Caterpillars Photo Gallery

Summer 1 Week 3 w.c 12.05.25

This week we have been exploring lots outside, we have explored the mud kitchen, minibeast investigation, rescued the sea creatures, painted using water, and washed the cars in soapy water. At Woodland explorers we had to find the hidden magic beans and gold eggs hidden in the trees and woodland. Once we found them all we hid them again for our friends and grown ups to find. Then we planted some more sunflowers to grow in the Pre-School garden. For our cooking activity this week we made golden egg biscuits, we mixed all the ingredients and talked about how we could make them golden. We have also explored a sensory ice cream activity, using moulds to make ice creams. We have also noticed our beans and sunflowers have started growing! We have been watering them and making sure they have sunlight. We worked out whose was tallest and shortest. 

Summer 1 w/c 06.05.25

W.C 06.05.25 This week we have been continuing on our learning of ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ we have been growing beans, talking about what they will need to grow and how to look after them. We made castles using wooden blocks and shaving foam, we discussed the giant’s castle from the story and lots of children were using phrases from the story. At Woodland explorers we made a wormery, we used a spade to create layers of soil, sand and leaves in a recycled plastic bottle. We looked for worms in the forest, under logs and piles of leaves, we added the worms then covered it with black card to keep it dark. We talked about how the worms will mix up the soil and help plants to grow. As well as planting beans we have also planted sunflower seeds, we read the story ‘Little sunflower’ and talked about what they will need to grow. We have spent lots of time playing outside, looking for bugs, water play and water painting, reading stories with peers, building and playing with the big cars

Summer Term 1 week 1 (w/c 28/04/2025)

Spring Term 2 week 7 

Spring Term 2 Week 6 (wc 31/03/2025)

The week started with the children telling us all about the wonderful time they had had on Mothering Sunday and how they had celebrated with their Mums. The children had made homemade cards and gifts for the Mums the during the last few weeks at Preschool.

The residents from Cherry Orchard House visited us on Monday morning, joining us for a sing a long with the children, sharing story books and being spoilt by the children continually serving up wooden foods and play drinks from the home corner. The interaction and communication/language between the two age groups was incredible, everyone very comfortable in each others company. The residents were also treated to real light refreshments too.  

The weather has definitely felt more like spring this week.  The children enjoyed making spring seed bombs at Woodland Explorers. Talking about the seeds needing water, warmth and sunlight to grow. Also taking about how the seeds turn into beautiful flowers. 

There has been plenty of outdoor play with the children enjoying the free play activities, water and sand play, reading books and chatting in the wigwam, lots of obstacle courses for balancing as they have walked along the raised planks or the stepping stones, jumping of at the end of the obstacle run.

In the cooking session this week, the children were really excited to be creating homemade Pizzas. Together we looked at the recipe sheet  and talked about ingredients.

They carefully spooned the tomato sauce and evenly placed their chosen topping on the pizza base. They smelt delicious as they cooked.

Spring Term 2 week 5 (w/c 24/03/2025).

It definitely felt more like spring this week with the warmer, drier weather.

The week started with the children carrying their clipboards and pens as they searched for signs of spring. during this week’s Woodland Explorers. Some children looked for the items listed on the search sheets, discussing their findings with their peers as items were found. Other children chose to explore freely, digging around for worms and insects.

We introduced our new topic book, 'The Gruffalo'. The book is already proving very popular with the children, along with the fun activities that were linked to the story. The children explored the Gruffalo sensory tuff tray and soft toy characters from the book, painting a Gruffalo using forks and brown paint. A delicious ‘Gruffalo crumble’ was made in this week’s cooking session. After carefully preparing the ingredients and cooking the crumble, the children got to sit down and sample some too. 

The children have also really enjoyed shared reading with their peers or relaxing with a book independently.

Enjoying the start of spring with creative art and craft activities, colourful tulips created by use of forks and paints, wax and pencil crayon to complete colouring sheets. A team of children, working together to build a castle wall with the giant lego bricks  amongst some of the activities the children have enjoyed.

Spring Term 2 week 4 (w/c17/03/2025)

Spring really felt like it had arrived this week.

The children started the week, enjoying play activities in the forest, searching for signs of spring, bug hunting and more blossom painting.

The children have enjoyed  independent play, making their own choices about toys and their play opportunities. They have also enjoyed plenty of group play activities where they have shared ideas and experiences with their peers. Plenty of smiles and laughter. Great to see friendships forming and the children interacting and enjoying each others company as they play.

