Reception – Art and Design: Printing
This week in Reception, we’ve been reading Winnie the Witch! The children loved exploring Winnie’s magical world and created their own potions bubbling away in cauldrons. Using finger dabbers, they carefully printed and mixed colours to bring their potions to life. It was a brilliant way to develop fine motor skills while having lots of creative fun.
Nursery - Art - Literacy - Finger Painting
During our Art and Literacy lesson, the children explored autumnal coloured paints and learned a new technique using their fingers as their painting tool. The task focused on refined movements to develop fine motor control. The children were taught how to carefully dab one finger into the paint and then press it onto their paper, successfully creating a controlled dot or fingerprint. They worked with autumnal images that had designated white spaces, requiring them to select a colour and deliberately fill in the void using this specific finger-painting technique. While it was initially tempting for some to use their whole hand and "go wild" with the paint, the children did a brilliant job practicing this new, refined skill, demonstrating excellent self-regulation and control to create beautiful, textured autumnal pictures.
Reception- Computing- Skeleton Drawing using Purple Mash Programme
The children have used the purple mash programme to create a skeleton on the interactive board. The children selected the colours and tools they needed to make their own skeleton using language that we have been learning throughout the week. The children concentrated on the small features of their skeleton and showed great control with their fine motor movements. Some children created themselves and others created an animal.
Nursery - Geography - Properties Of Natural Materials
Nursery class have been exploring the properties of foraged natural materials—pinecones and conkers. The activity began with practicing anticipation skills using a clear "Ready, Steady, Go!" cue to release the objects down the pipes. The children quickly discovered a key difference, the conkers rolled down the entire length of the pipe, but the pinecones stopped short and got 'stuck'. This led to a discussion about the physical characteristics of the materials. The children were prompted to feel each item, noting that the conker was smooth, while the pinecone was spikey, which stopped it from rolling. The experimentation then moved to exploring cause and effect by adjusting the slope of the drainpipes. The children used blocks to make the pipes higher or lower, observing how the incline affected the speed of the rolling objects. Then they raced the two materials, further working on their understanding of how a material's shape and texture influence its movement. This was a rich, hands-on lesson about the physical world around them.
Pre-School- PSHE- Personal Hygiene- Toothbrushing
Get ready to rock and brush! Taking care of our smiles is one of the coolest parts of our day here at pre-school. Each of our little learners gets to be totally independent—they have their own brush and get to squeeze the toothpaste onto it all by themselves! Then, it's time for the two minute brush! The children pick a favourite song, and they sing and scrub until the music stops. Once they're done, they independently wash their brush and tuck it safely back into its carrier. This super fun routine turns good personal hygiene into an exciting, empowering habit!
Pre-School-Outdoor Provision-Autumn Fun
???? Autumn is officially in the air—and in our classroom! ???? We're diving into the Natural World by becoming little nature detectives. From watching the leaves turn a brilliant gold to spotting squirrels prepping for winter, our children are observing and describing all the amazing seasonal changes around us. What we're exploring: • ???? Nature Detective Work: Describing why the leaves feel 'crunchy' and look 'rusty.' • ???? Getting Moving: Practicing new Gross Motor skills like swirling like a dancing leaf or stomping through imaginary leaf piles! • ????️ New Words: Adding exciting words like deciduous, acorn, and conker to our vocabulary.
Nursery - Computing - Decorating Birthday Cakes
This computing lesson introduced basic digital literacy skills by having the children decorate a birthday cake on Purple Mash. The children successfully used simple controls for digital mark-making, developing foundational coordination on-screen. This activity was also used to encourage communication, as we discussed their chosen toppings and their likes and dislikes. A number of children demonstrated early navigational skills by learning to scroll through the menus and select different decorative elements for their cakes. They did a brilliant job of translating their ideas into digital designs, reinforcing their understanding of basic input.
Nursery - Art - Pinecone Painting
The children explored a new and exciting technique involving pinecones and paint to create abstract autumnal artwork. They began by adding blobs of autumnal colours—brown, red, and yellow—into a flat tray. Next, they placed several pinecones into the paint. Using their gross motor skills, the children were encouraged to wiggle, tip, and shake the trays, which made the pinecones roll through the paint. As the pinecones moved, they left interesting trails and marks on the paper, creating unique patterns. A fantastic extension to this activity was the discovery of a new colour! Some children noticed the red and yellow paints mixing together to create orange.
Reception- PSHE- My Emotions
In our PSHE lesson we have been learning all about ourselves and our emotions. We listened to the story of the Colour Monster and linked the colours to how we would be feeling. We discussed as a group that if we felt sad, happy, angry or excited what that might look like on our face, body and what might have caused that feeling. We then talked about if we felt this way what we could do or find to help us feel better or share our experience with someone. The colour designed their own colour monster and used the jigsaw puzzles to piece together how someone was feeling.
Reception - Art and Design - Creating Skeletons
This week in Reception, we’ve been busy developing our cutting skills as we created our own skeletons inspired by Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Using scissors carefully takes lots of practice, so we’ve been focusing on holding them correctly, turning the paper as we cut, and following the lines with control. The children showed great concentration and perseverance — and had lots of fun piecing together their bony creations afterwards! It’s been lovely to see their confidence growing, both with their fine motor skills and their creative ideas. Our classroom display is now full of smiling skeletons — just like the ones in the story!
Reception - Science - Exploring Skeletons!
In Reception, we’ve been exploring skeletons as part of our learning linked to Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The children were fascinated by real X-rays and loved discovering what our bones look like inside our bodies. We worked together to draw around each other on large paper, then named and labelled the different bones — from our skulls and ribs to our arms and legs! This hands-on learning helped the children make links between the story and their own bodies, while developing their understanding of the world (EYFS science). It’s been a brilliant mix of curiosity, creativity and teamwork — and we’ve learned that there really are skeletons inside everyone!
Nursery - P.E - Balancing Balloons
During our PE lesson, the children worked on developing their hand-eye coordination and perseverance through a fun balancing challenge. They each selected a giant spoon and used it to balance a balloon. This required great care and focused movement, as the balloons easily fell off. This activity was a huge success, and the children continued to explore the balloons in their independent learning, practicing new skills like throwing and catching with a partner, tapping the balloons in the air, and maneuvering them across the floor with their spoons.
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