AUTUMN 2025

 We began the new Pre-School year by looking at the beautiful sunflowers that we had planted in the summer term. We used these for inspiration for our artwork and collected seeds to plant again. We harvested the vegetables from our garden and used them in our cooking and to feed our guinea pigs, Barnaby and Shortcut. We enjoyed watching the tractors with trailers full of apples drive past Pre-School and had lots of questions about apples to investigate..." Where do they come from?" "What are they doing with the apples?" "Where do apples grow?" We began to investigate all about apples. We sorted and counted them, drew and painted apples and printed with them. We peeled and chopped apples and used them in our baking, we made pies and crumble and apple juice. We then began to explore shapes and in particular, circles. We used loose parts and natural materials to create different circles and found circles in the environment. We explored circles by looking at the artwork of Kandinsky and used his work to inspire our own paintings. As the autumn progressed, we explored the environment around Madley village, collecting natural objects and observing the changing colours. We became more independent in putting on our waterproofs to play outside. We created a soup kitchen and had warm vegetable soup outside. We used books to find out about woodland animals and explored 'The Gruffalo' story in detail, acting it out and retelling it to our friends. We used different materials to make owls, painted pictures of foxes, created log pile houses and enclosures for our animals. 

We have developed our gross motor skills and our core strength by digging, running, crawling, climbing, hanging and carrying heavy objects. This will help us to have greater control of our bodies ready for writing. We have developed our understanding of healthy foods, where they come from and why we need to eat healthily. We know the importance of drinking water, "Drinking water helps you stay hydrated," and why we have relaxation time every day. "Relaxation helps our brains to have a rest so we get more energy." We are developing our independence by putting on our waterproofs, pouring our own drinks and putting our shoes and coats away. We are learning how to be responsible by tidying away our resources and looking after the toys we play with. 

CELEBRATIONS THIS TERM!!

We have enjoyed having the Year 6 'Reader Leaders' visit us once a week to share books and stories with us. We had an assembly to say Thankyou to the readers and presented each one with a medal.

In October, we became the first Early Years setting to be accredited with the prestigious new 'Early Years Values Award'. We are very proud of the Values that we share and promote as a setting and were honoured to receive the certificate from Chris Malone at Values-based Education. 

SETTING DEVELOPMENTS

Over the Christmas holidays, work began on our 'Wild garden'. The ground was dug over and prepared, ready for our wildflower meadow. The grass was laid, ready for the trees to be planted. The pond was inserted, ready for rain water to collect and plants and wildlife to be added. We can't wait to finish the garden and be able to explore nature!

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SPRING TERM 2026

We began the spring term by talking about the cold weather, how it made us feel and how we could keep ourselves warm when we go out and about. We sorted and matched woolly socks and gloves and designed our own mittens. We explored the ice and frost, mark-making on frosty surfaces and creating frozen decorations with natural materials. We then began to think about the wildlife that may be out in the cold weather. We added extra straw to Barnaby and Shortcut's bedding and checked their water wasn't frozen. Then we talked about the birds and how they wouldn't be able to eat if the ground was frozen. We wanted to find out more about birds and began to go on adventures to observe the birds. We made bird food and hung it up on the trees in our garden so we could watch the birds feeding. We built bird hides in our garden and used binoculars to spot any birds. We made our own binoculars too! We learnt the names of many birds and listened to their bird song. We counted how many different birds we saw and made a chart. We looked at non-fiction books about birds and enjoyed sharing stories about birds. We loved "Peely Wally" and used the story to inspire our creativity and made our own Peely Wally birds and eggs. We wanted to find out more about eggs and used them to make some delicious healthy snacks, learning how to make scrambled egg on toast.

As the weather began to warm up, we continued our adventure walks around Madley and began to spot signs of spring. We noticed there were more birds visiting, we spotted some blue tits making a nest in our bird box and had two robins that visited us every day after lunch! We also noticed that the trees were changing and there were more flowers and buds shooting up. We looked closely at daffodils and blossom, painting pictures and making collages of them. We made pink, green and yellow play dough and explored colour mixing to make different shades of green and yellow. We began to dig over our garden and vegetable patch to get ready for planting and started planting some vegetable seeds and bedding plants. We continued to work on our wild garden and planted some fruit trees and a meadow. We added a small pond and some pond plants. We spent time finding out about how to care for our newly planted trees and what to do to attract wildlife to our meadow and pond.

We have developed our creativity and imagination in our mud kitchen and sandpit. We built cafés, shops and homes and used the sand to create small world farms, zoos and dinosaur parks. Activities like snipping leaves and petals, stirring, scooping, digging and pouring strengthen our fingers and support our hand-eye coordination. The role-play we engage in when working in the mud kitchen to create 'daffodil soup' and 'blossom biscuits' fosters communication and supports our social development. Our water play this term has developed our problem-solving skills and supported mathematical concepts of measure, volume and capacity and scientific concepts of gravity, buoyancy and forces. All these activities continue to develop our strength and gross motor skills.

SUMMER TERM 2026

Following the children's interest in animals and how to care for them, we began the term with a new-look role-play area. We created 'Madley Vets' and began to explore how vets look after animals. We enjoyed being hands-on vets with our own guinea pigs, finding out what they like to eat and what they need, in more depth. We then followed the children's interest in finding out about other job roles. We had visits from a police officer and a paramedic. We enjoyed handling some of their equipment and trying on their uniforms. We learnt how to ask questions and listen to responses, recalling the information we had learnt by making posters and books about the police and paramedics. We changed our role-play vets into a doctor's surgery and practised our bandaging skills on each other! We also practised our writing as we wrote our patient notes and filled in our doctor's diaries. We talked about time as we made appointments with our patients. We extended our vocabulary by learning the names of different body parts and the names of our equipment. We talked about ways to keep our bodies healthy and strong, the foods we need to eat or avoid and the exercises we can do to strengthen our muscles. 

As the summer weather developed, we encountered a severe heat wave and put into practise what we had learnt about keeping our bodies healthy! We talked about staying hydrated and the importance of resting our bodies in the heat. We discussed how to stay protected from the sun, using sun cream and a sun hat and staying in the shade.  We found fun ways to cool down, splashing in paddling pools and playing in water trays. 

We continued to care for our 'Wild garden', watering the trees and meadow and observing the blossom begin to change. We enjoyed counting the number of apples, pears and damsons that were developing. We enjoyed looking for signs of wildlife in our garden, finding ladybirds, crickets, spiders and snails. We were then thrilled to find our first frog in the pond. We named it Freckle! A few days later, a second frog appeared. We named it Thingamebob! And then a third came to visit!! We named her Sharon! Naturally, we wanted to find out all about frogs and minibeasts! We learnt about different life cycles and found out facts about arachnids and insects. We painted pictures of the flowers growing in our meadow. We took the older children on the minibus to some sessions at Madley Environmental Science Centre where we explored the woodland looking for different bugs and exploring their habitats. We used clay to make animals and creatures and experienced pond dipping for the first time.