Today our focus was the colour green. Today was our first day back. Focus activity Tadpoles Today we explored the colour green and the makaton sign for green. The children sang the colour green song “ colour green (x2) where…are……youuuuu.., here I am, here I am,how do you do? We introduced three items that were green to the children and reinforced the makaton signs. We finished by reading the colour monster book to the children. Focus activity Froglets Today we rolled the ball to each other and discussed our holidays and what we got up to. Arts and crafts Today in arts and crafts we used real leaves collected from the garden to create prints for our individual tree pictures. The children painted the leaves green and pressed them onto the tree outline, observing the different shapes and lines each print made. During the activity, we talked about how leaves are green in summer, but in autumn they change colour to red, yellow, and orange before falling from the trees. This helped the children connect their artwork to changes in nature and the seasons. Afternoon focus with Mollie ~ Walking on sunshine ~ Dancing for joy. This afternoon we began with our hello song to welcome the children into the session. Our focus today was the emotion green, which represents joy. We talked about what joy means and introduced the song of the day, “Walking on Sunshine”, using green and yellow scarves to represent happiness. We revisited the Makaton sign of the day — green — before exploring different joyful movements. The children jumped up high, gave high fives, and shook their scarves both up high and down low. As we walked together in a circle, we high fived our peers and practised moving joyfully. Next, we scrunched our scarves into small balls in our hands and threw them up into the air, imagining we were throwing a big sunshine into the sky. To finish, we sang our goodbye song and used the Makaton sign for finished.

Under the Sea: Exploring Shapes, Colour and Creativity Through Sponge Printing Today, the children enjoyed a hands-on, sensory-rich activity that took them on a creative journey under the sea! Using shaped sponges—featuring sea life such as fish, starfish, and shells—they explored printing techniques and colour mixing to create beautiful ocean-inspired artworks. The children dipped their chosen sponge shapes into a variety of brightly coloured paints and pressed them onto paper, observing the patterns and shapes that appeared. This activity sparked lots of excitement and curiosity as the children experimented with overlapping prints, colour combinations, and the different textures the sponges created. This experience supported learning across several areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage and helped promote a wide range of skills in line with the Birth to Five Matters framework: • Expressive Arts and Design (Ranges 2 to 4): The children explored how colours can be used creatively, developed preferences for different textures and materials, and learned that they can use tools to express their ideas. They began to make connections between their marks and real-world imagery (e.g. “That fish looks like the one we saw in the book!”), an important part of symbolic understanding. • Physical Development (Ranges 2 to 4): Pressing, holding, and lifting the sponges helped strengthen the small muscles in the children’s hands and wrists, supporting the development of fine motor skills—crucial for early writing and self-care skills. They also demonstrated increasing control and coordination when using the materials. • Communication and Language (Ranges 2 to 4): As they worked, the children engaged in conversations about what they were making, the animals they recognised, and the colours they used. This supported vocabulary development and encouraged expressive language, as well as attentive listening to peers and adults. • Understanding the World (Ranges 2 to 4): Through this activity, we explored the theme of sea life, introducing children to different animals that live in the ocean and talking about their features and habitats. This builds early scientific thinking and a curiosity about the world around them. • Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Ranges 2 to 4): The group setting encouraged turn-taking, sharing materials, and celebrating each other’s creations. The sense of achievement from completing a piece of art fostered confidence and pride in their abilities. It was a joyful and enriching experience that allowed the children to express themselves, explore new materials, and expand their understanding of the natural world—all while having a lot of fun.

