This week we have explored what a city looks like, from the tall buildings to the noisy sounds, and the places we can visit.  We have focussed on lots of new vocabulary to describe the city and names of buildings, such as the museum, the cathedral, the mall, but also other important buildings that we recognise such as the hospital, the police station and the fire station.  

Using inspiration from the bright artwork in this week’s book we have created our own city landscape pictures that will make a lovely display. 

Next week we will focus on what types of vehicles we may see around the city, from construction to public transport, and emergency vehicles.   

It has been lovely to have a dry spell of weather this week, with even some glimpses of that winter sunshine to make our outside play even more enjoyable.  Lots of climbing, building, and bike riding has been enjoyed.  

This half term we will also be focussing on our shapes and colours.  We have been working on a new display with the help of the children to support this and we will put a picture up when we have completed it.  

Lastly, this week has seen a few new starters join our pre-school, we have enjoyed helping them to settle in and the children have all been so lovely and welcoming to their new friends. 

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend, 

The Pre-School Team. 

A big welcome back to all our pre-school families, and a warm welcome to our new children and families who are joining us this term. 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, we are excited for the start of 2025 and the new term.  

The children have all retuned and settled back into pre-school, full of enthusiasm to share news of special gifts or moments they have had.  It has been lovely to have ‘grand conversations’ as a group to really listen and ask questions to all our friends about their Christmas celebrations.  

This week has been settling back into pre-school and an introduction of our new enquiry question for Spring Term 1, ‘What is a city?’  

We have enjoyed the story of ‘The Noisy Foxes’ which has started the topic off well as the foxes look to move from a noisy city to somewhere quiet in the countryside.  This opened lots of question from the children, such as, ‘Why is a city noisy? What is the countryside? What is in the city? - Lots of questions we will have fun finding the answers to over the next few weeks.  

As we always ask each term –  

If any emergency contact details have been changed for your child, please ensure we are made aware.  This includes email, and phone numbers. 

Also, if you receive funded hours, you may have received a reminder to renew your funding code for the new term.  Please ensure any changes to codes are given to a member of staff by the end of next week.  

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend, 

The Pre-School Team. 

A final festive week of fun. 

All our practice learning the songs and actions for ‘The Twinkly Nativity’ really showed, the children were absolutely amazing at singing along with the whole school.  We were pleased to have so many of the children join us in the church for the performance, and all the team were so proud of the children for their confidence and enthusiasm while performing in front of a very packed audience!  

 We also enjoyed a visit from Santa this week, the children were wonderfully polite while he talked to them and kindly gave them all a chocolate lolly.  We also enjoyed some party games and made some magic reindeer food.  

On behalf of all the pre-school team, we would like to say a big thank you for all the lovely cards, gifts and Christmas well wishes we have received.  

We have all had such a lovely half term with the children. 

We hope all our pre-school families have a wonderful Christmas break and enjoy some fun family time. We return to pre-school on Tuesday 7th January 2025.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR  

FROM ALL OF THE PRE-SCHOOL TEAM. 

We have had lots of very excited children in pre-school this week, with many of them sharing stories of putting up their Christmas decorations at home, visiting Santa with their families and even some of them have been ice-skating! 

We can’t quite believe we only have one more week to go, it is always lovely to share the excitement of this time of year with the children in pre-school.  

This week we have enjoyed some festive baking of gingerbread people, with the children showing some very impressive rolling, cutting and decorating skills.  

Alongside this we have listened to some festive sound stories, used musical instruments to describe sounds we hear at Christmas time, painted baubles and practiced our wrapping skills at our present wrapping station.  

Reminders for our final week - 

Monday – FOPS Christmas fair at 2pm in school hall. 

Wednesday – Pre-School Christmas party and Santa visit, 1.15pm start.  

Thursday - ‘The Twinkly Nativity’ 2pm in church. 

Friday – Last day of term, pre-school and school close at 1.30pm.  

Lastly, a polite reminder that we discourage children from bringing their own toys/teddies into pre-school. It causes much upset when they are lost/damaged or played with by someone else.  We have lots of wonderful toys for the children to enjoy while they are with us. If toys do come in, then we put them in the child’s bag or sit them on the shelf until home time. Thank you for your understanding on this.  

