Playmates Pre-School Raunds

15/10/2026

Tuesday's Adventure to Asda!

On Tuesday morning, the children set off on an exciting adventure into our local community. We began with a nature walk 🍁🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️where the children observed the world around them, talked about what they could see👀, and explored the natural environment. This encouraged curiosity, communication skills and an understanding of the world around them.

When we arrived at Asda, whilst enjoying their snack outside, a very kind lady came over and gave the children a voucher to buy some sweets.🍬🍭

Back into the shop they went, excitedly choosing their sweets before heading to the self-service checkouts. The children scanned and checked out their items themselves, building important life skills, early mathematical understanding and awareness of how money💰 is used in everyday situations. They showed great patience, took turns and worked together throughout the process. The sweets were then taken home to enjoy😋 after collection with their adults.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, another lovely lady came outside and generously gifted the children two large bunches of bananas🍌🍌. The children were delighted and enjoyed talking about the kindness they had been shown. This provided a wonderful opportunity to discuss gratitude, community and caring for others. The bananas were taken back to Playmates and enjoyed as a healthy afternoon snack.

Our plan had been to catch the 🚌 back to Playmates, helping the children learn about different forms of transport and how they are used within the community. However, with all the extra shopping and excitement, we missed the bus 🤦🏻‍♀️The children adapted brilliantly to the change of plan and instead enjoyed another nature walk back, demonstrating resilience, flexibility and problem-solving skills. We will save our bus adventure for another day!

Throughout the day, the children developed their communication and language skills through conversations with adults and their friends about their adventure.Strengthened 💪 their physical development through lots of walking, practised making choices and decisions, and gained valuable first-hand experiences of shopping and being part of their local community.

A huge thank you to the wonderful and generous people at Asda for helping to make our day so special. Their kindness created meaningful learning opportunities and gave the children a lovely reminder of how caring and supportive a community can be🫶.

14/10/2026

📚✨ Story of the Week: Dear Zoo ✨📚

We've been receiving some very unusual deliveries at Playmates this week... 📦👀

First, the zoo sent us an elephant. He was far too big! Then came a giraffe... far too tall!

We won't spoil all the surprises, but let's just say we've had some very exciting discussions about which animal would make the perfect pet. 🦒🐘🦁🐍

The children have loved joining in with the repeated phrases, guessing which animal might be hiding behind the next flap, and practising their animal sounds.

There's been lots of roaring, trumpeting and monkeying around! 🎉

💭 If the zoo could send you any animal, which one would you choose?

📚✨

13/10/2026

Did you know we're now on Instagram? 📸

Please bear with us while us oldies get to grips with it! 👵🏻 😆

If you happen to spot a really good post from us, we promise we haven't borrowed one of the young and trendy ladies to do it for us... honest! 😅

Who knows, we might even make our way onto that TikTok thingy. Assuming I can remember the password and learn how to make videos! 😬

So as they say drop us a follow and dare I even ask a like and share. 🙏

⬇️ Oh and follow the link below. ⬇️

I'm on Instagram as . Install the app to follow my photos and videos.

13/10/2026

The children have once again created some wonderful artwork, 🖼which the ladies have transformed into lovely displays. Just look 👀 at those hedgehogs. 🦔 It’s no wonder we had a visitor last night! And I definitely think we needed our raincoats earlier too.🧥

As the children have been busy painting,🎨 sticking and creating, they have also been developing important fine motor skills. Every time they grip a paintbrush🖌, hold a pencil✍️, pick up small materials or carefully place items where they want them, they are strengthening 💪the muscles needed for future writing and everyday tasks. They are also building their hand-eye🖐👁 coordination as they create their masterpieces.

Alongside this, we have been having lots of conversations about our emotions and feelings. We have talked about what makes us happy😃, sad😔, or angry😡. What we love🥰, and the things that can make us feel worried😟, or anxious😣. These discussions help the children to recognise, understand and express their emotions, as well as develop empathy and understanding for others.

We are so proud of all the learning that takes place through play, creativity and conversation every day at Playmates. That is why we Learn, Laugh and Grow together...😊🍂🦔🌧️

12/10/2026

Tonight a garden guest arrived on a very important mission... 🦔🔎

Armed with a super-powered nose and a healthy appetite, this little hedgehog 🦔 was busy snuffling around the front garden, searching for creepy crawlies hidden beneath the leaves and in the grass.🍂🦗 🐞🐛🍂

Turn the sound up 🎧 and have a listen 👂 to all that determined sniffing! It seems the evening menu was worth investigating. The hedgehog was exploring the front garden for a long time.

We're always delighted when we see wildlife in the gardens. 🐦‍⬛🦔🦎🐸🐈🦋🐞🐛🕷🐝❤️

09/10/2026

🍂Crunchy leaves and cozy vibes!🍂

Playmates is looking beautifully autumnal. What is your favourite thing about Autumn? Let us know in the comments!
We love to go for walks to see the leaves changing colour, collecting conkers and pine cones. It provides us lots of opportunities to talk about what we see and develop our language skills whilst out and about. Then we hone our fine motor skills by using what we have collected in our activity trays.

08/10/2026

This week’s story is a firm favourite: The Gruffalo. Which one is your favourite Gruffalo book? The Gruffalo or The Gruffalo’s Child? Or have you read Julia Donaldson’s new book, Gruffalo Granny?

30/09/2026

🍐 Community Pear Power! 🍐

With our tree being a cooking pear tree, most years the fruit sadly goes to waste, but not this year!

Hedgehog 🦔 a leader from 1st Raunds Methodist Brownies and 1st Woodford Rainbows popped by this morning and collected two big bags of pears, and they already have delicious plans for them😋. The pears will be turned into:

Pear & Plum Jam

Blackberry & Pear Jam

Apple & Pear Chutney

All of these will be sold on their stalls to raise money for their section. A lovely way for our pears to be used and not go to waste, and helping to support young children. You can normally find Squirrel 🐿 running their preserve stall at local events.

They’ll also be using some of the pears to make a Pear Crumble for the Community Lunch at the Methodist Church, bringing a bit of autumn comfort to everyone who attends.

Thank you to Hedgehog for making sure our pears are enjoyed, appreciated, and used to help others.

Learn, Laugh, Grow… together ❤️

24/09/2026