Millies Preschool

Millies made scarecrows this term to help with St Mildreds garden area. We placed on in our plot in the communal garden and have given the other 2 to the church to decide where they need them most! The children did great work stuffing the scarecrows with straw and helping to tie on their clothes and decorate their faces.
The children decided which materials they wanted to use for hair and which expressions they wanted the scarecrows to have.

This week at Millies we have been learning about Diwali and Halloween.
The children made Diyas for Diwali from clay. They formed the shape then decorated them with bright colours, sequins and glitter.
They listened to the story of Rama and Sita and learnt about what happens during Diwali celebrations.

For any of our families celebrating Diwali, we hope you have lovely celebrations.

The children also played with potion making for Halloween and pumpkins. They scooped the insides out of the pumpkins and used hammers and golf tees to make patterns in the pumpkin. They worked hard on their motor skills this week.

We hope you all have a lovely half term and we look forward to hearing about it when we return.

Continuing with our topic of all about me we looked at emotions. The children read the book the colour monster and began to sort the pom pom emotions into pots. They thought about each emotion and spoke in groups about what could help us if we are angry or sad.

We have also been talking about our senses. The children explored sensory paints. Each colour paint had a different smell which the children were asked if they could identify.

We also made flour and sensory 'cakes'. The children used scales to measure ingredients seeing which is heavier and lighter and worked on their physical development to scoop and mix ingredients together. The children used their sense of smell to choose ingredients. We placed flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa powder for them to choose from along with mint, rosemary and thyme which the children have grown in their communal garden patch.
The children mixed together their ingredients and spooned them into cake cases pretending to cook them for each other.
They really enjoyed this sensory messy play activity as you will be able to see from the 'after' photo! They developed their understanding of their bodies and how they work as well as their physical development and communication and language.

Outdoors the children have been on senses hunts where they explored their sight, smell and hearing in order to find different objects in the garden area.

This week at Millies the children have been learning how to keep their teeth healthy. They have practised brushing pretend teeth using toothpaste. They spoke about how often they brush their teeth and visits to the dentist.

We also thought about keeping our hands clean. They washed off germs from ice hands using soap and water and did an experiment with water and glitter. They placed water in a bowl and glitter on top then placed a finger with soap on it into the water and watched the 'germs' move away from the soap.

If you would like to do this at home all you need is a bowl of water, glitter or pepper also works sprinkled onto the water. Then place some soap on your child's finger and allow them to put it into the water. Watch it all spread away from the soap. This helps to explain the importance of using soap to wash away our germs.

If anyone is able to St Mildred's are a collection point for the hospital pyjama appeal.

All PJs must be received by 30th November. They must be new and unwrapped – they cannot accept used items.

You are more than welcome to bring them to us to pass on or take them into the main church reception.

🎉 Our 2025 Appeal is LIVE! 🎉
�We’re back for our 16th year, starting today — 1st September, which also marks Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, where this charity began 💛

The appeal runs until Sunday 30th November. We're collecting brand new children’s pyjamas to donate to hospitals, hospices, and women’s refuges across the UK.

📮 All PJs must be received by 30th November�They must be new and unwrapped – we cannot accept used items.

🛍️ HOW TO DONATE
Amazon Wishlists – Buy new PJs & have them sent straight to our collection points:

Main (HQ): https://amzn.eu/6lCEI1u
Bishops Stortford: https://amzn.eu/cYVoZAQ
Welshpool: https://amzn.eu/5akq0c1
Buckinghamshire: https://amzn.eu/4PxbjLT
Stanwell: https://amzn.eu/fQ3TruS
Leicestershire: https://amzn.eu/3KJEyOM
Bristol: https://amzn.eu/fUi0D5W
Slough: https://amzn.eu/68p4g4I
Camberley: https://amzn.eu/1WfA8SP
Rotherham: https://amzn.eu/dfaaQEh
Ashford: https://amzn.eu/1Ap4N0T
Fleet, Hampshire: https://amzn.eu/8AebsmN
Newbury: https://amzn.eu/1Yxm4pg
Berkshire: https://amzn.eu/9I4nUbC
Durham: https://amzn.eu/5Dt0QYz
South Wales: https://amzn.eu/iLkvsHU
Liverpool: https://amzn.eu/gFgmNut

📍Want to donate locally?�Use our postcode tool to find drop-off points near you:�🔗 www.childrenshospitalpyjamas.co.uk/donate

📦 Posting pyjamas?�Send to:�Children’s Hospital Pyjamas�Suite 3-5, Challenge House�616 Mitcham Road, Croydon�CR0 3AA

⚠️ Important Notes
* PJs must be brand new
* Do not wrap – they need to be checked
* Avoid Christmas designs, fleecy PJs, and onesies (wards can get warm)
* We need sizes from newborn to age 18 (large adult)
* Both boys and girls PJs are needed.