We look forward to a final festive week with the children, 

The Pre-School Team. 

Christmas has arrived in pre-school!  

The children were all delighted to arrive last week to see pre-school decorated for Christmas. With the addition of Santa’s Post Office and Grotto for our role play areas.  

We have posted many letters to Santa already! The children have also enjoyed being elves and issuing tickets to visit Santa's Grotto.

The next couple of weeks will see us enjoy many festive stories and also a look at our traditional Nativity story. 

We have been busy practicing our Nativity songs, and it is lovely to see that the children have been practicing at home too.  We could definitely be heard in our whole school singing assembly this week.   

All the children finished their Xmas tree decorations and some of them have been over to school to hang them on the hall tree.  Those that haven’t will get the opportunity to hang theirs next week.  

We hope that everyone has had a safe and lovely weekend. 

The pre-School Team. 

This week was our last week with our focused learning around farms, we ended this fun topic discovering and discussing all things tractors. An absolutely vital vehicle for farmers! 

We have looked at how tractors have changed over the years, what different parts they have, what other equipment they can attach to a tractor, and all the many jobs that a tractor can do around the farm!  

We used some of our toy tractors for mark making tractor tracks with paint, we have also cut and stuck together tractor parts and used our Duplo bricks to build our own tractors during play.  

Next week will see a transition into the festive period of term, we are all very excited to start bringing out the tinsel and glitter! We have already been busy practicing our songs for ‘The Twinkly Nativity’ - more information on our newsletter.  

The children used green paint and pompoms for another mark making activity, we then added colorful fingerprint dots - when put together this will make a Christmas tree decoration in our window.  

Newsletters did go out this week, but if you have not yet received one then it will be attached below.   

For our Nativity performance, it only needs to be their top that is preferably white or yellow. If you have any questions regarding the Nativity performance in church, then please come and speak to us.    

Finally, to combine our week of tractors and the start of Christmas celebrations, if you can support Pelynt Young Farmers Club, their annual Christmas Tinsel Tractor run will be on Sunday 15th December. Always an amazing display of decorated tractors.

We hope every one has a lovely weekend,
The Pre-School Team

We have also discovered how a milking parlor works for the farmers to milk their cows.  We watched some interesting clips of real working farms and the amazing machines and farm workers that collect the milk each day for us to enjoy. 

We know that on a working farm today the cows can even be milked by robots! But the children were also shown how many years ago, cow's milk would have been collected by hand.  We even had our own cow in pre-school to have a go at milking ourselves!  

The children also produced some fantastic cow art to join our other farm animals on display. 

This week we have also been looking at repeating patterns, we used our farm animal figures to help us with this to spot the patterns.  

Towards the end of the week seen a real cold snap of weather, with the children finding ice that had formed in pockets of water, and even some snow flurries which caused lots of excitement all round! 

Please do remember a warm coat, hat and gloves for the children so they can still enjoy outdoor play during our colder months.  

As mentioned in the school newsletter, pre-school will be supporting Lantic in their performance of ‘The Twinkly Nativity’.  We will be making star headbands in pre-school for the children to wear.  If you have light coloured clothing your child could wear for the nativity that would be great, but we do not expect anyone to be buying anything especially for it.   

We would obviously like as many pre-school children to join us for the performance as possible, they are all starting to learn the songs.  If your child does not usually attend on a Thursday afternoon, and you are able to come along, we ask that you take your child to church with you and meet us over there when we arrive.  

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend, 

The Pre-School Team. 

The Twinkly Nativity at the church Thursday 19th December at 2pm.  

This week has been another filled week of learning and celebrating key dates in our Autumn calender.

On Monday to mark Remembrance Day the children watched the beautiful animation ‘Poppies’ that shows war through the eyes of animals.  It is an age-appropriate way to allow children to take part in the 2minute silence and to introduce them to significant historical events.  The children were able to visit the memorial over at the church and see the poppy wreaths that had been laid. This is such a key part of their development in understanding the world, their community and the people who have helped to shape it.  

Thank you also to all the donations made to the British Legion when buying your poppies this past week.  

Alongside our book of the week 'What I Found on the Farm' we have created some wonderful artwork, with cotton wool sheep, and real muddy pigs over in forest school! They are all creating a lovely display around our farm role play areas.  