We finished our final pieces of artwork for our topic display board. The snowstorm scene pictures were beautifully painted by the children using dabbers and pom poms.

Happily playing independently as well as enjoying  shared play experiences with peers.

Snowstorm pictures, a scene from out topic book, 'Going on a bear hunt'.

Spring Term 2 week 3 (w/c 10/03/2025)

Kitted out with magnifying glasses the children explored the garden, playground and forest area to see what signs of spring they could see. Daffodils, daisies, buds on the trees were some of the items they discovered. 

Back in the Preschool room, the children created artwork of their findings. Wonderful free paintings of a bunch of daffodils and delicate cotton bud dabbing to create blossom on the trees.

Wax crayons were used to create tree bark and leaf rubbings.

The free flow play gives the children the choice of playing indoors or outdoors. Magnetic building shapes, enjoying tea parties in the role play home corner or enjoying the colour sorting and shape matching games were just some of the activities the children embraced.

Spring Term 2 week 2 (w/c 03/03/2025)

The weather this week has made everyone feel like spring is just around the corner. We started the week off with painting some beautiful daffodil pictures. Studying the daffodils first then carefully placing paint onto the paper with a paintbrush to recreate the flower.

Plenty of outdoor play, painting and creating nature headbands, muddy footprint art.

PE session outdoors in the 'Big' school playground with lots of stretching, striding and running.

World book day on Thursday saw the children bring in their favourite book to preschool. It was a day full of exciting stories. The children shared stories with their friends, the adults and also found themselves a cosy area to look at their books independently

Great fun with the big tyres this week, stacking them up then hiding in them, using them as stepping stones or a seat when a rest was needed or just rolling them around the play area.

Spring Term 2 Week 1 (w/c 24/02/2025)

Lovely to see the children excited to be back in pre school after the half term break. We look forward to all the fun activities in the weeks ahead.

Our topic book is 'We're going on a bear hunt'. A book that we have already read several times and one the children are familiar with.  There will be plenty of  play opportunities to support and enhance the story time experience.

This week alone, the children have made their own grass seed heads and have seen how the grass has grown from seed to a few inches in length within a week. Colouring, Collages of grass, river/water, forest and snowstorm, mud painting, sensory play and muddy footprint stamping to name a few of the experiences the children have chosen to take part in, linked to the topic book.

There has been plenty of opportunities for outdoor play. The children have enjoyed jumping, running, playing freely with their friends as well as exploring the forest in the Woodland Explorers session.

We continued our topic book  theme through into this weeks PE session in the school hall. A small Assault course lead the children through the various obstacles found in the story. They were continually heard saying " we can't go under it, we can't go over it, we can't go round it, we'll have to go through it" as they walked along the balance planks !

There also plenty of free play activities to choose from, great cutting skills being demonstrated, peg board patterns, puzzles, playdough for creating and encouraging those fine motor skills as well as much more.

Spring 1 W/C 10.02.25

We started the week by making our own Gingerbread men. We weighed and measured all the ingredients, mixed them with spoons and our hands then rolled out the dough and used a gingerbread man cutter. We explored different cereals in the tray that were in the shape of a gingerbread man, then the next day we added the cars and trains to create a construction site. Our craft this week was creating foxes out of egg boxes, we painted them then added eyes and ears- just like the one in the story. We have enjoyed retelling the story of the Gingerbread man with our friends, using the props, puppets and masks. On Friday we had a Valentines themed day, we explored pink gloop with hearts, a pink and white rice tray, ice painting using red and white frozen paints and mixing them together and a cardboard cookie decorating activity.

Spring Term 1 week 5 (w/c 03/02/2025)

This week we started our new topic book ‘The Gingerbread man’, the children have been exploring a gingerbread playdough themed tray, using lots of tools to create gingerbread men and other bakes. During our baking session we made ginger cake, we carefully weighed out all the ingredients then melted them in the saucepan, the children all enjoyed smelling the ginger that went in and watched it cooking in the oven. We have also been using loose parts to decorate gingerbread men, finding eyes and buttons. At Woodland explorers we wrapped long pieces of paper around the trees and used the chalks to rub the tree bark and create patterns. We have also painted our own gingerbread men made from cardboard.

Spring Term 1 week 4 (w/c 27/01/2025).

An exciting week celebrating Lunar new year and that 2025 being the year of the snake. There were plenty of activities based around this special celebration.

