Welcome back everyone to a new preschool year. It’s been lovely to welcome some of you back and to meet lots of new faces.
This month, focus has been around supporting our boys and girls with settling back into the routine, and helping our new children learn about the preschool day, making relationships with staff and other children and exploring the setting.
The children have been showing us some new interests this year already. Including crafting – we’re always happy to take any old boxes you don’t want especially big ones, so many learning opportunities can come from a big box!!
The children have loved watching the birds in the garden, we made some bird feeders to attract more for us to watch from the windows. We even had a surprise visit from 4 fluffy, yellow chicks. The children took turns to hold them and did really well at listening to our instructions to be very quiet and careful so not to scare them. We’ve been on lots of bug hunts, using magnifying glasses to spot the bugs hiding under our logs.
Alongside learning routines and boundaries, this month the children have been practising balance. Using tubes and paper plates with balls balanced on top, this will help them when managing plates at snack time.
We all had great fun jumping in muddy puddles on a rainy day!!
Our book of the term is “dear zoo.”
We hope you all are feeling happy and settled, ready for the year, we can’t wait for all the fun learning we are going to have!!
We’re coming towards the end of the summer term, it’s already July and we can’t figure out where may and June went!!
It’s been busy as usual at preschool, with preparations well under way for our older children to begin their transition to big school. We’ve been supporting the children by setting up activities that encourage them to practise skills already learned during their time with us. We’ve introduced a school role play, have been continuing to explore emotions, reading some school related books, practising dressing and undressing with school uniforms and having many conversations around “big school”, giving the children the opportunity to express any thoughts or questions they may have.
Alongside this we’ve been spending lots of time in the garden with various activities. On a particularly sunny day we enjoyed snack outside with a story and then some yoga. The children relished in the opportunity for some outdoor water play, while the preschool “babies” had a lovely bubbly bath!! The children have shown a keen interest in floor painting, experimenting with shadows and drawing around our bodies while laying on the ground.
Some of the traditions we have celebrated this month include…
Healthy eating week, Father’s Day, world music day, international dance day.
This term we have been learning about life cycles, celebrating World bee week and butterfly awareness day. We’ve also been exploring the life cycle of a frog.
Have you seen our caterpillars? We’ve watched them grow and now they are in their cocoons waiting to emerge as beautiful butterflies. When they do we will release them into the garden.
We have lots of events coming up so keep an eye on our Facebook page and in your emails.
The children came back after a lovely week off for Easter, full of exciting stories and chocolate eggs, ready to begin a new term.
We started the term with some great activities including, a new painting experience using different kind of brushes to make blossom on a tree, colour mixing while making fairy potions, making our own frog head bands and acting out 5 little speckled frogs.
Our book of the term is “Jack and the beanstalk.” The children helped in making a giant beanstalk to put up on our door. We then used leaves to mark how tall we all are against the beanstalk.
We had a go at scooping and pouring, using mud and plant pots. Soon we will plant some vegetables and flowers in our special garden.
Towards the end of April we celebrated international day of dance. We tried out some different types of dance and made ribbons to wave in the wind.
The most exciting part of April was the unveiling of our amazing new garden area. A special boat to climb in, sensory path, new shed and table and chairs. The children have loved exploring and playing. A big thankyou to Kier who created this masterpiece as part of their charity work.
On Wednesday 24 April, St Helen’s Pre-School in Costessey, held a grand opening for their new and improved outdoor area. The space was designed by the Pre-School staff and their vision was then transformed by a fabulous team from KIER – amazingly they completed the project FREE as part of their charitable work.
St Helen’s Pre-School has been at the heart of the Costessey community since 1966. St Helen’s relocated to Beaumont Road in 2019 and unfortunately, due to COVID and financial constraints, they had been unable to upgrade and improve their outdoor learning environment to ensure it too reflected the exceptional quality of the Pre-School.
During one momentous week in March, a team from KIER led by Glen French, and fuelled by tea and biscuits, worked their magic! Their transformation was truly amazing!
They cleared away an unkempt area of shrubbery, installed a large wooden boat and constructed a multi-sensory path, creating St Helen’s very own ‘Norfolk Broads’ – capturing local culture for all children to experience. In addition, KIER also crafted up-cycled flower posts to border their large outdoor space.
