Westonzoyland Primary School ‘Achieving, Learning and Growing Together’
Fledglings – Mrs Morris (Pre-School)
Welcome to Fledglings
This page will give you a glimpse of the various range of activities that your children can experience in Pre-School with lots of fun learning opportunities to support and extend their learning over the year. We hope that you will find it useful and you enjoy seeing our children enjoying their learning environment.
Teaching Team
Mrs Morris - Pre-School Supervisor
Miss Parnell
Miss Warren
Mrs Whelpton
Week beginning November 9th
Here are few snapshots of some of the things that the children have been busy learning about, playing with, exploring and having fun with, this week in Pre-School
Fine motor control skill was needed to use the tweezers to sort and pick up the natural items, counting them once they were sorted into individual trays. Repeating patterns were made with leaves and other natural items, a fun way of doing a little bit of Maths.
Outside markmaking, involved the children using natural items to paint, they painted leaves with autumn colours and printed with them onto paper.
We have talked to the children about animals that hibernate, this included bears, bees and hedgehogs, we decided to make a cosy place for a hedgehog to hibernate in near to the bug hotel. The children collected different sized sticks to create the enclosed space and threw leaves in for a cosy place to sleep, showing care for wildlife. We also collected leaves to create a leaf hedgehog.
The children have enjoyed joining in with the story and song, "Going on a Bear Hunt" and the story"Bear snores On", therefore we will extend this interest further next week by having Bear-themed books, recreating the story and the setting of the story in a tuff spot. Lots of fun things are planned around the stories that have captured some children's interests.
Week beginning 5th October 2020
As with the best of plans, we deviated slightly away from 3 little pigs theme for a while as the children were fascinated and excited by an unusual type of Caterpillar they found outside, this lead to us using the interactive board to identify which type of Caterpillar it was. We followed this interest by having a very successful bug hunt in the outdoor area.
The children completed the 3 cardboard houses from the story, doors were carefully cut into the sides which encouraged lots of spontaneous re-enacting of the story of the 3 little pigs, lots of "huffing and puffing I'll blow your house down"
Masks and puppets were made to extend their learning, where the children practiced their cutting skills and further developed their imaginative play.
Lots of energetic play outdoors, taking risks and having fun, rolling down the grassy mound, scrambling on the wooden fort and steering and controlling the ride-ons on the path.
Next week, we will be thinking about Harvest.
The children have joined in with the action song, Dingle, dangle scarecrow, which will form part of the pre-recorded on-line harvest assembly.
We will be retelling the song/story of Old McDonald had a Farm and the story of "The Little Red Hen" who really needed help to make the bread. We are hoping to source some sheaths of corn to show the children, some harvest vegetables and other natural items of interest to explore.
Week beg. 28th September 2020
This week we have been learnt about and explored the different types of materials that the 3 little pigs used to build their houses. There was much discussion and thinking about how strong they were and whether the big bad wolf, (whichever staff member that was!) could blow the house down. Large Cardboard boxes were decorated to create the houses using patterned brick paper and paint. The stick/wood house will be built next week.
Children also recreated the familiar story using smaller decorated boxes, construction bricks/blocks and puppets, lots of "huff, puff, blow your house down"
Individual pictures of the houses were also drawn, using various shapes for windows, doors, roof etc. encouraging some children to talk about their home and family.
The mud kitchen is still so popular with the children, they get involved in mixing, making and pouring out all sorts of delights.
Next week we will extend the learning by continuing with the popular story by looking at building structures and models. We will be creating some animals masks for the children to use in their play with the large cardboard houses.
Week beg. 21st September 2020
We are all settled back into Pre-School and we have begun the term with the theme of "All About Me".
We have extended upon the learning from last week where all the children were measured using coloured ribbon, this has led to us looking at the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, where the giant lives in the castle at the top of the Beanstalk that grew from the magic beans. We have re-enacted parts of the story in the outdoor area, repeating the refrains, Fe, F,i Fo, Fum...... where the children have been very excited to be chased around the garden, lots of screams and laughter.
The children have painted different sized beanstalks with a castle, we have measured things using small Unifix bricks and measuring snakes of various sizes! We have explored the natural world with items that have been collected, these included different types of cones, conkers, various coloured leaves and play insects and outside we found living insects; spiders, dragonflies and butterflies in the herb garden.