The Chinese food tasting was very popular with the majority of the children having a go at tasting authentic foods, textures and flavours some of which were new to them. They especially enjoyed unwrapping and eating their fortune cookies and letting us read the 'wise words' hidden within.

The children had plenty of opportunities to independently explore the themed activities, sensory tuff trays of noodles and rice, chopsticks saw the children persist with learning how to use them properly as they scooped up the noodles, painting 'year of the snake' craft plates, creating lanterns, colouring sheets and the role play Chinese food take away play area plus more.

Fun in the three little pigs sensory tuff tray and experiment with the fans to demonstrate the wolf "huffing and puffing and blowing the house down".

Enjoying this week's PE session, combining it with some Maths activities.

Plus so many other play opportunities to explore too !

Spring Term 1 week 3 ( w/c 20/01/2025)

Another week  full of exciting activities.....making bird feeders at Woodland Explorers, as part of the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2025, visiting the residents at Cherry Orchard House, to plenty of free play activities based  around our topic book, The Three Little Pigs.

The children have all settled in well to the routines of the new term and are enjoying the interaction with their peers and sharing all the play opportunities on offer to them.

Building a house out of bricks just like the one built by the third little pig in the story.

Making sweet potato soup in this week's cooking session. The children got to taste it once it had been cooked and liquidised... delicious

Following on with activities based around our topic book, the children created their own little paper plate pigs, enjoyed the sensory tuff tray and playing with the farm and the animals.

Spring Term 1 Week 2 (w/c 13/01/2025)

Over the last two weeks, the children have enjoyed the activities linked to the new topic, 'Once upon a time'. The first focus book was 'Goldilocks and the three bears'. The children have been listening to the story and repeating familiar phrases from the book. 

Making sticky porridge in the forest, baking bear biscuits, painting and creating bear faces and story time sensory tuff trays were some of the exciting activities on offer to the children.

So much concentration and enjoyment, making the bear biscuits.

The children were eager to demonstrate their construction skills. using a variety of building resources. Solid wooden bricks, large open wooden pieces, stickle bricks and large foam lego bricks used to build houses, towers and create some objects as displayed on an instruction sheet.

Lots of teamwork, independence and happy faces as the children proudly built their wonderful creations.

The children prepared early for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2025. Using their cardboard binoculars and a garden bird information sheet, they quietly watched for any birds flying into the forest so they could try and identify them with those on the sheet.

Spring Term 1 Week 1 ( w/c 06/01/2025)

Happy New Year to you all !

A great first week back welcoming the children in after the Christmas break. The children all settled back into routine nicely and enjoyed the exciting play opportunities on offer to them.

The Main topics that we will be focussing on this half term will be  'This is me', 'Winter/Spring'  and 'Once upon a time'.

 and the focus books will be Goldilocks and the three bears, The three little pigs and The gingerbread man. 

All the children will get to explore the exciting activities planned around these books and topics plus much, much more.

Autumn Term 2 Week 7 (w/c16/12/2024)

We would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2025.

Autumn Term 2 Week 6 (w/c 09/12/2024)

What a busy, festive week the children had this week.

Monday was spent making mince pies and icing the Christmas cake ready for the visit from our Friends from Cherry Orchard House.

Great fun was had during their visit, reading stories, role play restaurants, listening to Nettie's story and enjoying the contents of her story bag as she read. We especially loved James, the little boy Nettie had knitted for us as part of the story. She had even knitted him a school uniform jumper to wear. The residents enjoyed our homemade refreshments and joined in with singing our Christmas songs before they left.

The children all enjoyed being outside for Woodland Explorers, playing in the forest, listening to and looking at Christmas story book. They even managed to find all the animals hidden along the way from the story book, The Gruffalo's Child.

Autumn Term 2 Week 5 (w/c 02/12/2024)

A week full of fun activities, the children excitedly embraced all of those available to them.

The week started with the return of the Christmas Elf, hiding amongst the toys, spying on the children until they discovered him.

On Monday morning, the elf had left an Advent Calendar wrapped up for the children to open. He had also left  a present. A wrapped present has been found by the children every morning, once unwrapped, we discover a new Christmas story book  which we are all able to enjoy later in the morning.

In the weekly PE session, the children displayed their balancing skills as they tried to walk across the hall with  a small bag on their head.

