On our last day of school, we visited Mersea Beach to paddle, make sand castles and picnic with friends and family. It was a lovely end to the term – and the sun shone all day!
When we return on 6th September, our sound of the week will be ‘s’ and our first theme for the term will be Ladybirds Pre-school values. Date for your diary: 17th September – AGM – all welcome. Enjoy the rest of the summer
This term always zooms past! We hope all the Daddies liked their cards and gifts for Father’s Day – the children worked really hard on them.
This term has definitely been child led, with many requests to have hairdressers, castles, dinosaurs, dolls and horses out in roleplay/small world areas.
Our “themes” of Birds and Construction have linked our learning indoors and our Forest School sessions, and we’ve built dens, volcanoes and lots of nests!
Summer Term is when we really focus on getting our School Leavers prepared so we place a lot of emphasis on listening during registration, taking turns, offering a variety of malleable activities to strengthen finger muscles and independent learning.
But it wasn’t all hard work…….!
We’ve spent lots of time under shade in the sandpit, at the “hairdressers”, or outside creating fantastic water chutes down which boats, sticks and even cars have travelled into the rock pools at the bottom. And it’s not over yet! Our final week will be all about the Seaside, finishing with a trip to Mersea on 23rd July. Photos to follow…..!
Our open morning is next Friday, July 6th, from 10.00am – 11.30am. It’s a great opportunity for anyone looking at choosing a pre-school to come and see our setting, try out our toys and meet the staff! Please share with anyone who might be interested.
Our Pub Quiz is coming up in a few weeks on July 7th but there’s still time to get your smartest team together! Contact Sam on 07846 604177 to book a table. Hope to see you there!
Apologies for the delay to this post, Easter seems a long time ago but in March the children from Ladybirds enjoyed a cold but sunny Easter Egg hunt in Royston Woods
We searched, found, compared and counted the eggs – we’ll never know what happened to the extra pink egg that disappeared though…..!
Spring Term at Ladybirds started with just that – our Spring theme! We planted cress and sunflower seeds and talked about Healthy Eating using the Hungry Caterpillar story.
Following on from healthy eating, we visited Hollow Trees Farm on 3rd May and had a wonderful time feeding the animals, helping to plant crops, harvesting rhubarb and planting some beetroot seeds for the children to take home. And of course racing around (and around and around!) in Pogal’s Pit on the slides, climbing frames and ropes.
We had lots of learning based on our themes of Dinosaurs and the story Giraffes Can’t Dance…..(they can at Ladybirds when you make them into a puppet!)……
…..and our malleable activities have gone ‘large’, with the children helping to transfer a ton of sand to our sandpit! Together with our topsoil corner, our digging area is complete and the children love to build, dig and discover in them.
Inside, lots of “school readiness” preparation is taking place: literacy worksheets to identify sounds, fine motor malleable activities and, of course, practising being the teacher!
Turn-taking and imaginative games are always encouraged and supported…….
as are “grown-up” games – very important!!
Our Forest School sessions this term have been fun – the children are getting familiar with the woods now and their confidence is growing as they balance, paint, swing and simply play in the woods.
Our themes for our Forest School sessions over the next few weeks are Birds, Dinosaurs and Construction, when we will help to rebuild the natural den in the woods (“it’s a house”, “it’s a Dinosaur Den”, “it’s my hide”)
Over the next few weeks we’ll be learning about birds, water, holidays and preparing for a special day on 17th June……..
Dates for your diaries: we have an Open Morning on 6th July from 10am when you can stay and play with your child and find out more about what goes on at Ladybirds Pre-school. If possible, please call Sam Edwards, our Pre-school Leader, on 07846 604177 to let us know you are coming, or if you would like more information.
Just a reminder: our last day before half-term is 25th May and we return to Ladybirds on Thursday 7th June (there is a PD Day on Monday 4th June). Enjoy the sunny weather!
We are going to be having a raffle at our Blue Owl Fundraising Event on Friday night. If you aren’t coming along but would like the chance to win some lovely prizes then raffle tickets can be bought from Ladybirds on Thursday and Friday this week, for £1 a strip. Prizes include jewellery, chocolates and wine.
Bring your own wine and nibbles, have a drink and a chat while you paint, and get some great gifts created in time for Easter! We will bring a selection of Blue Owl pottery items you can choose to paint, or let Josie (07792 334443) know in advance if there is something in particular you’d like us to bring. Feel free to bring along a friend or two; the more the merrier! Please let Ladybirds have your payment by 2nd March.
Thursday 1st March is World Book Day. The children are welcome to wear a book character costume and/or bring in a favourite reading book on Friday 2nd March. We are at Royston Woods Thursday morning but they could bring something to change into in the afternoon if they like.
It is not compulsory though and we have lots of dressing up costumes at Ladybirds.
Our sound of the week will be ‘a’ – I wonder who will remember the “ants on your arm” song……? Have a lovely weekend.
We welcomed the children back to Ladybirds in January and got started straight in with our theme of Winter – arctic animals in snow (well, shaving foam), penguin craft and maths activities.
Our book theme for the term was an old favourite “Going on Bear Hunt” so we did……in the garden…..
at the woods…….
and…at the craft table – where we made them in their caves!!
We also found the characters which were hiding in the shredded paper and made little puppets to use when Donna read the story.
We’ve focused on malleable activities this term, important for developing fine motor skills and strengthening finger muscles:
as well as spending lots of time in the kitchen roleplay area and with small world characters creating fantastic imaginative games with friends.
We had a visit from our dental nurse Amy again who talked about healthy snacks to eat – and taught us a few songs to remind us the best technique for cleaning our teeth!
We’ve had more frosty fun in our Forest School sessions using our new tent and swing – and even toasted marshmallows on the fire on our final session of the half term.
We’re back on Thursday 22nd February when our sound of the week is “s”.
Theme
Chinese New Year: Year of the Dog
Literacy
Sound of the week is ‘s’.
Please help your child find an object beginning with this sound to bring in.
Builders Tray/Malleable area
Noodles & chopsticks/forks & tongs
Maths Area
Patterns/fine motor skills: Pegs & boards
Craft
Chinese lantern and Dragon
Forest School
There is no Forest School this week.