The staff and Committee at St Helen’s Pre-School can’t thank Glenn and his team enough – they had a dream for their children and KIER absolutely made it come true! This has made an unbelievable difference to the quality of their outdoor environment for the children of Costessey.
Photo with our children, families, staff, Committee and our local councillors
Already we’ve reached April and the end of the term, as we’ve missed a couple of blogs get ready for a big one….
This term we’ve celebrated lots of themes and traditions including… National story telling week where we welcomed many special visitors in to read to us, some coming in their uniforms and talking about the work they do! Lunar new year, with a tasting session, dancing, writing Chinese numbers and more! Pancake day, with of course pancakes for snack, playdough and counting activities! Mother’s Day, St David’s day, and St Patrick’s day.
Something new this year we tried out some activities “just for fun” (even though we do this all the time anyway) it is so important to look after your wellbeing and just have fun. We jumped in muddy puddles, grew sea dragons, painted biscuits, sang into microphones, played with a SPACESHIP, practised hammer and nails, had a spa day and more!! The children have talked about these activities ever since, we’ve revisited some, enhancing them by adding resources relating to our planning and next steps. So much learning is done even through these fun activities, more importantly we experienced sheer joy, including staff.
A MASSIVE theme this term has been “the show” lots of conversation about the cinema, theatre shows, circus etc. We created our own stage with lights, and even bought a karaoke machine. The children could take turns to put on a show for their friends either a dance, song or using puppets. This is a great opportunity to build on confidence and social skills, also sharing kindness to others by supporting them during their turn.
We’ve been practising using our motor skills this term, with obstacle courses, playdough disco, building using the construction resources, balance during music and movement and yoga sessions and more.
Also this term we enjoyed our first “St Helens outing” by going to the cinema to watch “The snail and the whale.” We all really enjoyed this and we’ve had many conversations since. Having the cinema to ourselves was a great opportunity for those who have never experienced a cinema before.
As you already know each morning we have a sensory circuit, which helps the children regulate and organise their senses so they are ready for their day. We have now introduced attention autism into our daily routine. Attention autism works in stages, teaching children how to listen to a leading adult, shift focus, share and wait their turn, work in a group and build on focussing skills slowly over time. If you would like to know more please speak to us.
Most exciting announcement of all…. You may have noticed some work being carried out on our garden. We are so lucky to have been granted a garden upgrade from Kier with a Norfolk broads theme. We can reveal it is finished and will be ready for us to enjoy during the summer term.
That’s all for this term… we hope you enjoy our blogs, reading about all the wonderful things your children have experienced and achieved.
Wishing you all an amazing Easter and a relaxing week off.
When we return in April it will be our SUMMER TERM!!! We can’t wait to get out in our new beautiful garden.
Time for the last blog of 2023 and what a fantastic month!!
Christmas activities were in full force this month starting with the most important job of all… getting our letters in to Santa. The children wrote their letters and in small groups, the older children walked down to the post box to post them. The younger children posted theirs in our very own makeshift postbox sent from the North Pole!!!
“Donna” The elf arrived (name chosen by the children) and blessed us with her mischievous tricks… decorating the toilets with toilet paper, drawing on the ladies faces, throwing snowballs at the windows and many more!!
We explored a frosty morning in the garden, looking at frozen cobwebs and making marks in the frost on the ground.
SANTA CAME!! What a special treat, he joined in with some songs from our Christmas singing box and gave out presents… we even heard the reindeer landing on the roof.
It was wonderful to welcome so many of you to our stay and play sessions, we hope you enjoyed the Christmas themed activities and the special treat at the end 🌨️
Some of our activities this month included…. building and following patterns using bricks, present wrapping, painting and decorating a Christmas tree and snow man made from boxes, a snowball game, woodwork, Christmas themed playdough, we made three little pig houses, and much much more!!!
We finished the month with biscuit decorating and we all got to pull a cracker with our friends!!
We kicked off November with a BANG, celebrating bonfire night, creating our own firework masterpieces.
The lantern ghosts were still around from Halloween and even stayed for a candle-lit lunch!!
One of the ladies recently went on a nutrition course so we’ve been updating our snack menu with some new tastes, this month we’ve tried lots of yummy foods, including avocado and made our own smoothies with frozen fruit and natural yoghurt.
