Monkleigh FSU

19/06/2026

🦋 Butterflies have enjoyed reading the story Sally and the Limpet. They have continued learning about rock pools and had a fabulous time at Westward Ho! The children got stuck into rock pooling and had a fabulous time learning about beaches at the Visitor Centre. The children have created their own Sally and the Limpet story books and enjoyed reading them to their friends. It is fabulous to see how far the children's fine motor skills have developed - they have created some really unique clay starfish.

🐛 This week, the Caterpillars have been learning about lighthouses and have been reading The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch. They have had wonderful fun constructing and exploring pulleys and have been talking about how Mr Grinling feels at different stages of the story. The children have continued to develop their junk modelling skills and have created some fabulous junk model lighthouses. We have flashed back to forming horizontal lines and the children have used their mark making skills to draw and decorate their own lighthouses.

🌻 The children in sunflowers this week have enjoyed exploring different bugs. They’ve created their own spotty ladybird; explored the bugs in the ‘grass’; and used their fine motor skills to pick up the worms. They have been amazing at recognising different habitats and which bugs might live where, as well as playing ‘hide the bugs’ around the room. Some of us even went for a little bug hunt in the outdoor learning space too.

12/06/2026

🦋 Butterflies have immersed themselves into rock pools this week - in preparation for their visit to the beach and rock pools next week. They have been learning about different habitats - thinking about what kind of animals, birds and creatures might live in the different habitats. They have developed their knowledge and understanding of a rock pool and the creatures that they might find inside the habitat. They have enjoyed playing rock pool bingo and making their own rock pools. It's incredible to see how far their maths, writing and drawing skills have developed. In maths, they have been exploring numbers to 20 and during provision time they have created some excellent pictures and sentences. Well done Butterflies!

🐛 This week, Caterpillars have been learning about the ocean. They have been learning about different creatures that live in the ocean. They have really enjoyed reading Tiddler and exploring the different characters and answering questions about the story. They have created some fabulous fish using zig zag mark making and have explored making marks using paint on foil and then using this to print onto paper. The Caterpillars have continued to develop their fine motor skills by creating cheerio star fish. They have explored weight and mass and talked about describing an object as lighter or heavier than another object. What a super week, well done Caterpillars!

🌻 The sunflowers headed into the jungle this week. The children engaged in many craft activities; including creating a stripy tiger, a spotty snake and some binoculars to help them hunt for the jungle animals hiding out in their environment. They also enjoyed exploring a jungle themed sensory tray.

10/06/2026

September Spaces Filling Fast for Three Year Olds - If you would like your child to attend a nurturing and supportive nursery in a beautiful countryside environment, please register your interest now. Visits are warmly welcomed. Please contact the school office on 01805 623269 or email [email protected]

05/06/2026

🦋 This week Butterflies have been learning about refugees by reading and exploring age related themes in the story My Name is not Refugee. We have talked about why some children need to leave their homes to make sure that they are safe. The Butterflies have come up with some wonderful ideas for how they could welcome new children into our school or local community. Their writing in the kindness jars was incredible! The children have been creating their own collage suitcases and have been carefully considering what they would pack in their suitcase if they had to go on a long journey.

🐛 This week Caterpillars have been learning all about our value of 'Kindness' They have been exploring the ways in which we can make someone new to the area feel at home. The story The Suitcase has opened up discussions about what the children would take with them if they had to move to a new home or area. The children have been thinking carefully about their treasured possessions and why they are important to them - they have been very excited to tell us all about them! Caterpillars have continued to develop their mark making skills and fine motor skills and are becoming more confident with using scissors. We are also really impressed with their oral blending - Fred Talk - they listen so carefully. Well done for settling into the term well Caterpillars!

🌻 This term, sunflowers will exploring different habitats and animal groups. We start this week with dinosaurs. The children have enjoyed creating a home for the dinosaurs in the sand; getting messy in the dinosaur swamp; and creating their own dinosaur craft. This week we have focused on building fine motor skills, using pegs in a colouring matching activity as well as our painting.

22/05/2026

🦋 Butterflies have had a very busy end to the term. They have been learning about the significance of crowns and Kings and Queens from the past. They have looked carefully at images of different Kings and Queens from the past and asked questions about them. They have written their own stories based on the story – A Crown for Lion. The children are getting really confident with constructing sentences orally and using this to help them with their sentence writing. We had a wonderful visit from two local paramedics and had a really memorable visit to Instow, Appledore and Bideford on our Boats and Buses trip!

🐛 This week, Caterpillars have been learning about London. They have been fascinated with the different landmarks and King Charles! They have really enjoyed the story The Kings Hats The children have been particularly interested in The Coldstream Guards. They asked questions about their uniform and their marching parades and Changing of the Guards. They enjoyed creating their own guards and exploring mark making in lots of ways to create guards and hats. The children also enjoyed an exciting visit from two local paramedics – this gave us an excellent opportunity to flashback to our learning about people who help us.

🌻 Emergency! This weeks focus in sunflowers has been people who help us. We started our week with a very exciting visit from an ambulance and local paramedics. The children enjoyed exploring inside the ambulance, and making the lights flash and of course the siren!
The week has also consisted of lots of role play based learning; exploring and extending our role play using different emergency vehicles and a fire station, as well as the doctors kit to make sure everyone was cared for well! The children built on their fine motor skills, becoming ‘fire fighters’ to put out the fires in the outdoor space. We also created our own police badges.