Fantastic concentration displayed as the children made this year's Christmas cake. The ingredients were carefully weighed out and mixed together. The smell from the kitchen as the cake cooked was described by one child as " delicious". Once cooled the caked was iced and decorated with cherries.

The Gruffalo's Child was the focus book in this week's Storytime and activities session. The children were clearly familiar with the story and helped with reading of the words, eagerly pre-empting and saying what was going to happen next, many saying the words and phrases with me as I read. 

One of the residents at Cherry Orchard House had  created a Christmas story bag for the children. During this week's session, the story was told to the children and they were introduced to the story items in the bag. There was wonderful interaction between the residents and the Preschool Children.

At Woodland Explorers, the children listened to the story of 'stick man' in the forest then embraced the outdoor themed activities. They thoroughly enjoyed freeing the twigs and natural items hidden in the blocks of ice.

Autumn Term 2 Week 4 (w/c 18/11/2024)

Another fun week, full of exciting activities. The children have made homemade Pizza, enjoyed the weekly Charanga music session, following the rhythm and shaking the musical instruments in time to the music and have demonstrated their mark making skills in many activities throughout the week.

At Woodland Explorers this week, the children enjoyed the Room on a broom story being read to them in the forest, then they searched and found all the characters from the book that were hiding amongst the trees.

'A cold, dark night' and 'leaf man' were the books read in our weekly story-time and focus activity session.

The children made clay hedgehogs, wax crayon leaf rubbing pictures and made 'Ned' the hedgehog a home from the resources found in the sensory tuff tray.

An energetic PE session this week with the children demonstrating their turn taking skills, skills with a ball and enjoying plenty of physical exercise. The learnt about the importance of a warm up before exercise and the stretching afterwards.

The week ended with the start of Christmas. The Christmas tree was beautifully decorated with an abundant amount of beads, tinsel and baubles, all carefully placed on the tree by the children.

We look forward to our Christmas activities starting next week. 

Autumn Term 2 Week 3 (w/c 18/11/2024)

As we move from Autumn to Winter, we have shared several conversations and stories with the children about what to expect. This week, the children enjoyed a taste of winter for themselves.

Monday's cooking session saw the children measure ingredients, stir the mixtures and roll the dough to create yummy gingerbread biscuits. They smelt so good as they cooked.

Tuesday's snow meant that the children had great fun playing outdoors, cosily wrapped up in waterproofs, hats and scarves against the cold. The children made snowballs, painted the snow and created a jolly snowman.

Great fun in the snow.

Stickman was the book read in this week's focus Storytime session. The story was listened to well and the children went on to enjoy the focussed activities. 

Autumn Term 2 week 2 (w/c 11/11/2024)

This week started with Remembrance day. The children commemorated by watching a short animation film called 'Poppies' then went on to embrace the many poppy themed activities on offer to them.

The weekly visit to Cherry Orchard House saw the residents and preschool children sharing a colouring activity, some action songs and nursery rhymes, the children and residents both enjoying each others company.

'Room on a broom' by Julia Donaldson was the topic book in this week's Storytime and focus activity session. All dressed up as witches, the children engaged in listening to the story. They then went on to explore the sensory activities, demonstrated their fine motor skills as they created their own beaded pipe cleaner broomstick and created wonderful artwork as they painted with spaghetti broomsticks.

Friday was 'Children in Need' Day. The entire session was themed around Pudsey bear. There were plenty of exciting activities available, all based around the days theme.

The children were invited to bring their teddies in with them today and enjoyed a teddy bears picnic at lunchtime. The sandwiches eaten had all been prepared by the children themselves. 

Autumn Term 2 week 1 (w/c 04/11/2024)

After a great Half Term break we have all come back to Preschool feeling refreshed.

Our main Themes for this half term will be 'This is me', 'The World around us' and  'Autumn/winter'. The children will get to enjoy all the many activities based around these themes.

Our chosen topic books for this half term are Room on a Broom, Leaf Man, Pumpkin soup, Stick Man, The Gruffalo's child and The night before Christmas. We will also continue to enjoy Dear Zoo and oh dear !

Throughout this week, the children have enjoyed creating their own fireworks, enjoying each others company while reading a book or playing in the role play farm shop area.

Stick sparklers were made out of some of the leaves and sticks that had been collected at this weeks Woodland Explorers session. Miss Cooper and all the children were very proud of their stick sparklers.

There was also time for some fun amongst the crunchy leaves.