Next week we will extend upon the theme of "All About Me" as we will be looking at and reading the familiar traditional story of The Three Little Pigs, who build houses for themselves made from different resources. We may build some dens and some houses, talk about their families and who lives in their homes and the also the stories that they enjoy at home.
Week beginning Monday 6th July
We have followed the children's continued interest in the theme of Under the Sea.
Different shapes were identified and used to create fish and other sea creatures, including seaweed and shells using a range of materials, paint, new folding paper skills and the addition of google eyes.
The children joined in with moving to music, action themed songs and some Cosmic Kids yoga, Squish the Fish, on the interactive board.
Lots of outdoor learning fun looking for shapes. We used iPads and a record sheet to mark off the shapes that were found outside. They were surprised at how many shapes they found.
Week beg Monday 29th June
A busy and active week at Pre-School for the children.
We have used CD's, shiny, reflective paper and coloured paper to create the Rainbow Fish with its shiny scales. New skills learnt of folding paper and arranging it to form the pattern of the scales. Lots of sticking fun and attaching resources to create a jelly fish and large fish for display in the room. The children also learnt about parts of a fish, naming the part and labelled it using the interactive board and white board.
Week 22nd June
A busy week finding out about Ladybirds and their lifecycle. Some of the ladybirds have emerged from the pupea that were stuck onto the leaves of the tree in the garden area, quite exciting for us all.
The children have created their own ladybirds on pebbles and on paper, adding spots and features as they wished to create their own individual ladybirds.
The warm weather led to us safely using water to keep cool and we added antibacterial soap to the water to add from and bubbles to hide items, wash items and to water paint with on the ground. Lots of marking with coloured chalks and paints.
The children have been creating paper Caterpillars from tissue paper and playdough. We used the interactive board to draw a Caterpillar and the children thought about and sorted healthy/unhealthy foods. Butterfly pictures were created by folding paper, wow!!
After Covid 19, Pre-School has temporarily re-opened in its new part of the school, into Hobby Hut.
We have some familiar resources and also some new resources available for the children to use. They have have had fun with activities, with lots of learning opportunities, familiar routines and outdoor play available.
The familiar story of Supertato made a welcome return for our Superhero's. We moved onto Superworm story which has encouraged lots of mini beast hunting outdoors and this has led to us looking at natural changes around the garden where we spotted familiar insects and new mini bugs/insects.
At the beginning of the Spring term, the children explored both the indoor and outdoor areas, markmaking, building dens, creating clay Gruffalo's, splatting numbers and interacting with others in their play.
Christmas has arrived in Pre School!
Mark making isn’t limited to just paper and pens! We love coming up with ways to make mark making activities enticing and engaging for the children.
We’ve enjoyed the story Supertato this week. The evil pea visited Pre School, trapping our veggies and prompting lots of “wanted” poster making! We used this opportunity to talk about healthy eating, and the children prepared and enjoyed their own vegetable soup!
Today we got suited and booted, embraced the drizzly day and made mud paint! The children love nothing more than getting stuck in and muddy!
Last term we noticed a theme in the children role playing as pets and their owners, so we thought we’d follow this interest and develop their play further with a Vets corner! It’s been very popular and has facilitated some super imaginative play, mark making and new vocabulary.
We’ve enjoyed hearing all that the children have been up to over half term. There‘s been lots of talk about the carnival and fireworks, so we’ve focussed on these this week.
The children have enjoyed dressing up and dancing along to the carnival on the interactive screen, junk modelling their own carnival carts, making sparkly firework play dough and singing some firework rhymes.
We were lucky enough to visit the carnival shed to see our local carnival float being made this week. The children (and adults!) showed great interest and fascination, asking lots of questions. We're all excited to see it in the parade next week. On the way back, we stopped off to see some sheep in a neighbouring field before the children enjoyed a play in the local park. What a super afternoon had by all.
We’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Autumn sunshine, spending lots of time picnicking in the forest school and building dens. We’ve bought maths and technology outdoors, introducing an iPad for the children to use the stopwatch timing one another in moving across an obstacle course.
We’ve also been out on autumn walks collecting conkers, stamping in the fallen leaves and talking about the changes we notice and sounds that we hear.
