Little Explorers Pre-School

This week we have been focusing on Autumn🍁
Some of our activities included;
- Leaf printing.
- Sensory tray exploration.
-Autumn item sorting; the children were encouraged too sort through the items into big and small, this was to encourage them to use mathematical language and add new words to their vocabulary to describe shape 👏🏽.
-Creating a nature wand.
-Exploring signs of autumn, through the forests, this also included the outdoor garden and nature walks🍁
-We have made an autumn tree and finger printed on the leaves, to represent the falling leaves 🍁

Well done Preschool group 😀

This week we are looking at Health and self-care🥰

Healthy eating-
To promote healthy eating this week we are trying lots of new foods and different food combinations. Some of the foods we have tried this week include;
Carrot sticks with hummous🥕
Rice cakes with jam
Fruit salads🫐🍓🍇
Celery sticks with cream cheese
Peppers and cucumbers🥒🫑
And many more…

Self-Care-
To promote self-care I have set up a washing station for the children to play in! I have filled the water tray with warm soapy water,sponges and baby dolls. The children will get to wash the babies and dry them.

This week we are doing all about Autumn! 🍂

We have been learning new words such as 'Conker' and 'Autumn". The children showed an interest in the conkers and picked them up to explore them! We have also been using the conkers to count from 1-5 and made some lovely paintings by rolling the conkers in our tray! 🍂

This week at nursery we have been thinking all about ourselves and each other, we have loved sharing family photos at circle time and we have all been very interested in each other’s families and pets, we have drawn pictures of our own families and this has enabled some fantastic lines of communication between peers.
We spent a great deal of time creating some beautiful self portraits, writing our own names and painting our own hands creating some beautiful artwork to display in the setting.
We have used clay to create model faces, decorated gingerbread men to look like people 🍪created a finger puppet and have enjoyed looking at and labelling different body parts!
Well done Preschool 😀

This week we have been focusing on our health and self care needs🦠 . We have been taking part in activities such as :- germ busters
- Catching the germs🦠
- Cutting finger nails 💅
We have been busy doing different forms of excercise🏃‍♀️practising our cutting and spreading skills during snack time 😀 and we have learned about healthy choices we can make to keep us as healthy as possible 😀🍉🍎🍌🥝

Last week was all about the Gruffalo. We have read the story and have a range of activities set out relating to the Gruffalo. 🦊🐭🐍

Last week in the toddler and the preschool group we have been focusing on being active.
Exercise is vital to the health and well-being of children. Physical activity helps build and maintains healthy bones, muscles, and joints.
The more children move and participate in a variety of activities, the more they can develop the appropriate strength required for learning.

We looked at a book about yoga and practiced some movement and stretches. Yoga for children helps strengthen their growing bodies while improving their flexibility, which can reduce chances of injury.

We have created our own outdoor asusalt course, we added and changed it throughout the week.

Well done everyone 😀

This week in the baby area we have been exploring bubble wrap using pens and paints🫧The children have enjoyed listening to the ‘pop’ sounds that the bubbles make when they run the pens over. This activity is focused on fine motor skills! Well done everyone🥰

This week in the preschool area we have been continuing our summer fun ☀️ we have had a bicycle obstacle course, practicing our balance and coordination🚴 we have been creating friendship bracelets, talking about our friends and things they are good at. We have been working on positive self image, talking about what we are good at and the things we enjoy. We have had different roleplay stations set up, and sensory toys galore 😀

We know that the cost of childcare can be a challenge for many parents. From April 2024, we’re increasing the number of working parents who can get help with childcare costs, starting with 15 hours of childcare for eligible working parents of 2-year-olds.

If you have a child aged 3 or 4, there are now just 10 days left to apply for your 30 hours code. You need to apply by 31 August to get 30 hours from 1 September.