There were two books read at this weeks Storytime and activity session, the quiet little firework and Five Little Fireworks.

We talked about the books after reading them and the children shared their firework stories and also talked about how some fireworks can be too loud and scary. They all agreed that they loved all their pretty colours.

We then went on to create some firework rockets of our own, firework display painted pictures and brightly coloured sparklers. The children enjoyed making the noises that their fireworks would make...... lots of bangs, whizzes, whooshes and puuuufffffts.  

Autumn Term 1 week 8 (w/c21/10/2024)

A very busy last week of this half term.

An exciting visit to the Woodland area, creating potions. Mixing ingredients together in a pumpkin and watching the contents grow, fizzle and pop out of the pumpkin to create a messy play activity on the tuff tray.

We had a spooky day to mark the end of this half term. The children enjoyed dressing up and exploring a room full of messy play and spooky spider activities.

Pumpkin biscuits were decorated ready for us to take to the residents at Cherry Orchard House.

The children enjoyed learning about Diwali, the festival of lights during our story time and activity session.

'First Festival-Diwali' was our focus book. The children created colourful rangoli pattern pictures using a variety of materials. The day ended with a food tasting snack session. The children were offered poppadoms, onion bhjaji, pilau rice, samosas plus other authentic items. Great to see the children trying new foods and textures and talking to each other about what they liked and didn't like.

The highlight of the week was the visit from Tiddler town. A fantastic role play session providing the children with so many opportunities to explore their imagination and engage in life like role play scenarios.

We have had a fun half term and it's so nice to see the children all settled into Preschool.

Hope you all have a great half term break.

Free flow play provides the children with the choice to play indoors or outdoors, the nice weather this week has seen the children opting to spend more time in the outdoor play area.

The day Tiddler Town came to visit.

Autumn Term 1 Week 7 (w/c 14/10/2024)

Another fun week this week which has seen the children demonstrating their fine motor and creative skills.

The theme of autumn was explored in the woodland area with the children making their own leaf person puppet.

'Peppa's Pumpkin soup' was the focus book in this weeks 'Storytime and Activity session'. The children loved the book and went on to enjoy exploring the activities available to them. These activities being based around the story we had shared.

The Pumpkin theme continued into this week's Cooking session. The children cut up the pumpkins and other ingredients needed. After cooking and blitzing, a delicious pumpkin soup had been created. It not only smelt amazing the children all tasted it and said it tasted amazing too !  

In this week's P.E. session the children had a great time demonstrating their turn taking and listening skills during the various races and also during the dice throwing/number recognition game.

Autumn Term 1 week 6 (w/c 07/10/2024)

The children displayed their fine motor and mark making skills at this week's Woodland Explorers. Finding natural items in the woods to use as a mark making tools. Pegs to hold leaves, twigs, helicopter seeds amongst some of the items found and used to mix paint colours and create wonderful pictures.

Once back in the Caterpillars room, the children glued some of their helicopter seeds on to the squirrels they have painted last week, to create a bushy squirrel tail.

Our focus book in this week's Storytime and activity session was 'Veg Patch Party'. The children thorougly enjoyed this book, demonstrating their good listening and sitting skills as the book was read. They then went off to explore the story based activities. 

The children are now interacting confidently with the resident friends at Cherry Orchard House.

The children are always enthusiastic to take part in the weekly Charanga music session.

Following a video and instructions on a screen and joining in with the relevant actions and using instruments to join in with the beat.

Some of the other activities that the children have enjoyed this week are conker rolling down a slide, colour and shape sorting, creating with magnetic shapes and in this week's cooking session, measuring, mixing and making leaf biscuits.

All the above supporting the children's mathematics development through play.

Autumn Term 1 week 5 (w/c 30/09/2024)

The children are now familiar with the weekly visit to Cherry Orchard House and are beginning to interact independently with the residents. The residents are all eager to talk with the children about their toys, read them stories or help them with colouring in some pictures.

The children benefit from all of those things as well as the thrill of Caroline letting them help themselves to toys from the toy storage box at the start of the visit.

The session ends with the children and the residents joining in with a few nursery rhyme songs. 

Fun was also had at our weekly Storytime and activity session. The book this week was 'The Leaf Thief'. The children enjoyed activities  which focussed on it's autumnal theme.

Developing their number recognition skills by identifying the number written on a leaf and then pegging the correct amount of pegs to a leaf.

Using a carrot to stamp paint a squirrel picture.