Nursery rhyme week was a real hit with many activities based on a few favourites… “the wheels on the bus, head shoulders knees and toes, row row row your boat and jack and Jill.”
Lots of indoor physical play due to the bad weather, one day we had a giant obstacle course from the yellow room all the way to the lunch room!!
Preparations have begun for a festive December. Were ready to write our letters to Santa and will be posting them to the NORTH POLE!! We hope you can make our stay and play sessions these are always great fun and we love to invite our families in to play!!
We’re also very excited for the return of the elf!!! Don’t forget we finish on Friday the 23rd December.
The weeks are flying by… especially when you are having as much fun as we are!!
This month the children have still been enjoying building, using various construction. This coincided lovely with our book theme of “the three little pigs”. Using crafts we made houses, the children chose to use straw, sticks, or bricks. Some children took this further and used resources from the construction areas inside and outside. They then acted out the story.
Lots and lots of group games, small group work and team work activities. This helps the children when making relationships with their peers also teaches them to turn take.
One very windy day we took the parachute into the garden and watched it blowing in the wind as we shook it. Then some children (and ladies) sat underneath for a story.
We embraced Halloween with so many learning opportunities. We created our own pumpkin patch in the garden used the wheelbarrows to collect them and our lovely wooden serving hatch was the shop to buy them from.
We hammered nails into some pumpkins, working our fine motor skills. Taking extra care to listen to the rules of woodwork and always wear goggles! Following on from a child’s interest we then used the pumpkins to make volcanos!! It was so exciting to watch the lava trickle out of the holes!!
Adding cooked spaghetti as worms to the inside of a pumpkin was a big hit. Some children got really stuck in… up to their elbows!! We decorated more pumpkins with glue and stickers. Messy activities are the best!!
On a nature walk around the garden a small group discovered some very interesting spider webs – pictures taken by the children themselves!
What a great time we had splashing in big puddles in the garden! We added powder paint and danced in the rain to music, it was the best day! Of course despite the wet suits we did get quite wet, so, after a quick change of clothes we got cosy under blankets and had a story – perfect for a rainy day… next time – hot chocolates all round 😉
Did you like our Halloween snack?? Spooky ghost bananas, witches cheesy broomsticks and pumpkin oranges.
Hello and welcome back to preschool everybody!!! We hope you had a fabulous summer!
It’s a new term, and we couldn’t wait to welcome you all back and to meet the new families joining us this year.
As usual schools are back and the sun decides to come out to play…!! What a great opportunity for some water play!! With spray bottles and a tuff tray filled with water for paddling, tipping and pouring we were soon cooled off and enjoying being outside in the fresh air.
Using our new bricks and work station in the garden the children have been building walls and houses (hopefully the big bad wolf wont blow them down!! – can you guess what our book is this term???) Inside, the magnetic bricks have become a firm favourite with some children requesting to have them out each day. It takes a real team effort and lots of patience to build those tall towers.
Towards the end of the month we welcomed harvest into some of our activities. We have been using vegetables for paint printing and had a look at some real vegetables set out in the tuff tray. First we watched a video explaining harvest, then we got to touch and smell some of the vegetables. Next month we will be tasting some during snack time.
We’ve been exploring our bodies, looking at facial features and their purposes. We had a yoga session working on balance and looking at some different shapes along the way. In the garden we have been climbing over the trim train and building our own obstacle courses using the hoops and balance beams. Lots of great gross motor work.
As always in September we welcome some new children into the setting. So a big hello to you and your families.
We look forward to October with its autumn colours, changing weather, Halloween celebrations and lots of opportunities for learning.
It’s the end of June and we’re fast approaching the end of term and the end of the preschool year.
What an exciting month june has been!! Firstly can we say a big Thankyou to our fantastic emergency services visitors, a local paramedic with an ambulance, a police officer and police car and the firemen with a fire engine. The children were so excited to look around the different vehicles, trying out the equipment and getting to sit inside. We based some activities around our emergency services with a role play police station, doctors surgery, putting out “fires” using spray bottles, and lots of books and colouring sheets.
We also had a visit from a dentist, we got to try on some dentist equipment, gloves, apron and glasses, and brush the teeth of the cheeky monkey puppet. We listened very carefully to how we can keep our teeth clean and healthy, the dentist said we were very clever for answering all the oral health questions correctly.