Check out the Childcare Choices website to find out more: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Come on England Lionesses 💪🏆

This week the Toddlers have enjoyed lots of messy play! We made lots of lovely pictures using paint 🎨 We loved getting messy with the gloop! We added cars into the tray and moved them along to see what marks they left, some of our cars even got stuck! 🚗 Lastly we made the most of the lovely weather and went for a walk down the cycle track 🌞

Summer beach theme🏖️ This week in the baby area, we made the most of the nice weather and created lots of summer fun themed activities☀️ Here are some of the activities set up… •Yogurt ice cream tray 🍦 •Cornflour seaside🌊 •Shaving foam beach🏝️ Well done everyone! You’ve all had a great week🥰

Huge Thankyou to the staff
Our summer club children had a brilliant time, the service was wonderful, the staff were so kind and considerate. 😃
We are super proud of the boys and girls who were so well behaved and used beautiful manners throughout.

We had a brilliant time on the park and basketball court out the back 😀

Thankyou to for the donation, we had smiles all around 😀 🍕 🛝

Catching up with our Summer club club ☀️
We have been very busy😀

☀️Hannah- education officer from ISH, delivered a fantastic and informative session of fun,
We learned about space, planets and the solar system, we worked as a team and created our own space robot 🤖

☀️Exploring Walkmill woods at Moresby, den building, insects spotting and tree climbing FUN 🤩
Session finished by more fun at the park 🛝

☀️Forrest school session at longlands lake; we made nests, bird feeders and explored the natural materials. The children had fun climbing the trees and feeding the ducks 🦆

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=819293596864218&id=100063507555506

10p swims for Cumberland school children aged up to 16 years old this summer All schoolchildren aged up to 16 years old will be able to go for a swim in a choice of five indoor pools for only 10p over the school summer…

Last few places available for our funded Summer club , lots of fun things planned , including Pet Encounters , The Wild Olive and The Morgan Sindall Science Fun. To secure a place please email [email protected]

Please note this club is for reception age children to 8 years and the criteria is outlined at the bottom of the poster . 😅🐍🍕☀️

Summer family fun day ❤️ please contact Tasha Hodgson for further information and tickets .

We all know how expensive the holidays can be 😅 so hopefully this will ease some of the pressure.

Huge thank you to Cumbria Police who came to visit us this week 🚔👮.

The dedicated officers made it clear they want to be seen as approachable by young children, it is important to build trust at an early age.

We know that we can always go to the Police for help and support , and they are here to help us 😀

We had the best time ❤️🚔👮

This month in the baby area we are looking at people who help us. Our theme this week is Firefighters🚒

👩‍🚒Fire station role play table

🔥Spray the fire

🖍️Fire engine colouring

We have also enjoyed a visit from the local fire station who spoke to us about fire safety and let us spray the water hose💦

Huge thank you to the amazing team at Whitehaven Fire and Rescue Service , who came to visit us this week 🔥🚒. We had lots of boys and girls who want to be hero’s just like you … and some who say “the stuffs to heavy” 😂🙈 .

Wishing our amazing Nursery Manager Georgia Bagley all the luck in the world as she embarks on her next chapter as a wife . 👰‍♀️ We can’t wait to see you in your dress , fit for our real life princess, tomorrow Miss Bagley becomes Mrs Southward ❤️🍾

This week is all about caring for babies. The children love playing with the dolls, so this week we have went with the children's interests and also we have a few children expecting a sibling! 👶

This week the toddlers looked at the theme ‘at the beach.‘🏖️
We had lots of fun activities and during circle time looked at our ‘at the seaside’ story. 🦀

This week in the Pre-School group we have been very busy, firstly exploring zoo animals and sea creatures. Secondly we have been making new pictures for our healthy eating displays, aswell as exploring the textures and colours of foods that we were talking about.

We’ve been practicing our cutting skills throughout the week with scissors ✂️, to improve our fine motor skills and co-ordination. Of course, we finished the week with our Active Start trip to the Funhouse 🤗 Well done everyone 😀

This week we are looking at zoo animals🐯

I have provided the children with lots of different style activities!

Hidden animal puzzle-
I have covered puzzle pieces with rice in a tray and the sim of this activity is for the children to move the rice around and find the puzzle pieces and then match them up with the correct place on the board.