On Friday the children celebrated Children in Need, they produced some wonderful headbands and Pudsey pictures.  

A reminder to those parents of children who are starting in Reception in September 2025, you need to apply for your child's school place by January 15th 2025. Please visit www.cornwall.gov.uk to complete the application process.

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

The Pre-School Team.

We have started our new enquiry question ‘What happens on a farm?’ Discovering what different animals, we would find, and what building they may live in.  

Our book of the week ‘Look Inside a Farm’ has helped us with this. It explores all the areas of a farm with flaps to lift, to reveal even more exciting facts. The children love books like this and really get involved with discovering what's on each page.  This always leads to ‘grand conversations’ with the children sharing their own knowledge and thoughts.  

We have seen some enthusiastic role play conversations in our farm shop, with the children taking turns to be shopkeepers and customers. The children are enjoying weighing their fruits and vegetables before paying for them.  Apparently, everything is a pound, so we’re told! It has been lovely to see some of our younger children getting involved and engaging with others through play to build their confidence.  

This week we also celebrated Bonfire night, we watched a video of fireworks and discussed the types of sounds they made, and colours the children could see.  We had fun creating our own firework pictures and also making chocolate breadstick sparklers!  

At the end of the week, we took the chance to go over to forest school for a good run and explore while it was still dry! Lots of climbing in and out of dens that the older children had made.  All very exciting, especially for some that had not had the opportunity to visit before.  

A busy but fun first week back! 

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend. 

The Pre-School Team  

Our final week of Autumn Term 1 was finished with a Halloween theme with lots of fun activities, dressing up, dancing and cauldron bubble painting!  It was a lovely fun week to finish on.  On Thursday some of our children were lucky enough to be able to join the whole school in watching the Squashbox Theatre productions.  The children sat beautifully to watch the performances. 

This half term has been full of wonderful learning with our enquiry question ‘Who Am I?’  We have covered what makes us special, families, homes, diversity and how we can keep ourselves healthy.   

We have also celebrated all things Autumn, and the changes this season brings.  

When we return after half term our new enquiry question is ‘What happens on a farm?’ We are looking forward to covering some special celebrations during the term too! 

We hope everyone has a fantastic and fun half-term break, and we look forward to seeing the children when we return on Monday 4th November. 

The Pre-School Team

Understanding the importance of healthy eating even at this young age is about installing those good dietary habits that they can carry with them as they grow.  We also used this week's theme to talk about other ways to keep happy and healthy, such as good sleep and staying active.  

To enhance our learning to be healthy we have enjoyed putting together our own ideas of a healthy packed lunch. The children were all very good at putting together balanced healthy options with a mixture of fruits and vegetables too, and then the option to add an unhealthy item that lots of them referred to as a treat.    

From this we talked about how each food group is important because each group has special nutrients that not only help us grow big and strong but help our brains to grow with all the important learning that they do. 

We have stayed active this week by being outside when the weather has allowed and enjoying some hungry caterpillar themed yoga during the week too! 

On Thursday some of the children were lucky enough to join Lantic class and Miss Edwards during their outdoor learning day.  They enjoyed the story of ‘Leaf Man’ before searching for their own interesting objects to make pictures, then they joined Mr Knight to toast marshmallows on the campfire.  The children had a lovely time and were brilliant at listening to the other adults.  

Next week is our final week of Autumn Term 1, we will be enjoying some early Halloween themed activities.  Please do not forget that our final day is Thursday. 

School and Pre-School are closed for Inset day on Friday 25th October 2024. 

We return to Pre-School on Monday 4th November 2024 

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend, 

The Pre-School Team. 

This week in pre-school we have been celebrating Harvest Festival and what that means, we have also alongside this talked about Autumn and the changes the season brings. Our story of the week ‘Little Acorns’ has been a lovely story of an oak tree and its journey through the seasons. It teaches the children how the different seasons help the little acorn grow into an impressive mighty oak tree. 

We have had such a busy week filled with lovely activities. The children practiced their cutting skills chopping up apples we picked in forest school last week, with these we made delicious apple cakes.  Some of the children helped to chop lots of wonderful harvest vegetables, which we turned into our harvest soup.  We enjoyed trying this at snack time.   