Our caterpillars have been growing nicely, they have built their cocoons and we are so excited to see how many butterflies emerge.
In support of our older children transitioning to big school, we’ve set out some activities to explore independence. Opening and closing tubs to release the trapped dinosaurs and get in practise for lunchtimes. We made a playdough dinner and used knives and forks to cut it up. In our role play school we’ve been trying on different uniforms and taking turns being the teacher. We had lots of activities based on emotions, giving us language and supporting our understanding of any big emotions we may be feeling especially at a time when there is so much talk of change. We had a look at some graduation gowns and talked about what it means to graduate from preschool.
That brings us to July, and the last section of our summer term.
Here we are at another half term. My doesn’t the time fly when you are having fun!!
We returned after the Easter holidays refreshed and ready to learn.
We started the term by following the children’s lead, allowing them to show us any new skills or interests that may have developed over the holidays. The children are still super keen on building, we placed some huge boxes in the garden and the children used them to create and imagine. Building towers, houses, dens for animals, castles. It was fun to watch the wind blow the boxes over, we needed to change tactics and use our critical thinking to figure out a way of stacking the boxes so they wouldn’t fall down so easily.
We celebrated International dance week by making dancing rings, and exploring different types of dance using props and music. We watched some maypole dancing then decorated our own maypole before propping it up in the grass to dance around.
Then it was time to introduce the “kings coronation.” We added many activities including, afternoon tea for snack, creating our own crowns, stories, even a throne to have a go at being “royal”.
Moving on to our theme of occupations, the children have been roleplaying in St Helens doctors surgery. Using the apparatus to check their patients in, taking turns to be the patient or the doctor and even caring for some of the ladies!
We celebrated international day of families by drawing the people in our families and who lives with us in our homes.
This term we will be been learning about life cycles, starting with “bee week”. We painted bee stones, tasted honey for snack and took part in “the great bumblebee race” where we had to collect nectar and take it back to the hive. We have also begun to plant some veggies in our garden, some sunflowers and after half term we will welcome the caterpillars to the preschool for us to take care of and watch grow into butterflies.
The last half term is a time for transition to primary school for some of our older children. We will provide the children with some fun activities to encourage independence and give them as many skills as possible before they move onto their new schools. If you would like any advice or support during this time please speak to a member of staff.
Wahoo it’s spring!! And we’re ready for it with spring themed activities and preparations underway for our Easter open morning!
Carrying on from World Book Day the children came in wearing their costumes and brought their favourite books to share in our “book nook”. We had various book themed activities, including making a stick man, gingerbread man playdough, and story sacks.
Just when we thought it was time to bust out the summer hats… the heavens opened and coated our garden in soft white snow. So we wrapped up warm and went out to explore!! Some children were definitely not keen on this strange, cold, white stuff (it was the first time some of our children had ever experienced snow)… others loved it.. making snow angels and throwing snowballs at the ladies!
We took advantage of the bad weather with some indoor physical activities. We got out the parachute and the children learned how to listen and follow instructions, making the parachute loud, quiet and listening when to start and stop. Windy weather saw us in the garden with ribbons, making circles and waves. We loved holding them up to see which way the wind was blowing.
A heavy downpour of rain brought lots of wiggly worms onto the concrete. A group of children were keen to ‘save’ the worms and carefully collected them before placing them in one of our flower pots.
The children are really enjoying building of any kind at the moment. We’ve set up lots of activities, giving them the opportunity to use their critical thinking in building using different resources. Large cardboard boxes in the garden, woodwork, building blocks using house templates, and tools and bricks.
A very special visitor popped in to see us towards the end of the month. Kim and her lovely new little baby boy. The children were very excited to see her and the baby.
Thankyou all that came to our Easter Open morning, and to those that bought raffle tickets. It was a great success and we hope you enjoyed our special activities. We raised a fantastic £800 which will be put towards 2 new laptops and an entertainer for the end of year celebration.
We would like to wish you all a “Hoppy Easter”!! Have a great break!
A few exciting celebrations happened this month. We celebrated Valentine’s Day, pancake day, St David’s day, we enjoyed a half term holiday and when we returned we had lots of story based activities to coincide with World Book Day.
