18/10/2026
People Who Help Us – What an Amazing Two Weeks!
What an incredible two weeks we have had at Rainbow Early Years Preschool! Our People Who Help Us theme has been full of imagination, creativity, discovery, real-life experiences and so many wonderful opportunities for the children to explore the world around them.
Over the past fortnight, we have transformed into doctors, vets, police officers, firefighters, scientists, chefs, dentists, builders, cleaners, teachers and delivery people! Our environment has been bursting with opportunities for the children to explore different roles, develop new skills and begin understanding how people help us in our everyday lives.
From creating their own medicines to caring for their peers, staff and toy animals, making pizzas, building with blocks and exploring construction materials, the children have been busy learning through meaningful, hands-on play.
Little Chefs & Creative Explorers
Our little chefs have been busy creating, experimenting and exploring! We have enjoyed a range of food-inspired experiences, from using different kitchen utensils to create a collaborative mark-making picture, to painting bread with food colouring before toasting it for snack time and enjoying our creations together.
The children have also created their own pizza pictures, choosing from a variety of toppings and talking about the foods they enjoy eating at home. These experiences encouraged the children to make choices, express their preferences and explore different materials and tools.
From chefs preparing food to the utensils we use in our kitchens, the children have been making connections between their play and everyday life. Along the way, they have been developing their fine motor skills, creativity, communication and confidence to explore new ideas.
There has been plenty of messy, hands-on fun, with the children leading their own ideas and discovering what they can create!
Doctors, Vets & Caring for Others
Our role-play areas have been transformed into both a doctor’s surgery and a veterinary surgery, giving the children opportunities to care for one another, our staff and our furry friends!
The children have been bandaging, using stethoscopes, giving pretend medicine and injections, checking how everyone is feeling and writing prescriptions. In our veterinary surgery, our soft toy animals have received lots of attention, with the children carefully examining them, deciding what treatment they might need and helping them feel better.
These experiences have encouraged the children to think about caring for others, develop empathy, use language in meaningful contexts and recreate experiences they may have encountered in their own lives. There has been so much lovely imaginative play, with the children taking on different roles and developing their own ideas as they go.
Little Scientists & Medicine Makers
Our scientists have been busy too! The children explored a sensory experience using food colouring to create their own pretend medicines, investigating colours, mixing and observing what happened as they experimented.
This provided opportunities for curiosity, early scientific thinking, predicting, observing and exploring cause and effect. It was wonderful to see the children becoming absorbed in their own investigations and developing their ideas through hands-on exploration.
Builders, Firefighters & Emergency Services
Our construction opportunities have been fantastic over the past two weeks!
The children have explored building with wooden blocks, Duplo and a wide range of construction materials, wearing their hard hats and creating their own fabulous structures. We introduced shaving foam as pretend cement, allowing the children to combine construction with a wonderfully engaging sensory experience. We also made cement-inspired playdough for the children to manipulate and use alongside our wooden blocks.
The children worked together to build their very own fire engine and ambulance using large cardboard boxes. They painted, designed sirens, drew ladders and created wheels, taking real pride in their finished creations. We also explored smaller-scale junk modelling, giving the children the freedom to select materials and develop their own designs.
Outside, our budding firefighters took the lead in creating their very own firefighter obstacle course! The children helped decide how to arrange the course and explored ways to move through it, imagining they were firefighters responding to an emergency. They navigated obstacles and challenged themselves, developing coordination, confidence and physical skills through active play.
These experiences encouraged problem-solving, perseverance, creativity and collaboration. The children were not simply following instructions; they were contributing ideas, making decisions and helping to shape their own play.
Through these opportunities, we have been exploring how builders and emergency services help us, while supporting physical development, communication, imaginative thinking and understanding of the world around us.
Our Fire Station Tuff Tray
The children also enjoyed exploring a special fire station tuff tray, which provided lots of opportunities for small-world play, storytelling and early mathematical learning.
The tray included laminated photographs of firefighters and other fire service workers, helping the children to recognise the people who work at a fire station and talk about the important jobs they do. We also included numbered fire images, encouraging the children to recognise numerals, count and make connections between numbers and quantities.
