Fiona Batstone

Pre-School Manager

01981 251460   preschool@madley.hereford.sch.uk

2023/2024

2022/2023

We have further explored the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, looking at how beanstalks grow and talking about roots, petals, shoots and flowers. We have read other giant stories and tried on some of the giant's clothing! We have also explored being superheroes, making our own shields, masks and capes to enhance our role-play.

Jack and the Beanstalk

We have enjoyed building the Giant's castle and re-enacting the tale of Jack and the beanstalk using props. This has led onto lots of drawing opportunities with the children drawing lots of pictures of the beanstalk and Giant and using non standard ways to measure the height of the beanstalk, Giant and Jack.

Talking about our Values

This week we have reminded ourselves about the Value of Kindness. We sat together and posed the question "What can we do to help each other and make each other feel happy?" We talked about how we can help other children to feel happy by performing kind acts.  Within our talk one child turned to the person next to him and said "I like your t-shirt." This prompted lots of others to give compliments too. Whilst this was happening another child stood up and told everyone in the group "I love you." 

Later in the day Becca was washing the dirt off the crates when Huw asked her "Can I help you Becca?"

We use our values in lots of small ways every day and it is so nice to recognise and celebrate these acts with our little people when they occur. Well done Huw!

Beautiful butterflies

This week we have seen all our butterflies emerge from their cocoons. We have mixed up some sugared water to feed them and have enjoyed exploring how to move like a butterfly using floaty scarves and ribbons. 

The half term ended in great excitement with our caterpillars cocooning! The children were very keen to see them and we talked about how long it would be before they would emerge as beautiful butterflies!

To end our theme we have been retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar story using our own words and pictures, playdough models and natural objects. The children showed great confidence in retelling different parts of the story, reciting the days of the week and ordering the numbers of fruit that he ate.

As we move into the last half term of the year we will begin to explore the growth of plants. Focusing on Jack and The Beanstalk we will begin by exploring seeds and beans and the conditions they need to germinate, hopefully growing our own beanstalks that will reach the giant's castle!

We have been really pleased with how successful our "Fish and Chip Fridays" have been. The children have displayed lovely table manners and are getting to grips with using their knives and forks. We ended the half term's lunch with an ice cream, adding to our list of foods the Hungry Caterpillar ate!

A snapshot of our learning this week...

In our Forest school session we had another fire and tried some salami like the hungry caterpillar followed by toasted marshmallows. We have also made our own playdough to use as a modelling material to create models of the other things he ate as well as baked and iced cupcakes. We have explored our gardens and the local environment on visits to the park and challenged ourselves to walk on a plank balancing on a log! This week we also enjoyed our first "Fish and Chip" Friday cooked by Gemma!

World Bee Day 20th May

On Thursday we joined forces with some Madley Primary School ambassadors to learn more about the importance of bees and how we can raise awareness of them. The Year 4 pupils told us about "No mow May" and asked us to not mow our gardens as regularly and plant wild flowers so the bees have a greater chance to collect pollen from the flowers. We engaged in lots of bee related activities and enjoyed trying honey on toast for snack as we thought about the significance of these tiny insects.

A Very busy week!

This week we saw a lot of children showing an interest in comparing and measuring so we provided opportunities to explore length and measure using various standard and non standard measures. The children really enjoyed using the extendable tape measures and liked to use a number to suggest size. We therefore provided plenty of different opportunities to explore numerals and the value of number within our play experiences. We have also enjoyed exploring all the different types of weather this week; sun, rain, hail and thunder!!

The arrival of our very own hungry caterpillars!

This week we were excited to receive a very special delivery, our own hungry caterpillars had arrived! We looked very carefully and described what we could see... " They are very tiny."..." They are black and white at the ends."..."They are spiky."..."They have made cobwebs."..."Why have they made spider's webs when they aren't spiders?" We have lots of questions to find out the answers for and will enjoy looking after and watching our caterpillars change over the coming weeks.

Tea Time at Madley Preschool!

A group of children had created their own little cafe in our role play area so we extended their learning by encouraging them to make fruit salad to share with their friends at snacktime. The children then took on the role of waiters and served their friends from the cafe counter. The following day the children peeled and chopped vegetables and made vegetable soup to serve in the cafe.

Summer Term 2021

Following the children's interest in the hatching chicks and Ted's tadpoles we are now looking at the life cycle of a butterfly and have begun exploring the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The children have shown great enthusiasm in the story and all that the caterpillar eats! They have used loose parts and playdough to create their own caterpillars and have compared their different lengths. We are learning the days of the week and counting sets of objects and matching them to numerals. The children have enjoyed exploring their cutting skills by cutting spaghetti caterpillars and green leaves. 

Exciting news!!

After waiting very patiently the children were very excited to see two new chicks had hatched. They showed great care and responsibility as they sat very quietly to look at and talk about the newly hatched chicks. 

A lovely start to the Summer Term with the excitement of watching and waiting patiently as Nando, the chicken, sits patiently on her eggs, waiting for her chicks to hatch. The children sat quietly as they watched and drew pictures of Nando as they discussed what chickens need to be healthy and how the chicks might manage to get out of the eggs! This sparked lots of questions about other animals and creatures, so armed with magnifying glasses we took a visit to the park to see what we could find in our local environment and have chosen to explore the theme of lifecycles in more detail throughout the term.

Enjoying the Spring weather

As our Easter preparations get underway we have made the most of the lovely spring weather and explored our wonderful outside area and made lots of trips to the local park.  

Welcome back!!

After a long time away in lockdown we have welcomed back lots of smiling children this March.

We are so proud of how well everyone has settled back into the routine with such enthusiasm. The children are happy to be back and have enjoyed meeting up with their friends and discovering new activities. They have been keen to go on "An Adventure" again so we have begun to make little trips to the park and explore our local environment once again. The weather has been kind to us and we are spending lots of time exploring our newly landscaped outside area. As we prepare for Easter we have been observing growth and changes in the environment, looking at and talking about plants and flowers and the changes in the weather.

Autumn Term 2020

We are enjoying exploring Autumn and our local community alongside finding and learning more about bugs and mini beasts. 
We have enjoyed walks around the village, visiting the park, the conker trees, our own homes and the church. We have stopped and chatted to residents and dog walkers, sharing our news and adventures. 

We have collectd leaves and made leaf towers, created in the mud kitchen and taken risks climbing and jumping off our large construction materials in the natural bark garden. 

We have made cup cakes, autumn soup and flap jacks, built dens and marmalade machines, we have listened to stories and created songs. 

We are learning our phonics and exploring number as we play. 

Every day we make playdough adding spices and colour to create a multi sensory experience. 

Lots of fun and learning. 

A video to show you how you will be entering Pre-School in September. (video to follow)

Enter through our playground gates, stand on a socially distanced spot, make your way to the door one family at a time, say goodbye to your child, they will be responsible for their belongings, we will help the younger children, lunch boxes and rink on the trolley, indoor shoes on and off to wash hands and self register. It will take a short time and this will become a natural part of our morning routine. Thank you.