Exploring Shapes and Creativity through Kite Making Today at preschool, the children were immersed in a fun and enriching activity that combined creativity, shape recognition, and sensory exploration. Our focus was on diamond shapes, and how we can find them all around us—in the environment, in art, and even in the kites we created together! To begin, we looked at a variety of diamond shapes, discussing their features and comparing them to other familiar shapes. The children then explored their surroundings, noticing where diamond shapes appear in everyday life—on signs, windows, and even in nature. This helped develop their mathematical understanding and visual discrimination skills, both key aspects of the EYFS area of Mathematics. The highlight of the session was making our very own kites! Each child selected from a range of coloured glues and used them to decorate their kite, creating unique patterns and marks. This was not only a wonderful sensory experience, but also encouraged the development of fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and expressive arts and design. As they squeezed, dripped, and spread glue in different ways, the children made choices and expressed themselves creatively. Throughout the activity, rich conversations took place. We used descriptive language, talked about colours, textures, shapes, and the children’s design choices. This supported the EYFS area of Communication and Language, particularly in developing vocabulary and listening and attention skills. This activity also touched on Personal, Social and Emotional Development. Working alongside peers, the children shared materials, took turns, and celebrated each other’s creations, building confidence and a sense of community. In summary, this kite-making activity supported a broad range of development: • Mathematics: shape recognition and spatial awareness • Physical Development: fine motor skills and coordination • Communication and Language: expressive vocabulary and conversational skills • Expressive Arts and Design: creativity, mark-making, and sensory exploration • Personal, Social and Emotional Development: collaboration, decision-making, and confidence building It was a joy to see the children so engaged, imaginative, and proud of their work. Their colourful kites now brighten up our setting, reminding us of a day filled with learning, exploration, and fun!

Today’s focus was a sensory circuit designed to support children’s physical development, self-regulation, and sensory integration. We began the session with a group welcome and a discussion about what the children did over the weekend, encouraging communication, listening, and turn-taking skills. The circuit began with the children standing on orange “sharks” and spinning three times, which helped to stimulate their vestibular system and develop spatial awareness. They then moved onto a blue balance board, where they practiced maintaining their stability—supporting both gross motor control and core strength. Next, the children crawled through a green tunnel, promoting coordination, problem-solving, and proprioception. Upon exiting the tunnel, they balanced a square bean bag on their heads and walked across three coloured square mats (blue, green, and yellow), which further enhanced their focus, balance, and body control. The circuit concluded with three spins on a bright green sensory spinner, giving the children additional vestibular input in a controlled and playful way. We finished the session with the Makaton sign for “finish,” reinforcing routine and supporting communication through gesture.

In focus we spoke about and labelled a question mark? We were focussing on What? As a question . We discussed …. What is the item called and WHAT ? Does it do? . The children called the microwave ….”an oven”… “the kitchen” and two children called it a microwave. One child correctly identified that it turns and another child said “makes cookies”. The children enjoyed making their contributions and then they chose a faveourite song. We sang mary Mary quite contrary and the car song which the children all enjoyed . We choose different songs each in the two main groups today We set up a water tray station in the garden. Afternoon focus ball control The children will be playing transporting games with balls and cups this afternoon

Today we looked at Numbers and what smaller numbers make up when added together those bigger numbers. We used numbered stones and pebbles to count out two separate amounts and then join them together In the froglet group the children organised blocks by size using language descriptors such as small, big,large, enormous, tiny, smaller. we ordered the blocks from tallest to shortest / biggest to smallest. For snack we ate bagels grapes cheese breadsticks and orange slices. The children made pasta necklaces with Chloe

Today I Jenna explained common question words like ( who, what, where, how and when) . Today our focus was on what? ( naming) And Where ? (Location). For the frog group we looked at where do we find these animals for example an Elephant~ comes from a zoo according to the children which is correct in England but their home would be somewhere like Africa. We spoke about frogs being from ponds and rainforests . The froglets focussed on what is the name of this animal. We finished off this mornings session with a story the hungry caterpillar where we re capped at the end to revisit where did the story begin ? What happened in the middle and how did our story end? In art today the children made marbled paint pictures and afternoon focus the children practised balancing a basket on their heads and using their other hand to pick up balls.

On Monday the children explored sensory circuits with Ashleigh. The children started by learning how to make star jumps then threw a bean bag onto a target ring trying to get it to land in the central circle. The children then used dinosaur stompers to stomp to the colour ball sorting station. Children matched the balls to the cones. The children finished the circuit with a ball massage. Today we painted the floor using paintbrushes and water.

