Minster Lovell Playgroup

13/07/2026

🎉🏅THANK YOU to everyone who joined us on our Sponsored Walk this morning! We loved seeing you all and hope you all had as much fun as the children did. It was a pleasure to walk with the children to the church and back. They behaved beautifully with lots of happy chatter. And they loved having their very own medal ceremony 🫶🏻
We marked the end of the school year with a singalong to “You’ve got a friend in me” and each leaver got a certificate, handshake and a special book. We shall miss them!
The children had ice lollies and bubble wands, a special interactive story together on the grass as well as a visit from Andy, who always very generously gives up his time to model balloons for the children. Thank you, Andy.
Also a big thank you to the Sports and Social Club for the use of the cricket Pavillion today as well as Chelsey on our Committee who helped to organise the event.
What a lovely community we are.
Thank you for helping to raise funds for Playgroup in such a fun way.
Please could we have all Sponsorship money in by the end of the week.
Thank you.

10/07/2026

🏅We are very excited for our annual Sponsored Walk on Monday!
Staff will be ready to greet children and carers at 9.30am in Old Minster Lovell at the cricket pavillion on the Wash Meadow playing field by the river.
We will have a walk to the church and the ruins and then head back for a picnic on Wash Meadow.
This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our leavers as they head to school in September and for all the children and caregivers to celebrate the final week of a wonderful pre school year.
We’re hoping for a visit from our favourite balloon man and that the children will be in fine voice for our song!
Please can we have all Sponsorship money in by Thursday. Thank you in advance for supporting us. It is very much appreciated.
End of term is Friday 17 th July

10/07/2026

Weekly Round Up ☀️
This week the children have been enjoying
A visit from Kezia to read them their favourite story “When mum turned into a monster”
Lots of outdoor water play. They have been washing our doll’s clothes and pe***ng them out to dry in the sunshine.
Making potions with lavender and mint from our garden.
Looking at our hollyhocks that are flowering and finding some little strawberries that are growing in our raised beds.
Their last school visit with Miss.Osbourne, their new teacher. In the words of one of our leavers “ It was amazing!”
The staff have spent the last few weeks preparing reports and sharing information with the primary schools where the children are moving on to. It has been a privilege to see the progress of each of their key children over the last two years.
Meeting our September children for visits with lots of welcoming smiles.
Using paint to make creations on big sheets of paper.
Asking Alexa to play songs and watching each other sing “Wind the bobbin up”and act out “Sleeping bunnies”with no teacher input. It was lovely to watch their enthusiasm and joy and their sing along to “Hokey Cokey”

Learning Outcome ❤️
The children are learning to develop manipulation and control.
And explore different materials and toys.
Physical Development

03/07/2026

Weekly update 👋🏻
Big news 🦋
We set our butterflies free and wished them a happy life. The children have really enjoyed watching them through each stage of their lifecycle. This is a lovely activity which has promoted a lot of awe and wonder in our classroom.
Other news this week includes
🐟The children have been having fun exploring some new sensory materials with a sea life theme.
💦There’s been lots of water play outside as well as creations in our mud kitchen, including a chocolate cake concoction with mint from our garden. The children loved transferring the water using pipettes, sponges and dishes.
✨A beautiful dragonfly which Mrs. Wright brought in to show the children. It was a perfect specimen and promoted lots of discussions.
💯Another successful school visit and visits from our September starters. Time is moving on and we are so pleased about how well the children have enjoyed their big school visits.
🙌🏻Lately, we’ve been having some wonderful discussions about the similarities and differences between ourselves.
🎶Rehearsals of our special end of year song. (Clue… Buzz and Woody) It’s our favourite class song and sums up how we feel about each other at Playgroup and our friendships. Feel free to practice with your child at home. Perhaps, they can ask Alexa to play it.
🧺Lunch at the Play park and lots of fun exploring the equipment. We are very proud of the children’s behaviour when we are out and about.
Breaking news 🎉
Mrs Hill kindly dropped in some fun craft activities for the children to do to enter the Flower and Produce show in August. Please, please support this local event. You can return your entries to Playgroup or bring them on the morning of the show. All details in your child’s book bag.
This is a lovely event to support and great fun to be part of.
We look forward to seeing the children’s entries and you there on the day. It will be lots of fun and there’s cake too!

Learning Outcome
Children are learning to feel safe, secure and confident about moving to school, showing increasing independence and resilience
PSED

26/06/2026

Weekly Round up ☀️🌞🕶️
This week the children have loved
💦🔫💧Lots of water play activities to keep them cool! We’ve had great fun filling syringes with water and cooling each other down including the teachers. Thankfully, we have kept the children lovely and cool with our air conditioned building.
🦋Watching our caterpillars hatch into butterflies! It has sparked a lot of awe and wonder in our classroom. The children have listened to butterfly stories and made butterflies in our craft area. We set them free and hope to see them around.
🧩Doing puzzles together. They are getting really good at them! We are seeing their concentration improving and there’s lots of giving each other encouragement and chat while they do them.
🍀Exploring the globe artichokes and using their strong fingers to pull off their leaves.
✍️Doing a group drawing and showcasing their pen skills.
🗺️Hearing about a child’s trip to the Cayman Islands and seeing his wonderful photos. He kindly gifted us a book about the stingrays and we loved reading it together. We all pretended to be stingrays which was great fun.
👇Marking making in our Tuff tray full of shaving foam. A fantastic pre writing activity.
📖Reading a different Julia Donaldson book which a child brought in especially to share with us. We love books!
🇫🇷Making a special card for someone who is returning back to her home in France. We shall miss seeing her and wish her a safe journey.
🚕Playing with some great playmobil vehicles that have been gifted to us.
🙏We are always very grateful for any donated items.