Alongside these resources, the children explored lots of small-world fire service vehicles and figures. They used the vehicles to create their own emergency scenes, moving them around the tray, responding to pretend call-outs and developing imaginative storylines with their friends.
This experience encouraged communication, cooperation, problem-solving and understanding of the world. The children were able to explore the roles of firefighters in a playful and meaningful way, while developing their confidence with small-world resources and extending their own ideas.
Moving Like People Who Help Us
We also had lots of fun exploring physical movement linked to our People Who Help Us theme! The children listened carefully and followed instructions to move their bodies in different ways to represent the different occupations we had been learning about.
From imagining how firefighters might move when responding to an emergency to thinking about the different actions people use in their everyday jobs, the children enjoyed acting out each role through movement. They were enthusiastic participants and particularly loved discovering the different ways they could move!
We also enjoyed singing and joining in with action songs, including “Five Little Firefighters Standing in a Row.” The children used actions to represent the firefighters, developing their listening skills, coordination and confidence while joining in with the repeated words and movements.
This playful experience supported listening and attention, understanding instructions, coordination, balance, body awareness and gross motor development. It also encouraged the children to use their imaginations, make connections with our theme and express their ideas physically.
It was wonderful to see the children so engaged, joining in together and learning that physical activity can be both purposeful and lots of fun!
Emergency Vehicle Story Tray & Early Maths
Our emergency vehicle story tray has continued to capture the children’s interest, with additional resources introduced to extend their play and investigations.
The children explored matching the numbers on emergency vehicles to the corresponding stations, creating opportunities to recognise numerals, make connections and develop their understanding of number through a familiar and engaging context.
We also provided opportunities for early subitising, supporting children to begin recognising small quantities without needing to count every individual object. By embedding mathematical opportunities within their play, we encouraged the children to explore number in a meaningful and enjoyable way.
It is lovely to see mathematical learning woven naturally into experiences that already excite and interest the children.
Our Emergency Services Sensory Tray – Following the Children’s Ideas
Our emergency services sensory tray was a real favourite, offering the children a range of opportunities to explore, investigate and develop their own ideas through play.
The tray was filled with dried, coloured pasta, alongside emergency vehicles and laminated pictures representing the different occupations we have been learning about. We also provided scoops and cups labelled with numbers, encouraging the children to fill, empty, scoop, transport and transfer the pasta between containers.
This was a wonderful opportunity to support transporting schematic play, as the children repeatedly moved materials from one place to another, experimenting with different containers and exploring how much they could carry. The numbered cups also provided opportunities for early mathematical thinking, as the children encountered numbers and quantities within their play.
But, as always, some of the loveliest moments happened when the children took the experience in a completely new direction!
The children asked whether we could put the pasta on the floor so they could step on it and explore how it felt beneath their feet. We listened to their ideas and followed their curiosity, transforming the experience into a sensory investigation. The children thoroughly enjoyed feeling the pasta underfoot, exploring its texture and experiencing the different sensations as they moved across it.
And this led us beautifully back to our People Who Help Us theme!
Once the sensory exploration had finished, we worked together as a team, with both children and staff using brushes to sweep up the pasta. This created a meaningful connection to our learning about cleaners and the important role they play in helping to keep our environments clean and tidy.
The children were involved in the whole experience, from exploring the resources and developing their own ideas to helping restore the space afterwards. It was a lovely example of how following children’s interests can create unexpected learning opportunities, linking sensory exploration, physical development, schematic play, early mathematics, independence and real-life experiences in one meaningful activity.
Dentists & Our Healthy Smiles
Our People Who Help Us theme linked beautifully with our ongoing focus on oral health.
The children explored a toothbrushing activity, using toothbrushes to wipe away marks from dry-wipe teeth pictures. We also talked about teeth, why we look after them and the everyday habits that help keep our mouths healthy.
The children also enjoyed using visual aid cards to sort different foods into groups: those that are good for our teeth and those that are not so good for our teeth. This encouraged the children to talk about the foods they recognised, share their ideas and begin to understand how different foods can affect our teeth.
We also discussed that all foods can be enjoyed as part of a balanced lifestyle and that foods which are not so good for our teeth can still be enjoyed in moderation. The children learned that looking after our teeth includes brushing them the recommended amount each day, helping to keep them clean and healthy.
