Preschool

Welcome to Little Oaks Preschool

Autumn 1
 It has been lovely to welcome all the children both new and old into our preschool over the last few weeks. We have enjoyed getting to know each other and the children have settled well into our routines. We have now started our half term topic ‘All about Me’ and the following information will explain what we will be learning and how you can support your child at home.

We will be spending more time getting to know the children and building positive relationships which will enable them to feel safe and secure at preschool. Children will think about both their own, and their friends feelings and how we can look after and help each other. We will also spend time talking about our families and the people who are special to us. During this half term the children will also learn about personal care including using the toilet and washing our hands. Finally, we will be looking at our five senses.

We will be reading stories linked to our learning including 'The Colour Monster' (Anna Llenas), 'Not Now Bernard' (David McKee), 'Part of the Party' (Twinkl), 'Pantosaurus' (NSPCC) and 'Does a Bear Poo in the Woods?' (Jonny Leighton). You can view someone reading most of the books on YouTube.

How you can support your child at home:

• Talk to your child about preschool and what they have enjoyed. Each week we will put a picture of our book of the week on the whiteboard, this will give you a starting point for your conversation. Also keep an eye on Tapestry for photos and information.
• Help them to become more independent and encourage them to try to do things for themselves.
• Build their fine motor skills by threading Cheerios onto spaghetti, pushing pipe cleaners through small holes in cardboard tubes and squeezing playdough.
• Talk about your family, who they are and why are they special to you.
• Sit together to have a meal. Talk about your day, taking it in turns to talk and listen to each other.

Each Wednesday the children will have the opportunity to choose a book from the classroom library to take home and read with you. Can you please return the book on the following Wednesday so your child can choose a new one. If your child does not attend on Wednesday a different day will be allocated and you will be notified separately.

The children will be spending a lot of time outside and we would appreciate it if you could provide a pair of wellington boots that can be left in preschool and used for forest school, gardening club and outside play in wet conditions. Please ensure the boots are clearly labelled.

Butterfly children who attend on Friday mornings will also be having a PE session in the school hall. The children will need to remove their shoes and socks for the lesson, they are welcome to be barefoot or they can wear a pair of canvas black pumps that are designed for PE - trainers cannot be worn. Please make sure that your child's pumps are named.

To help us talk about our families can you please upload a photo of your family on to Tapestry, we will use it during our discussions and then frame it and put it in the home corner.

This is a snapshot into all the exciting things we will be doing this half term. We will be keeping you updated on Tapestry and via the school website. We would like to remind you that at Little Oaks we have an open-door policy, if you have any queries or concerns or would like more information please do not hesitate to talk to a member of the team.

Autumn 2

It was lovely to welcome all the children back to preschool after the half term break, everyone settled back into our routines quickly and happily.  Our first week was full of lights and celebrations as we learnt about Bonfire Night and Diwali.  The children enjoyed making Diva lights and firework pictures. 

We then talked about where we live and some of the landmarks of Lapworth.  We looked at the canal and all the boats and this led us to think about floating and sinking.  The children really enjoyed experimenting with different objects and predicting which would float and which would sink.  Next we looked at the 3 Little Pigs and what they used to build their houses, we reproduced the houses and talked about how the Big Bad Wolf was able to blow 2 of them down.

In maths we have been learning all about the numbers 1 and 2, we have looked at how we represent them as a digit as well as subitizing and counting them.  We also looked at AB patterns and the children really enjoyed making their own patterns using colours, fruit and even themselves!

One of the many highlights of this half term was making Christmas cards, then walking to the post box to post them.  We talked about the post person who would collect them and then how they would be sorted and delivered to our address. 

Thank you to all of you who came to watch our Nativity performance.  We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.  The children were amazing and we were so proud of them.

We are looking forward to welcoming all the children back after Christmas and are especially excited this year as the Butterfly group will be moving into a new classroom in the main school building.

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Forest School - Thursday mornings

We have been very lucky with the weather on Thursdays and have enjoyed some sunny mornings at Forest School. The children work so well together at Forest School playing games, helping each other to carry things and even finding worms for each other! We have been visited each week by a robin and all of the children have loved seeing him. We have created a bird watching area and the children keep an eye out for him with the binoculars. The children have sprinkled bird food around the forest for him and all his friends.

January 2024

As part of our topic "Space" the children spent a lovely afternoon making junk model space rockets with their home grown ups.

Happy Chinese New Year

February 2024

The Butterfly and Caterpillar groups have been learning all about Lunar New Year.  On Friday we had a day of celebration, taking part in a parade and having a party.  The children enjoyed tasting Chinese food, making Chinese crafts, playing party games and decorating cakes.