That’s not my parrot…-
This is our book of the week, we will be reading this story everyday during circle time, I will encourage the children to touch and feel the book and point to the parrot 🦜

Pom-Pom lions-
Using wooden pegs and pom poms I will encourage the children to dip the Pom poms into the paint and dap it on the paper and create their own lions 🦁

Well done Everyone☺️

This week in the Toddlers, we learned all about Zoo Animals! 🦁 we had lots of fun exploring our tuff tray, looking at animal books and making our own lion masks! 🦁

It’s sensory week in the baby area🤗

The children have enjoyed using their 5 senses to carry out a variety of activities such as:

- Exploring two sensory tuff trays filled with different materials and textures.
- Creating sensory bottles to keep in our sensory den.
- Exploring the sensory den, finding different sensory objects/toys to play with.

Well done everyone🥰

🔆Pre school Active start 🔆
Last weeks session, we worked on our listening skills, following instruction and understanding rules 😄. We have been practicing some similar things week to week to help the children understand the concept of rules. We have been taking part in team games, this helped with making relationships, communication and language and of course our listening 😀. We finished off our session with “ The Very Hungry Caterpillar “ following on from our mini beasts theme😃 well done pre school 🏫

This week in the baby area we are looking at colours of the rainbow🌈

I have provided the children with a sensory tray filled with the colours of the rainbow made from coloured rice and also cotton balls to represent clouds☁️ the children are also provided with scoops and buckets to play in the rice with. We have also enjoyed drawing our own rainbows 🌈

This week we are looking at pirates 🏴‍☠️

We had a range of activities to look at:

Activity 1-
Pirate sensory tray, we had a pirate ship, pirates and jewels in our sensory tray to explore. ⚓️

Activity 2-
Walk the plank, we had a blue fabric under the plank and encouraged the children to walk over it. 🌊

Activity 3-
Making spy glasses, the children had yellow paper and used the colours they picked independently to colour in.🔭

Activity 4-
Pirate scavenger hunt, the aim of this activity was for the children to walk around the garden to find the different pictures that were on our checklist. 🦜

As it is the half term this week we have let the babies have complete free play and control over their learning. The weather has been lovely this week so we have all enjoyed lots more outdoor play☀️The children have been able to take part in all their favourite activities both indoors and outdoors!

This week in the pre school group we have based planning around children’s interest, there’s has been different stations set up indoors and outdoors, we have busy being Mechanics, builders, artists, farmers and chefs👩‍🍳 . We had a trip to the park mid week in the lovely weather. Well done everyone, we have had a great half term week ☀️

This week, the toddlers have enjoyed doing lots of activities outside, making the most of this lovely weather! ☀️ We made some big bubbles using a hula hoop 🫧 and had lots of fun splashing in the paddling pool! 💦

Late upload…. Last week in the preschool group we explored dinosaurs. We made some of our own fossils, we became palaeontologists for the week and went on a hunt for some dinosaur fossils and evidence of their existence using special tools. We made our own dinosaur pictures and practiced our stomping and roaring like a dinosaur. We finished the week with our active start programme at the fun house 🏠 well done pre school 🦖 🦕

The baby area🥰

Since the weather’s been lovely this week , our focused activities have been in the garden☀️

We set out a variety of activities for the children to choose from and encouraged them to explore the outdoor environment.

We supported them to use the outdoor play equipment and as you can see from their faces they have enjoyed outdoor play!

Well done everyone🤗

This week we did all about the weather.

We done our weather chart and discussed the different types of weather during circle time. ☀️

We had a range of different activities for the children to explore. 🌈🌧️❄️
We had a weather sensory tray, made kites, jumped in puddles and had a weather spotter where the children looked through the cloud to see which picture the weather matched.

Well done everyone! 🙂

Great to see all your posts about what you have been doing during National Smile Month 2023 so far. Don't forget to send the Smile4Life Team your Activity sheets with photos - we are looking forward to seeing how you have supported this campaign :)