Bee Ready with Mrs. Summerbee

04/10/2026

🚸What a great week exploring all "things that go!" 🚕🛞🛺🚚🚜✈️⛵🚂

📚They all listened and laughed at the story "You can't take an elephant on a bus". The children even helped find the correct animals.

🔴🟡🟠They mixed red and yellow paint to make orange and paint a traffic cone.

🧑‍🚒🚒🧯Became fire fighters and police officers to put out the fire.🔥

🚗💦 They set up a car wash - spraying and scrubbing the dirty vehicles.

🛞 Checked out the different tyre marks with playdough.

🚦Made traffic lights and so much more!

🏁 We finished off dancing with our flags, playing 🛑 Stop and 🟢Go!

It was also lovely to hear all about their Cress heads growing!🌱

02/10/2026

🌌 Next week is officially "World Space Week" so what better theme to have than "Space School" 🌌

We will be blasting off to space to explore the moon and different planets.

🚀 We will be making rocket ships,
🌙 Working on the moon,
🌎 Sending postcards back to earth
⭐ Capturing meteorite to save the stars and planets
👾 Searching for aliens... Wait! There's no such thing as aliens! 🤪

30/09/2026

27/09/2026

♻️What a fun first week with all our little eco warriors!

📚 They listened so well this week's story "That's not Rubbish" written by our partnership company

They helped Benji 🐝 sort out his recycling into the correct bins.
💡 Used their creativity and imagination with cardboard boxes.
🛺Enjoyed some colour sorting and weighing at the recycling centre.
🪱 Searched for and counted the worms in the compost.
🌲 🍎 Cut tree roots and threaded tree branches, adding apples and leaves. All working on their fine motor skills.

♻️ They also made eco warrior headbands from recycled materials.

And planted seeds to help the world 🌍 - making cress heads! (when it grows they can cut it with scissors and even eat it!)

🪩 We finished off with some impressive eco warrior moves onto the dance floor and using their muscles to scrunch up recycled paper for our parachute play!

Thank you to everyone who attended - it's been SO lovely meeting our new cohort of 2027 school starters. 🥹💛

And a HUGE shout out to the incredible Bee Ready team 🐝 you were amazing!! 🙌🥰 Thank you Miss Riches, Mrs Holmes and our lovely volunteer Ms Webb 💛

Also big thank you to the lovely staff at all the Children and Family Centres who always welcome us and our families with a smile and are so helpful. 🥰

Gloucester and Forest of Dean Children and Family Centres Gloucestershire Gateway Trust

25/09/2026

It’s “just” playdough… but so much learning is happening! ✨

Squish it, roll it, pinch it, flatten it, cut it, build with it and start all over again! Playdough is one of those wonderfully simple, open-ended materials that gives children endless opportunities to create, explore and learn through play. 🌈

As little hands manipulate the dough, children are strengthening their hands, fingers and hand-eye coordination; important foundations for drawing, using scissors and eventually writing. But the learning goes far beyond fine motor development!

🎨 Sparks creativity and imaginative play
🙌 Builds hand strength and fine motor control
🌈 Encourages sensory exploration
✏️ Supports early drawing and pre-writing skills
🔺 Introduces shapes, colours, patterns and early math concepts
💬 Creates opportunities for language and storytelling
💡 Encourages curiosity, experimentation and problem-solving
🧠 Builds focus and persistence through hands-on exploration

Add rollers, cutters, loose parts, natural materials or favourite small-world figures or simply offer a ball of playdough and see where children's imaginations take them. 💛

Because when children are playing with playdough, they aren't “just playing” they're building skills through meaningful, hands-on play.

via .co

23/09/2026

For those who have just started school:

I hope it's all going well 🥰💛 and they are starting to settle. It's been so lovely to see all the photos of them all ready, in their uniform 🥹

It's completely normal and understandable to be exhausted as they adjust, which may also impact their behaviour at home. I know this can be tough. It will get better. Keep things simple and a slower pace after school and on weekends for now and some time to recover and chill over half term (if you can).

Just a reminder that if you don't know yet, find out what phonics scheme their school uses to teach reading and ask what sounds they are learning right now so that you can support them at home. (These sounds will change quickly and often 🥰)

Listen to them read daily when they begin to read independently, (sometimes this is better to do in the morning after a rest and good night's sleep, but find out what works best for you as a family and your child.)

When they start to read, don't forget to also read stories to them too (a nice bedtime story often works well) you want to keep building that vocabulary and love for reading. 📚

🐝💛

19/09/2026

This week our first Play & Practise sessions kick off for our 2027 school starters!

Spaces left on Thursday mornings 10-11:30 @ Bartongate.

➡️Click here to book:
https://linktr.ee/beereadywithmrssummerbee

This week's theme supports National Recycling Week - getting the children to think about looking after our world and being responsible Eco Warriors in our community ♻️

Gloucester and Forest of Dean Children and Family Centres
Gloucestershire Gateway Trust

19/09/2026

This week we support National Recycling Week.

Inspiring children to be responsible and work together to help our community, our homes, our world ♻️🌎

Some little tips and activities you could get your little bee to think about and do together.

You could even do some litter picking and practise those fine motor skills - popping on gloves and using grabbers!

17/09/2026

⭐ Mrs Summerbee's Top Tips⭐

📢 Reception Communication 📢

If you’re used to daily nursery, pre-school or childminder updates, Reception communication might feel quite different and might take some time getting used to. That's completely understandable.

✅ Quick chats at drop-off/pick-up are the best time for short questions.

⚖️Teachers are balancing lots of little ones and making sure they are all safe and happy during transitions, so if you need a longer chat, it's best to organise a meeting. This can depend on your school - some teachers you can contact directly via email or via a school app and some schools you will need to go via the office. Sometimes the teacher can be available immediately after the children have all gone home safely, but sometimes they will need to head straight to a meeting, or run a club straight after school.

📅 Updates will no longer be as detailed, individualised or daily and can vary depending on the school too: Newsletters, apps, emails, texts, social media pages will be your go-to for updates.

💛If you are ever concerned about your child for any reason, always reach out to their teacher.💛

13/09/2026

💛More exciting news from Bee Ready!🐝

🐝 Bee Ready isn't yet a year old but is already growing and adapting from "Bee Ready with Mrs Summerbee" to "Bee Ready with Benji Bee!" 🤯

I am delighted to announce that another lovely new session leader Mrs Holmes will be joining the Bee Ready team. 🤩🙌

I am very grateful and SO lucky to have not 1 but 2 passionate and talented team members on board. 😁🙏

Miss Riches, Mrs Holmes and myself, Mrs Summerbee will be kicking off the academic year with running our fun themed Play & Practise sessions from September 21st.
♻️🚕🚀 🪱👻

🥳 These Play & Practise sessions - for our 2027 school starters are almost fully booked!
*Thursday AM at Bartongate has availability!*

Bookings for the Bee Ready courses starting from November will be open soon. Families who attend the Play & Practise sessions will have priority booking. ☺️

We can't wait to meet you all soon! 💛🐝😁