Waterbeach Community Playgroup

Waterbeach Community Playgroup Waterbeach Community Playgroup was established in 1972. We are based in the Waterbeach Playhouse within the grounds of Waterbeach Primary School.

Our sessions are open to children from age two. Our ethos is learning through play.

Here at Community Playgroup we have had an amazing spring term together. We have loved welcoming new children and spendi...
22/03/2026

Here at Community Playgroup we have had an amazing spring term together. We have loved welcoming new children and spending time playing, learning and exploring together.
As the seasons change we have used our senses to see, hear, feel and experience all around us.
We have explored Numbers in number week, Weather, Engineering, Spring and Easter. We also joined British Bird watch week, Science week and of course world book day.
We hope you enjoy looking at what we’ve been up to this term

Community Playgroup Remembers
16/11/2025

Community Playgroup Remembers

Harvest October2025This week we have been thinking about the amazing bounty of crops that are harvested at this time of ...
12/10/2025

Harvest October2025
This week we have been thinking about the amazing bounty of crops that are harvested at this time of year from large scale farming with huge machinery, to our own gardens, allotments and also small scale local businesses.
We made some delicious apple crumble in our cookery session and also did a Harvest food collection for our local Foodbank. We had great fun delivering everything we’d collected and meeting the lovely Foodbank volunteers at the Baptist Chapel
Our stories the week were ‘The Little Red Hen’ and ‘The Scarecrow’s Hat’

September 2025 All things AutumnAs we say goodbye to the long hot sunny days of summer here at Community Playgroup we st...
12/10/2025

September 2025 All things Autumn
As we say goodbye to the long hot sunny days of summer here at Community Playgroup we start using our senses to explore the changing season. The sights smells and sounds of Autumn are all around us and the children begin to notice and explore, from running through crunchy leaves to gathering countless conkers and acorns.

September 2025 Our First two weeks togetherDuring the first two weeks back at playgroup following the summer holidays we...
12/10/2025

September 2025 Our First two weeks together
During the first two weeks back at playgroup following the summer holidays we spend time settling everyone returning to playgroup back in and also welcoming new children and families.
We look at the all about me theme, thinking about who makes up our families, recognising just how diverse our families are. We understand we are all unique and therefore like and enjoy different things.
We also look at Emotions and our Playgroup golden rules. It’s important that the children can talk about how they feel and label their emotions and also recognise emotions of others.
We also think it’s very important that everyone feels happy, confident and respected so we have golden rules that we all support each other to follow.
Our activities helped us to think about being kind,helpful, a good listener, how to be a good friend and help us to look after our toys and resources.

Week beginning 14th July 2025Our last week together before the summer holidays.This week we collapsed our curriculum and...
16/08/2025

Week beginning 14th July 2025

Our last week together before the summer holidays.

This week we collapsed our curriculum and focused on activities and experiences that are child led and based on children’s interests. It’s a week where children get to think about and choose exactly how they’d like to spend their time. It’s great to hear what the children would like to explore from unicorn kinetic sand right down to good old role play, where we pretended we were camping, became wild animals and cats and also spent time looking after the playgroup dolls. The dinosaur tuff tray and bug exploration were requested several times and of course lots of outside play including our last Fun Factory Football session for the school year. We also said goodbye to our playgroup butterflies as we released them into our garden ……And just like the butterflies our rising fives have grown and are ready to spread their wings as they move onto the next steps of their educational journey. We would like to wish them all the very best of luck and much happiness, it’s been a privilege to be part of their early learning story, we cant wait to share our special leavers celebration and lunch with you all. We are also really looking forward to welcoming back those children who are staying with us for another year, hearing all about what they get up to over the summer holidays, and also all of the new children joining us in September, we can’t wait to begin playing, learning and exploring together.

Have a great summer from Fiona, Sarah, Becca, Lizzy, Kate, Emma and everyone at Community Playgroup


Week beginning 7th July 2025Teddy Bears Picnic and more fun and exploration.This week we have joined in with Bear Force ...
16/08/2025

Week beginning 7th July 2025

Teddy Bears Picnic and more fun and exploration.

This week we have joined in with Bear Force and their Teddy bears picnic week. Bear Force UK is a children's mental health charity that aims to build positive mental well-being in children by encouraging them to express their feelings and teaching adults how to respond in a supportive way. We had lots of bear themed activities and role play activities available including a special trail mix style snack where children were free to make their own choices and talk about their likes and dislikes. Other non bear activities on offer included a car paint ramp, the children placed the wheels of the car in paint before zooming it down a cardboard ramp creating amazing art. We made paper towel and peg butterflies as our real butterflies have finally emerged from their chrysalis. We used 2d shapes to make rockets and other pictures and also looked at some different shapes with our shape car tracks, carefully guiding the cars around the shapes helps children to focus on the shapes properties. We had some colour mixing with coloured water and the most well used and enjoyed activity was the blue chia seed slime….. the simplest of activities but one that the children found fascinating.