Through our ongoing Big Brush Club, the children have continued their daily toothbrushing routine, helping to build familiarity and confidence with this important part of personal care.
By linking our dentist role play with real-life routines, we have been able to reinforce these messages in a meaningful and age-appropriate way.
A Very Special Visit from Wiltshire Police
We were incredibly fortunate to welcome PCSO Dentry from Wiltshire Police to Rainbows!
She spent time with the children, answering their questions and talking about what she does in her role. She also spoke with them about ways to help keep themselves safe, before kindly giving everyone a sticker and promising to visit us again soon.
Having a member of our local community visit gave the children a genuine opportunity to connect their play and conversations with a real person who helps keep us safe.
We are so grateful to PCSO Dentry for taking the time to visit us and make the experience so special for the children.
Thank You to Travis Perkins!
We would also like to say a huge thank you to Travis Perkins for their very generous donation to Rainbow Early Years Preschool.
The delivery driver was incredibly kind and took the time to let the children watch the crane lift the resources from the back of the lorry, from a safe distance. What a wonderful opportunity to see something happening in real life and connect it to our learning about builders, delivery drivers, construction and the people who help us!
These are the kinds of experiences that can spark curiosity, encourage conversations and help children make connections between what they explore in their play and the wider world.
We truly appreciate every person, business and organisation that supports our preschool, whether through donations, visits, resources or simply taking the time to help us create meaningful opportunities for our children. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference.
Celebrating National Practitioner Day
On Friday, the children had the opportunity to celebrate National Practitioner Day with us, recognising the important role teachers and early years practitioners play in helping children learn, grow and feel supported.
This linked beautifully with our theme, as we discussed how teachers help us, alongside all the other people who support us throughout our lives.
It was a lovely opportunity to celebrate our own team while helping the children understand that people help us in many different ways.
Our Small Key Group Times – Learning to Share
Alongside our main theme, our small key group times have focused on sharing, turn-taking, listening and attention.
We have shared a specially created story about sharing and taking turns, designed to help the children understand these important social skills in a way that is meaningful to their age and stage of development. Please see the story shared with all our key groups and children.
We have also provided practical, physical experiences that allow the children to practise these skills rather than simply talk about them.
The children have:
* Rolled a ball to one another, saying their friend’s name before passing it on.
* Worked collaboratively to build a tower, each taking a turn to add a Duplo brick.
* Taken turns to throw a ball into a basket.
* Shared the excitement of popping bubbles together, waiting for opportunities and enjoying the activity as a group.
These may seem like simple activities, but they offer valuable opportunities for children to practise waiting, watching, listening, responding to others and recognising that everyone deserves a turn.
Developing these skills takes time, repetition and supportive experiences. We are proud of the children for the ways they have been practising, participating and learning alongside one another.
Learning Through Meaningful Experiences
Across these two weeks, our theme has given the children opportunities to explore so many important areas of the curriculum, including communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development, early mathematics, understanding the world, literacy and expressive arts and design, as well as the characteristics of effective learning.
Most importantly, the children have been able to explore these areas through experiences that are purposeful, engaging and connected to their interests.
Our role is to observe, listen, provide opportunities, model new skills and extend the children’s thinking while giving them the time and freedom to develop their own ideas. Sometimes the most valuable learning happens when children are deeply involved in something they have chosen to explore, working things out for themselves and alongside their friends.
A Huge Thank You to Our Community
We would like to thank PCSO Dentry, Travis Perkins and everyone who continues to support Rainbow Early Years Preschool. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity, kindness and involvement of our local community.
We also want to recognise our fantastic staff team, who work so hard to create an environment full of opportunities, where children’s interests are valued, their ideas are encouraged and their learning is supported every day.
And Now, as We Approach the End of Our First Term…
We have just two days left of what has been a wonderful and successful first term, and the whole team is excited to share what we have planned for our next main theme!
It is so hard to keep it a secret, but we promise it is going to be magical!
Thank you, as always, for being part of our Rainbow community and supporting us as we continue to create meaningful experiences and wonderful memories for the children.
Warmly,
The Rainbows’ Team 🌈
