6 June 2025 – Minibeasts, Phonics & Big School Bears
Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely half-term break. The final half-term of the year is now underway, and we’ve kicked it off with some exciting learning adventures!
🔍 This Week’s Theme: Minibeasts!
The children jumped straight into our new topic – Minibeasts – with enthusiasm and curiosity.
We went on a real-life bug hunt and discovered all kinds of fascinating creatures: worms, beetles, slugs, snails, woodlice, and ants. The children were brilliant nature detectives, carefully observing how each minibeast looked and moved, and learning how to treat them gently and with care.
📚 Literacy & Rhymes
We read ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, sparking lots of discussion about change and transformation. Our nursery rhyme of the week was ‘The Tiny Caterpillar’, which the children loved acting out and singing together.
🔷 Maths Focus: Shape Combining
In maths, we explored 2D shapes and how we can combine them to make new ones. This hands-on activity helped develop spatial awareness and problem-solving skills.
🐞 Try These at Home
Go on a minibeast hunt in the garden or at the park – how many can your child spot?
Sing ‘The Tiny Caterpillar’ together – your child might even teach you the actions!
🔡 Little Wandle Phonics Focus
This week in our Early Phonics group, we focused on:
Qu for Queen, quack, quick
Ch for Cheese, chick, chips
We also practised oral blending with words like Qu-ee-n, qu-a-ck, and qu-i-ck. This important skill helps children hear and blend sounds in their heads – a key step in learning to read.
🧸 Big School Bear Transition Begins!
Our children transitioning to Reception in September began the Big School Bear Transition Programme. This six-week series helps children explore their feelings about moving on to “big school” in a supportive and playful way.
This week’s session was all about emotions. We talked about:
Different types of feelings
How we show them using facial expressions and body language
Ways we behave when we feel happy, sad, excited or nervous
💬 Parent Feedback Request
A quick reminder – we’ve sent out a Parent View form via Schoolping. Your feedback means a lot to us and may be featured on our new website to help future families see what makes our preschool special.
Thank you for your continued support.
Wishing you a lovely weekend!
– The Pre-School Team