The word Snail is made up of the following sounds…. /s/ /n/ /ai/ And /l/ It is made up of 4 phonemes as above This morning we started with looking at our phonetic sound songs for letters G,D, O and M. We then played our main activity of story telling with sounds. We started with Sammy the snail. The first child threw the dice to find a letter sound and then found a letter and thought of a word. Tt word was (tennis) so we started with …..Once upon a time (Ss) Sammy the (Ss) Snail wanted to play (Tt) Tennis. Sammy met a friend called (Ss) Safia. They both became hungry and decided to (Ss) Slither and (Ss)slide to a a restaurant then called (Aa)Alia and went for (Ii)Ice cream that was (Tt)Toffee flavoured. They were too hot and decided to visit an (Ii) Igloo. (Ss)Sammy the (Ss)snail realised it was too hot to (Pp)play (Tt)tennis so instead he went to the (Pp) pink (Pp)pebbled (Pp)park to (Pp)play then to finish their beautiful day they found they car in the (Pp)parking lot and went home. The end. For each of the letter sounds indicated the children came up with their own words starting with that sound. For the other two groups we continued with doing the phonetic songs for S,AT,P,I,N. We then sang the snail song and took in turns to take the Snails off the board. In snack we had watermelon with bananas, bagels, pitta bread. We had a large water station where the snail had left his dirty pots to be cleaned as they needed to be scrubbed. There was also sponges Inthe water to help with the clean up.

Todays focus was mathmatical Word definition subitising~ Subitising is the ability to look at a small set of objects and instantly know how many there are without counting them. For example, when rolling a dice we don’t need to count the dots to know what we have rolled. Subitising was first coined by theorist Piaget. It is important in the early development of number sense. Key points about subitizing: • Instant recognition: It's the ability to "just know" how many items are present, rather than counting them one by one.  • Limited to small numbers: Humans can typically subitize up to about 5-7 items. Beyond that, counting becomes necessary.  • Two types: Perceptual subitizing is recognizing small groups (usually up to 4 or 5) instantly. Conceptual subitizing involves breaking down larger groups into smaller, recognizable parts and then combining them mentally (e.g., seeing 6 as 3+3).  • Foundation for math skills: Subitizing helps children develop number sense, spatial reasoning, and mental math strategies.  • Examples: Recognizing the number of dots on a dice without counting, or knowing how many fingers are held up without counting In the morning focus we were looking at what a tally was and recognising that each line depicts a unit. On our dice was tally’s that the children first looked at with Jenna and tried to count by sight. Jenna then gave each child a turn to throw the dice and estimate or recognise the tally and then select and count out each stone (sweet) at a time. This would demonstrate their counting skills. We then had two friends ( Harry hedgehog and Freddy frog) but sadly the two year olds liked the look of Freddy frog and he had been taken for an inpromptu swim 😅. Needless to say Freddy frog was a bit wet and was not able to come to sammy the snails sweet shop. The children each rolled the dice twice and added the two amounts together. The children then had to solve the problem of sharing out the sweets equally for the two friends. Some numbers did not share equally and this was a problem we encouraged the children to come up with solutions. We finished with our Sammy the snail song ~ 5 garden snails. I (Jenna Lindow) will post the song on insta and tik tok this week. I will try to put on you tube as well. The children will be looking at this song over the next few days. In numeracy the aim of singing the song is taking away and counting. In literacy we will be looking at the sounds in the word. In understanding of the world we will be learning about snails. In the afternoon we sang Ten fat sausages sizzling in a pan. We used wave drums to make sizzling sounds and tapped on the wave drums for banging sound. This has been part of the sensory rhymes sessions that mollie has been planing. The children had fun playing in the water 💦 in the garden and we heard the story of snail and the whale under fans to cool down as the weather heated up in the afternoon.

Today in the focus session we enjoyed a sensory circuit. We began the session with a hello and we spoke about that we did on the weekend. Next we looked a what we were doing for our circuit. We began with touching our toes on the green Mat. Next we did 3 bunny hops to the balance board where we did 3 balances side to side. We then crawled through the tunnel to the basketball hoop, the children practiced their aim by throwing into the hoop. We ended the session with some bubbles blown over us while we sat on the black mat. The children took it in turns and we then ended the session with the finish sign in makaton. In the garden today we had:

