Busy Bees Pre-School

12/10/2026

🐝 Last week we continued our 'Animals which live in water' theme, and our story of the week was '10 Little Penguins' 🐧.

We have made parrots by decorating a cardboard tube with tissue paper and feathers 🦜. We used cotton buds to add paint to a dolphin, mixing different blues and white together 🐬. We added stripes to a zebra, using paint and toy cars - the children had a great time running the cars through the paint! 🦓 We also created leaf stained glass windows, sticking down colourful cellophane 🍁.

On Friday we went to the park for our Forest School session with Anna. We had a fantastic time making bird feeders and practising hammering nails into wood, before exploring the natural materials around us.🌲🌳

Our Characteristics of Effective Learning focus in Playing and Exploring has been engaging in open-ended activities. Within Active Learning being proud of how they have accomplished something, and in Critical Thinking, flexibly changing strategy as needed.

05/10/2026

🐝 Last week we began our 'Animals which live in water' theme, and our focus story was 'The Selfish Crocodile' 🐊.

On Monday Heather joined us for Baby Ballet. We all moved around to the music as different animals 🐘🐒.

The children explored different sensory tuff trays, including coloured pasta and shaving foam. In arts and crafts we used bubble wrap to print paint on our crocodiles 🐊. We used dot stickers to add scales onto fish and used cake cases and strips of different materials to create jellyfish 🐠🪼.

On Friday the children had an incredible time when Okan from ZooLab came in. He had a selection of scaly and furry creatures for us to see, hold and stroke. We met Sheldon the Giant African snail 🐌, Mary the tarantula 🕷, Gilly the gecko 🦎 - who can make his tail drop off. Frank the cockroach 🪳 - who can hold his breath for an hour, be frozen for a month and has 2 brains! Fifi the cornsnake 🐍 and two gerbils named Chilli and Pepper 🐹. The children found it fascinating and were all intrigued and eager to see all the creatures!

Our Characteristics of Effective Learning focus in Playing and Exploring has been showing curiosity about events and people. Within Active Learning we have been using our senses to explore the world around us, and in Creative Thinking - visualising and imagining options.

02/10/2026

28/09/2026

🐝 Last week we continued our 'African Plain' theme and our weekly story was 'Giraffes Can't Dance'. 🦒

On Monday we started our week with an autumn walk to the church, where we all collected conkers, pine cones and leaves. 🍂 Later we used the leaves to make impressions, by pressing them down into playdough.

We have painted wooden animals and once dried added goggly eyes and detail using pen. We also used collage to decorate a snake. 🐍

To develop our fine motor skills we have been completing jigsaw puzzles, sorting coloured animals using tweezers and balancing animals. 🧩

On Thursday, Anna joined us for Forest School. 🌳 She read 'Stick Man' and the children created their own stick men, using sticks, pine cones and wool - combining these together using clay. We also made a hedgehog using sticks and a ball of clay, after having fun and making huge bubbles! 🦔🫧

Our Characteristics of Effective Learning focus in Playing and Exploring, has been using our senses to explore the world around us. Within Active Learning - paying attention to details, and in Critical Thinking, reviewing how well the approach worked.

22/09/2026

🐝 Last week our theme was 'The African Plain' and our story 'The Ugly Five'. 🐘🦬🦒

We have been busy painting - finger painting spots onto a leopard 🐆, creating animal silhouettes by sponging on paint and exploring the marks different materials make.

On Wednesday, we had Baby Ballet with Heather. We practised our pointy toes and moving to the beat of the music. 🩰🎵

We have practised our accuracy with scooping and pouring to feed the animals, and together we made corn starch slime to explore and manipulate. 🫗

Our Characteristics of Effective Learning focus in Playing and Exploring has been showing a 'can do' attitude. Within Active Learning, showing satisfaction in meeting our own goals. In Critical Thinking, checking how well our activities are going.

14/09/2026

🐝 Last week our theme was 'Big Cats' and our story was 'The Lion Inside'. 🦁

We have made playdough, practised rolling it flat and cut out shapes using animal cutters. We worked together to create our own big Elmer - everyone helped by painting a different coloured square. 🐘

On Tuesday it was International Literacy Day and we celebrated using our story of the week. We used different materials to create a mane for our lion and used pegs to attach the lion's legs back on.

On Friday we had Forest School. We were looking for different minibeasts in soil and found a worm, woodlouse and shield beetle. 🪱🐞 After, we explored the garden to see what other insects we could find. Then, using leaves for our wings, created butterflies, decorating and sticking leaves to a lollypop stick. 🌿🦋

Our Characteristics of Effective Learning focus in Playing and Exploring has been initiating activities. Withing Active Learning, showing involvement and fascination, and in Creative Thinking finding new ways to do things.

07/09/2026

🐝 Welcome back Busy Bees!

We have been thinking of our school starters and we hope they have all had a fantastic time beginning their new schools.

We welcome our new starters to Busy Bees who are settling in lovely, joining in and becoming familiar with us, the other children and our routines.

After the summer holidays, it's been brilliant to see all our returning Busy Bees - and everyone seems to have grown!

This term our topic is 'At the Zoo', as we focus on different animals every couple of weeks. We have started the term with 'Big Cats' 🦁🐅🐆. We look forward to sharing weekly with you what the children have been up to.

27/07/2026

🐝Thank you all very much for the lovely, thoughtful cards and gifts we have all received. We would like to wish you all an amazing, restful summer holidays! 🌞

Good luck to our leavers, we wish you all the best as you begin Primary school and for those children returning we look forward to seeing you on Thursday 3rd September.