We love finding new ways to make learning fun and engaging. We're led by the children's interests; observing what each child likes to play with and then planning how we can provide learning opportunities that tie in with these interests. These pictures demonstrate how engaged the children were in recent mark making activities that we introduced with toy train tracks and cars that are currently a favourite in the Pre - School.
This week we were led by the children’s passion for superheroes as inspiration for our activities. We read lots of superhero stories, such as The Superhero Hotel, Ten Little Superheroes and Supertato. We made a superhero headquarters, complete with lots of “iPad” emergency messages which proved very popular, and made our own capes, masks and prison cell for baddies! It was wonderful to hear some great terminology as the children enthusiastically discussed what their own super powers would be.
What a super term we’ve had! Our topics this term have been The Little Red Hen and The Three Little Pigs. It was wonderful to see the children bring these traditional tails to life, enthusiastically chanting the key phrases as they got to know the story. We’ve baked bread rolls, piggy biscuits, had guinea pigs come to visit, and worked our way through gallons of paint! We’ve also seen the grand opening of our new play equipment which the children adore; it’s facilitated some super role play so far as a fire station, house and pirate ship!
We’re looking forward to beginning our next term with the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
The children used a range of resources to create a castle from the story Jack and the Beanstalk. Some children used the wooden blocks to create "castles, castle on a trailer, aeroplane castle". There were also a selection of boxes and containers for the children to use to create a model.
A castle for Jack and the Beanstalk
The children have experienced the cold and wet elements of our weather. We have talked about what we need to keep dry and warm, " hats, gloves, coats, wellies, waterproofs and hot drinks and food to warm us up. The children also added warm clothes to their paper self to demonstrate their understanding. The children noticed the white frosty grass and trees, they noticed the ice melting, sometimes in the sun! We made large and small ice cubes to add to the tray, where animals were added and to explore the properties of ice further.
Exploring outdoor elements
After our half term break, the children had lots of news to share about their holidays. A few children were aware of the Chinese New Year that was being celebrated, one child has family living in China, therefore we extended learning by showing some celebrations on the interactive screen. "Dragons" said a child very excitedly. We took the large parachute into the hall and proceeded to pretend to be a dragon, walking around the room going up and down. After we played lots of fun and exciting games shaking the parachute and hiding underneath it.
We have some flowers growing in the garden area, some children used the crayons to record their growth. They selected the colours they needed and wanted to create their picture.
During the morning Wake and Shake sessions, we used some sticks to tap out a rhythm to the song, music, music, music. The children are having fun and moving to the rhythm and beat of the song.
In the outdoor area, the children have used a range of resources. They have used the wheelbarrows with confidence and have shown an awareness of safety for self and others. The outdoor kitchen area is proving a fun area for peers to use imagination in their play.
During December the children have made lots of Christmas decorations, using fine motor control to thread small items onto a pipe cleaner, sticking lollipop sticks into triangles to create a reindeer, a tree or a Santa hat. They have also practiced their pencil hold and control as they coloured in a Christmas bauble for the tree that they have created.
The children made Gruffalo crumble. They learnt how to use a knife safely as they chopped the apple up into small pieces and added it to the bowl. They mixed the flour into the butter, making it into breadcrumbs before mixing in the sugar and spooning it onto the apple and blackberries. The Gruffalo crumble was cooked and enjoyed by all, yummy.
Wk 16th October. This week it is Teddy Bear Picnic week. Children brought in their teddy bears, they joined in with the register, songs, the Picnic and we watched the story called Going on a Bear Hunt. Lots of fun and a lovely Teddy Bears Picnic.
The children have worked together to set up the channeling system to make the water flow, lots of critical and active thinking.
Both the children and adults have had lots of fun learning how to use the new interactive boards. The children have learnt to use the icons to create and draw, selecting different options and clearing it all away, or selecting a new page to create more pictures. We have used the interactive boards to tell stories and watch slideshows of familiar stories. The boards have also been a good tool to use to show the children how to search for something on the internet, pick an image and click onto it to find out more about it.
Welcome to our page on the new website.
The children have been very busy settling back into Pre-School. We also welcome lots of new starters to Pre-School, they have all been exploring and learning with the new resources in both the indoor and outdoor area.
For information about our Pre-School