This year, we have over 300 establishments requiring our support. Hospitals, hospices & women’s refuges UK-wide. Your support truly makes a difference 💛�(please see our website for full list of recipients.)

Please share this post – every share helps us reach more people, receive more donations, and support more children.

Thank you for helping us spread love through comfort 💛

This term at Millies we are looking at the topic all about me.

So far the children have been learning about the feature of their faces by making self portraits from various items.
They thought about healthy eating and which foods are good for their bodies.
We read the Supertato book and rescued him from the evil peas by using tweezers to collect them into pots.

The children have been making models of their lungs in order to help them understand the function of some of the organs within their bodies. They enjoyed blowing through the straws to inflate their 'lungs'

🌻 Look at this giant! 🌻

Millies Preschoolhas been growing sunflowers in St. Mildred’s Community Garden… and we think this one might just be the champion!

At 2.93meters, is this the tallest sunflower in Addiscombe? 📏🌞
Let us know if you’ve seen a taller one – we’d love to see your sunflower snaps!

This term at Millies our topic has been 'up in the air'. The children have enjoyed exploring everything to do with the sky. They have made rockets and thought about the night sky.

We read the book up,up,up and explored hot air balloons and what you would be able to see from up in the air. The children made some hot air balloons and were able to identify a picture of themselves to place inside the base of the balloon.

Some of our children took part in writing their first poem. They were read a poem and had to fill in the gaps to show their likes and dislikes. This was then sent off and made into a book with other settings. Well done to all of the children who took part in this.

The children have had some fun with our messy play. The thought about sunshine and summer and recognised ice cream as one of the things that they associate with summer. We made ice creams with coloured shaving foam and coloured rice for sprinkles. We discussed flavours and what the different colours could be. We worked on our physical development by scooping the shaving foam into cones and pinching some rice to sprinkle on top as well as recognising colours and colour mixing.

We used sand and shaving foam to create a 'cement' in order to build towers and houses. The children scooped ad spread some on to bricks before placing another on on top. They used hammers, measures and spirit levels to create their houses, bridges and towers.

Our community garden patch is going well! We have mint, rosemary and thyme growing for our sensory play as well as a sunflower which has begun to get very tall. The potatoes were ready to harvest and the children had fun hunting for some potatoes that will get cooked with some of our herbs and eaten for snack time! Well done everyone for helping to grow our plants and vegetables this year.

Millies Preschool!

Here is a little snapshot of our preschool space. We boast a large outdoor space with lots of different equipment used each day. We also have a canopy area for shelter and during the hot periods we use beach tents around the garden and umbrellas to create shade.
Indoors we ensure there are always books and mark making activities available as well as a craft station and painting area.
We create various role play areas and messy play areas. There are always small world toys, construction toys and mathematics activities laid out each session.

We encourage the children to be as independent as possible and like to allow them to make various choices throughout the day. We have a free-flow environment, meaning they can choose to play indoors or outdoors.

When the children come in they are encouraged to place their bags on a peg of their choosing and are helped to find their name card to go above this. They are then invited to find a block with their name on to vote for which story they would like to be read at story time that day. The children really enjoy seeing the towers and checking which is taller to see the winning story for that day.
We believe that reading to children is very important to help expand their vocabulary, develop speech and language skills and to begin to recognise letters. There are so many benefits to reading with children that go beyond these such as developing their memories and allowing them to relax. As we feel this is so important for children we provide a book folder. This folder contains a book to take home and some information for each parent. Once each child is finished with their book they can bring their folder in and will be able to choose a new story to take home from our mini library.

We hope this snippet into life at Millies was interesting for you and if you wish to book a tour or to sign up your child please feel free to contact us by email - [email protected] or by phone - 07803 854959

We currently have spaces for September however, we have limited morning sessions available so please contact us as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

We currently have spaces available for September. Our morning sessions are almost full.
Please call or email to book a viewing or to register your child at Masons or Millies preschools.

This week at Millies we have been thinking about space and our night sky.
The children have been discussing the planet Earth and talking about that being where we live.

The children made marks in the flour to attempt to write some numbers counting down from 10 or 5 until blast off. They looked at the number and began to recognise them in and out of sequence.

The children have made shape aliens, spaceships and stamped rockets and robots as part of their craft activities.

They used some rubicon cubes to measure the heights of different aliens counting how many blocks it took to get to their height. They decided which aliens were taller and which were shorter.