By exploring lots of vegetables, the corn husks proved very popular! The children were keen to try the variations of ways we can enjoy corn.  So, we had sweetcorn, popcorn and cornflakes to try too!  

On Friday this week some of the children joined the whole school over in church for the Harvest Festival service with Reverend Richard, they have loved practicing the song ‘Big Red Combine Harvester in preparation to sing along with their actions! 

A very busy but lovely week celebrating such an important time of the year.   

Happy Harvest time to all our farming families too.  

Next Monday 14th October Tempest Photography is in school to take sibling and individual photographs.  If your child has an older sibling in school, or Monday is not their normal session day and you would like their photograph taken, you are welcome to take them into school at 9am. 

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend, 

The Pre-School Team.  

A week celebrating friendship and birthdays! 

This week our book ‘Anyone Can Be My Friend’ had us reading about a special bear who travels the world looking for a friend and ends up finding many.  It celebrates our amazing diversity and that every single person in this world is special and unique.  

There are so many details on each page that the children really enjoyed looking at the illustrations and talking about what they can see.  

Taking inspiration from our story we have created our own ‘Friendship Tree’ to put up on the wall, all our handprints different but special in their own way.  

The children have also really enjoyed making their friendship bracelets, telling us who they were making them for and why.  The threading of beads and pasta tubes has been great for their fine motor skills development and a lovely activity to watch the children figure out how to thread themselves.  Not always an easy task for little hands!  

We took a blustery walk over to forest school earlier in the week and picked some apples from the tree.  We have exciting plans for these next week when we celebrate harvest. We also went on a leaf hunt to find the biggest leaves whilst they were crispy and dry! 

We have had 2 birthdays this week, a big happy birthday to both Tommy and Albie – thank you for sending in cupcakes to share with your friends.  

Finally, next week will see us celebrating the beginning of autumn and harvest time.  The Harvest Service held by Reverend Richard will be in church on Friday 11th at 2.15pm.   

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend, 

The Pre-School Team. 

This week has been about a whole lot of love and kindness within pre-school.

Our story of the week ‘Love Makes a Family' has been a beautiful story to share and discover all the different, amazing things that parents and carers do for their little ones. The vibrant illustrations show a diverse range of loving families, spending time enjoying each other's company.  It has sparked lots of conversations with the children and we discovered that alongside love there is always kindness.  

During our Grand Conversation’s this week we shared our ideas on what it means to be kind, and how we can show kindness.  The children all had some super ideas, and we used these to start our class kindness paperchain.  We will make this paper chain grow throughout the year by adding to it each time we recognise an act of kindness from the children.  We are all excited to see how long our kindness paperchain will be at the end of the year! 

Our focussed art this week has been ‘Home is where the heart is’, using painters' tape to make a house and a heart, then using water colours over the top.  The children were very excited to see their homes and hearts revealed when peeling the tape off!  It has made a beautiful display on our wall.  

We have had a few incidents of sickness/diarrhoea over the past couple of weeks, a polite reminder that it must be 48 hours from the last episode before children return to pre-school. This is to keep the risk of spreading to other children and staff to a minimum. Thank you.

We hope that everyone has a lovely weekend,

The Pre-School Team.

It has been a beautifully sunny week with us all enjoying as much time outdoors for our learning, exploring and playing. 

This week our book ‘My Big Fantastic Family’ was a sensitive story about how a little girl copes with change after her parents separate.  It explores the feelings of what it is like to be a part of a big, blended family.  

We developed our social skills by exploring what our own families look like with some grand conversation time. We understood that some families have siblings, and some have none. Some of the children have been able to stand up with their own family pictures and talk about their family members to their friends.  Thank you if you have already sent in a picture, the children have loved sharing them.

Also, this week we enjoyed our own garden area, painting outside, and had our first explore of Forest School. We walked around talking about the different areas to explore, spotted some apples ready to eat, and found some autumn treasures along the way. 

Next week we will be exploring emotions and feelings, and how we can show kindness to our friends and families.  

The weather is looking a little more unsettled for next week so please do remember raincoats for your child. 

Newsletters were handed out in paper format but if you have not had one then there is a copy attached below.  

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend. 

The Pre-School Team.