Wednesday~ prepositions focus In morning focus today we looked at different positional language. We began the session talking about how we were feeling today and then began talking about the different positions. The children were shown a chair and a smal block. The teacher placed the block at different points around the chair and asked the children to label their position. We used language such as in-front, behind, under, on and next to. The children took it in turns to place the block in different places that the teacher asked. Once all of the children had a go we ended the session with the finish sign in makaton. Thursday Today in the morning focus we looked at healthy food and unhealthy foods. We began the session saying hello and talking about what we had eaten for breakfast. Next we began our session with a hello and we continued on with our activity. The children were shown 3 different colour mats, a red, green and yellow. The red mat was for unhealthy sugary foods. The green for healthy vegetables and the yellow to all of the foods in between that are good for you if you eat them in moderation. The children took it in turns to sort out all of the food cards onto the colours matts. We then spoke about how eating unhealthy foods such as sweeties and dohnuts is still okay as a treat but if we eat to Many we me damage our teeth. We ended the session with the finish sign in makaton. Today in afternoon focus we started with our hello song followed by doing some dancing . In our dancing activity we looked  at the rhythm/ beat of a song. We started by having three mats in front of us, red mats meant to stomp  and the blue mat meant to clap. This meant we had the beat of stomp, stomp clap. We then practiced doing our beat at different speeds and when we became more confident with it we recreated the beat whilst listening to the start of the song called we will rock you by queen which has the same beat. We finished by singing our goodbye song and made the makaton sign for finished. Friday~ emotion bingo focus In the morning focus we looked at different facial expressions. We began the session saying hello to our friends and asking each other how we were feeling. Next we began with the game. The children were put into pairs and and each given an emotions bingo board. They took it in turns to pick an emotion from the pile and see if it matched their board. Each time an emotion matched the board the child explained what emotion they were feeling. Once all the pictures were matched we ended the session with the finish sign in makaton.

Prepositions This focus time was all about revisiting our preposition language such as on, under, behind and next to. We looked at following two part instructions and three part instructions. The children all demonstrated a good base knowledge of prepositions and had fun remembering where to put the objects according to the instructions given. Today in afternoon focus we started with our hello song followed by doing a sensory circuit. In our sensory circuit we started by jumping on the spots, then we had to walk on the stompers all the way to the bridge, we then had to cross the bridge where we come to the balance board, we then had to balance on the balance board going side to side 4 times. We then came to the final stage, the calm stage. This involved us laying on our tummy whilst having the ball rolled on our backs for 10 seconds. Before we finished we spoke about how we were feeling full of energy, excited or crazy before and were feeling calm and happy. To finish we sang our goodbye song followed by doing the makaton sign for finished.

Sensory circuits In the frog and froglet session today we enjoyed a sensory circuit. We first spoke about how we were feeling this morning and then carried on with our session. We began the circuit with 4 jumps on the purple shark before following onto our throwing activity. The children had to throw some beanbags into the wheelbarrow before using it to walk around the cones in a line. Next the children used the dinosaur feet to walk to the spinning top to end their go. We ended the activity with the finish sign in Makaton. In the tadpoles group we carried on with our singing and practiced our good sitting and turn taking. Each of the children picked a song to sing with the group before we ended the session with some bubbles. Today in afternoon focus we started with our hello song followed by playing a game of what’s the time mr wolf. Our game of what’s the time mr wolf helped us with counting to 10 and counting amounts 1-10 as we had to count the amount of steps we took to match the time that mr wolf said. This game also helped us to work on turn taking as we all got to have a turn of being mr wolf. To finish we sang our goodbye song and done the Makaton sign for finished. Jenna was out this morning doing her Science GCSE exam paper 2 and hopefully she will get her results for science biology in August (21st) so fingers crossed. If Jenna completes this with a pass she will be able to complete her early years teaching qualification in September 2025.

Adjective shopping game This morning we played a game of shopping where the children had to pick a card from a group of cards face down and see if it was on their shopping list. When they found something from their shopping list they had to think of a describing word such as slimy soap or squishy tomatoes or soft sponges bread. Today in afternoon focus we started with our hello song followed by doing some dancing. In our dancing activity we played a game of animal freeze dance. In our freeze dance we played musical statues but when the music stops we had to freeze like a certain animal and made the noises of the animals. To finish we sang our goodbye song and used the makaton sign for finished.