Transitions, Growth and Change.As we near the end of this school year we start thinking about transitions, growth and ch...
16/08/2025

Transitions, Growth and Change.

As we near the end of this school year we start thinking about transitions, growth and change. We spend time with those moving into primary school looking at school readiness and how much they’ve changed during their time at playgroup , and for those staying with us for another year we support them to understand the changes ahead and also strengthen bonds within their own year groups through fun activities and learning experiences. So this week we had lots of activities around fine motor skills, mark making, numeracy and creativity. We also looked at change both in terms of how we’ve changed but also how we can change the properties of things for example adding 2 materials together or colour mixing. We used the butterfly lifecycle to demonstrate growth and change. Using a butterfly kit as a great visual for the children to see the changes from tiny caterpillars who quickly get bigger and then pupate into chrysalis before emerging as beautiful butterflies. Watching metamorphosis is amazing and the children were eager to see each day what was going on. It’s so lovely to see our rising fives so ready to take on the next steps of their early learning journeys at school and also for the children staying to see their thirst for knowledge and eagerness to play, learn and explore.

Week beginning 23rd June 2025 Numeracy and Mini BeastsThis week we have been focussing on our numeracy skills. As the ch...
16/08/2025

Week beginning 23rd June 2025

Numeracy and Mini Beasts

This week we have been focussing on our numeracy skills. As the children continue to be fixated on mini beasts and the amazing variety we have in our garden we decided to combine the two. Our story of the week was Superworm so we created a fine motor tuff tray and encouraged the children to count how many worms they caught, we also introduced one more and one less and thought about who had the most and least. We used shapes to create our own mini beast not only imbedding basic 2d shape names but also looking at the properties of the shapes. We rescued the mini beasts from the giant spider web, carefully using tweezers to pick them up without disturbing the web or the sleeping spiders….. and I can tell you it was very tricky!! We then counted how many we had rescued. Our STEM activities this week were also mini beast themed and we looked at the principle of air pressure and its effect on movement. We created paper caterpillars and then used straws to blow onto them. The air blown from the straw creates a force that pushes against the paper, causing it to move forward, mimicking the wiggling motion of a caterpillar. This simple activity introduces children to the concept of how air can be used to create motion. We also had some of our favourite growing worms. Dropping water onto worms made from paper towels and watching them grow due to capillary action. We also spent lots of time in the garden searching for real mini beast and we seemed to have an abundance of ladybirds. Some of our children were really interested in lining up counting and ordering our outside toys demonstrating they had understood the concepts we were looking at and independently incorporating them into their play. Wow! What another great week of learning and exploring.

Week beginning 16th June 2025All things summer.As the summer term progresses we have all been enjoying the lovely sunny ...
16/08/2025

Week beginning 16th June 2025

All things summer.

As the summer term progresses we have all been enjoying the lovely sunny days. Many of our children have also been going off on holiday or enjoying day trips to the beach and pools or home based garden days, so there’s been lots of chatter about sandcastles, water play and of course ice cream. So this week we decided to incorporate these things in our planning. We also wanted to decorate one of our display boards so had lots of fun creating an amazing paper chain octopus, colourful fish, decorative buckets and spades and some rather delicious looking ice lollies. We had beach themed activities specifically designed to help with our fine motor skills. Carefully using pipettes to decorate our ice creams and also creating summer potions. When we made our play dough together we added some sand to give it a different texture and then used beach shells and shell themed glass pebbles to make imprints. It’s so lovely to hear the children talking about their experiences with their families but also using rich descriptive language to talk about what they are making and exploring in playgroup. We hope you enjoy looking at and hearing about what we got up to during our summer exploration this week.

Week beginning 9th June 2025Oral health week/ keeping Ourselves healthyThis week we have spent time thinking about oral ...
16/08/2025

Week beginning 9th June 2025

Oral health week/ keeping Ourselves healthy

This week we have spent time thinking about oral health and keeping ourselves healthy. We looked at lots of teeth cleaning activities and what were good choices for keeping our teeth protected and cavity free. We made some tooth friendly snack recipes and explored good brushing techniques.

We incorporated two of our favourite stories in our planning firstly ‘Alan’s big scary teeth’ a book about a scary crocodile who has some rather surprising teeth and also ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar which helped us to think about which foods we could each more of and which we should try to eat less of.

We also looked at good hand washing practices and thought about why it was so important to ensure we wash our hands properly.

The children were all given a special teeth cleaning pack to take home which included toothpaste, a toothbrush and a teeth cleaning sticker chart to help remind them to clean their teeth at least twice a day.

Address

The Playhouse, High Street
Waterbeach
CB259JU

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 3pm
Tuesday 9am - 3pm
Wednesday 9am - 3pm
Thursday 9am - 3pm
Friday 9am - 3pm

Telephone

+441223440769

Website

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