Learning outcome 🤓
Children are learning to “Use talk to help work out problems and organise thinking and activities and to explain how things work and why they might happen”

18/06/2026

Exciting news! 🐛🐛🐛🐛
Our caterpillars have grown in size and are busy making a chrysalis.
Did you know that the Painted Lady caterpillar hangs upside down in a “J” shape before shedding its skin and hardening into its chrysalis. They wiggle and are highly active right after the chrysalis forms and is still hardening.
The children have been doing some great wiggling inside their pretend chrysalides!
Did you know that butterflies makes a chrysalis while moths make a cocoon. We love that fact!

18/06/2026

Welcome to our weekly round up ✨
This week, some of the older children had their first visit to the Reception classroom in St Kenelm’s School. They had a lovely time exploring the classroom and meeting their new teacher, Miss. Osborne. Thank you for making us feel so welcome. They behaved beautifully and made Mrs. Wright feel very proud of them.
We have also been continuing to welcome children and parents for induction visits before they start Playgroup in September. We pride ourselves on making Playgroup community a welcoming place.
Some of the children made Worry dolls and read a poem about them. They needed really good fine motor skills to make them as they are intricate and require excellent concentration. It is a joy to see the children’s skills developing week by week.
We have enjoyed being outside this week and some of the group even ventured on the big playground with our ride on vehicles, bubbles and balls.
The children have also been busy decorating paper figures for a special person in their life.
We have also heard some great news from the children this week. One child shared photos of her pony and a gymkhana event. And another told us about her trip to London. We also saw photos of a swallows nest that had hatched in a child’s out house. How exciting! Thank you to those parents who continue to write in their child’s communication book. It’s a great talking point and also very helpful to us.
Please note that you should have received an email about our up coming Sponsored Walk. Please let Mrs. Wright know if you haven’t received it.
Children are bringing home Sponsorship forms this week and also updated suncream permission slips. Please fill in and return with a bottle of suncream for us to keep in Playgroup. And please remember hats and water bottles every day.
Thank you.

“A positive transition into reception helps children feel safe, confident and ready to learn”
Government guidance

11/06/2026

We have been loving this steps for school
Rap with the children 🎉

Starting school is a big step for children and parents alike. 🎒🍏 If you’re wondering how to help your child feel prepared, the good news is that you’re pro...

11/06/2026

Weekly Round up 🐛
This week we have some very exciting news in Playgroup. We have some caterpillars that we are hatching into butterflies in our classroom!
We are taking extra special care of them and making sure that they are very well looked after.
The children have been learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly and acting out The Very Hungry Caterpillar story. They’ve been introduced to our giant cuddly caterpillar who we have called Colin. They worked together to carry him around the classroom and fed him the same food that The Very Hungry Caterpillar ate.
Watch this space to see how our caterpillars develop!
Other exciting things happening include..
A visit to school for our September starters. More visits are planned over the coming weeks and we have been reading our collection of starting school books. It’s a very exciting time for the children and we are very keen to help make their transition as smooth as possible to school. We have also been enjoying a special Starting School rap on our Smart Board. We reminded ourselves that our July leavers are our Bears and our younger children our cubs.
We are also looking forward to welcoming our September starters for their induction visits over the next few weeks. It’s always lovely to see how welcoming the children are to our visitors.
We’ve loved reading together a new book called “Me and other bunnies” by Mo Willems. The children have been learning the words and confidently repeating them aloud. They drew pictures of themselves on a large piece of paper and lay on their tummies to draw. These are all vital experiences to develop core strength for writing skills. A lot of our activities help to develop pencil grip and control. Even our peg board! It’s a pleasure to see their pencil skills developing because of all this ground work.
The children also enjoyed being on the big Playground chasing bubbles and some indoor meditation.
Every week, we make our own play dough and this gives the children the opportunity to work as a group and practice their fine motor skills.
Learning Outcome
The children are learning to understand the key features of the lifecycle of an animal and begin to understand the need to respect and care for all living things.
Understanding the World

10/06/2026

We are SO delighted to tell you that our coffee morning was a great success! We raised nearly £750 🎉
We would like to say a big THANK YOU to those of you who…
🧸Donated raffle prizes and soft toys for our Tombola.
🧁Bought in both home made and shop bought cakes.
💪🏻Helped us on the day- you were amazing!
🙏🏻Came along to support us and helped us set up and tidy up at the end
💶Supported us by buying cakes and raffle tickets.
💝It was so lovely to see so many parents, grandparents, children and carers, committee members and staff supporting us as well as people from our community.
🙌🏻Also a very special shout out to Mandy for her incredible Face Painting skills and Andy for making balloon animals for the children.
You are all so appreciated.