Life cycle of a plant Seed~sprout~seedling~plant This morning we explored the life cycle of a plant a little more and discussed the parts of a plant such as leaves, petals, soil, roots. We spoke about what a plant needs to grow and survive, wear a think of any plants we could think of that we have touched or seen. We spoke about 🐝 bees and how they collect nectar from plants and how they make honey. Bean bag games Today in afternoon focus we started with our hello song followed by playing parachute games. In our parachute games we started by warming up by shaking the parachute at different speeds and shaking it high and low. We then played a game called popcorn. This consisted of us putting small balls on the parachute, pretending to turn the pan on and then start shaking the parachute slowly to let it warm up and then getting faster and faster as the pan got hotter until all the corn had popped and all the balls had come off the parachute. We spoke about how popcorn starts as corn which comes from a plant but then changes into popcorn when we put it in the pan. We started learning a new game as well where we have to swap sides with someone on the other side of the parachute when our names were called. To finish we snag our goodbye song and done the makaton sign for finished.

This morning we explored the two letters SH combined to make one sound. We explored Sh words such as shadow, shell, shark, ship, shore, Ashleigh and cash. The children put their finger to their lips for the Sh sound and then clapped for the rest of the word. So shark would become sh and ark. Today in the second group we explored singing the phonetic songs m, o, g, d M~https://youtu.be/0O0xmga_mXw?feature=shared O~https://youtu.be/_t8uSTn4ruU?feature=shared G~https://youtu.be/rwFKK-XcViw?si=P0MsE-8HxDKfrHXY D~https://youtu.be/QZ30MbVvaQg?feature=shared In the afternoon focus we started with our hello song followed by doing some messy maths. In our messy maths activity we sang the 5 current buns song and had shaving foam as current buns. When our name got called to buy a current bun, instead of taking it away, we splatted it away and  splatted the shaving foam. We then counted how many current buns we had left and showed the number on our fingers. When all the current buns had been splatted We explored writing the numbers 1-5 in the shaving foam. To finish we sang our goodbye song and done the Makaton sign for finished. In the afternoon we discussed how plants grow and we read the story of the hungry caterpillar. 🐛

Today is focus time with Jenna and Ashleigh we played shopping activities where the children were given coins each. The smaller coins were pennies and the bigger coins were 2p in value. We explained that a small coin equalled 1p and a big coin was 2p therefore if a child wanted an item they had to look at the price ( numbers between 1p and 5p) . The children had to work out if they had enough more or needed more or less. The middle group choose a coloured string and find a button by colour. The children then needed to thread the string through the buttons to support developing their fine manipulative skills. The last group explored choosing songs and rhymes and indicating choices as well as developing our language skills. We introduced there’s a worm at the bottom of my garden today. worm at the bottom of my garden song ~https://youtu.be/2kimp-v5KUk?feature=shared Bubble song that we play at the end of the middle group and last group ~https://youtu.be/w3EaVGkFoM4?feature=shared for snack we had bread sticks, banana, apple and crumpets. The children in the afternoon completed an obstacle course with mollie to avoid the floor of lava and the troll under the bridge.

Monday sensory circuits focus activity The children this morning started with an alerting activity of balancing on a balance board and rocking side to side three times. The children did three star jumps and the rode a balance bike in and out and around obstacles in the room. To finish the children threw a bean bag into a box. The children also started printing their hand prints on paper ready to start our leaver book additional messages from peers. The children are watermelon banana, toast and rice cakes. In the afternoon mollie set a task of building a tower and the tallest tower at the end of the 1 minute time frame would be counted as to how many bricks high. We then found that corresponding number in our sandpaper numbers showing our recognition of numeral skills. The children have also been exploring the properties of materials using magnets. 🧲

Chia seed and shaving foam invitation to play In focus today we explored rhyming pairs looking at word ending sounds. The children were shown different objects and they were named each one at a time. Then Ashleigh took out an object from her box and the children had to guess which object they rhymed with. The next group looked at the letter S and letter A focussing on beginning sounds for the froglets group. We made a letter sound soup. In the afternoon the children played a game of bowling learning how to hold a ball and throw by holding under and aiming at a target. This was to support hand eye coordination and ball control skills. The Tadpole group chose rhymes and sang together. In arts and crafts we Painted Bees / cut out eyes for our bees using our fantastic scissor skills. We discussed scissor safety and the importance of looking after bees. In snack we ate grapes, oranges, toasted circles and bagels.