We do love our messy play here at St Helens, and this month we were not short of fun opportunities to get messy. Shaving foam, painting with sponges, heart shapes, our hands and fingers, more shaving foam, playdough (valentines themed) and a sensory fruity water tray using fruits we have on our pancakes.
Indoor and outdoor physical activities this month saw us scoring goals into happy and sad themed goals, playing musical statues then when the music stopped the children had to find the correct coloured heart and stand by it. The great pancake race took place during pancake week (like egg and spoon race… but with a pancake… in a frying pan) what fun we have had! We introduced Danny Go Go (you’re welcome parents) to our music and movement sessions! The ice king is now a firm daily favourite, the monkey song coming a close second.
During one of our yoga sessions we practised breathing while feeling our tummies rising up and down. Then we placed teddy’s on our tummy’s and watched them rise up and down as we breathed in and out.
The children have been practising concentration and control, following lines using scissors, or pencils, and colouring sheets. And some children had a turn in the woodwork area, creating their own masterpieces.
We begun our World Book day celebrations early, to ensure all children have a chance to join in the festivities. We set up a cosy corner in the lunch room to share stories the children have brought from home and some story sacks.
Now we look forward to March!! Hoping for lots of lovely warmer weather so we can get outside and enjoy the fresh air. As much as we love the wintery weather… nothing beats the joy that comes from spring.
Keep your eyes peeled for news of our Easter Open morning… coming soon!!
It’s a new year and what a great way to celebrate by welcoming you back to preschool. We hope you enjoyed your Christmas break and are ready for a new year of learning and exploring.
Our book theme for this half term is “we’re going on a bear hunt.” So we’ve set out lots of activities based on the book. For example, bear hunt yoga, a bear hunt around the garden, bear hunt hide and seek, a bear hunt sensory experience. We added a cave to the yellow room.
Chinese new year came along and this year is the year of the rabbit. The children tried some Chinese food at snack time, ate with chopsticks, had a go at Chinese dragon dancing, made some Chinese fans and money wallets and with lots of conversation on Chinese traditions and celebrations.
The weather has been super cold, but as you know we love all weathers, so we wrapped up warm and headed out to explore the wintery scene. The frost made our garden look magical and sparkly, especially spiderwebs. The children noticed when breathing out they could see their breath, some of them called it “dragon breath.” We had great fun breaking up the ice, watching it melt in the sun and inspecting the bubbles and patterns inside. We took some ice inside to carry on our learning adding different tools, paint and glitter.
The children have been exploring colour mixing using paint in ziplock backs, to poke, squish and squeeze, guessing what colour it might change to. Some boys and girls carried this on at the paint easel, wondering what would happen to mix colours on the paper… and in their hands. What a lovely squishy experience.
As always, dinosaurs are a firm favourite at preschool. So we transformed the lunch room into the dinosaur park!! With lots of physical play, climbing, balancing, throwing, but also building, colouring and some books to sit and read. Some boys and girls shared their stories from going to the dinosaur park.
It was great to welcome some of our parents in for parents evening. We would like to Thank you for all the positive feedback we received.
How is it December already!! Time really flies when you are having fun.
We started the month celebrating St Andrews day, we took part in some Scottish dancing and had a special visit from 2 of our parents playing some Scottish sounds using flutes. The children tried haggis, and neeps and tattys and decorated Scottish flags.
On December the 1st a very special visitor appeared in the setting, inside a balloon. He said he was sent from the North Pole and using a suggestion from one of the children we named him Alan the elf. He was a mischievous little elf and played lots of tricks on us.. including drawing over the ladies photos, ziplining across the snack area, riding on the back of incy our spider, and invading the Christmas stay and play sessions with his friends.
We’ve enjoyed lots of Christmas/winter themed activities this month. A snowball throwing target game, present wrapping station, card making, snowy small world play, gingerbread play dough, marble painting, dressing up, pine cone decorating, cosy Christmas stories, ice colour mixing, Christmas music and movement, just to name a few.
The children wrote letters to Santa, the older children went for a walk with some ladies to the post box to post their letters and the younger children posted theirs in our very special post box sent from the North Pole.
The Christmas stay and play sessions were a huge success, it was great to welcome our families in to join in some Christmas activities with the children and for a snowy surprise at the end.
The staff and committee at St Helens would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.
We look forward to welcoming you back on Wednesday 4th January.
St Helen's Pre-School 