Stick men and making Christmas biscuits ready for our party. On Friday afternoon we had our Pre-School Christmas party, the Children had a wonderful time. We invited our grown ups to come and join, we sang some Christmas songs, played games, made reindeer food and had a visit from Father Christmas! 

Autumn 2 w/c 04.12.23

This week we have been busy making lots of things for Christmas! We have made Christmas cards, decorations and paper chains. We have had lots of new books from the Elf and have been opening the doors of our advent calendar. We have been exploring snow themed trays- including artic animals in the ice, shaving foam snow and melted snowmen soup! We have been doing lots of building using lego, stickle bricks and cones. We also made our own mince pies. 

Autumn 2 w/c 27.11.23

This week we have been using pippets to fill the lego with water, finding the woodland animals that were hidden in the forest at Welly Wednesday, then we danced to some music and stomped around the forest to our dinosaur song, making our own pizzas, using the paint sticks to mark make brilliant pictures, explore an artic animal tray and decorated our Christmas tree. On Friday 1st December the children came into Pre-School to discover there was an elf! There was a new role play area- Santa's workshop and the elf brought us an advent calendar and a new Christmas story to read!

Autumn 2 w/c 20.11.23

This week we have been using the water and paintbrushes at Welly Wednesday to paint the trees, branches and leaves. We decorated fish with lots of sparkly paper and played group games on the mat. We have loved playing outside, throwing and catching balls and balancing on the stepping stones. We really enjoyed washing the babies in the water using sponges and lots of bubbles! We put rice crispies in the cars to make tracks and enjoyed making our own banana cakes. 

Autumn 2 w/c 13.11.23

This week we have been making our own pigs from Old Macdonald for our nursery rhyme board using paints and sponges, exploring the water trays with Autumn nature at Welly Wednesday, singing with reception, and playing the drums and bells. On Friday we had a Pudsey themed day for Children in need, the children brought their teddy bears to Pre-School and had lots of fun decorating spotty biscuits, exploring the oats in goldilocks and the three bears tray, making jam sandwiches, and having a teddy bears picnic with their bears! 

Autumn 2 w/c 06.11.23

This week we have been learning all about Bonfire night and fireworks, we created our own firework pictures using chalks and paint, we made edible sparklers, and made fireworks and a bonfire out of leaves at Welly Wednesday. We have been exploring our new role play area- a shop, taking turns being shop keepers and customers. We spent one afternoon playing in the rain, making potions and jumping in the puddles! We also learnt about remembrance day, creating our own poppies and watching a short animation called 'Poppies'. 

Autumn 1 w/c 23.10.23

Week 8

This week in the butterfly room we have been exploring lots of pumpkins! We looked at all the parts of a pumpkin, made our own pumpkin soup and made magic potions at Welly Wednesday. We also had a spooky day and the children enjoyed dressing up and getting very messy with the spooky activities.