15/05/2026

🦋 Butterflies have travelled to London this week and have been learning about famous landmarks in London. They have been learning about the life of King Charles and have used their collage skills to create ‘stamp style’ King Charles collages. The children have enjoyed learning about London by reading No Nancy No! They have been learning how to control and programme the Beebots to follow different routes around landmarks in London. Butterflies are getting really confident with orally constructing sentences and using this skill to help them with writing their own sentences.

🐛 Caterpillars have been zooming all over the place this week and have been learning all about air travel. It’s wonderful to see their fine motor skills and mark making developing confidently. The children have had great fun using horizontal and vertical lines and anticlockwise circles to recreate an illustration from the story Maisy Goes by Plane. The children have been answering questions about the story and developing their transport related vocabulary. Caterpillars have been exploring rhyming words and have been orally blending sounds to make words – Fred the Frog has been very impressed with their careful listening!

🌻 Over the last couple of weeks the sunflowers have ‘been out to sea’ exploring boats within their play; and then onto construction vehicles. The children have enjoyed experiencing different textures within their play; making their own boats; as well as building their own buildings with ‘cement’. The children in sunflowers have been using the tool kit to ensure everything is ‘fixed’ within school; as well as getting outside to extend their play further, using large bricks to build and digging in the sand. They have also created water runs.

01/05/2026

🦋 Butterflies have zoomed through this week at super speed, learning about trains from the past and modern trains. The children have enjoyed using Swiggle – a child friendly search engine – to find images of different trains. They have really developed their skills with this. The children enjoyed visiting Fremington Quay. They searched for clues from the past all around them and thought about what life would have been like at Fremington Quay in the Victorian Times. They enjoyed learning all about the importance of the Quay in the Heritage Centre – the models were also a real hit! The children have enjoyed retelling the Story of the Runaway Train. The language that they used to sequence their retellings was fabulous. Have a lovely weekend!

🐛 Caterpillars have immersed themselves in shapes and colour this week. They have have created some fabulous trains by combining shapes. Their scissor skills are coming along well. Caterpillars have also been working on their hand strength in dough gym and have been working hard on their pre writing shapes. They have really enjoyed exploring the characters in Big Blue Train and predicting what would happen next. The children are getting really good at recognising their own names and have been learning to recognise the sound 'a' this week. They have loved playing outside and creating car tracks with the guttering and stands and by drawing with chalk. Have a lovely weekend.

🌻 All aboard! The children in sunflowers this week have enjoyed exploring all about trains. They have created wonderful train works of art; painting with blocks, and sticking with different shapes. There has been a focus on imaginative play too; creating their own trains both inside and out, talking about their own experiences as well as choosing places they would like to visit on the train - the beach has been a popular choice with this weeks weather! The children have also been working hard to work together to build train tracks, developing the skills needed to work as a team, as well as persistence when joining the pieces together.
Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend 😀

24/04/2026

Welcome back after a wonderful Easter break.

🦋 Butterflies have returned to school with excellent focus. Its as though they haven’t had a holiday! This week, they have been learning all about travel by foot and bicycle. They have enjoyed reading Mrs Armitage on Wheels and thinking about what they would add to their bicycles to make them even more exciting. The children have immersed themselves in map drawings and creating 2D and 3D maps of the school site. Butterflies enhanced their garage role play experiences and understanding through a visit to Mo*****gh Garage. They were given the opportunity to look at lots of tools and learn about what happens in a working garage. We look forward to an exciting term!

🐛 Caterpillars have had the most wonderful start to the Summer Term. The sun is shining and they have been learning all about adventures and exciting times. The story The Everywhere Bear has set up a fabulous challenge for the term. Over the weeks, each child will have the opportunity to bring home a Borrow Bear. We would really appreciate it if your child can take their bear on some adventures while they are staying with you. Please send in any photographs and drawings and we will add them to our Everywhere Bear Book. The children have been continuing to develop their fine motor skills and strength through creating patterns and using pegs. The children are working hard on recognizing their names and the initial sounds in their names.

🌻 We have started our term with the sunshine joining us which has been very welcome.
This half term we will be focusing our learning around vehicles and transport. We start the term with cars. We have read lots of books displaying a variety of transport methods, discussing how we get to school. We have enjoyed playing with the cars in the sand, as well as painting with them. We then made a car wash for the painty cars! The children wow’ed us by placing the different methods of transport in the correct places. And of course lots of outside play too ☀️

23/04/2026

You can complete this form if your child is not yet old enough for you to make a nursery application. We will send the DCAF-0 Nursery Application Form when you need to apply.   Please check on the Citizens Portal (https://oneonline.devon.gov.uk/CCSCitizenPortal_LIVE/en) now to see if....

21/04/2026

Are you looking for a nurturing and inspiring setting? Is your child younger but you are keen to visit and understand more about settings in your local area?

Please complete a Note of Interest Form and we will be in touch.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=aqq5CRPfdUqu64xFNIN74-lVp-ATke1GvAK7A4Mk3U9UNUxQT1c0MUVBNElISzlaMUFUQjE2SVgyTy4u&fbclid=IwdGRjcARUeN5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeMJ4LpLiN5FtRLuayioXUlkCGdxP6LxqTxnGR_7udt93UkxsvilIQWLKP2lc_aem_Gc1-2ulduFr7DZN-NxWYcw

You can complete this form if your child is not yet old enough for you to make a nursery application. We will send the DCAF-0 Nursery Application Form when you need to apply.   Please check on the Citizens Portal (https://oneonline.devon.gov.uk/CCSCitizenPortal_LIVE/en) now to see if....